FPS games seem to be the flavour of the decade and are considered to be increasingly representing a degradation in quality titles being published, due to the increasing risks involved with ever rising development costs and the temperamental nature of the market. Sometimes risks are taken which pay off, other times they do not.
Borderlands 2 could be classed as a risk for Gearbox - an FPS in many ways but with a heavy emphasis on RPG elements such as ability trees, skill points and other staples that the more casual titles like Call of Duty may look at with alarm. Although this is true, the developers do an amazing job of making these features and the narrative accessible, yet as deep as players desire.
The story picks up a few years after where Borderlands, the original ended. You are one of 4 (or 6 with DLC) new Vault Hunters that are scouring Pandora for riches and glory when your train is attacked by "Handsome Jack" the multi-trillionaire, psychotic owner of The Hyperion Corporation who is determined to kill every vault hunter and take the secrets of Pandora for himself. Part Vaas, part Joker and all sinister, Jack is the definition of a memorable villain and becomes a staple companion through his ramblings over the radio with the player. What unfolds from all of this is a long, enjoyable and quite often a fun adventure that's complimented by tight shooting mechanics and one of the best co-operative experience to date.
Source: flashyreview
Handsome Jack is perhaps the most depraved video game villain to date
This isn't to say that it can't be enjoyed on it's own however; a single player campaign and the co-op campaigns are the same in terms of content, but with a completely different feel. I found that I played the game in a different way when alone or with a friend. By myself, I paid more attention to the story and the various characters plights, but when in co-op, I just had a great time in constructing a story of my own, blasting my way around the planet in my companions and my quest to stop Jack and restore peace to Pandora.
It's moments that my "First Impressions" post mentioned regarding exploring that make this such a stand out example of design done right, which still has me fondly remembering entire nights spent on one of the in game slot machines, spontaneous encounters with random and difficult bosses and battles which truly tested my fortitude at times.
This is because there is so much to see and do in Borderlands 2; every area you encounter feels different to the others. Of course the classic archetypes of "lava location", "snow setting", "desert destination" and so on all feature, however the way the settings stand out in this game is through the way that they are filled to the brim with memorable enemies, characters with larger than life personalities and a story too big to experience in one play through. Never was there a dull moment in my time with the game; there was always one more quest to finish, one more enemy to kill and one more chest to loot.
Loot! This game is all about the loot; finding bigger, better and louder weapons is what makes the game so addictive. On top of the story, levelling and quests that have you clamouring for more, the reward system in Borderlands 2 dangles a carrot in front of you constantly, and pressures you in the friendliest of ways to always kill one more enemy and explore every inch of a place before running away from the rapidly respawning hordes; making for some edge of the seat situations where you want to stay in case you've missed that key piece of equipment you want, but are being faced by a solid wall of rounds heading in your direction.
Source: Raptr
An example of the looting system in the game
There is another option Gearbox have given players to gain some higher tier loot that I find quite interesting; the meta-social interaction with the game and Twitter. Periodically, Gearbox tweet a "SHiFT Code" that gives the player, when entered in game, a number of "Golden Keys" to be used in the chest depicted above. There are no microtransactions or anything of the kind involved which is to be commended, however one can see why when you look at the structure of their DLC driven business model.
I won't delve far into the DLC "good or bad" debate as it is purely subjective in terms of whether you believe it is beneficial to the industry or not, however Gearbox have done a good job of delivering value to the player when it comes to the volume and price of each downloadable experience. Beware though, buying the season pass will not grant you access to all of the content available, merely about 2/3 of the actual gameplay packages for sale. There are cosmetic items available too, but they are more for co-op players as you only see your player from a third person view when you die or at a character customisation station.
Every gun in Borderlands 2 is said to be individual and unique, now sadly this isn't strictly true as you can find weapons such an acid shotgun that can feel and appear like another acid shotgun, but just "unique" in the damage or reload time stats. To be fair this is not something that is wholly noticeable as you usually retain the same weapon for quite some time, meaning that when you do receive another, it feels fresh and exciting to use. There's just something immensely satisfying about finding random drops from enemies or tucked away rare chests that make you anticipate what will be around every corner and buried within each enemy. Accompanied by the densely packed ammo and money crates, the game has you frantically spamming your collect button every time you see something that looks like it could hold something precious for you, ignoring the shots from your adversaries that are landing at your feet.
