This weekend I finally completed the gunslinging grindfest Borderlands 2. And no, it wasn't a mad dash straight through the story to the end boss. Instead I spent over 30 hours ravaging the landscapes of Pandora on my quest for "epic loot".
Borderlands 2 picks up awhile after the ending of the first game. If you're new to the franchise, that's okay, because Marcus explains the entire first game within the first 30 seconds of creating a new character. There's this planet Pandora. People tell stories of a legendary Vault full of treasure and alien tech that will make you rich and famous located on that barren, desolate wasteland of a world. This attracts adventurers known as "Vault Hunters". The first game is all about hunting for that Vault. In the opening cutscene, Marcus is nice enough to inform us that it was full of nothing but "tentacles and disappointment". But opening that Vault created a new alien element on Pandora called Eridium (not to be confused with Irridium), and the discovery of other Vaults that were now full of the stuff. Some corporation called Hyperion, led by the charismatic Handsome Jack, decided that they should own all the Eridium and, having bigger guns and warrior robots, oppressed and/or chased off everyone on the planet.
So that's all you need to know. You step into the shoes of one of the NEW (see: slightly tweaked) Vault Hunters (see: character classes). Handsome Jack has put out a hit on all Vault Hunters on Pandora, for trying to steal his precious Eridium. Oh, he's also trying to resurrect this "Warrior" thing, which is an ancient alien lifeform capable of untold destruction, but that's not important.
What's important is the gameplay. You'll run around Pandora, completing quests for people in exchange for cash, XP, and most importantly, equipment. Borderlands has effectively been the Diablo of first-person shooter games, incorporating RPG elements such as leveling, skill trees, and the most important, addictive element: loot. It does a fairly effective job at combining the genres. Borderlands' biggest draw is the sheer volume of guns, shields, grenades, etc. that are randomly generated by the game. Quest rewards are predetermined to some extent, but even their stats can vary between players.
Now, if you've always been a fan of this style of game, then good for you. Now there's a first-person shooter that, instead of having nigh endless amounts of pants with slightly different stats, has nigh endless amounts of guns with slightly different stats. In fact, you'll spend probably about 50% of your time playing Borderlands 2 staring at 2 guns of the same class (pistol, assault rifle, sniper rifle, SMG, shotgun, and rocket launcher) and trying to figure out which one is better.
Guns have 5 different stats: Damage, Accuracy, Fire Rate, Reload Speed, and Magazine Size - though they're not exclusively limited to these. What kind of fun would that be? Occasionally certain weapons will deal one of four different types of elemental damgage: fire, shock, corrosive and slag. The first three correspond to a particular "health" type. Fire is strong against flesh, shock removes shields quickly, and corrosive whittles down armored targets. Slag is at least somewhat interesting, as it has the property of increasing the damage dealt to a "slagged" enemy by any other type of ammo. So slagged enemies will be hit harder by normal, fire, shock, and corrosive weapons, but not slag.
You getting this? I hope so. Because in addition to stats and elements, guns can also come with a wide variety of extra effects. From increasing melee damage (added bayonets on the end of some weapons) to firing explosive rounds, to strange projectile patterns, the guns in Borderlands 2 can do just about anything. Sometimes the weapon's information card won't even name specific effects. This occurs regularly with quest specific items that have red "flavor text" in the effects section. Flavor text usually means that the weapon does something unique, but you'll have to equip it to find out. One particular gun that I obtained during a quest had outstanding stats in all 5 categories, plus shock damage. What could possibly go wrong? The fucking abhorrent weapon makes you move in SLOW MOTION. It also makes a high-pitched screaming sound every time a round is fired (which on an SMG is about 3-5 per second).
Oh, and by the way. Everything I said about the guns? This also applies to the grenade modifications and shields that you obtain throughout the game. Different stats. Different elements. Strange effects. BUT! If you're the kind that LOVES inventory management and is constantly comparing numbers between each piece of gear received, Borderlands 2 is a fucking gun-filled paradise.
