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Game Review: Borderlands 2
Borderlands 2: Electric Gundaloo
If you haven't played the original Borderlands, allow me to quickly catch you up. It was a first-person shooter with role-playing game elements tacked on, and randomly generated loot. What this ended up creating was a shooter with some of the feel of games like Diablo, where there's always that perfect weapon left to find. While the maps were static and not procedurally-generated, the loot wasn't, and combined with the choice of character classes and skill choices made a game that warranted multiple playthroughs. The story began on the distant planet of Pandora, an alien world with a landscape inspired by the Mad Max franchise, full of colorful characters and humorous contacts and enemies. Eventually our heroes found the vault, and its contents proved to be less than all they had dreamed for, and the quest for more experience and more guns continued on.
Borderlands 2 picks up five years after the end of the first game, and we are told via narration that a second vault is allegedly on Pandora and that the Hyperion corporation is looking for it. A man named Handsome Jack was able to steal credit for the finding of the first vault and take over the Hyperion Corporation, and now he's leading the efforts to uncover the second vault. Handsome Jack tries to kill off our new vault hunter protagonists, they somehow miraculously survive, and the stage is set for a whole new game.
The game doesn't stray far from its ancestor, keeping the same gun-hunting formula at work, while also adding new brands of guns, as well as more gun modifiers into the mix. One of the first guns I found had an effect so that when it was reloaded, it was thrown at my target and exploded like a grenade, then warped back into my hands fully loaded. Besides just letting me live out any Police Squad! fantasies I might have had, it was a pretty handy addition. In Borderlands, one of my favorite weapons was a shotgun that shot rockets, and the rockets subsequently lit my targets on fire. All of these combinations and more await vault hunters on Pandora.
Like before, there's four character classes to choose from. They are somewhat analogous to the previous game's classes, with some tweaks. The siren has a different psychic power than in Borderlands, and the gunzerker is less focused on melee combat than the berzerker was. The sniper class has been replaced with the assassin, who instead of using a pet, projects holographic duplicates to act as a distraction. The commando utilizes turrets like the solider from the original game.
The fast-travel ability is unlocked as soon as the player finds a second teleporter, instead of being dangled a few levels in the future like it was before. This makes getting around a little easier from the start. There's also new "customization stations" that contain the customization options from the New-U stations in Borderlands, plus some new options. At the customization station you can choose how to color your character, and swap heads and hats around to make your particular vault hunter unique. Added into the loot drops this time around, are character and vehicle themes that are unlocked in the customization stations when used.
PC Gamers: Claptrap Wants You Back, Baby
One of the most criticized aspects of Borderlands was that the PC version felt like a hastily made port of a console game, because it was. Back in May, Gearbox Software posted a love letter from Claptrap, the game's mascot, detailing how the PC version would be better this time around. While making good on most but not all of their promises (more on that shortly) the PC version this time around does feel like more effort was put into it. Configuration options that were previously only available by editing configuration files by hand or forcing them on via video card drivers are integrated into the game. Multiplayer uses Steam integration rather than GameSpy to find friends to play with. Performance seems to be better optimized for PC as well, with the game feeling more responsive out of the box, even when running on the same graphics card I used for the original game.
However, like any jilted lover writing a please-take-me-back letter, Claptrap is not without empty promises. While promising that no port forwarding would be required, at least at launch, that is not the case. The only folks I know who were able to enjoy multiplayer games either had to forward ports or move their PC into their firewall's DMZ, which is pretty much how Borderlands worked. Multiplayer games are really the best part of the Borderlands formula, planning attacks with your friends and reviving each other when necessary, so it's unfortunate that they're still difficult to make work out of the box.
The inventory UI is still rather clunky to use. While it has definitely gotten a nice face lift from its predecessor, it's still a pain to move guns around, and given the number of guns found and sold during the course of a game, it detracts from a good experience. The quest UI is likewise nearly similar to, and just as frustrating as it was in the original. Granted, both of these issues are related to the game's dependence on the UT3 (Unreal Tournament 3) engine, but more time spent on these interfaces would have been greatly appreciated, since so much time is spent comparing gun stats and swapping guns around.
Conclusions: Is Vault Hunting for You?
If you played the original and enjoyed it in spite of its flaws, then Borderlands 2 is definitely for you. It's also a good jumping-on point in that the events of the first game while occasionally referenced, aren't needed to have been played through. With its clunky menus and multiplayer support, however, what could have been a stellar game is bumped down to merely a good game. So unless Claptrap makes good on his previous promises, players need to enjoy playing alone, or jumping through some firewall configuration hoops to make things work. For me personally, there's still my quest for that perfect gun out there that will keep me playing.
