Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 5 - The Vault of the Traveler

By: Robert Murphy

It can be quite the difficult task to come up with a satisfying conclusion to your story, you want everything you've done up until this point to come together into something that your audience will be impressed by and make the journey feel like it was really worth the time put in. Tales from the Borderlands final chapter, The Vault of the Traveler, does just that by bringing together all of the characters you've come to know and some ones you're already very familiar with to these last moments in their journey. Will there be riches? Will there be heartache? Will there be a ridiculous robot fight with a freaky alien vault monster? The answer? Hell yeah!!

Episode 5 is by in large the most emotional of all the previous Tales from the Borderlands episodes and I say that as a man who got fully emotional when I witnessed the death of the Borderlands series most famous names. Nevertheless, this final chapter focuses a great deal on the bonds that players have formed up to this point with every character they have come across. Whether it be showing respect to your sister way back in Episode 1 by keeping her gift to sparring a wacky professor's life from being taken in Episode 3, everyone has a potential role to play as the battle for the Vault of the Traveler gets underway, and I do mean everyone.

Characters who I expected to have been long gone up until this point have managed to not only stay with the story but they've also managed to find their own story tell in this final episode. It's not some long drawn out side story in any way but they have their own brief moment in the limelight to show that they didn't deserve as much scorn as I gave them. Then there is of course the main cast of characters who have all done beautifully up until now but who in this chapter have also managed to prove that there is far more to them than what players have previously seen. Loader Bot in particular is a huge winner here as he has mainly served as comic relief up until this point, now he strikes out on his own and offers far more depth than you would expect from a soulless kill bot made by Hyperion. This all capped off by some fantastic writing that just flowed from scene to scene making everything go along smoothly even though there is so much done in this last chapter. 

Not so surprisingly either is the amount of action that is brought forth for this climatic battle for the Vault. Telltale has made some valiant efforts with this series once already by trying to give some excited action scene and it was truly worthy of the Borderlands universe but it has never been their main strength. Now however, the comedy and dialogue go hand in hand with the massive battle that ensues between Rhys, Fiona and the rest of their team. A team which you get to choose from by the way. Depending on the friends you have made up until this point players can choose from any number of characters to join in the assault on the Traveler. In what can only be described as one of the best action moments for any Telltale game, players will go through a series of the usual quick time events played out like a classic fighting video game mixed with a Power Rangers themed robot battle. It's glorious! Even though it does get bogged down at points with all the moving pieces just like it did in Episode 3, it wasn't enough to make me not enjoy it 100%.

As a last note, I feel that there is a great deal of correlation for Tales of the Borderlands and the actual Borderlands games themselves. Obviously there is a huge one, they're based off of one another but what I mean by this is this last chapter seems to suggest a great deal more to come from Telltale's adaptation of Borderlands by potential making future characters for the next game. Fiona has truly grown into a character that I would love to play as, running and gunning my way through the popular shooting game, and with all the changes that have come from the Telltale's work in the previous episode you never quite know what will happen but I am anxious to find out.

The Vault of the Traveler closes out the final moments of Rhys and Fiona in an exceedingly well rounded out conclusion. Not only was the trademark humor of the Borderlands series on point as it has been but there was also some deeply emotional points here that do not always transfer over for the fast paced story we've seen from the original series. There was a deeper voice to be heard here and it blended perfectly with everything that has already been brought forth before it. With the endless possibilities that lay waiting in the shadows after this fantastic conclusion, I eagerly await what the future has in store.

Good:

- Consistent Borderlands humor till the end

- Emotional moments for many of the characters

- Potential for much more to come for both series

- Made the choices you've made feel like they mattered

Bad:

- Sputtering moments when the action was too much for the game

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10