So, this game is not bad
I wanted to come up with a better title, but anything else would sound way too biased towards the game. Do not get me wrong. The game is probably the best looter-shooter out there. So, yeah. It might actually be most perfect looter shooter, depending on one preferences on specific points.
If you haven’t played the game yet, well, you must have lived under a rock. This game is so often discounted to almost nothing and there are many hours of just core gameplay. However, that not much of a review so let’s get into it.
Let me tell you a story…
This game is a sequel to the first game, but not a direct sequel. Borderlands 2’s story begins some years after Borderlands 1. In the first game the vault hunters hunt for an adventure and of course loot. In this game it is not an adventure the hunters are looking for, but a new life. Each of the new hunters have a backstory which you can learn a bit about through the game, but it does not give you more than a reason for their arrival.
In this game you start in a junkyard, left for dead. The villain tried to kill you from the get-go and if you think you luck already dried up there, just wait for 3 seconds and your will either be happy or very sad. Your old pal Claptrap helps you. Well, from there on out you work your way up by a thread to the villain (Handsome Jack) and a good ally to the previous vault hunters. That’s basically it, but even though the story seems very basic that doesn’t mean that it is bad. You learn a lot about Pandora (The planet), the interesting characters, weapon manufactures, and you may grow to feel sorry for the villain.
I won’t go into details, but if you are a fan of the first one or feel connected to the story, you will get some surprises. Personally I didn’t play Borderlands 1 first, but even so I understood the story fine.
The story is told through a few cutscenes, conversations, audio logs, and environmental clues. All of which can be ignored if you so choose, but I highly recommend picking up audio logs and listen to the conversations casually while playing for the first time. I personally really like the humour and the unique characters presented.
Side quests are abundant. A great deal of them doesn’t add much. Fetch quests or kill so and so. Sometimes you will stumble upon some fun ones, but especially early on, all of them is worth the time as the experience will keep you from struggling.
Pew pew! Guns!
If you don’t care about the story as many of the players actually don’t, you will probably not be disappointed. The gameplay is a lot like Borderlands 1. Of course it is. The gameplay (and cell shading) does define the franchise.
The gameplay is much like any other shooter. It is a first-person shooter, enemies have HP bars and weapons damage differ. Weapons have a range of stats that at first glance can seem random at times, but definitely aren’t. Most stats are defined by the parts that is on the gun. If you have ever seen gameplay from the Division, you know you can add attachments to increase certain stats. It works kind of in the same way, but is based on RNG. Damage can be RNG too and have a defined minimum and maximum damage for a specific weapon, but of course it scales with your level and gets exponentially bigger in the higher levels. All in all it is a looter shooter, so you can find guns, grenades, shields, and Class-mods (Which adds extra points into certain skills).
In Borderlands 2 the gameplay has been refined in a lot of ways. The most noticeable change is a FOV slider, which means that the overall gameplay won’t feel disorienting or make you nauseous. Besides from the small improvements, such as smoother walking animation and smoother mouse movement, and of course improved graphics, all kinds of QOL (quality of life) have been added to the game, so even over a decade later it runs and plays like any modern game.
Gearbox advertised this game on its gore, gunplay, and the “billions” of weapons they supposedly had in the game. However, this game does NOT have billions of weapons. It may have a few hundred to around a 1000 guns if you take DLC weapons into the equation. The reason for this “lie” is a special mechanic. As mentioned earlier, all the weapons are made of different parts and different effects. These parts and effects will not only give it different specific names, but even sometimes changes its rarity and its usefulness. It is not a bad thing. Borderlands 1 had the same mechanic, but it is so much better in Borderlands 2. It will encourage the player to grind for “perfect” weapons. These weapons are often legendary rarity weapons with the best prefix, parts, and effects. Because all of these stat altering parts can be mish-mashed together it can make guns look totally different and since they change the name too, you will end up getting the feeling (at least on your first playthrough) that the gun pool is endless.
Just at all the other looter shooter games, all weapons have rarities and the DLCs added a few more. Just like any other game like Destiny these are of course colour coded:
- White – Common
- Green – Uncommon
- Blue – Rare
- Purple – Epic
- Neon Purple – E-tech
- Orange – Legendary
- Pink – Seraph
- Light Blue – Pearlescent
- Rainbow – Raid boss loot (more of a gimmicky rarity)
Most rarities make sense, but a few needs to be explained. E-tech weapons are often given as quest rewards, but often have strong elemental effects. Pearlescent are loot drops from Raid bosses. Seraph is a rarity added by DLC and can be earned from DLC raid bosses. Rainbow was added in the last DLC to promote Borderlands 3 and is only dropped by that DLC’s raid boss. There are certain weapons that can only be obtained through quests. These guns are often blue rarity and can be very special.
