Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K Games
Rrp: £19.99/£34.99 for the Game of the Year (Steam), $19.99 (Amazon)
Released: 20th September 2012
Available on Steam and Amazon
Played using: Keyboard and Mouse
Welcome Vault Hunters to the planet of Pandora! And by welcome I mean “Leave this planet now unless you want to become a greasy smear. But since when has a Vault a Hunter ever listened to a warning? Never, that’s when.
Things have changed quite a bit since the last time you visited, for a start it’s not the Atlas corporation that controls this world (if fact there’s almost no sign of them) but Hyperion instead.
Borderlands 2 is the sequel to the surprise hit Borderlands, it’s an FPS and a RPG rolled together and set on the troubled world that is Pandora.
Just as with the original game there are four characters to choose from that you can play as (unless you bought the DLC characters and then there’s six). As before each of these characters has different skills and abilities which will force the player to adapt their style of play.
Putting it bluntly Borderlands 2 has more guns, more enemy and weapon variety, more locations, and just generally… Well more everything! It’s also a much longer game as a whole with a storyline that should last about a week or so (assuming you only do one playthrough and ignore the other modes).
Speaking of the story, that’s definitely something I have to expand a little on. In the previous title the story was pretty lacking, if we’re being generous. That’s certainly not the case this time, now there are plot twists, suspenseful moments and more than a few memorable characters scattered amongst all the glorious carnage.
From the very beginning of the game your going to hear from one person quite a bit, and that person is Handsome Jack, CEO of the Hyperion corporation, self proclaimed hero and your main antagonist. This man remains in contact with you throughout your travels across Pandora. Sometimes its taunting and sometimes it’s just a bit of general banter but it’s always entertaining and really helps flesh out his character. By the end of this game I think you’ll find you truly hate this man.
As I mentioned earlier, Borderlands 2 has three playthrough modes, Normal, True Vault Hunter and Ultimate Vault Hunter. Completing the normal mode unlocks the True Vault Hunter mode, which is essentially the same but more difficult as the enemies are scaled to be within three levels of your current level. If you beat the game again and have reached level 50 that’s when Ultimate Vault Hunter mode becomes available. This mode has quite a few differences to it compared to the previous two, for example it cuts out the entire tutorial stage (since by that point you really should know how to play). It also gives enemies higher health that regenerates quite quickly, and introduces a new tier of weapon rarity.
Since I’m on the subject of weapon it should be mentioned that there are one or two differences in that area. Those who played the first Borderlands will be familiar with the concept of the different weapons manufactures and their distinctions. Well Borderlands 2 has removed a few from the previous games and put others in their place that are wildly different from those they have replaced.
Along with the new weapons manufactures that have been introduced is a new elemental weapon type which are as just as powerful as ever. You have Shock, Fire, Explosive, Corrosive and the newest addition Slag. A slag weapon acts differently to the others, as an enemy hit by a slag weapon will receive higher damage from other elemental weapons.
As you might expect many of the features from the first Borderlands have been carried over after redesigned. The first obvious example would be the inventory system, the whole thing has been given a complete redesign to a style that allows the player to quickly and easily look at their items at a glance. It even has a few handy features such as the organisation button which lets you choose how you want your items to be organised (weapon type, manufacturers etc). Another great addition is the ability to add a little X or star to a weapon, the star is just to show the player that it’s a favoured weapon reducing accidental selling. The X’s allow you to quickly sell all weapons with a x on its image in one click.
There is a feature that was totally replaced however, that being ‘Weapon Proficiencies’, this feature has been swapped out for ‘Badass Ranks’. Personally I prefer these Badass Ranks to the previous feature, mainly because there are lots and lots of Badass Ranks to attain and they aren’t all to do with weapons. Once you achieve a Badass Rank you get to choose from a series of minor bonuses to things like gun accuracy etc.
One of the features that hasn’t changed (except for some minor aesthetic details) is the skill progression screen. Killing enemies give XP and XP causes you to eventually level, each level grants a skillpoint to use in your characters skilltree. As I said, that hasn’t changed at all.
With Borderlands 2 came the introduction of Shift Keys. These keys are not found anywhere within the game but are instead to be found as codes among the social media links of certain members of staff and a few websites. To use these codes you need to access the ‘Extra’s’ menu and select ‘Shift Codes’, once there you manually enter the code and if the code is accepted (because some have a limited life span) you’ll receive a reward. Typically the reward is a number of Golden Keys, which can be used in the Sanctuary location at a golden chest. "Why bother doing this?” you may ask, well there is a good reason. When the golden chest is opened it will give some random items, these items are always, at least, classed as rare but can go higher. At the time of writing the issuing of Shift Codes has continued and there have even been one or two apps that have appeared that amass all the codes so you don’t have to search.
The Unreal 3 engine has really helped make this game look far better than its predecessor. The colours are more vivid and the game feels smoother as a whole. Of course it still has some minor glitches here and there, enemies occasionally get stuck in scenery that sort of thing. For me the best part of it was the fact that they fixed the field of view issue, I didn’t have to manually edit the settings this time to change it.
So do I think this is worth your time? Yes I do, especially if you have the GoTY edition, there’s a lot to do and you can have a lot of fun doing it. Anyone who played the first will definitely enjoy it, and if you didn’t like the first I think you’ll end up liking this one. It’s more refined, longer and definitely funnier.
If this interests you perhaps look at;
Bulletstorm
Rage
S.T.A.L.K.E.R – Shadow of Chernobyl
