Borderlands 2

Borderlands 2 is built upon the age-old axiom that if you throw enough money at a good idea it will become an even better one. And the original Borderlands was most definitely a good idea.

Borderlands may have been about loot, but its sequel is about more. Watching each crate mechanically unfold and seductively present its contents still drives the game forward, but Gearbox Software now surrounds the loot-a-thon with a more colorful world, ingenious combat, and what is easily the funniest, cleverest script to grace a game since Portal 2.

The first Borderlands was built upon the very simple concept of making a Diablo-esque RPG within a skill-based first-person shooter. The appeal of such a pairing goes far beyond acquiring loot in the form of randomly generative shields, grenades, buffs, and possibly more weapons than every other first-person shooter combined (we still have our mathematical hamsters crunching the numbers).

But what I love about Borderlands isn't the loot addiction. It's that such a system is used to turn the modern shooter on its head. Yes, Borderlands controls and feels nearly identical to Call of Duty. However, the game frequently demands you relearn the genre and discover new strategies for success. Nearly every weapon and enemy makes you approach the game in a different way.

Some guns will become more accurate the longer you hold down the trigger. Others can be thrown when you empty a clip, and they'll fly through the air, chasing enemies like a phantom shotgun. Some enemies will evolve into more difficult forms if you don't kill them fast enough. Others will pop out of treasure boxes and whoop your ass so bad you'll wish you left them closed. Pandora is a wild world where you never know what you'll find next, so it's a good thing you have some familiar faces by your side.

I completed the first Borderlands but can't tell you much about the story. I know where it begins and ends, and I also know I didn't follow the rest out of disinterest. But if the visuals and combat of Borderlands 2 are a sensible step forward, the improvements in narrative and writing is a stuntman jumping over the world's longest chasm. Borderlands 2's story is so good that it fools you into thinking the first wasn't so bad. Rather than brushing off the first game, this sequel owns it and carries on the most beloved elements from it: the world of Pandora, the four heroes, and their foul-mouthed, incompetent robot friend Claptrap. Though the heroes are now relegated to being side characters, they feel more fleshed out -- strangely more than the new playable heroes that fill in during their absence.

Just as it's hard to separate writer Eric Wolpaw from Portal, it is hard to look past Anthony Burch's (Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'?) writing voice and influence all throughout this game. Burch brings us Handsome Jack, who will go down as one of the greatest videogame villains of all time. He has the Joker's indifferent, chaotic attitude and Tony Stark's cool, sarcastic personality, and he's a hellbent jerk who often brings to mind Gary Oldman in The Fifth Element. He's just cruel and twisted enough for you to hate him yet still manages to walk that thin line of being lovable in a GLaDOS kind-of-way. He makes the game special, but he's not the only one who does so.

Almost every quest giver and NPC has their golden line of comedic dialogue, if not more. The proud, rotund mechanic Ellie, gentleman explorer Sir Hammerlock, and Handsome Jack are all likely to appear in a best characters of 2012 list. Some will hold a special place in the hearts of players more than others -- foul-mouthed redneck Scooter is a bit of a cliche, and 13-year-old psychopath Tiny Tina (voiced by Anthony's sister Ashly) is kind of obnoxious, but even they have some great lines. Don't worry: Claptrap still has the best lines of all ("Your ability to walk short distances without dying will be Handsome Jack’s demise!"), and you'll miss him whenever he's not tagging along on a mission.

Unlike the first Borderlands, the great humor isn't limited to the characters. The missions contain the funniest parts of the game, often filled with subtle details and punchlines that will make you laugh out loud. In one mission, which has to be a contender for the shortest mission to ever grace an RPG, a guy begs you to shoot him in the face, so you do and immediately receive a reward. From throwing Claptrap the most awkward birthday party ever (poor guy!) to delivering pizza to some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wannabes, Borderlands 2's offbeat humor has a way of making the forgettable side missions into memorable plot lines. Some side missions will even ask you to solve a mystery or riddle, offering a change of pace from spamming bullets at things.

I played the majority of the game solo, and only twice did I have to complete a side missions for additional leveling. Borderlands 2 only has one difficulty setting -- excluding the "new game plus" feature which raises the stakes -- but it's one of the most well-balanced shooters I've played in some time, which is something of a miracle when you consider all the random variables at play. However, that's just my experience. Maybe I'm just good, maybe I just picked the right class (Siren), or maybe I just got really lucky with loot. One thing's for sure: Borderlands 2 is no cake walk, and there is no shame in getting help online. Unfortunately, that doesn't always work as it should.

