Borderlands. While most people know what the game is now, not many had heard of it before its release in 2009. It quickly became a smash hit and a household name with its clever writing, enjoyable gameplay, and its bazillion guns. With the sequel launching on September 18th this year, I saw my entire Steam friends list switch to Borderlands 2 only moments after its launch. Gearbox has done it again, I have only managed to quit playing the game long enough to write this review.
Game: Borderlands 2
Published by: 2K Games
Review Sample Provided by: Nvidia
Developed by: Gearbox Software
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC (Review Sample)
Genre: First-person shooter, Role Playing
Release Date: September 18th, 2012
MSRP: $59.99 on all platforms
Written By: Brennon
Screenshots By: Brennon and Wes
Story
Borderlands 2 takes place five years after the events of the first Borderlands game. The original vault hunters successfully opened the vault, and there was much more to it than met the eye. In the years since, an element known as Eridium has started sprouting up around Pandora. This element gives great power to both individuals and weapons, and with that it has attracted the attention of the Hyperion Corporation.
Within minutes of the game, the Hyperion leader known as Handsome Jack leaves the new vault hunters for dead after blowing up the train that they were on. The new vault hunters are rescued by a Claptrap unit that happens to be much more annoying than our friend from the first game. After getting back on their feet, the new vault hunter starts on their quest that will lead them to meet old friends, new enemies, and a bigger and more legendary vault.
Gameplay
From the very beginning, players get a choice that will drastically change the way in which they play the game. You must choose from one of four classes, and while they are very similar to the classes from the original game, I commend Gearbox for their improvements to the way the action abilities work.
First is Axton the commando, he uses a turret that is similar to the soldier from the first Borderlands. Axton has a choice of three skill trees as do all the new vault hunters. The first tree for the commando is Guerilla, this tree is designed to get in the face of battle and have his turret do as much damage as possible. Next is Gunpowder, this tree is all about doing as much damage with your guns and explosives as humanly possible. Lastly is Survival, which is meant to give Axton the maximum amount of survivability and second winds.
The next new Vault hunter is Maya who is a Siren. The new Siren action ability is a bit different than the old. She now has an ability called Phaselock, which suspends an enemy in the air for anyone to take shots at. Her first tree is called Cataclysm, this tree is aimed at doing elemental damage and effecting enemies with different types of elemental effects. The second tree for the Siren is Harmony. Harmony is essentially a healing class that is designed to keep you, and anyone you are playing with alive and in the fight. Maya’s final skill tree is called Motion and it is designed to give the Siren increased defense and more ways to control enemy movement and increasing her own ability to move.
Next up is the Gunzerker, Salvador. The action skill is similar to the Beserker from the first game, but instead of going into a fit of melee rage, he goes into a fit of duel wielding rage. The first Gunzerker tree is called Brawn. This is the closest thing that there is to a “Tank” class in Borderlands 2. It is designed around increased health and reduced damage taken, especially when health is already low. The next tree is Gun Lust, which is designed around the ability to reload and switch guns faster, while doing more damage in particular situations. The third and final skill tree for the Gunzerker is called Rampage. This skill tree is all about keeping maximum ammunition and gunzerking as often as possible.
The last of the new vault hunters is Zer0. This is the new sniper class, called Assassin. With some improvements and additions to the way it handles, this class takes sniping (and melee) to a whole new level. His action ability is called Decepti0n and it is similar to the Siren’s phasewalking ability from the first game. When in Decepti0n, Zer0 leaves behind a decoy for enemies to shoot at and goes into a stealth mode from which he does increased melee and gun damage. The first tree is called Bloodshed which is entirely developed around increasing melee damage in all forms. The second tree for Zer0 is called Cunning. This tree is all about his Decepti0n ability. It increases the gun and melee damage while in Decepti0n as well as makes the ability function differently in later stages. His final ability tree is called Sniping. As you can imagine, this tree is focused on increasing sniper rifle damage, but it also gives boosts to accuracy and critical hit damage to other weapons.
The player will take control of any of these vault hunters and start out on their adventure to stop Handsome Jack and find the bigger vault. Throughout the game the player is driven directly by the story quests at the direction of many old and new friends, however they might stop to do a side quest or ten to level up or earn some extra cash or rewards on the side. While the game is a first person shooter, it handles much like an RPG in the sense that the characters get leveled up differently and there are multiple quests to be turned in throughout the game. There does not seem to be any game changing decisions to be made, although you can choose to turn in a quest to one person for one reward, or a different person for a different reward.
