Borderlands 2 Review

Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K Games
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3

Borderlands 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed and brave Borderlands, which was one of only a few games which stood its’ ground to Modern Warfare 2. By focusing on cooperative play with a loot system and RPG mechanics, the cel-shaded shooter found a place among many gamers to garner downloadable content and a highly desired sequel. While Borderlands 2 has brought a welcome number of changes, it’s also brought something undesired, which is something most gamers won’t really know how to describe.

Borderlands 2 takes place five years after the original, wherein Handsome Jack wants to enter the Vault for mysterious reasons, and you, whom he tried to kill, wants revenge. In order to do that, you’ll need better guns than what you start out with. The game’s major hook is the loot system, where you kill enemies to get more and better guns. While the game progresses you’ll want to go from White to Green to Blue to Purple and finally to Orange to get the best weapons. However, you’ll constantly be checking your guns to see if a White gun outclasses your Orange one. It feels somewhat archaic and not all that thought out in the end. Borderlands 2 also expands on its’ level design, with the number of areas being easily quadrupled.

Every area in Borderlands 2 is enormous, but there’s very little density. Most areas are dead, forcing you to struggle with the terrible driving mechanics a lot of the time. Like the first game you’re going from place to place to achieve your goals. These areas would be better served by either being shrunk or not existing at all. It feels like Gearbox tried to pad the game’s length in ways that really weren’t necessary since the game already has enough content. In the end this hurts replay value since an average playthrough will be 40-50 hours instead of 25-30. Since Gearbox wants to promote people playing through the game multiple times with different classes, stretching out the game’s length is a misstep because it’s harder to replay it at that length. There’s more padding here, which comes down to how the game handles difficulty and its’ general gameplay.

Enemies in Borderlands 2 scale to your difficulty, averaging between two levels below to one level above your current level. People refer to this as “treadmill difficulty” which is something you see in Skyrim, as well as the original Borderlands, but it was contained to Mad Moxxi’s Underdome. This is done instead of creating a proper difficulty curve and scenario for every instance. It feels lazy and cheap to do so, and offers no better rewards. While the game promotes you being a badass, nothing is badass about wasting time on the same fight for a few hours.

Borderlands 2 introduces a Badass Rating system, wherein you earn tokens that you can spend on stat bonuses, such as increased weapon damage, reduced recoil, and more health. It does a good job getting you to play the game in different ways, but the rewards feel like a drop in the bucket some of the time. Even though you get bonuses to help, the game still feels uneven in terms of gameplay. Sometimes you’ll consistently miss shots at point blank range against a frozen enemy and fumble with the controls when enemies are in close proximity. If you manage to get through it all though, the game does have some great writing.

Borderlands 2 has a somewhat dark humor to its’ story, with characters that have a lot of personality and life to them. Gearbox has done an exceptional job at bringing the characters and world of Pandora to life. You’ll also be able to enjoy this world with other people easier due to the improved network options. Instead of having to start a game online and hope others join, you can just switch your current game to be open to everyone or no one. It’s nice to see such vast improvements in these two areas of the game, disheartening to see other areas get glossed over or take a step back.

In the end, Borderlands 2 is a step back from Borderlands in a lot of ways while taking a major leap forward with the universe that was created. If you want more Borderlands, it’s recommended to buy the downloadable content for the original or simply start a new character. Borderlands 2 will leave you feeling empty and disheartened, which is sad considering the game seems to have so much heart.

Overall Score: 6 out of 10

+ Good Writing
+ Good Art Style
+ Lots of Areas to Explore

- Treadmill Difficulty
- Music is Unmemorable
- Has Unnecessary Padding