Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 1 - Zer0 Sum

TechRaptorThomas Nelson

9.5/10

The best opening from a Telltale game to date and a promising start to a new episodic series.

Gaming NexusJeff Kintner

9/10

As far as introductions go, Zer0 Sum gives us a hell of a welcome to Tales from the Borderlands. The aesthetics and writing are true to the source material, the humor is on point, the characters and voice acting are great, and the story is entertaining and engaging. Since they're turning a traditionally FPS series into a point-and-click adventure, it heavily relies on quicktime events and action sequences, but it does a good job of mixing objectives and pacing to keep it from getting stale. "Zer0 Sum" sets up a lot of exciting possibilities and daunting mysteries into motion, and I can't wait ...

IGNMarty Sliva

8.7/10

Any of Tales from the Borderlands Episode 1: Zer0 Sum’s minor setbacks feel like nothing when put up against the strength of the characters, the caliber of the writing, and the charm of the world. With only a brief introduction to Rhys and Fiona, they have already become a pair of my favorite Telltale characters, and the fantastic final scene of the Zer0 Sum has be anxiously awaiting my return trip to Pandora.

Game SkinnyStephanie Tang

8/10

From jail-breaking a Hyperion Loader Bot to teaming up with a rather familiar-looking vault hunter, this departure from the main franchise is off to an epic and hilarious start!

Game InformerJeff Marchiafava

6.5/10

Story has always taken a backseat to loot collecting in Borderlands, so when Telltale announced it was working on a choice-driven adventure game set on Pandora, I was skeptical. While the first episode fails to evoke the fond memories I have for Telltale's superb work on The Walking Dead, I haven't completely abandoned hope for the adventure to come.

GameLusterLaura Ward

0/10

Over the past few years, TellTale has tried its hand at making video games that are almost entirely driven by the decisions that the player make, such as The Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us, and they recently released their third dialogue focused episodic adventure, Tales From The Borderlands. Tales is a fantastic game based in the universe of the Borderlands series, a sci-fi shooter by Gearbox. By exploring the world of this quirky, sometimes comedic series and recreating it as a dialogue-heavy adventure game, TellTale has created a story that can be loved by TellTale fans as well as Borderlan...

PolygonBen Kuchera

Unscored

Tales from the Borderlands was reviewed using a downloadable PC code provided by Telltale. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policies here.