Game Review: Borderlands 2

I’ve been procrastinating a lot lately with assignments because I just can’t seem to pull myself away from my Xbox 360 at the moment. 2K Games has managed to completely blow my mind with an awesome game yet again. I’m a huge fan of the first Borderlands game, it easily makes it onto my list of Top 5 Favorite Games and I hoped that Borderlands 2 would be just as amazing. I haven’t been disappointed.

The game is set 5 years after everything that happened in Borderlands, with the game’s main antagonist Handsome Jack appointing himself as Director of Pandora and taking credit for finding The Vault, which I have to say is just rude, I spent so long searching for the damn thing! And so, from there Borderlands 2 kicks off with an all new team of protagonists riding on a train, which made me feel pretty nostalgic, remembering the opening of Borderlands when the team was riding on the old rickety bus into Pandora. 

The new team is searching for the Vault when it turns into a trap by Handsome Jack, trying to kill all who search for it. The train crashed and the team winds up in an artic wasteland with Claptrap (God I missed the little guy!). A Guardian Angel finds the team and explains what’s going on with Handsome Jack and tells you that he needs to be killed and the four original Vault hunters from the first game need to be rescued to do this. Already I found myself getting attached to the game, hearing that the old team got captured. Especially Lilith, the amount of hours I spent playing as her made me grow fairly attached to her character. I also got quite excited at the prospect of getting to see the old team again though. 

Claptrap!!!

 

 

 

In-game shot of Angel

From there, with a member of the new team selected (I chose to play as Maya); I found myself thrown back into the wasteland of Pandora and begin my missions and looting places. I honestly haven’t put a lot of hours into it at the moment, so I’m not really far into the storyline just yet, but it’s great seeing all the old characters again. The loot has been really good in the game, picking up some very cool guns along the way. What I have found really awesome though is that once you help the old team escape they become NPCs that give you missions throughout the game. And from those you learn small back stories about each member of the old team. 

Not only is the game great, but the downloadable content has been amazing. The maps available for download have been so impressive and fun to play on, especially in the new 4-person multiplayer system rather than the original games 2-player system. Aside from the maps, there has also been a new DLC character that brings a new class of Mechromancer to the game. She’s a really cool new character (yes, they bought in another female aside from Maya, it’s awesome!) who can control Deathtrap, a science-fair project turned body guard robot, she can be both a really easy and really hard character to play as though.

Quick profiles on the new team:

   
Zer0 – Assassin

He’s an assassin for hire wanted for political killings. He is sent to assassinate a target before spending several weeks in Pandora. He hears about the Vault from a bartender and deems the hunt a worthy challenge.

Skills:

-          Decepti0n grants Zer0 the ability to deploy a holographic decoy of himself and enter an invisible "stealth mode." 

•    Sniping
• Cunning
• Bloodshed 

 Salvador – Gunzerker

Born and raised in Pandora. Goes on a hunt for the Vault after hearing how dangerous it is.

Skills:

-          "gunzerking” - perfect for players dying to wield two guns at once
(cooldown for Gunzerking is 42 seconds)

•  Gun Lust
• Rampage
•  Brawn

 Axton – Commando

Used to have a military career. His pursuit of personal glory led to compromised missions. His wife and commanding officer, Sarah divorced him and sentenced him to firing squad. She suggested he flee to the border worlds and Axton went AWOL. He heard about the Vault on a radio broadcast by Handsome Jack.

Skills:

-          able to deploy a versatile Dahl Sabre Turret (arsenal with 360° rotation and a weapons complement that can be upgraded to include multi-rocket launcher and a portable nuke)
(the cool down for the turret in Commando is 42 seconds)

• Guerrilla
• Gun powder
• Survival

Maya – Siren

 As an infant she was discovered as a Siren and given to the Order of the Impending Storm, the ruling order of monks on her homeworld of Athenas. She grew irritated of the short leash the Order made her live on and expressed interest in traveling to Pandora to learn more about her Siren lineage. Learned she was being used as a threat to extort money from Athenas people and left for Pandora. Knew of the Vault before arriving in Pandora.

Skills:

  ability to suspend foes in a bubble of energy. This can lock an opponent in a stasis, and can be upgraded to provide various damaging effects. 

•    Motion
•      Harmony
•   Cataclysm

Gaige – Mechromancer

 High school student from the planet Eden-5. She originally conceived Deathtrap as a science fair project to combat bullying. Her rival Marcie, used her father’s money to buy her way through the competition and won with a defective robot based on Deathtrap's blueprints. Marcie shoved Gaige and Deathtrap stepped in, attacking Marice, causing her to explode due to a miscalibration by Gaige. Gaige was expelled and faced arrest. Tried to evade arrest left for Pandora, hoping they would appreciate her skills more.

Skills:

-         -  Can summon Deathtrap
  (Deathtrap has a cooldown time of 60 seconds)

-       -    skill tree features player challenge level variances  à makes her both easiest and hardest character to play in the game as there are some struggles when leveling up.

•  Best Friends Forever
•   Little Big Trouble
•  Ordered Chaos

Despite not being that far into the game just yet, I’m thoroughly impressed with 2K Games so far. Can’t wait to play more!

-Laura

Haven't seen the trailer for Borderlands 2 yet? Watch it here!