"Borderlands 2 hits every high note on the sheet and it's finally great to be back on Pandora."
Borderlands 2 is more Borderlands, but with a larger budget, a larger environments and a larger game. Pandora no longer feels like a wasteland with little to no character whatsoever, though there are still sections of the game where the game does like to reconnect with its wasteland-like roots. However, the main point that drives Borderlands 2 and what makes it so interesting is the personality of the game. Whereas games nowadays mostly feel like a chore, with no signs of any unique mechanics or interesting characters, Borderlands 2 gives the player an incredible amount of characters to interact with and no character feels the same. While random non-player controlled characters still feel like a waste of space, with little to no interesting dialogue, they can occasionally say rather amusing phrases, a noticeable one being a parody of the infamous "arrow to the knee" joke from the fifth Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim.
Whereas the story of the original Borderlands fell flat and leaves the player with a cliffhanger, which was inevitably resolved in the final expansion pack, Borderlands 2 slams the player with an intriguing story all throughout the game. You play as one of the four new Vault Hunters, in search for the new Vault on Pandora. After the discovering and opening of the initial Vault, a gem called Eridium was revealed to the world, though the only one who took advantage of this was Hyperion and more specifically, it's President: Handsome Jack, the main antagonist. In the opening cutscene, the four Vault Hunters are riding a train, which is in turn is a trap in order to kill them set by Handsome Jack. Jack has put a bomb on the train, which explodes and leaves the Vault Hunters in the Tundra, being left to die, though at the time, Jack is unaware that you're still alive.
The player must choose one of the four new Vault Hunters in order begin the adventure. The new Vault Hunters, likewise in the first game, have different abilities from one another, creating several different play-styles. The Gunzerker – Salvador – has the ability to duel wield weapons in order to deal a spectacular amount of damage to your enemies which is promptly called "Gunzerk." The new Siren – Maya – has a different ability than the previous Siren, Lilith. Maya is able to use "Phaselock," an ability that traps an enemy in an orb, incapacitating them for a short amount of time depending on the size of the enemy. The Commando – Axton – is similar to the previous games' Soldier, having the ability to set down a turret, though unlike the previous, similar class, Axton's turret is able to rotate in 360-degrees, meaning it's more viable in combat. The Assassin – Zer0 – has the ability to summon a clone of him as a distraction, while he cloaks and can either melee or shoot the enemy for additional damage. All of these characters also have varied backstories to their characters, having an ECHO Log – a device similar to a tape recorder – that has some information regarding their previous lives before they came to Pandora, with the exception of Salvador, who is a native to the hostile planet.
As with the previous game, Borderlands 2 has the absolute pleasure of having a lot of loot. Whether it be money, ammo or the amazing amount of guns – Borderlands 2 has some kind of weapon to offer to everyone. While the weaponry in the previous game felt boring, with all the guns, grenades and shields looking alike with the exception of different colours, Borderlands 2 has unique designs, colour schemes and abilities that each weapon has. The weaponry in this game feel inspired, disposing of the bland, realistic looking weapons of the previous game. Some weapons look futuristic, while others display a classic, wooden feel to them. Some guns consume more than one bullet per shot, while other guns increase in accuracy as you shoot the gun. Shields have the ability to create a nova when it's depleted or absorb bullets when being shot at, while Grenades can home in on enemies or can pull enemies towards in with a singularity detonation. Borderlands 2 doesn't feel like another game and the weaponry is what fuels the personality of the game. Additionally, players are able to inspect their loot, being able to look at every nook and cranny of weapon the player will come across.
Along with the unique weaponry, the overall user interface has acquired a massive overhaul, with nearly every part of the game being blessed with the display of health, ammo, shield capacity and experience bar upgrades that have been applied to the game. The most noticeable change for the user interface, however, is the addition of the mini-map in the top right corner, no longer having to rely on the awful compass system that the game used previously for quests. When a shield has a special ability, such as the capability to absorb bullets, the ability is displayed where the shield capacity is on the interface. When the player wishes to look at their inventory, rather than a bland menu from the previous game, the game shows your in-game character in every part of the menu and seems well suited for a game such as Borderlands.
A new mechanic of Borderlands 2 is the Badass Ranks that reward the player for completing challenges. While challenges in the previous game rewarded the player with experience points, driving them closer and closer to the next level, challenges now reward the player with Badass Points, which in turn depending on how much you have, turn into Badass Tokens, which then can be spent on factors such as Gun Damage, Maximum Health, Melee Damage, Shield Capacity, Elemental Effect Chance – all these factors and many more make your character increasingly threatening as you spend your tokens. In addition to this, Badass Ranks are across all characters, which means you are graced with the fact that you no longer have to complete a wide range of challenges to obtain the upgrades you have applied to your stronger characters, creating an experiences that is not filled with tedious grinding and frustration.
