While a little overrated in my opinion, still a very solid game.
To start with its strengths, it is fun. It's more fast paced thane most RPG's so you will be active most of the time. With the exception of really only 1 safe area, every area of the game is populated with a multitude of enemies. In many ways this is refreshing when compared to other RPG's that will have you spend countless hours in towns doing menial chores/missions that only involve talking to other NPC's. Not Borderlands, you are constantly in motion fighting things which is one reason why I think it has such an acclaimed multiplayer, but more on that later. Another strong point is the leveling system and loot system. Like most rpg's you level your character up and become stronger in the process. However' this is tied very closely to the enemies you fight and the loot you find. It works out well in that you almost always are fighting enemies that are balanced in terms of how tough they are. You also will continually be finding new and better loot which is probably the most compelling part of the game. Every mission or sidequest, you can usually expect to improve at least 1 piece of your gear or 1 weapon if not more, and frankly finding new and better guns/equipment is more exciting than progressing with the story. One final strong point that really separates Borderlands 2 from most other games is its humor and style. It actually is a surprisingly funny game, with a design and environment that matches its humor really well. Borderlands does not take itself too seriously which allows it to have ridiculous and hilarious characters that you'll meet throughout the game. It also has a lot of funny references related to internet humor such as memes, so if you're into that sort of thing, then you'll really appreciate the humor.
There were some areas of the game that weren't great though. For one, it is very repetitive. While you venture to new areas and acquire new weapons, the enemies you face and the combat mechanics never really change... All the same enemies are present early in the game as the ones late in game except the late enemies are usually bigger and have more health/do more damage. This would be fine if it weren't for the fact that some areas have soooo many enemies and since its my seventh time in this area, all I want to do is go to the objective without fighting the same enemies for the fiftieth time. Borderlands also does not do a great job incorporating other styles of combat than shooting. Each character has onlly 1 real power, sure you can customize it with skill trees, but at the end of the day borderlands is a shooter rpg. There's nothing wrong with this but when you're fighting the same enemies the same way time after time it gets old fast. This game also has one of the most annoying boss fights in the history of video games in the bunker boss fight. Not a huge flaw but worth mentioning based on the fact that it is about a 20 minute boss fight solo and that you can get killed in the cheapest of ways. One area that is supposed to be a strength that I actually found to be a flaw was multiplayer. You can play borderlands 2 with up to 4 players cooperatively. Playing with more players makes the enemies more numerous and powerful, but also grants better loot, so an interesting tradeoff. It also is supposed to promote playing with friends, in theory a good idea, but there is one crucial flaw; leveling. Since the level system is so specific to your level, it is almost impossible to play with players more than about 3 levels apart from you. What ends up happening is the game will be either way too easy or way too hard for one or more of the players and either the low level player will not be able to equip any of the found loot, or the high level player won't have any use for it. In other words, multiplayer is great if you and your friend(s) only play with each other. If you don't always play together, your characters will soon fall apart in level, making the game unplayable. I tried online matchmaking with random players a couple times but both times there was a young teenager in my group barking orders the whole time. I found it difficult to concentrate on playing the game when all I really wanted to do was argue with the kid about something involving one of our mothers. One final issue that bothered me was the plot. Without giving too much away the premise is that this evil company led by some dick is mining an element called eridium which is really valuable and fighting the locals in the process. You soon learn that they are mining eridium to use it to awaken some ancient warrior. O.K., that would be fine except for the fact that it makes no sense in the context of the game. Why would this company, hyperion, even need the warrior to begin with. They seem to have no trouble mining eridium in the first place, and have the resistance bascially backed into a corner with nowhere to turn. Awakening the warrior accomplishes nothing, except letting them more easily wipe out an irrelevant resistance so they can mine more eridium which is what they should have been focusing on in the first place...
Well, I'm really starting to ramble so let me wrap this up. The difficulty is actually not too easy. There are plenty of enemies capable of taking you down pretty quick. You do have an opportunity to self revive by killing an enemy while downed in a certain amount of time which is usually pretty easy, especially if you have a good missile launcher. Also, even if you die, respawn points are really generously placed, so you never end up losing any progress, only money, which any real gamer knows quickly becomes the most useless commodity in any rpg. Overall good game; charming, fun, fast paced. Some flaws; mainly repetition and stupid plot (also the final boss is a total pu$$y) If you want a new rpg to play check it out. I also should mention it is targeted towards a slightly younger audience so older folks might not appreciate the humor or dialogue as much.