Warning: This review is based off of my opinion of the game before the developers release patches to fix various bugs and glitches.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is a fun first- person shooter looter developed by 2K Australia and Gearbox Studios. It plays somewhat similar to the game it was inspired by; Borderlands 2. The major additions from Borderlands 2 to the Pre-sequel are the added low gravity, keeping track of your character(s) oxygen supply when out in a vacuum, various laser weapons, and cryo weapons. Did I mention a majority of this game takes place on Elphis, the moon of planet Pandora? It’s a very cool concept for a setting that I wish was executed better. There are also some flaws in some of the game mechanics that were consistently bothersome. This will be elaborated more in the following segments. I will do my best to keep spoilers to a minimum.
Story and Setting: The story takes place in between the events of the first Borderlands and Borderlands 2. Four new vault hunters (Some familiar faces, one truly new) are hired by Jack of the Hyperion Corporation to defeat the Dahl Lost Legion and help him claim the vault left by the ancient Eridians on Elphis. The story itself is presented in much the same way as the first two games via cut scenes, character dialogue and hidden audio logs scattered across the various areas in the game. Although the main story is told from a past tense perspective by Athena, one of the playable vault hunters, which at times can mess up the immersion if one plays as the other three.
The majority of the settings in the Pre-Sequel are both visually spectacular and somewhat clumsily designed. The biggest offender is Elphis. The place where your spend 60% of the game at. While I was spending my time at Elphis I noticed a pattern in the level design. Every new location I found on Elphis had the same craggy terrain (granted moons in real life don’t have very diverse terrain either). They could have at least put one area on the moon that did not have fissures full of lava or liquid methane, but the designers and writers use a cataclysmic event that happened on the moon as an excuse to make the terrain uneven and difficult to navigate. The uneven terrain has caused me more deaths than the actual enemies. Of course, I kind of give the benefit of the doubt since it was my first play through and I did not know my way around. Despite the flaws I have mentioned the moon has some very breath taking views when you are not getting attacked by the local denizens.
Gameplay: The gameplay is quite familiar, but still fun in my opinion. A few mechanics have been added to the game that makes it stand out from the previous titles. First, vacuums in space that requires the player to have an O2 (Oz) kit in order to not suffocate to death. Oz kits not only insure the players’ survival in the vacuum of space, but also give the ability to boost the height of jumping and to do an airborne slam attack. Various Oz kits also provide stat bonuses that can be beneficial depending on the environment and one’s personal play style.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel also introduced a new weapon type (Lasers) and a new elemental damage type (Cryo). Laser weapons, like many guns in Borderlands games, come in multiple varieties. There are rapid fire blasters, laser beams that fire a constant stream of energy, high powered rail guns, and split lasers that fire several lasers in a shotgun- like spread. All of them are a blast to use (No pun intended). Although they are good weapons they never out shined the other weapon types, but instead were just another tool to use.
Cryo (short for cryostasis perhaps?) is the new elemental damage type that works similar to Slag in Borderlands 2. Enemies that are chilled by Cryo take more damage from non-elemental and explosive damage types (with Slag all other damage types were increased). When a frozen enemy is slain they explode into chunks of ice and flesh which is always cool to pull off (again no pun intended).
Some of the changes to the game mechanics give me mixed feelings. An example would be the prices of items at vending machines scale with the players’ level. On the one hand it makes the game a bit more challenging. Players cannot just buy powerful loot at a low in- game price and get though the game that way. On the other hand it also discourages players from buying better loot and stocking up on ammo before heading out. Sadly, most of my time at vending machines was spent selling loot and maybe buying ammo. The better option is to explore an area to find chests.
Chests work about the same as they did in the previous game only this time there is a new kind of chest. Moonstone chests only open if you have 40 moonstones to spend and the loot that they contain is blue and or purple quality which is well worth it. I found myself saving moonstones to get some better loot. Don’t get me wrong having a way to get powerful loot if you are a thrifty player is great, but it seems like the vending machines do not get enough love in this game. Instead of spending dollars on two or three of nice green weapons at a vending machine I have to save up money to buy one blue weapon. It just doesn’t feel balanced.
Although the reason this may be is that the developers wanted players to take advantage of the loot grinder. I won’t go into too much detail, but when the grinder is repaired the player can put items in it and it spits out a new item that can potentially be of higher quality. Despite the addition of the grinder it still doesn’t make the game feel as balanced as it should be.
The boss battles in the game are another low point in the game. Most of them are just a single boss with lots of re-spawning weaker enemies. It saddens me that Gearbox would allow such weak game design. It’s a lazy and uninspired way to do bosses that I hope eventually fades away. Strangely, the most interesting and most fun boss in the game was the final boss. I just wished they would have spent more time with some of the boss mechanics. It would have made the game much more fun.
There were a couple of glitches I came across while playing. A glitch that slowed my character’s movement speed, audio de- synced from cut scenes, and a glitch that is specific to playing the law bringer class. Dialogue from certain events in the game also sometime replays in a loop. I hope that these are patched at some point.
Multiplayer: From what coop I have played it is about the same as Borderlands 2 with its perks and also its problems. I have not played online at all, but I may soon.
Verdict: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel may not be the best prelude or sequel, but is still a fun game regardless of its initial flaws. I recommend trying it if you are a fan of the series. If you are new to the series you may be better off trying the previous games first.
Praises:
- · Shooting and looting is still great.
- · Laser weapons are a good addition to the wide array of guns.
- · Low gravity can be used for exploration and combat.
- · Well thought out final boss and decent conclusion.
- · Wonderful vistas to explore.
- · Fun to make weapons with the grinder.
- · Good creature design.
Complaints:
- · Unbalanced cost of loot.
- · Most of the other bosses are uninspired/ lazy in design.
- · Navigating the environment can be difficult at times.
My Gamespot score: 7.0
My Personal Rating: 7.25