Starting out with skills, Borderlands 2 uses a simplified skill tree that will enhance your character down the road. In the first game synergy was good between skills, but it is even better and more thought out in Borderlands 2, and that fact is critical in making a good game that is the same, yet different and new. There are many combinations of builds unique to each class. General strategies, such as slagging an enemy then using elemental damage AOE can be regulated to practically anyone. Have Axton be a grenadier and chuck elemental homing grenades at people while slagging them.
Do it with Maya and her cataclysm tree while phase locking enemies, or use Gaige and her shock damage abilities to slag enemies and deal a little bit of elemental damage. Just like the first game, there are a ton of choices when it comes to guns. Guns are more pronounced, meaning that you can tell roughly what manufacturer made a gun by looking at it. Don’t be fooled- the prefixes in the name of the gun will denote any special abilities it may have. The main “special” ability each class has seems to have had its cooldown timer reduced, something that I like, and something that probably required a bit of tweaking. You will still get second wind chances to get back up after your health is gone, except this time you can move around a bit.
Enemies vary between trash and “super badass”, and when the second playthrough of the game is activated, new enemies replace some of the old ones. Many had complaints with rocket launchers from the first game. They have been fixed and deal an ass ton of damage. Switching between weapons is easy, offering you the chance to slag an enemy and then change quickly to another weapon. Enemies don’t have a snappy AI anymore- they move fluidly and at first can be hard to predict. You can’t get up on a ledge to hide from them anymore either- they will come up to find you, often with hilarious dialogue. Some voice actors for enemies were brought back from the first game, but there is more variety to them, which brings a much needed change to the series. I felt that Axton’s turret and Gaige’s Deathtrap seemed a little overpowered, however that is subjective. When you go to build your actual character in the game with skill points, there is less suggestion than in the previous game. This means that you won’t see skills that say “X character gets Y bonus damage with sniper rifles”.
Respecs are available in game for a nominal cost so you can switch up your play style, and dying always takes 7% of your total money away. For the PC, you can’t beat the options. There are literally a few dozen options that can be tweaked to your liking, including graphics and physics upgrades, if you can handle it. Gearbox did an excellent job designing a console game and porting it over to the PC. Sadly, it usually isn’t the other way around. I had some issues trading objects and easily moving stuff between my bank and the inventory. It was a bit wonky and should have been a lot simpler. Instead of dropping something in an empty slot automatically, I have to go find that “said slot” and drop the item.
The game offers you the chance to sell unwanted gear to either Zed vending machines or Marcus ones. You can mark stuff in your inventory as trash, but this is annoying because you have to use the mouse to click through everything in order to do it. There should have been a hotkey for this feature, so I can quickly go through and label trash, then auto sell the stuff with the push of a button. I wish Diablo III had something like that. For those that care about the appearance of their vault hunter, there are dozens of unique skins, head designs and vehicle skins to buy, loot and collect. Some people have complained about the driving in this game, but honestly it isn’t terrible. If you want to play your PC copy with a controller, Borderlands 2 is Microsoft xbox 360 controller ready.
For console players the game features a proper split screen. For the ultimate in convenience, the fast travel system tells you what zone your quest is in, and even where to turn it in if it is finished. Well done gearbox, well done. If you enjoyed the story in the first game, which was limited in dosage, Borderlands 2 will deliver “what should have been”. I won’t spoil anything here, but you will get about 35-40 hours of gameplay out of the first playthrough, looking through areas and doing side quests. When you are done, you should be about level 34. The brilliant thing about boss fights is that when you are done fighting them, you can farm them repeatedly for loot.
I do this often for lower level characters, or for characters I feel need better guns. Simply fight the boss, exit out, re-enter the game and the boss should have spawned. There are a few plot twists in this game, enough to shock me. Again I will not spoil anything, but the story leaves room for additional characters, more DLC, and most certainly a sequel to this game. Will there be a sequel? Make it to the end and you tell me. Gearbox has a good history of doing DLC right, and they have made tons of money doing it. When discussing multiplayer, I need to reemphasize that this is NOT a call of duty PVP game. PVP is very limited in borderlands 2.
You are restricted to a duel within a confined dome that forms when a duel request is accepted. Borderlands 2 is meant not to be a pvp game, but a co-op loot fest. For PC, Gearbox dropped gamespy and went with steam for their servers, which was a smart move. Even on consoles, drop in and drop out gameplay makes joining games easy and getting help even easier. Some gamers only have time for one or two hours of play, and this will certainly allow you to do that without committing too much time in one sitting. Unfortunately, there is no real way to stop ninja looters, so please play fair when you play online.
Those who plow ahead of the group, in Left for Dead 2 style will get their asses kicked. Stay together in that regard. One thing Gearbox should have done was initiate a loot roll system for chests. That would have made things a hell of a lot fairer. Just look to World of Warcraft and their need before greed system. Game players today are looking to extend their dollar as far as they can. With 60 dollar games, I expect a decently long game with good content. For $59.99 brand new, Borderlands 2 certainly does not disappoint.
Around 95% of the people who pick the game up are extremely satisfied with what they are getting. Sure Borderlands 2 has some minor glitches, but they are not game breaking. Make sure to NEVER, EVER drop any kind of weapon in Pierce Station in sanctuary as it will go through the floor where you can’t get to it. At the time this review was created, I have about 100 hours into the game. I have a level 40 character and one who is level 20. There is nothing like killing a boss and watching him SPLOOGE COLORFUL LOOT AT YOU. There are few things that beautiful in life- cherry blossom trees, a newborn baby, and maybe an aurora borealis.
Gearbox won’t tease the gear from you- kill the big motha and watch the loot FLY AT YOU. For the solid co-op, fantastic story and loot that will keep you going well into DLC releases, I felt the game deserved a 92 out of 100. That is a very high score, considering Borderlands 1 got an 85. Anything above 80 is a must play, but certainly anything above a 90 is a must have. If you are really pinching to pay the bills, wait until a used copy drops to 49.99 or 39.99. This is certainly a game you do not want to miss, and a contender for Game of the Year in 2012.
Rob's 16th Greatest Game of All Time [October 16, 2012]
Rob's 2012 Game of the Year
92/100 "Excellent"
Metacritic score: 89/100
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