I played multiplayer with UPnP off and no ports forwarded, as did all my friends. Maybe he meant software firewall? When i first launched the game, windows 7 popped the normal firewall access dialog. I clicked allow and it all just worked.
Good-bye
Seriously...? When you exit, it automatically saves. There's a clear message when you push exit from the menu: "All progress will be saved."
Oh please, at least wait till they start censoring posts before starting this type of bullshit.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
I found that while it's practically a copy of Borderlands, there are a lot of small improvements that make a big difference:
- Quests flow together better and are awarded at the time of other quests for the same location, so you don't go to the same map over and over - even though you'd totally just been there - nearly as often.
- A lot more funny dialogue and interesting characters. It feels like the antagonist is always right on your ass, as well.
- More guns, with more variety.
- Smarter enemy AI, not only will they occasionally dodge (but not psychic sniper rifle dodging like in the first game), but in sustained fire they'll try to roll away.
- A lot higher difficulty than the first game, but also a few levels doesn't mean as much. I could kill level 13 guys at level 8, but it was difficult, but was not totally impossible.
- Much more enemy variety.
- Way more variety and useful abilities in skill trees. You can practically customize your skill points to your particular playstyle, much more than in the original.
- Inventory upgrades, bank upgrades, SDUs, all are chooseable by you. If you want to dump all your eridium into having a big backpack and no ammo, that's fine. If you want all ammo, that's fine too.
I didn't find the multiplayer that frustrating, but if you liked Borderlands you will definitely like Borderlands 2. I didn't find the inventory interface that clunky either.
I don't think they really care, either.
What platform?
As I recall the PC had both auto-save and manual. But I think it'd reload you to the last checkpoint pylon thing you passed.
Sierra made adventure games, not RPGs. There were plenty of 1980s and 1990s RPGs with guns in them. Some of the Wizardry games. Centauri Alliance. Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday. Wasteland.
I want to know if we get to see Moxxy nude in this one.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
The empty clip explodes, not the gun. WTF? Why would the gun explode and then teleport back into your hand? Even by Borderlands standards that would be goofy as hell.
Comment of the year
It's "UnrealEngine 3", not "the Unreal Tournament 3 engine". The former refers to the more generic engine; the latter refers to the specific version of UE3 that was used for Unreal Tournament 3.
Yes, it's a pedantic distinction, but a significant one. Between UT3 and now, Epic has added quite a number of new features - tessellation, deferred rendering, bokeh DoF, and so on. I don't know how many of those features Borderlands 2 uses, but it's definitely a far newer UE3 than UT3 used.
Translation to /.-speak:
Calling it "the UT3 engine" is like calling Linux "the Android kernel". Technically correct, in that it is the kernel used by Android, but it completely misses the point.
EQ > EQ2
Then again if you have to save up for over 2 months to pay for a game perhaps there are better things you should be spending your money on.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
RPG stands for Role Playing Game.
Perhaps you are only familiar with Role Playing Games where no guns are involved, but that is only a small subset of the entirety of Role Playing Games.
It's like saying that websites should all have a picture of goatse because that one time you got on the internet you saw a picture of goatse.
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I dunno, Rage managed a worse ending. And the "quality" of the ending to Mass Effect 3 is the stuff of legends.
Highlight item. Hover to right side of it.
If you click the red X in the bottom right of the item, it will mark it as trash. Do this as you're out exploring/looting. I mean you check your loot anyway, right? Next time you hit a vendor, press the delete key, and all your trash (X'd items and whites) are sold.
Clicking the top right will star the item, so it's not trash. Useful for white items you're using/keeping for whatever reason. Also, can be used to highlight the items you want to "keep", making it easier to see what you need to sell if you prefer doing it manually with mouse clicks/enter.
It's actually a good use of K.I.S.S., just not explained very well. Happy Hunting!!
PS - Aardwolf? I loved Aardwolf. :)
I really like the game but the absolutely retarded vehicle control is pissing me off. Only steering via mouse. Turbo sporadically working and when it does it stays on until empty (2 deaths so far because of that), I can crank the wheels to one side and when I back up the front wheels automatically swing to the other side. Fucking annoying as hell.
How do you loose a game?
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
How do you loose a game?
Use less restricting rules?
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They are both post apocalyptic games with comepletely different feel.
