Borderlands 2 Reviewed By Stephen Pastic

Rating: 90% (Ratings Key/Explanation)

The original Borderlands was something of a surprise hit when it was released in 2009.  With its blending of RPG-esque systems and FPS gameplay, Gearbox Software suddenly found themselves holding a new 'triple-A' franchise opportunity.  Now three years on, Borderlands 2 has arrived to entice gamers into parting with their time and money - but can this iteration stand up to the acclaim awarded to its predecessor, or is Borderlands 2 the first big disappointment of the holiday season releases?

After the events of the first game, the planet of Pandora attracts the attention of the Hyperion corporation with its high concentration of Eridium deposits.  Before long, Handsome Jack (Hyperion's utterly demented leader) is in control of the entire planet, and takes to ambushing some new vault hunters to Pandora via an explosive welcome aboard their train.  Left for dead on the planet's surface, these new protagonists crawl from the wreckage and are slowly drawn into a larger effort to rid the planet of Hyperion and Handsome Jack.  

Borderlands 2 continues with the unique visual style of the first game, but this time around environments are far more varied - players can expect to see snow, cities and even Hyperion's take on a wildlife park as opposed to mostly wasteland areas with little variance.  As well as many returning characters, Borderlands 2 also has several musical tracks and arrangements that will be recongisable to fans of the first game.

One of the criticisms of the original Borderlands is that the overall plot was somewhat lacklustre.  In this regard, Borderlands 2 is definitely an improvement - story missions in particular do not feel as arbitrary this time around, and most of the time there will be a cohesive reason for doing what is asked of you.  The sense of humour present in the first game has also been kicked up a few notches, and players can expect to have many moments of genuine laughter throughout the game - quite often in response to Handsome Jack's consistent mocking and goading via radio contact.  Many lines featured throughout the game are surely destined to become internet memes to some degree in the near future, and the whole tone of the game has a very 'black comedy' feel to it.

As with the first game, players can choose one of four characters to play as, each with their own unique ability at their disposal.  Salvador can wield any two weapons simultaneously for a limited time, Maya can 'phaselock' enemies in place, Zero can cloak himself while releasing a holographic decoy into the fray, and Axton has access to a deployable turret to further damage enemies.  Each of these characters also have their own unique skill trees - as players progress through the game, they can choose to upgrade particular mechanics or stat bonuses according to their preferred gameplay style. 

Furthermore, for a small fee players can also choose to re-allocate their skill points as they see fit, so there is no danger of being permanently locked into a less than stellar build.  Another new addition is the "badass points" system - by acheiving certain criteria (i.e. kill x number of enemies with incendiary weapons), players earn badass tokens which can be traded for incremental stat boosts.  Whilst each token only grants a miniscule boost, over the course of the game these little buffs become quite significant.

The big hook of Borderlands is the continual acquistion of newer, better equipment - as players either open chests or defeat enemies, they may stumble upon a much better gun or other piece of equipment than they had previously.  None of these 'drops' are scripted as such, so for the most part it is completely random (within certain level constraints) as to what will spawn or be dropped.  Most of the time, it will be rubbish to simply be sold later on, but just one good weapon is all it takes for the game to get its claws into you - suddenly aquiring that elusive weapon that allows you to mow down opponents with ease becomes something of an ongoing addiction. 

Additional elemental effects such as explosive, corrosive and shock damage make a return for particular weapons, and these tactical options are expanded via the introduction of 'slag'.  Doing nothing in and of itself, slagging an enemy (either by a weapon or destructible barrel) will cause them to take increased damage from other firearms - getting a handle on the effective use of slag will prove to make things much easier on players, particularly in the second half of the game.  Looting after a battle is more efficient this time around, as health, money and ammo are automatically picked up by walking over it - a very minor, yet very welcome tweak.

Progression is mainly gated by levelling up - killing enemies and completing tasks awards XP, and ideally players will want to be of at least the same level as their enemies (if not higher), as an enemy only two levels above the player will take drastically less damage from the same weapon than one on equal footing.  Whilst non story missions are optional, completing the majority of them will prove necessary in order to level your character up to a point where you can stand a chance against higher level foes. 

In terms of Borderlands 2's online component, players can tackle the game with any permutation of two to four players in a party.  Difficulty is adjusted depending on the number of players, though better loot will drop more frequently with a full party.  However, it should be noted that unless all players are at the same level, the game suddenly becomes very unbalanced for at least one participant - if you are well above the level of the party, things will be much too easy, and the opposite is true the other way (albeit, in that case you will level up much faster).  Whilst playing with others is lots of fun, i did prefer to play solo - with a full party, you often miss snippets of narrative because some clown was talking over something, and it seems every decision as far as what to tackle next needs to be made by committee when playing with others.  This is to say nothing of certain players hogging all the good items for themselves...

Whilst Borderlands 2 does an awful lot right, the game is not without its annoyances.  In particular, the very design of the game does lend itself to the player doing a ton of repetitive busy work.  Given that levelling up is such a priority to make progression realistically possible, players can expect for the story to be continually interrupted by decent chunks of time devoted to completing unrelated side quests.  Making this point worse is that the game has a recurrent habit of spawning new enemies when the player has cleared an area and commenced looting the spoils - being under the impression that an area has been cleared, only to be shot in the back whilst trying to compare dropped items with those in your inventory is beyond frustrating. 

Much like the original game, the final boss is also something of a letdown and not terribly creative.  Finally, a particular character who pops up towards the end has a really jarring voice actor coupled with certain words and expressions that repeatedly show up in pretty much every sentence that spews out of their mouth.

These issues aside, Borderlands 2 is a damn good game - in fact, i cannot recall the last time i managed to pump 40+ hours into a game so quickly after release.  Improving on most aspects of the already impressive first title makes this game an absolute no brainer purchase for anyone who enjoyed their first trip to Pandora.  Just be sure to have several days free when you pick it up...you'll need them.