While challenges do contribute towards your Badass Ranks, they can also unlock customisation skins and heads for your characters, which is another new mechanic of Borderlands 2 – character customisation. In the previous game, customisation was lacklustre, only being able to change the colours of your character – just giving them a new coat of paint. In Borderlands 2, however, you are able to change your characters head and skins as you progress through the game, unlocking and finding skins as you go on about your Vault Hunting business. Being able to create characters that look unique and unlike other characters is a joyful concept, however, there still are restrictions to this. You are unable to create a character from scratch, which would've been a wonderful feature to be able to create a character while designating the character to one of the four classes.
Throughout the game, the player is given quests by the colourful cast of the game. There are plenty of side-quests and main quests to keep to player occupied for hours on end. Unlike the first game, where you get a quest with little to no interaction with the character who gives you the quest, the player is given full interaction with the characters who supply the quests, which from time to time will spurt humorous and interesting dialogue. Along with full interaction with the player, quest objectives change along the course of the quest, creating a longer and fleshed out experience for the player. There are also additional optional objectives, which when completed, give the player extra experience for completing. Varieties of the quests are also large, with several about fighting certain enemies to timed quests where it's possible to fail and will have to reaccept the quest if the player wishes to try again, which becomes tedious as the player has to travel back to the location in which he/she first accepted it. Also, rather than usually have a quest reward that has been pre-set upon completion, some quests allow the player to have a choice in the loot they receive, whether it's a specific type of weapon or a grenade modification.
As previously mentioned, Borderlands 2 has a wide cast of characters that make the game what it is. Every important character bears some significance to the player, even if they sell useless weaponry or spout nonsense. There are several returning characters, such as Scooter, who still continues to operate the Catch-A-Ride system and Moxxi, who now owns a bar, as her Underdome was destroyed by Handsome Jack upon their separation. However, the game can't completely rely on the original characters and new characters have been put into the fray of the madness that is Borderlands. New characters include Tiny Tina, a psychotic thirteen-year-old girl who absolutely loves to create explosives and Ellie, Scooter's morbidly obese sister who you may cringe at first sight and enjoys murdering those who harass her about her weight. These new characters are interesting and hilarious, with their dialogue being unique and their personalities charming, especially Tina's, who you can't help but adore.
Enemy variety has also increased significantly, as there are no longer the same bandits and skags in almost every area of the game, though that doesn't mean they haven't gotten an upgrade themselves. There are new creatures to fight on the planet, such as Bullymongs, a fearsome creature with four arms and dwells in the tundra or Stalkers, reptilian creatures that have the ability to cloak and shoot spikes at the player, becoming quite the handful. Along with these creatures, we also have Hyperion robots, such as Hot Loaders, which are fire resistant and shoot fire at the player or Constructors, which actually create more robots to plague the Vault Hunter from progressing. Bandits have a couple of new additions; most notable is the Goliath, which wears a helmet. If the helmet is knocked off, the Goliath will become enraged, killing either friend or foe and after it kills an enemy of yours, it may level up, becoming stronger than it was before. The artificial intelligence of the enemies has gotten a huge overhaul, being able to dodge enemy attacks or become incapacitated upon being shot in a certain part of their body. There are still opportunities for the AI to do something foolish and rather amusing actions, such as a Goliath leaping in the air in order to attack an enemy in a higher area.
Borderlands wouldn't be Borderlands without its spectacular co-operative play and it seems Borderlands 2 wants players to fully experience the game in co-operative play. Unlike the first game where if another player was ahead in the main story, therefore making other players ineligible to gain experience and loot for completing quests, the second game disregards this and allows all players to gain the experience and loot, given that they haven't already completed said quest in their own story. The game becomes increasingly difficult depending on the amount of players in the game, and while it's hard enough by yourself, having a friend or two to assist in your Vault Hunting duties. However, there are still some connection issues that plague the game, though they are not as noticeable as the previous game and it's still possible for random players to burst into your game and horde all the loot dropped by enemies or found in chests.
The game, while brilliant, still has its fair share of flaws. There are several graphical glitches that randomly appear, usually stretching textures that appear on buildings or landforms that should not usually be there and sections of the game feel repetitive, feeling like you've done this before. Failing a quest makes the player backtrack, which makes the player spend more time on doing something than they should. The game is difficult, which is fine, difficulty is a good thing, but sections of the game can be rather ruthless and unforgiving, which may lead to going to a previous area to needlessly grind. Certain quests also have weapon-specific requirements, such as needing an incendiary weapon in order to progress when you may not have such a weapon. Vehicular-based combat still feels like it's lacking a destructive, enjoyable spark in contrast to the rest of the games chaotic gunplay.
The game is filled with minor inconveniences that may hinder the experience for some; however, the core experience remains intact. Borderlands 2 is an absolutely fantastic game and takes full advantage of the world of Pandora. The world feels fantastic as if you were actually the Vault Hunter interacting with everything you see and the environments are amazingly colourful, rather than the previous game, which looked bland and muddy. The roots of the original Borderlands remain intact; giving the player an entrancing experiencing all throughout the game and you'll be addicted to hunting down loot for hours on end. The game is highly replayable and the writing is brilliant. Borderlands 2 hits every high note on the sheet and it's finally great to be back on Pandora, the most hostile, yet entertaining planet in the universe of gaming.