Borderlands 2 Review!

by Callum Smith

9/29/2012 10:30:30 PM 1519 Callum Smith

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Borderlands 2 Review!

A Perfect Sequel?

When Borderlands was released three years ago it took everyone by surprise as know one expected it to be nearly as good as it ended up. Borderlands was a great game due to its unique visual design, hostile creatures, variety of missions, unique and strange characters and all the looting you could possibly wish for. One of the best features of Borderlands was the novelty and while that is gone in Borderlands 2, you'll hardly miss it, as all the other kick ass elements are back and better than ever. Borderlands 2 is the perfect sequel as it improves upon everything the first game had to offer resulting in hours upon hours of fun, intense and exciting gameplay.

Perhaps the most addictive and fun element of Borderlands 2 is the same as its predecessor. The looting. Looting is incredibly addictive because of how much it helps you in the long run of the campaign and because of how it creates for a more fun experience. By looting you gain guns, ammo, grenade mods, shields, class mods and character skins. Borderlands 2 is one of those games where you think you finally have the best weapon and shield possible and then when you open another crate you find something much better, something you so desperately need but didn't even know it, until you found it. This also results in numerous hours spending in the menu comparing weapon stats and shield stats and making the easier decision of which to equip, but the ever so difficult decision of which ones to drop.

When looting you will come across weapons almost every single time. While every weapon you come across won't always be better than the one you currently have equipped, it is great to have hundreds of guns available to equip as you're going to be gunning down enemies throughout the whole of Borderlands 2. While you will be gunning down enemies almost throughout the entirety of the game, depending on the class you choose you can always come up with the most unique and most entertaining way to kill everyone in sight.

When comparing Borderlands 2 to other RPG's its disappointing how lacklustre the visual customization options are in depth as you can only change the colour of their skin with blanket skins that change the look of their body and head. But when looking at the class skills customization, it's hard to not be in awe at how detailed it is. At the very beginning of Borderlands 2 you have four classes to choose from. The Commander, Assassin, Siren and the Gunzerker. But unlike Borderlands, the skill trees are much more thorough as a lot more options have been added allowing you to be able to create much more diverse characters. It doesn't matter how much you customize your character in the skill tree, the class you choose will always be the same. The Commander will always be about using turrets, the Gunzerker will always be about raging into battle and gunning down everything in sight with two weapons, the Siren will always be about stunning your foes with phaselock and finally the Assassin will always be about temporarily cloaking and taking enemies out silently and surprisingly. But the skill tree is necessary in improving their abilities in order to progress through the campaign.

The plot of the campaign is a little bit predictable and mega clichéd, but it is far more successful than the original campaign. The campaign narrative tells a story that is interesting enough to keep you interested throughout the 30+ hours campaign due to the interesting characters that somewhat feel realistic as well as nuanced. The story doesn't strive to make you feel any emotions as there are no real upsetting moments, as the campaign is meant to be overwhelmingly humorous and silly.

While the main campaign is good, the side missions is where the writing for Borderlands 2 truly shines. The missions aren't really varied but that's to be expected as not many RPG's have a large variety of side missions as they are always kill this or collect that and that is also the case for Borderlands 2. So what makes the side missions of Borderlands 2 better than the side missions for other RPG's? The answers simple. The acting, writing and presentation. These three elements make the side missions some of the most memorable missions ever. A particularly great mission had you fighting a "splinter group" which are ninja like bandits who eat pizza and amazingly talk like the TMNT and even live in the sewers. I am not a gamer who laughs out loud at the jokes told in video games and while I didn't laugh out loud during Borderlands 2 either, I did give a smile after every joke.

But sadly while there are so many great elements to Borderlands 2 that have been improved upon from the original, the driving mechanics unfortunately still suck. The driving is pointless as you just travel a short distance to get from A to B and the driving controls aren't even that responsive. While it is clear that Borderlands 2 is simply a fast paced first person shooter, it would be nice if they designed the missions better and smarter.

In Conclusion...

The least said about Borderlands 2 the better the experience will be for you, because everything will come more as a surprise to you. But if you've played Borderlands expect more of the same, just much more improved. The plot is a lot more focused resulting in a better all around experience, the customizable skill tree is a lot more advanced. Pretty much every feature from Borderlands other than the novelty as that's been scrapped, has been heavily improved upon. Is Borderlands 2 worth spending your hard earned cash on? Simply yes. Borderlands 2 is an amazing game that is easily up there with the best games of 2012 so far and will be in contention for game of the year at the end of 2012.

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