In addition to experiencing minor lag in some matches, the co-op in Borderlands 2 is unbalanced when you don't play with people the same level. Enemies and loot will be set to the host's current level, which makes for a fruitless affair for higher-level characters and a miserable time for lower-level characters. Unless you are just there to have fun with your friends, it's hard to see why someone would play online with players of varying levels. As a level 18 player helping level 13 players, I only earned 1 XP for each enemy killed and all the loot was old junk. You'll want to start the game with a posse or at least seek out same-level players.

In many respects, the game can be just as unbalanced solo. You'll struggle to kill some of the hardest enemies in the game, which only give you a few XP. Meanwhile, you can acquire major XP from easier enemies elsewhere. What's most frustrating is that the game doesn't level-up enemies alongside you, so going back to past areas often feels like cheating. It's almost comical to jump around with armor that kills enemies just by their striking you, while you kill almost anything with a single shot from a pistol. Meanwhile, other areas become populated with higher-level creatures, so it feels like something is missing. Maybe DLC will repopulate these areas with tougher foes, but that doesn't excuse such an oversight.

While the main story is compelling, the main missions are a bit trite. They all boil down to destroying "all the things," reserving any creativity to the side missions. For a world brimming with so much character, I expected Gearbox to aim higher in its mission design. As much as I loathe the cliche turret and vehicle mission in first-person shooters, it'd at least give Borderlands 2 some much needed variety. Instead, turrets are rare and incredibly weak, while vehicles are used merely for getting from A to B in large areas. Endlessly shooting things still makes a great time, but it does get old after a while, and make no mistake, you will be shooting for a long, long while.

Pandora's new gang of four each play similar roles to those of the first game, but there is now enough customization to set them apart. The tech tree in Borderlands 2 is more fleshed out, letting players lean on defense, offense, or buffs. I'm disappointed that each character only has one main ability, but at least there are dozens of ways to modify it. You can also now customize your character's face and body with collectible skins. You can't make your Siren morbidly obese, but you'll at least stand out from others online.

Everything from the menus to the controls have been improved, but some nagging issues from the previous game remain. A mini-map makes navigation easier, though not easy enough. The waypoints often misguide you, some of the mission hubs are so vast that you won't know whether your objective is below or above, and it's almost always a long trek between the two. The game could also stand to be more generous with its fast travel system -- the kiosks are far and few between, which makes for many long walks, and you'll pray for death if your vehicle ever breaks down.

PC players will be happy to know that the game comes with some great customization options and looks stunning with settings maxed out. I was able to run the game at a very smooth framerate, despite having everything turned up high. The UI and controls are much kinder to keyboard/mouse players than they were the first time around. Due to hand cramps, I switched between keyboard and controller but preferred the added accuracy and shortcuts that the keyboard/mouse combo offer. My only complaint is that there is no offline co-op, but that has more to do with Steam than Gearbox.

Borderlands 2 is about 30 hours long (40+ if you want to complete all the side missions), and the above issues hardly detracted from my time with the game. I love doing tricky Crackdown-like jumps to acquire hidden chests, miraculously killing a boss while I'm downed on the ground, and opening a toilet to discover my new favorite rifle.

If you are up for a good laugh while shooting things in the face, Borderlands 2 is a worthy game to add to your collection. Soon enough, you'll see numbers popping above people's heads in real life and will feel compelled to search every Porta Potty on the street for cash.

I love the cell-shaded style, all sound surrounding the game, and the cast of memorable characters. I thought this game was actually funny when I played it! Not sure how well the humor's aged now that twitter has become so annoying, but I had fun when I played through it. I had fun in coop and in singleplayer, I like the gazillion guns system, I like the story, the world, the sidequests. It's just an amalgamation of several cool things in gaming that I think really works. I'd love to replay it sometime soon.

In a similar fashion to the first game, you're immediately introduced to an energetic and annoying robot named Claptrap. You are also contacted by a mysterious woman who tells you to follow Claptrap, and then guide you to stop the antagonist Handsome Jack. You meet the four Vault Hunters from the first game; Mordecai (The Hunter), Lilith (The Siren), Roland (The Soldier) and Brick (The Berserker).

As you play the game, there are loads of side-quests to distract you if you wish. It’s the usual "go here/fetch this/kill this'' affair. The game has a very comedic tone, so the characters are often extreme. At one point you meet the Alice In Wonderland-obsessed Tiny Tina who is a crazed teen. She later got some spin-off games.

Sometimes dialogue can be playing and a new batch of enemies attacks you which means you miss out on it. You can also pick up audio-logs which can trigger over existing dialogue too.

The game is a mix of FPS and RPG type games. When targeting an enemy, their shield and health bar is displayed. In traditional RPG-style, numbers appear to show the damage you are dealing to them. You can deliver a critical hit to almost every enemy by shooting their weak spot such as a bandit's head, the inside of a Skag's mouth or the mechanical joint on robots.

