Borderlands 2 bombards players with more guns, more ridiculous and silly humor and fixes to almost every depreciating aspect of the original game.
A little robot leads formerly unconscious players through a driving blizzard. He refers to the players as his “minions” and asks for help getting off of the iceberg he’s trapped on. The health monitor he gives you informs you of your critical condition, as he leads you down a cave. He tells you to retrieve a small pistol from his cabinet, but as you reach for your weapon, a 10 ft. tall ice gorilla with four huge, muscular arms bares down and attacks the robot.
Released on Sept. 18, Borderlands 2 takes us through the endeavors of several intrepid mercenaries hunting for “The Vault”, an alien treasure located on the planet Pandora. The vault hunters must reach their prize before the antagonist Handsome Jack, president of the Hyperion Weapons corporation, abuses the Vault’s contents for his own evil schemes.
The essence of the game is growing your arsenal of stange and fantastic guns, like pistols that ignite enemies and assault rifles that work like cannons. Finding rare and powerful guns will help you to take out everything Jack throws at you
In addition, the game includes an improved vehicle system, including multiple automobile models and weapons. Even the cars are customizable in color and power!
There are four vault hunters released as playable characters with the game, each having their own special abilities and powers, including an assassin who blinks into invisibility and then stabs enemies in the back for massive damage and a “Gunzerker” who can wield any two guns at once. Each of these characters has a tremendous amount of gameplay customization, with new perks and powers that strengthen or speed up your firepower or special abilities.
The original game had many fascinating and varied enemies, but never blended them all together. Exploring one cave, you might only find bandits while in other areas had “spiderants” mixed along with other enemies. Borderlands 2 blends different enemy types for added entertainment. Watching two enemies duke it out with each other and then jumping into the fight to clean up adds an immense amount of gameplay depth, contrary to the “go here, kill that” command of the original game.
In terms of plot, this games annihilates its predecessor. The opening scenes outline a quest for vengeance, greatness and of course, loot! Each of the playable characters has notes in their inventory, outlining their motive for hunting the Vault. The original game had players choose a character, who stepped off the bus and was immediately told what to do by a voice in their head, sent via satellite. The sequel promises subtlety and depth rather than merely a bazillion guns.
The humor is very tongue-in cheek and at times dips into potty humor–It is a M-rated game after all. The funny little robot calls the holes the gorillas live in “wall sphincters.”
All this being said, the game suffers from what amounts to tedium. The game advertises “bazillions of guns”, but they aren’t kidding. Sorting through the piles of guns with slightly different statistics can be a bit of a headache when I feel more like shooting things. Be prepared to spend time menu-noodling, especially if you have a full schedule of work and class like myself.
Borderlands 2 follows its predecessor in letting players adventure together, giving them a seemingly endless supply of options to develop their character. While the time it takes to maintain your arsenal slows the game down in some moments, fans of the original won’t be disappointed by this expansive and enlivened take on the crazy world of Pandora.