Speaking of enemies, and as previously mentioned, the foes you face are quite distinctive in Borderlands 2, but not in the variety of their mechanical design. They all stand apart through the lines from the script they blurt out, their visual design and the shrieks they make when you vaporise them. However sadly the same can't be said for their behaviour - often the AI is quite dumb and the actual categories of enemies such as "Bandit", "Skag", "Thresher" etc... all feel the same in their own groups, i.e. the melee versions of Bandits such as Psychos and Goliaths feel quite similar but just have a different process of death, whereas the ranged versions - Brutes, Shotgun Midgets and others feel homogeneous too.
These. Get used to seeing a LOT of these.
Furthermore, they feel largely recycled; simply beefed up with new characteristics such as being augmented with elemental resistances or attacks and by midway through the game, you will have experienced every enemy type, leaving a stale taste in your mouth as you carry on the fight.
Personally I found that this made me see them more as loot crates on legs rather than foes to be defeated, however this is not to say that I didn't enjoy shooting them, it's just that the exchange actually did feel like a trade of numbers carried by bullets rather than a fully fleshed action game; different, but not necessarily unpleasant. I could even go as far to say that gun fights were like looking at a clockwork watch's cogs whirr around rather than looking at it's face - something that you know you aren't really supposed to be seeing, but interesting nonetheless.
One of the key things that the title does get right though is the player classes. For the base game you can choose to be Zer0 the Assassin, Maya the Siren, Axton the Commando and Salvador the Gunzerker. My co-op partner played as Salvador and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the way the mechanics worked for that character; being all about rushing into the fight with his special ability to dual wield weapons and dealing as much damage as possible. I on the other hand played as Krieg the Psycho, one of the DLC characters, which allowed me to experience just how varied, dynamic and satisfyingly strategic the characters can constantly feel throughout a playthrough of the game.
Every class is different; with their own skill trees and approaches to combat. You do have simple roles such as Axton the Commando who is most like the mainstream FPS character that uses rifles and is effective with any weapon on a mediocre scale. On the other end of the scale, you have Krieg the Psycho whose role it is to get up as close as possible, melee the enemy, cause as much damage as possible to himself and sometimes die for a tactical advantage. An entire skill tree of his character focuses on him being set on fire as much as possible to increase his damage, just going to show how deep some of the builds can be that you can create. Players are given real choice in how they want to tackle their Pandoran excursion and they benefit greatly from it, no playthrough will feel the same which is a testament to how well thought out the roles were by Gearbox.
Finally, it would not do Borderlands 2 justice if I didn't credit the visual beauty of the world they have sculpted. Pandora is a beautiful and extremely creative palette on which the designers have excelled in painting a world at odds with itself; physically tearing itself asunder in places. The engine is slowly ageing, however due to the cel-shaded graphics and the highly stylised approach, it was hardly noticeable for the majority of my time with it. Although I suffered sometimes from texture pop-in and some jagged edges, it's all forgiveable when you stand at the top of a mountain at one of the early areas and manage to see the skyline for miles around, which when the amazing lighting effects take hold, show exactly why video games are ever increasingly being considered a form of art.
Source: greenmangaming
One of the many pleasing landscapes you'll happily pillage your way across.
As stated above, the stereotypical elemental areas are used a few times, however Gearbox has gone the extra mile in visualising an alien planet and portraying the fact that it is a foreign and unfamiliar landscape; features such as water that you think you understand can be deadly - punishing but never letting the smile fall from your face.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Borderlands 2; it felt like playing an amazingly cheesy sci-fi B-Movie and benefited greatly from keeping a fun atmosphere and tone. A game in every way, I hope that more developers take note of how to make AAA experiences original and stand so far apart from their counterparts.
8/10
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