As you kill enemies, you level up and gain extra health. You can assign a skill point in the 3 talent trees. I chose the Gunzerker who can temporarily dual wield whilst restoring his health. Even though he was supposed to be a “tank” character, I thought his health drained rapidly once the shields were depleted.

There is an achievement type system which awards you with “Badass Tokens” which rewards you with minor boosts - not that you notice it. I tried to choose perks to boost my shield but I never felt I had a shield that had enough protection or regeneration speed.

The shield system and the way the vehicles handle is very reminiscent of Halo. The shields do have stats like all the other items, so some recharge faster and some have stronger protection, or possibly extra bonuses like health regeneration or extra resistance to elemental damage. Regardless, I thought the shields take a rather long time to start recharging.

When you run out of health, you go into a downed state and start to bleed out with the screen slowly fading. If you manage to kill an enemy in this state, you get 'second wind' where you instantly heal 50% health and full shields. Second Wind has a blurry, slow mo effect, and you can't aim down sights, dual wield or throw grenades. If you bleed out, you respawn at the last New-U station with a small financial penalty.

Your character can sprint as long as you want without becoming fatigued. This is a huge plus when travelling long distances when you don't have a vehicle. Shortly into the game, you get to spawn vehicles at certain access points. You get a limited choice with the secondary fire. The primary fire is an extremely inaccurate machine gun which means vehicle combat takes even longer than on foot. You can always try to run over enemies.

There is no fall damage which can be useful when backtracking in some areas.

There is a fast travel system but it's fairly limited too as you have to find a post to initiate the fast travel option and can only travel to other posts that you have discovered.

Borderlands has a high emphasis on looting, but in my opinion it's far too much loot. Quite often there will be 3 or 4 lockers next to each other with an item or cash in each one, as opposed to having one locker with lots of loot inside. Often the enemies will drop several small wads of cash rather than one stockpile. Maybe it makes sense for multiplayer where you will be battling it out for ownership of the treasure, but for single-player; it just makes it more tedious.

It is quite limited with what you can carry at first. You do gain more weapon slots as the story progresses up to 4 guns in the end. Any additional guns/shields etc are in the Backpack section of your inventory. This can be upgraded with the rare currency.

The UI for managing your items seems a bit clunky and wasn’t always responsive or intuitive with the mouse.

In battle, scrolling through weapons brings up the statistics and manufacturer but not the name of the weapon which is weird. Sometimes I would assign a new weapon, then forgot which slot I placed it in. Even when I remembered the name, I had to go back to the inventory to check.

There are three types of vending machines: weapon, ammo, and medical. While each one sells items in their specialty, any item can be sold to the machine. I rarely felt the need to actually buy items from these given the amount of drops. The rocket launcher ammo and grenades were more limited though so I used them in some sections.

Much fuss is made of the randomly generated weapon system. The guns are separated into different categories: combat rifles, revolvers, sniper rifles, SMGs, shotguns and rocket launchers. Each gun has a manufacturer which has certain characteristics such as higher damage or faster reload times. As you progress in the game, weapons can have elemental damage like shock/corrosive/incendiary, slag (slag is a new status which increases damage taken from other sources) damage, or extra properties such as firing multiple bullets. Items are colour coded to show the rarity, white being common through to orange for rare.

Since you will be picking up new guns with every kill, you would think you'd be swapping out weapons every couple of mins. However, often the loot is very underpowered so I simply glance at it, then usually just keep it to sell at the vending machines. It might have been a better option to allow you to modify your existing gun, rather than having hundreds of useless weapons that you don't care about. It was quite hard to compare the guns without actually testing them out though - the SMG’s had low damage but since they have high fire rate, then they can be much more effective. Weapons can have bonus zoom, more recoil etc so can be more unwieldy than first thought. You might want a particular weapon type but it’s good to have a mix since you are constantly changing the range you are fighting in, so might need to switch that shotgun for a sniper, or incendiary to corrosive damage.

The grenades can have the same elements as the guns like corrosive/incendiary, but also have some other effects like singularity which sucks enemies in, and if they don't die, they are clustered for you to finish them off. Some grenades can be bouncy which often isn’t a favourable trait.

Early on in the game, time and time again you see the same old enemies so it ends up feeling stale. As you progress far into the game, the enemy variations increase and you will see completely different styles of enemies. Bandits are the most frequent enemies and there are different behaviours within the various types; Brutes have high health and powerful guns, Psychos charge at you with knives, Midgets are tiny and are more of a rare occurrence.

