Despite never playing the first one, I vividly remember being hyped for this, looking up trailers, the world, the different weapon manufacturers, the idea of my two favourite genres (at the time) merging, then on top of that the cel-shaded aesthetic and goofy sense of humour (which looking back might’ve been a bit cringelord, but being 14 at the time, I was the perfect age for it. Plus I’ll be honest, parts of this game still get a guilty chuckle out of me, Psychos reciting Hamlet still cracks my shit up). It was my main game for like two years, I had so much fun exploring the world, farming for loot, watching how the enemies interact with eachother, building characters, becoming this overpowered monster, plowing through legions of mobs, and the raid bosses. My favourite classes were the Siren, which I decked out with a set of elemental smgs, the Hellfire, the Bad Touch, a Plasma Caster, etc..and the Gunzerker, whom I built into pistols, pairing an Unkempt Harold with either a Rubi or a Lady Fist so I could heal up and melt raid bosses’ health bars away in no time. I loved the easter eggs too, all the references to Minecraft, Lord of the Rings, Batman, Dark Souls, Se7en, etc. The dlcs were also pretty great, The Captain Scarlett and Tiny Tina dlcs were the standouts, but even the Torgue dlc I had a lot of fun with. I didn’t play the Commander Lilith dlc but it was still cool of them to add that so long after we all thought the game’s lifecycle had concluded.

My only real problem with the game was the Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode. Enemies become ludicrously health spongey, slag becomes a crutch and you’re constricted to top of the line gear if you want any chance of keeping up. Despite that hiccup though, I’ve pumped so many hours into this game across multiple systems, it’s truly one of those landmark games for me.