For one thing, Fallout has that tacked on RPG mode on the PIP-Boy that can completely remove the FPS aspect of the game. But it is also much more focused on training up skills. Weapons are also pretty static and it's tough to create something better, let alone different stats.
Borderlands is a FPS first and foremost with LOTS of weapons, they all do different and FUN things. The game borders on outrageous in building a fun environment to run around. It also happens to be pretty hilarious.
Sorry, I've played and loved both. They're different games. You might as well try to compare them to Gears of War while you're at it.
The PC version multiplayer may not work well, but the PS3 version sure does. I started playing a solo game, and my stepson (who has his own copy and PS3) came online and joined my single-player game with no trouble at all. I wasn't even aware that it would do that. What is lacking is some player-to-player communication options when the bluetooth headset isn't available (had some trouble with pairing mine and ended up horking the PS3's bluetooth up until the next restart).
Having played the first game all the way through, I like the UI changes so far.
Insanity is a gradual process; don't rush it.
When going after your second boss fight, you find pin-up posters of Moxxy in a storage container. They're not quite naked; she's wearing lacy g-strings. There might be more later -- my gunzerker is only level 8 so far. I've met Moxxy at her new bar, and I'm hopeful she'll have work for me to do in later levels.
In general, though, I think they've toned down the raunchiness just a tad. The profanity is gone (the 'Angel' says 'darn', then corrects herself and says, 'Oh, sorry -- drat.') and while there's more gun and gib porn than ever there have been no adult situations so far. But then again I am only level 8, maybe it appears later.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
It tends to return you to nearest NewU station, or the last one you passed by - if you are still playing in the original area and haven't passed a 2nd NewU station, it saves and returns you to the one in Fyrestone.
Your progress through quests should have been kept, though.
Also:
Fallout 3 while not being a complete sandbox does allow you to go pretty much anywhere at any point in time with a variety of quests and events happening all over the map that are completely independant of the main story. The world was also a bit more dynamic than Borderlands. It had day and night cycles and NPC's for whom that mattered. You could decide to blow up the starter town or disarm the bomb to save it. You could protect the interests of a bunch of racists in a high rise or betray them and let in a host of ghouls to kill and permanently replace them.
Borderlands is much more on rails. While you can go back to old areas to look for gear new area's generally don't open up until the story leads you there by the hand. Also side quests were kept to a minimum and there was usually only one course of progression through them. The world was also largely static, in that nothing you did seemed to matter or change anything in the long run.
The key to ME1 is that it's not supposed to be a precise, actiony shooter. Think of it like Star Trek - just point the phaser/rifle at the bad guys, hold trigger until it's dead. The go bang a chick with a weird skin color, tell the admiralty where they can shove their regulations, and punch a reporter.
Mass Effect 2 definitely made the gameplay much more of an action shooter, but it also did quite a bit worse at the storytelling and setting. Plotlines started in ME1 are ignored, new species just pop into existence, and the art department discovered color correction filters can make everything dark and gloomy.
A friend of mine is in the same boat as you. We're constantly looking for co-op games to play online, and there's precious few that have everything we want. Borderlands hit all the right gameplay notes. An FPS/RPG with simple enough gameplay that we can jump in and out of sessions but enough complexity to keep us from wearing it out in two days. After messing around for 30 minutes, he said "as great as this is, I just can't deal with the graphical style." I love it-- but there's no explaining personal tastes-- it just is what it is.
Were you playing on an Xbox360 without being signed into a user profile? That's the only possible means of replicating the symptoms you describe. Unless it's one of those weird decay-based copy protection systems on the PC version. But I've never heard Borderlands mentioned in that context.
Did anyone else think Borderlands is a sequel to James Cameron's Avatar?
The RDA nuked the Tree of Life from the orbit roughly 200 years before Borderlands take place,
This pretty much destroyed the ecosystem, leaving only few very vicious breeds of creatures. The natives almost completely died out, but some of their secrets remain. The mines of Unobtainium got depleted, and Pandora remains dull and gray, and worthless.
The appearance of the "ancients" (or their ghosts), the vicious remaining wildlife, the backstory about depleted mines, the cutthroat corporate morality of the powers-that-be,
There are things that are somewhat mismatched. Na'vi don't seem to be an "advanced civilization" though they had their tricks and secrets indeed. It's lacking the predominantly 6-limbed fauna typical to Cameron's Pandora. The gravity seems normal. But then, the writer of the game might have been "inspired" by Cameron, while the artists/designers were not.
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