Everything You Need to Know About New Tales from the Borderlands

I know I’ve been calling this new game a ‘followup’ and all, but it’s apparently not actually a full-on sequel to the original Tales from the Borderlands. There are similar elements in the story, lore, gameplay, and themes, but this isn’t a direct continuation of the stories from that prior title. That can be quite nice, as that means there’s no need to play the previous instalment (or really any other Borderlands titles) before diving into New Tales from the Borderlands, but I know that there are some who will be disappointed to learn this — myself included. Still, the game is set to include a multitude of cameos and appearances from characters hailing from the rest of the series — such as Rhys, one of the protagonists of the original Tales title — so hopefully everyone can be happy.

New Tales from the Borderlands, much like the first Tales game, picks up in the universe soon after the fallout of the prior mainline title — in this case, that means a year after Borderlands 3 — and follows a small group of plucky, down-on-their-luck noncombatants trying to survive a particularly bad day. Set on Promethea, a war-torn planet currently besieged by the company Tediore, New Tales promises to be just as bombastic and narrative-focused as the first Tales, with five full episodes of content to play through. The three unlucky individuals at the heart of this title’s story are Anu, a well-meaning Atlas scientist with the ability to scan objects with her glasses (a feat not unlike what Rhys could do in the first Tales); her street-smart brother, Octavio, whose ECHOdex provides an opportunity to browse social media for other characters and also, perhaps more importantly, hack stuff; and Fran, a frogurt shop-owner whose store was unceremoniously lasered through in Borderlands 3, but whose hoverchair still contains enough gadgets to get her through the day — and also freeze people whole.

Now, seeing as the prior Tales game was created by Telltale Games and that this one is notably not designed by the same company — instead being developed in-house by Gearbox Software — some may question how similar the game will be to its predecessor. Even so, the actual gameplay shouldn’t look too unfamiliar! New Tales will feature dialogue choices (both timed and untimed, depending on the moment), QTEs, and exploration, much like the game that came before. Within these will be a variety of narrative directions to go in, offering the chance to replay the game and see how differently things can shake out. However, there will also be a variety of minigames — especially the new in-game, collectible figurine, duel-to-the-death game Vaultlanders.

Basically, the protagonists and a variety of other characters within the game can collect these little figurines called Vaultlanders that look like famous Vault Hunters and other significant characters in the Borderlands series. These are acquired either by finding them out in the explorable environments or by winning them in fights against other collectors. Specifically in a game of Vaultlanders, where two of the titular figurines go head-to-head, smacking each other until one of their respective health bars decrease. The minigame looks fairly simple, with the player merely needing to click a single button over and over to deal damage while occasionally performing some kind of QTE to either dodge an attack or to finish off their opponent. But even if the fights themselves are simple, the real question is: can you collect them all?

You may have anticipated that, like the first game, New Tales would be released in five separate episodes over a period of time, but you have no reason to worry! New Tales is set for a full release on the 21st of October, 2022, with all five episodes already included, alongside full vocal localisation for English and French languages as well as full text localisation for English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese. There aren’t even any plans to have post-launch content.

Hearing that there’s no post-launch content may have confused some readers, as there’s both a Standard and a Deluxe Edition of the game coming out. However, rather than adding in more content for a Deluxe Edition, Gearbox has instead included the original Tales from the Borderlands as the special bonus for the Deluxe Edition. However, that’s not to say that there aren’t any in-game exclusive goodies. Those, contained within the Adventure Capital Pack, are only available through a pre-order. The pack includes cosmetics for the three protagonists, 10,000 in-game currency, and an in-game Vaultlander figurine of Borderlands 3 hero, FL4K.

New Tales from the Borderlands is coming to PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Switch. The PC requirements are as follows:

Minimum

OS: Windows 10

Processor: Intel Core i5-4690K or AMD Ryzen 3 1300X

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 4GB or AMD Radeon RX 470 4GB

DirectX: Version 12

Storage: 30 GB available space

Recommended

OS: Windows 10

Processor: Intel Core i7-4770 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB or AMD Radeon RX 590 8GB

DirectX: Version 12

Storage: 30 GB available space

Oh, the guy holding the mask? That’s LOU13. He’s Octavio’s friend. He travels with the group to track their relationships with each other and the choices they make, as well as to pursue his career in comedy.

He’s also an assassin — skilled in the art of perfectly-calculated murder. But that’s probably not important.