While I'm rambling about Borderlands 2's absurd level of intricacy placed on each individual weapon, I feel I should mention that some can be purchased from vending machines found throughout Pandora. There are three different types: Guns, Ammo, and Medical. Guns and Ammo are self-explanatory and the Medical station will also sell you shields and "class mods" in addition to health. What I want to get into here is that roughly 5 hours into the game, currency loses all meaning. You end up with dollars piled so high that you couldn't feasibly spend them all and still be having fun. Vendors never sell anything better than the drops you'll find from enemies, and even dying is a mild financial inconvenience (every time you die in Borderlands 2, you're reconstructed by a snarky Hyperion spawn point for a nominal fee). The only thing left to do is to gamble it all away on slot machines in hopes of scoring a nifty gun or stacks of Eridium (Borderlands 2's OTHER form of currency). At least Eridium can be used to buy storage upgrades.
Now, when I did my rant on open-world and linear gameplay, there were some specific things about Borderlands 2 that I wanted to hit on, but didn't get a chance to. The sidequests, for example, are another shining example of things that could be done better in open-world games. Borderlands 2 will tell you what your potential quest rewards are in the form of icons pertaining to particular pieces of gear. Shotgun or sniper rifle? Two different shields? Maybe just a fat pile of Eridium. What it does is leave enough to the imagination by not telling you the item's specifics that you can occasionally find yourself completing quests just for the sake of wanting to know what the reward is. Other quests have entire storylines attached and because of the "loveable" characters involved, I often found myself finishing quests just because I wanted to know more about someone.
However, Borderlands 2 also falls victim to one of the biggest downfalls of open-world games - allowing the player freedom to chose when and where they go can completely fucking DESTROY story pacing. I am specifically talking about a single point in the game where during/very-near the climax of the story, you return to the hub-city and BOOM! Fucking yellow !'s EVERYWHERE. It's like everyone in Sanctuary had the same thought at the same time: "Hey, I know that *SPOILER* just *SPOILER*'d *SPOILER*, but could you run down to the market and pick me up some milk?" How about "FUCK OFF THERE'S SOME SERIOUS SHIT GOING DOWN. MUTHAFUCKA YOUR MILK CAN WAIT." Shit like this really pisses me off, because there was every opportunity for Gearbox to place these particular quests elsewhere in the storyline, or just remove them entirely. Once you start ramping up the action, you have to take away the distractions. Sure, in the end, it's up the player to make the decision of whether or not they want to follow the story, or go do side-missions, but it's the fact that they appear so prominently on the mini-map, as if to bait you into making grocery runs for assholes.
Though I do have to give credit where credit is due. The assholes asking you to do things are typically interesting characters. All 4 of the original Vault Hunters from the first game make an appearance as NPCs with well-scripted dialogue and interesting character development since the last time we saw them. Even minor characters from the first title like Dr. Tannis and Scooter (the Catch-a-Riiiiiiide guy) make appearances, offer quests and are usually worth learning about. Borderlands isn't a game that takes its wasteland world very seriously and actually pulls off humor quite well.
If everything I just talked about still sounds enticing, then you'll also be pleased to know that Borderlands 2 offers an absurd amount of replay value. Four DLC mini-campaigns have been released to date, along with two additional character classes. Gearbox also recently announced plans for more DLC to come. Completing the game unlocks True Vault Hunter mode - a new game plus feature that scales up the enemies, the quests, and the rewards to your level. Also available for purchase is Ultimate Vault Hunter mode, which adds 11 more levels to the game's cap and can be played after completing True Vault Hunter mode.
Though you can play the game alone, I've found that Borderlands 2 is really a multiplayer affair unless you're particularly hardcore. This is my 3rd time trying to finish the game, and only my first success. I played 2 different character classes through level 25 and ended up quitting because I got bored playing by myself. You can open your game up to strangers, but the issue then becomes the fact that all loot drops to the floor and is up-for-grabs. Not being able to communicate with another player (or just having a jackass join your game) can lead to a miserable experience.
So if you LIKE Diablo and you LIKE first-person shooters, then I'll see you on Pandora.
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