Borderlands 2

The Cover of Borderlands 2

Publisher: 2K Games

Creator: Gearbox Software

Console: PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

ESRB Rating: M for Mature

            Are you ready to be a vault hunter? To be a person who risks their life to find that treasure that means the world? If you are, then welcome to Pandora, the land in Borderlands 2. Released earlier this year, Borderlands 2 came out on September 18, 2012. Created by Gearbox Software, it was a long awaited continuation to the original Borderlands that came out in 2009.

            Borderlands 2 is a very intriguing game, it is long enough to get you emotionally attached to characters but short enough to not get you looking for something else to play. You start from dogging death and awakening in a frozen graveyard, to walking up the stairs to defeat jack before he unleashed the warrior. There are four characters to choose from all with special ability’s but with every character to play the story and game play is very identical. In Pandora (where Borderlands takes place) there are plenty of enemies to keep you on your feet that just want to watch you die in the most horrific ways. Ranging from normal to ultimate badass there are a wide variety of enemies to kill, including enemies that are covered in an element that will melt your face off. Killing enemies and ranking up in normal ranks and badass ranks are a huge factor throughout the game. Even with all the badass ranking help, once you finish all the story missions the game sends you back to the start. It sends you to complete the game for a second time with enemies that are double the difficulty from the first time you played.  With the weapon generating system in the game there is 87 bazillion different guns to choose from, with no two guns being the same (not that big of an exaggeration). There are brands of guns in the game that do unique things. For example “Tedorie” weapons explode when reloaded, and “Milwans” are only elemental. Grenade mods are very useful for different situation, grenade mods range from elemental, to exploding into baby grenades and then homing into targets. There are also unique shields and relics to equip onto your character to deal even more damage.
            Like I mentioned before, the original play through is an almost perfect balance with length. Borderlands 2 has a unique option to play the game again, on a higher set difficulty, with everything from the first and second play through linked to one another except for completed quests. To complete the first play through story of the game, it took me approximately 30 hours total. Keep in mind I did not finish all the side quests, just the ones to help me get through the main story quest. In addition to all the gameplay, getting all the achievements in the game would add an enormous amount of gameplay on to your game time. So it would definitely take you longer then it took me if you went all out. After completing both play troughs the game loses most replay value however. You can finish side quests and badass challenges, but that won’t keep you entertained for much longer. If you have friends that play the game frequently it is possible to play the game with a character just with them. Dialogue is a very helpful point when it comes to replay value. The dialogue is so funny that you will always have a good laugh, but a joke isn’t as funny the second time hearing it. Playing the game for a second time is no different from the first; there are no options to alter the course of the game unlike a game such as Fable 3 where you are constantly given the choice.

            There is no difficulty option to choose when you first start the game, although the preset difficulty is already quite challenging and fun at the same time. To be able to complete the game without side quests is almost impossible, side quests don’t just give experience points, some quests give equipment to choose from, but they’re not always the best. Completing all the story quests on the first play through will unlock you the ‘True vault hunter’ mode, which is basically a hammed up version of the game with all you’re equips available but the enemies and story quests are too your level or higher. The game becomes a whole new level of difficulty later in the storyline throughout the “True vault hunter” mode. The controls to the game are anything but unique. If you have played any shooter game, you can play borderlands flawlessly. There is little to talk about in this category, controls in games will probably not get any better than they are at this time.

            Personally I think the dialog is the best part of the game. It might be somewhat of toilet humor and be very vulgar, but that’s what makes it funny. There are points in the game where it has its times for emotional speeches which tie the game together. But the games dialog is very smooth and character voices well chosen. Throughout the game you will hear a variety of music within the levels. Walking around will give you a pleasant background music, but engaging in combat will give you a fast paced music. Music during combat doesn’t deter from the gameplay in fact concentrating on the fight will actually make you disregard the music half the time. Hearing the music isn’t something new when playing but it is mixed in well enough to not annoy or distract the player. One personal annoyance is that during one of the story quests you’re brought to an underground sewer looking place, which if I’m not mistaken plays a music that was played in Dead Island. But that is a minor and personal complaint.

            The game has a unique form of visuals which has not been seen before rather than in Borderlands 1. The comic book looking visuals are hard to get used to but once you are used to them, the game has a nice feel. Using this type of graphics however cannot make complete smoothness with the landscapes, but games today don’t all have perfect shaped landscapes now do they. Character animations are smooth, explosions and movement are nice. There is a lack of smoothness when it comes to some character entrances though. Loading times seem lengthy, character intros see a tad off timing and navigation seems off. Every game has a problem with it, and I find that Borderlands lacks. To understanding certain things though you cannot always figure out where to go, by using a mini map. The mini map is an addition to the borderlands series, but taking a wrong path on some maps will make you spend worthless time wondering around. Downloading a character with godly equips is so easy anyone with a USB drive can do it. Duplicating money and equipment is just as easy. With the ability to boost character with equipment or levels is right at our fingertips. Borderlands 2 does not have a good protection to cheaters. There are no glitches I have seen yet or even heard of which is great though. Easter eggs are scarce within the game but the game leads you to the ones that are there, which isn’t any fun. I’m not going to tell you the Easter egg’s though you will have to discover them for yourself.

            Online play isn’t the best if you are playing with random people; you will be fighting over loot most of the time. In addition no one can be in a menu if you are trying to fast travel. But if you have nice loyal friend with a microphone you’ll have a great time. Fitting up to 4 people in a game, every time another person joins, the fight gets harder, but the game rewards you with better loot. Playing split screen is fine, but looking at a smaller screen doesn’t help.

            There are points during the game where I wish I could change the elemental damage my gun does, but I can’t do that. I also wish that if I spend time or money on a gun I wish I could alter the guns behavior, or even physical features. Since the game is revolving around weapons I figure I could have a say on what my gun looks like or behaves like to make the gun more personalized to me. I wish the game also had points where I choose to be good or evil to the people I come in contact with. Having a trail on the ground like in Fable 3 would be nice to help me to see where I need to go, because the mini map does not always help when navigating. All in all for what the game dose have I loved playing it, and I would recommend this game to everyone over the age of 14, only because of the dialog.

- LemonPledge

8/10

Gameplay