Wednesday, May 29, 2013

2+ Hours with Borderlands 2

Borderlands 2


After the first Borderlands, I knew I would someday get the second. I loved the first game. It appealed to the Achiever and Adventurer gamer in me. Free range of the land (of open lands that is) and the ability to collect, sell, and continually find new weapons and accessories.

Borderlands 2 feels a lot like an extension of the first game. The classes to chose from at the beginning are new from the old ones and the enemy is different, he is after "Vault" hunters (which you happen to be). Your objectives are to survive, complete missions for money/story progression/experience, and collect newer and better weapons as you beat harder and harder foes.

The open world of Borderlands 2 feels like it improves upon the first game in the series. The monsters feel more natural and aggressive, map design limits backtracking (as does fast travel locations), and overall the experience feels even more immersive than the first, which seemed to rely more on the visual aesthetics being the experience than the second game of the series.

The characters in the world are fun and lively thanks to their creative direction/mature concept and their creative voice acting. While the quests they give you are relatively typical of an RPG (go kill this many of these, get a reward) there are often enough quests that tie into the lore of the world and that add to the complexity of the bock-story.

But I'm not a fan of the game solely for the back-story, the looting and treasure hunting is the biggest draw of Borderlands. In Borderlands 2, the weapons are new and unique compared to the earlier game. There are always some new awesome finds of weapons that are rare and do a lot of damage in ways other than just physical bullet damage, some of the best weapons I got in m short playtime were corrosive damage based weapons and explosive pistol round weapons.

While the loot IS awesome, the inventory problem from the first game persists. It is part of the limitations of game-play that the player can only carry so many items at certain levels but it makes it very hard to tell what weapons to pick up and try out, price and rarity don't always tell the whole story about how effective a weapon may be for your character.

Enemies seem harder in Borderlands 2. This is not a big deterrent because fast travel and vehicles make up for some lost time when defeated by a horde of enemies or an unfortunate hit to the head.

The HUD (heads up display) while playing is pretty minimal, at least in the PC version I was playing. I think it feels very clean while providing valuable information. The only problem I have with it is that it is not always obvious that your shields are low or gone, with a better indicator on screen it would help to warn players to take cover (if possible, not always likely in Borderlands).

The leveling system in the game feels a little slow and somewhat insignificant. the powers feel like a secondary mechanic and not necessary to play through effectively,, though I may be too early in to tell.

I really enjoy the vast world and various AI interactions. I look forward to see how the game mechanics develop as the game progresses. Right now all I can say is I enjoy finding the new weapons they added from the original set in the first game and the world feels just as unique.

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