The original Borderlands ate me alive. I could not stop playing that game until I had done everything their was to do, and it was awesome. For the past 3 years, I’ve been fiending for my next hit. With Borderlands 2, I’ve relapsed hard.
The chase for bigger and better gear is as rewarding as ever. As a level 11 commando, I’ve come across a few dozen guns that I thought were awesome, only to find something even cooler minutes later. In particular, I really like how many unique behaviours I’ve seen from the guns I’ve picked up. Building my character’s properties is almost as exciting, as the game now gives you a number of different ways to spec up, from standard levelling, to skill points, to the new badass points, which grant you upgrades across all of the characters you can play as.
My biggest gripe with the original was its rudimentary quest structure. It felt like every quest started with talking to someone, then going out to complete that one action, then turning it in. After playing through dozens of quests with the same structure, it did get a bit stale. This time around, I really appreciate how quests uinravel more organically. The story behind each quest is better integrated with the questing mechancis, and it feels like t l a logical flow to how everything plays out. It goes a long way to feel like I’m experiencing an adventure, rather than I’m completing to-do items from a checklist.
While this sequel isn’t really doing anything to push the envelope, it can reinvent the wheel another day. So far, this feels like the next logical iteration of the Borderlands, and I’ve already fallen deep into the rabbit hole. If it weren’t for adult responsibilities (and a girlfriend who may very well be classified a Borderlands 2 widow at this point), I’d probably spend every waking minute playing through to completion.
“I love Borderlands cause it is awesome fiery poops” – Steff, pretending to be me
In Third Person 