Controls
The game handles much as you would expect a first person shooter to handle. You get around using a standard W, A, S, D key placement and the mouse to look around and fire. All of the essential keys and action keys are located around the WASD keys for easy access. You are able to customize your keys and put them where you want, so if they way they are set up are not to your liking, simply change them. The game also supports gamepads, however with the gamepad it isn’t possible to assign keys as you wish. You may select from a number of preset key mappings, but you may not designate each key to do as you wish like you can with the keyboard and mouse.
Gearbox has made some changes to the inventory system, as well as how loot is handled. Ammo and money is no picked up automatically when it is dropped. This means when you kill an enemy and he drops money, weapons, and ammo all you have to do is walk over the loot pile and it will automatically give you any money and ammo that you need. The weapons will stay on the ground and will need to be picked up manually so that they can be distributed evenly to all party members, and also to ensure that your inventory is not cluttered with worthless white items. This keeps you from wasting time picking up each and every bundle of cash that is dropped. These changes to looting do not affect items that are found in chests throughout Pandora. The changes to the inventory system are a bit more minor, but equally as welcome. The inventory screen is now separated by what is currently equipped and what is just stored in the inventory.
Graphics
This is the section in Borderlands 2 that gets me the most excited. The game is a refreshing change of scenery from most current games. It is a much needed step away from the ultra-realistic, blood covered screen that is modern day first person shooters. The shell shaded graphics are easy on the eyes and enjoyable at the same time. It allows the game to take itself less seriously, while still looking great. On maximum settings the game looks stunning; however it dropped the frame rate on my computer to about 15-20 during combat and rendered the game almost unplayable. With the settings a bit lower, the game runs much better and still looks great. As a test I turned the graphics down to the minimum, and while the game didn’t look nearly as good, you could definitely tell it was the same game, it was still playable.
Audio
The audio in Borderlands 2 is just another reason why this game is amazing. The music is passable, but it is merely for background purposes anyway. I can’t say that at any particular point in the game I was really listening to the music. Each gun has a different sound when firing, which makes combat a pretty entertaining by itself. Where this game really shines is the voice acting and dialogue. Gearbox has the uncanny ability to make me smile any time there is some sort of dialogue or even a monologue (Bonerfarts…Seriously).
The voice actors and actresses do a great job on making the characters believable and enjoyable from start to finish. It could be Handsome Jack, who you learn to love and hate from the very start of the game, or Sir Hammerlock and his very British attitude, but any time there is someone talking I found it enjoyable and entertaining. Even the player’s guardian angel, who I found to be rather robotic and boring in the first Borderlands, I found to be enjoyable and even funny when she lets her human side show.
Physx
Gearbox and Nvidia have teamed up to give Nvidia card owners a special treat. If they have a card that is Physx capable they will be able to see effects in the game that other card owners will not. With Physx set to low (the only option available to owners of ATI video cards) nothing special will be seen by the user during gameplay.
With the setting changed to medium, players will start to notice some different stuff going on in the world around them. There will be minor changes, such as the way that shots interact with the ground and the world around the player and spent shell casing piling up all around after a big gun battle. The more major effects that players will start to notice fluid effects, such as the blood from enemies pooling on the ground, and overflowing toilets (loot boxes) throughout Pandora.
They will also notice that the cloth in the game is very fluid and life like, it will move with the players as they try to walk through a dangling banner, and it will start to fall to pieces as a player shoots holes in it.
While on medium settings some liquid and cloth particle effects are turned off to make for a much smoother frame rate. When on high settings, the player will see the best particle effects possible. The water and cloth will be as lifelike as possible and make for the most immersive game for the player. I had to use medium settings for most of my gameplay because of my system limitations, but it still made for a very immersive and enjoyable game.
It was certainly more enjoyable than playing with the setting on low, which I did for about twenty minutes before my eyes grew bored. I can only feel bad for users with an ATI card, not because they own an ATI card, but because they won’t get to see any of the cool stuff that Gearbox and Nvidia have been able to do.
Overall
All in all, Borderlands 2 is an exciting experience. The story picks up right where the first one left off, but it gives a brief overview of the first game so that new players and fans of the original alike can get right in. The controls allow for console and PC gamers alike to play the game as they would play it. The graphics and audio are second to none, and make for an enjoyable experience whether the game is on minimum or maximum settings. It is a bit unfortunate that ATI users will not get to see the beauty that is Physx. The variety in character choice and the different builds for each character give the player a reason to come back for more, again and again. In fact, now that this review is out of the way, it’s time to go play some more myself.
