Review — Tales From The Borderlands: Escape Plan Bravo

Another quick turnaround on Tales From The Borderlands has been made and I couldn't be more tickled for it. The fourth and next to last episode of Telltale's take on the famed Gearbox franchise has been released to the world and we have had the pleasure of giving it a play through. Escape Plan Bravo, that's the name of the fourth episode of Tales From The Borderlands, has been initiated and has been for at least a week at the time of writing this. It had a lot to live up to and it is time to see how it did as we review Tales From The Borderlands — Escape Plan Bravo and let you know what we think of this next to last addition to the franchise.

Story

As with all of the previous episodes, Tales From The Borderlands — Escape Plan Bravo picks up where the last episode ended. Rhys and Fiona are still in multiple pickles and need to find a way to get on to Helios to find the last piece of the Gortys Project. Either that or face the business end of Vallory and her gang. All in great Tales From The Borderlands fashion and the same fashion of any of the Borderlands titles that Gearbox has already supplied us with. The only hiccup being that there are loads of pitfalls and snares that the group has to get around with or without the help of Handsome Jack. Also there's a Butt-Stallion…

Hated

I'm not trying to oversell Tales From The Borderlands — Escape Plan Bravo here but let's go ahead and skip this section as Telltale hit everything on the head so well that even the largest of nitpicks I could come up with here have been made moot. When they sold Escape Plan Bravo as the penultimate episode for Tales From The Borderlands they could have left off the "pen" and just left the "ultimate" for me.

Loved

Since I'll need somewhere to start for things I loved about this episode of Tales From The Borderlands let's jump into the pacing for the episode. Right from the start it was set to the highest level and kept going. The story started and stayed on a high. The choices and gameplay hit eleven and stayed there the whole time. There were no lulls at all and I was shocked at how fast this episode of Tales From The Borderlands flew by. Not that it was short at all but just that I was sucked in and was grabbed by the face the whole time I never noticed anything fly by. Even the points where everything was supposed to be sad in Escape Plan Bravo where fun and exciting. Even though that makes me sound like a heartless monster here.

Next up would have to be that the choices I made in Tales From The Borderlands already and through this episode truly felt like they mattered. Some other titles that Telltale has put out have been lacking in that area for a while now but here it felt like there were no other options when it came time to choose and that everything in Tales From The Borderlands is reaching its apex. This even goes toward the final choice of the episode where you have to choose [REDACTED TO KEEP SPOILER FREE]. It mattered and will completely change the way the last episode of Tales From The Borderlands plays out as I see it. A lot like the multiple choice ending we had at the end of season two of The Walking Dead and how it will completely alter how season three plays.

Lastly, as I could go on with this suck-fest for a while on Escape Plan Bravo, I have to say four words; Finger Gun Shoot Out! In Escape Plan Bravo there is a huge joke scene where you get into a fire fight and it plays out via QTEs. The only difference is that it is between all business men and not the dregs that Gearbox has placed on Pandora. Not only is this a level of hilarious in Tales From The Borderlands that had me replaying the scene multiple times before moving on, it was also a great use of the basic mechanics that Telltale has already set up for Tales From The Borderlands. It was insane, over the top, and ultimately the most fun I have had with a video game in some time. Just as it always should be.

Overall

Should you pick up Tales From The Borderlands — Escape Plan Bravo? Obviously you just skipped down to this portion and read nothing above as it really isn't needed. If there ever was an episode of Tales From The Borderlands that would drive sales to the levels of Call Of Duty and The Witcher 3, Escape Plan Bravo should be that episode. Even if you were holding out to buy all the episodes at once or to play them all at once, STOP. Get Tales From The Borderlands now just so you can play to this chapter and experience one of the best episodes that Telltale has put out to date. To me this covers all of their IPs that they have out and not just Tales From The Borderlands.

Tales From The Borderlands — Episode 4, 'Escape Plan Bravo' Trailer

Tales From The Borderlands — Escape Plan Bravo was developed by Telltale Games and Gearbox Software. Tales From The Borderlands — Escape Plan Bravo was published by Telltale Games for the PS3, PS4, PS Vita and PC on August 18th 2015 with the Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions on August 19th 2015. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Tales From The Borderlands — Escape Plan Bravo