Almost a perfect sequel. I'm very, very late to the party with Borderlands having only bought the first game as well as The Handsome Collection a couple of years back (for a ridiculously low price), and it subsequently gathered dust on the shelf (metaphorically, nearly all digital now!). Having found the first Borderlands pretty good but very, very samey and overly long, I wasn't massively keen to start this and it became a proper 'list of shame' title.
Well I should have started it much sooner, because it's great. The unforgiving landscapes of Pandora from the first game make a return, but thankfully the scenery is much more varied, always making use of the gorgeous art style. Optimised for the new consoles, it looks stunning - hard to believe it's a 360 game..Other improvements include the NPCs, the story, the weapon variety and - most importantly - the gameplay. It's a wonderfully entertaining romp, it's funny, it's violent, it's chaotic. I got so much more from talking to other characters who play a far bigger role, and some of the side missions are just as fun as the main campaign ones.
In fact, I genuinely can't think of a single area where Borderlands 2 DOESN'T improve on the original. A few niggling issues remain - more on those in a moment - but everything I enjoyed in the first game is ramped up several notches more, it looks, sounds, feels and plays better.
But it's not without it's issues - hardly stinging criticism of a game that's more than a decade old now, that's progress. Some of the missions require a lot of backtracking back to a fast travel station in order to complete them which is a proper pain - I must have lost several hours just walking back across familiar terrain just to turn in an objective. Also, the inventory system is better than in B1, but still rather cumbersome. I'm not sure what the answer is to this, because the looting and amazing variation in weapons is such a key part of the whole series. There's just so much of it!
Also worth pointing out how amazingly good value The Handsome Collection is. As well as this, it also includes The pre-sequel game and ALL the DLC for both titles. And it cost me about £10 in a sale. It took me around 35 hours to see the credits roll, and I've not touched the DLC or the pre-sequel. Not bad for a tenner.
Important to note that I played the entirety of this in single player. In fact, I'm yet to experience anything Borderlands in multiplayer where I'm sure it's even better. But even as a single player experience, this is a quality game that was a lot of fun to play through.
On to Borderlands 3 once I've cleared a few more titles from my backlog. Maybe I'll find a friend to play that with me?
Well I should have started it much sooner, because it's great. The unforgiving landscapes of Pandora from the first game make a return, but thankfully the scenery is much more varied, always making use of the gorgeous art style. Optimised for the new consoles, it looks stunning - hard to believe it's a 360 game..Other improvements include the NPCs, the story, the weapon variety and - most importantly - the gameplay. It's a wonderfully entertaining romp, it's funny, it's violent, it's chaotic. I got so much more from talking to other characters who play a far bigger role, and some of the side missions are just as fun as the main campaign ones.
In fact, I genuinely can't think of a single area where Borderlands 2 DOESN'T improve on the original. A few niggling issues remain - more on those in a moment - but everything I enjoyed in the first game is ramped up several notches more, it looks, sounds, feels and plays better.
But it's not without it's issues - hardly stinging criticism of a game that's more than a decade old now, that's progress. Some of the missions require a lot of backtracking back to a fast travel station in order to complete them which is a proper pain - I must have lost several hours just walking back across familiar terrain just to turn in an objective. Also, the inventory system is better than in B1, but still rather cumbersome. I'm not sure what the answer is to this, because the looting and amazing variation in weapons is such a key part of the whole series. There's just so much of it!
Also worth pointing out how amazingly good value The Handsome Collection is. As well as this, it also includes The pre-sequel game and ALL the DLC for both titles. And it cost me about £10 in a sale. It took me around 35 hours to see the credits roll, and I've not touched the DLC or the pre-sequel. Not bad for a tenner.
Important to note that I played the entirety of this in single player. In fact, I'm yet to experience anything Borderlands in multiplayer where I'm sure it's even better. But even as a single player experience, this is a quality game that was a lot of fun to play through.
On to Borderlands 3 once I've cleared a few more titles from my backlog. Maybe I'll find a friend to play that with me?