Elements is important for late game or rather only one is. The elements are electric, Fire, Corrosive and slag. Slag is a new element for this game and enemies’ effect by this element takes more damage. That is why that late game gameplay always require you to have a slag weapon on you. This hurts the late game as no matter how perfect your weapons are, you are almost always required to slag an enemy before you can kill it. However certain builds can work around that somewhat.
Level up, Grow up!
RPG’s needs a way to grow your character and skills are therefore a giant part of the game. All 4 character (6 with DLC’s) have their own unique ability and each their own unique skill trees. All of the have skills that appeals to that character and of course some of the generic stat increase too. What really makes each character unique is their ultimate ability.
Commander has a turret, which though skills can get rockets, get shields, launch a nuke on activation, stick to walls or even have 2. Gunzerker can dual wield guns which increases their stats while active and through skills, can be prolonged through kills and even generate ammo. Zero can turn invisible and strike enemies with their sword and cause a high amount of damage and through skills can spot weak points, get throwing stars and prolong the ability on kill. Siren has Phaselock. An ability that lifts an enemy in the air and while they are suspended takes extra damage and through skills, can generate health, do damage, heal other players and so on.
Invite your friends to fight with you!
Co-operative mode is part of Borderlands 2 too. There isn’t really much to say here. It works just as well as the rest of the game. The only change is that they have made a bit more content for co-op players. Arenas is one of those things, but becomes a bit too easy with even just one teammate.
However, where co-op really shines is then it comes to the raid bosses. The main games have one, which you probably will spend hours on alone or with your friends. Not that is that hard, but simply to farm it. Each story DLC comes with a new raid boss.
Invite your friends to fight against you?
Yes. PvP is indeed a thing in Borderlands 2 and don’t forget it was a thing in the first game too. There is a big difference between the two games PvP modes. The first game had what I would call a “mini free for all” mode, which only could be done on specific points in the game. The PvP in Borderlands 2 is nowhere near the same. First of all, it can be done anywhere at almost any time. Secondly, it is only 1 versus 1. That means if you are playing with more than 1 friend the others have to spectate. That may sound terrible, but the fights won’t last more than a few seconds. It even has a purpose. You can trade with your friends, but if you can’t agree which of you should have the legendary dropped by the boss, you can fight for it or simply make a friendly wager.
Immersion hiding in the settings
One of the new features in Borderlands 2 is PhysX. No, not physics, but PhysX. Both B1 and B2 have “normal” physics. (Primarily Gravity) However, PhysX deliver more than just the basics. The elemental weapons and items are no longer just effects, but becomes actual liquids. Cloth sways in the wind and if you shoot at it, it will be shredded. Guns leaves particle effects on impact and enemies spills blood or oil. (This requires a beefy PC though).
Note for achievement hunters
Borderlands 2 have a lot of funny and somewhat easy achievements, so most of them should be a piece of cake. However, one achievement, “Challenge Accepted”, can be bugged. I personally had to collect all Cult of the vault symbols and even on from a DLC. So the achievement took me 8 month to unlock. Hopefully I was just unlucky… Sometimes, simply completing one other challenge does the trick, so don’t lose hope, and just keep trying.
In the end of the day
If you are a fan of the loot n’ shoot genre, can I almost guarantee that you will love this game. Borderlands 2 is the closest we have come to the perfect looter shooter. However, it is hard to recommend this for people who doesn’t like this genre of game. Trust me I have tried. Took me 3 years to make one of my friend buy the game. However, I will try to force the rest of my friends to buy this game, even if it is last thing I will ever do.
Through the years we have gotten more Borderlands titles, but Borderlands 2 is still seen as the best of them all. When Destiny 1 came out it was told off for being a rip off of Borderlands, while that’s not the case and every looter shooter have their own identity, this game is loved and for good reason. The base game is long and solid and all the DLC’s gave so much life to a game that already amazing. As this game came out in 2012 there isn’t much bad, I can say about it. Newer games in this genre have done more, like advanced and special raid fights. The late game, as you get to the 3rd playthrough with the same character is terribly balanced as everything gets exponentially harder every time you level up, so to survive you have to farm for new weapon that is the same level as you as even weapons 1 level under becomes useless. Not everyone minds it, but this becomes very tedious for casual players. However, this game has soul and charm like no other and it doesn’t take itself too seriously and makes fun with the top-tier games of the time through easter eggs.