Most enemies are too agile; they love to dodge and stagger around. Combined with the low accuracy of many weapons, you spend most of your time reloading and strafing. Later on you get enemies that phase in and out, then can be shielded. Other enemies have hit and run tactics, especially the flying ones. There’s a few small creatures (such as rakk), there’s a robot repair drone that can often drain your shields in one hit, then there’s the helicopter-like Buzzards.

The robots have way too much health and it seems mandatory to use the corrosive weapons on them. When I first encountered them in the story, the game never gave me any corrosive weapons. Even when I came back with one, it was extremely tough.

The big problem is the “Constructors”. They may be static, but fire a constant barrage of normal, or homing missiles. Then they love to spawn in more robots. I never knew the correct technique for taking these down. I felt like I could only hit them from range and hide behind large objects, but then they would sometimes hit me even though their previous several attacks missed. You cannot get close because of their stomp attack, but attacking from mid range is tough when they are spamming you with lasers or missiles. Sometimes I couldn’t even see what I was shooting at due to the explosions. Near the end of the game they are even tougher which is just ridiculous.

There’s quite a few barrels which you can shoot. These have the various traits like incendiary, shock and corrosive.

I am a fan of cel-shaded graphics and the game uses them well. I guess it does make the somewhat boring locales of desolate wastelands look better than it should. There’s a decent variety of locales though like ice, swamps, wastelands. There is a day/night cycle but it can be quite dark. I often failed to spot enemies when they blend into the background objects. Some areas can be too bright too. Not sure if it was the graphical choices or the length of time I was playing but it kinda gave me eye strain.

There's some slight texture pop-up when entering an area but no other problems. If you look carefully, Borderlands can be quite a brutal game; bodies explode, limbs fly off, flesh melts from acid and it's all so gruesomely entertaining.

I found the difficulty quite imbalanced. It generally seems challenging, but then spikes to near impossible. Despite playing a “Tank”, I spent most of my time reloading and fleeing for cover to regenerate my shield.

There's plenty of content within Borderlands but I'd say it's a bit too much. It ends up feeling like a total grind and a chore to play. One major reason why the game really drags, is that there are far too many enemies, and all enemies seem to have too much health, and some missions last too long. In many areas, you often clear out a batch, then more spawn in. After picking up the loot, you move forward for several seconds, then it triggers the next waves.

I played single-player, and I did wonder if the game plays differently in co-op. The difficulty could be more balanced, but no doubt it scales up with more players.

While I love the first borderlands game, I will say there are a few design flaws which this sequel fixes making it the ultimate experience from the franchise.

The biggest improvement here is that we have a mini map to find our bearings, this makes finding items so much easier to the point where the remake of the first game now includes this map making that game as excellent as this one in that regard. We also have better class systems with our heroes as Maya is a better version of Lilith, Axton a better version of Roland, Salvador a modified version of brick as he's a gunzerker (someone who’s relentless with his guns rather than hand to hand combat) and zero who is nothing like Mordecai as his ability revolves around stealth rather than sniping out his enemies. Another improvement is the ability to move whilst in the fight for your life mode, basically giving you a better chance to revive yourself with a kill since enemies love to move around when you're down in these games. The story is much more compelling as well, mainly due to characters interacting with you whenever you accept/complete a mission from them, but also because handsome Jack is a classic Disney villain in that he's pure evil simply for the sake of it. Yes, he wasn't always an evil shitstain especially if you listen to audio logs which detail his descent into madness, but some of the shit he pulls not just on our heroes but even his own comrades are delightfully despicable making him the perfect antagonist for this game. There's a major plot twist here which of course I won't spoil due to it changing how you view one of the characters, I bring it up to highlight how much more effort there was put into the story of this game. The new characters are great as well, tiny Tina and Ellie being my personal favourites due to how delightfully insane they are without coming off as insufferable. The returning characters are great too, mainly because we get to properly interact with them in game. One final thing I'll mention is the humour as its as politically incorrect as you can get with its over reliance on suicide jokes. Naturally this game got flack for this even though it's rated r specifically for how dark the humour is, but if you’re OK with this humour, it's well handled as it's clearly ironic and not meant to be taken seriously. Just know that the game isn't for sensitive souls or anyone whose terminally on social media.

It's a fantastic follow-up to an already near perfect game, one that the developers have yet to top likely due to the backlash it got from idiots on social media with its humour.

+ Improved combat and characters over the first.
+ The environments are much more varied, and the story is more diverse, the game overall is less boring.
- Still gets quite repetitive after a while.

Close to completion.

Take the first game, make the locations and enemies you fight more varied and interesting, and you have a recipe for a good sequel. This was a way more enjoyable time compared to the original. I actually had fun this time. The Switch version that I played on does have some issues, with the framerate massively dropping any time there were any alpha effects on screen. But hey, I at least had a good time with this game, which cannot be said for the first one.