Instead of a rushed review, we're taking the time to actually play Borderlands 2 before putting pen-to-pad. For now we've decided to give our first impression along with comments from the 2old2play community.
Applications now being accepted! Apply at your nearest Pandora travel agency or where games are sold.
For many of us, the first few hours of playing Borderlands 2 is like taking a trip down memory lane to our childhood where we are filled with a sense of wonder and awe as we discovered new things, met new people, and got lots of really great toys along the way. It’s a trip down roads familiar yet at the same, roads different. Roads filled with many pleasant and unpleasant changes and additions that at any given moment could be rewarding you with a ton of cash for completing a mission or could be leaving you for dead with a stick up your but, err, ear because you weren’t fast enough on the draw.
Pandora is a rough world but thankfully, our good old friend CL4P-TP or Claptrap is there to greet us as we set foot on this treasure hunters’ paradise of a planet that many of us have spent countless hours in looting boxes, toilets, mailboxes, weapons caches, etc. hoping for a weapon that’s 4x better than the last.
With a Metacritic score of 90 out of 100, vault hunters are bound to get hours of entertainment from this game. You can be sure that with a score that high, there will be many glowing reviews. The biggest challenge with a review of a game of this scope is that a good number of these reviews are probably rushed in order to meet the launch date and that may not give this game the justice that it deserves. So instead of trying to rush a review, we’ll be doing a review as well but we are going to take our time. We are going to stop and smell all of the roses that many a bullymong has pooped on so that we can truly enjoy all of the loot and the non-playable character antics along the way. For now, we leave you with some initial thoughts and who better to give you feedback than the people you play along with, the members of the 2old2play community!
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
WODKA7453: This game had me hooked at the intro. Gearbox has definitely assembled another winner with Borderlands 2.
Mr402: The humor is there which is what roped me into the first one. Claptrap FTW!
GunnyBass: AI is much improved with the game throwing different enemy types at you during battle to make you switch up your tactics.
Leviticus78: I've only played a couple hours myself but I am liking it so far.
The little changes in BL2 is what is appealing to me. Gun sounds, reloading sounds, things like that that feel more polished in this version.
KamakazeTaco: The game is quite awesome. Everything that was awesome about the first one is back and some of the crappy stuff is gone. For example, I've actually found pistols that I've been using.
Jikado: They've done an excellent job of providing more Borderlands. Everything that was great and fun about the first is back, with many more added features and challenges.
GAME MECHANICS, GRAPHICS, AND EVERYTHING ELSE...
Want to take a ride on Handsome Jack’s Butt Stallion? Just visit Pandora in Borderlands 2.
Tank: OMG does claptrap ever shut up?! :lol: I'm kind of finding it difficult to coop play the game and keep track of the story usually someone's talking while there's an NPC conversation or a mission explanation or something. Otherwise though, been just as fun as the first. I think it's more difficult than the first one even on Normal. There are two other modes, ultimate vault hunter mode is the 2nd playthru like 'playthru 2' in borderlands 1. This introduces some unique monsters and better loot. THen once you finish that there's playthru 2.5 which is the endgame mode i guess you would call it. Everything is leveled to 50 and this is where all the best stuff drops.
Mr402: AI is much improved with the game throwing different enemy types at you during battle to make you switch up your tactics. On PC this game is super smooth though I run with AMD so I can't vouch for the improvements given by nvidia physx.
GunnyBass: Sound quality is top notch and improved.
I like the auto pick up of ammo and cash. Saves a lot of time. Big plus!!!
Biggest surprise is enemy AI. It can be tough at times. Enemy AI will duck hide and combat roll. Definitely makes it a bit tougher.
Loot galore. I'm loot whoring all over again. I like the looks of the new guns. I really like how all the different gun manufactures actually have a visually distinct look to their weapons.
DIGITALCiphers: I played for about 9 hours yesterday. I am level 13 and have 1 orange and 2 purple guns already. I am a loot whore and I love it. This game is awesome. The writing is hilarious. I can't wait to meet the next character to see how over the top they are. The new features like auto loot and badass ranks(this carries over to all characters on your account) are welcome additions. The guns look sweet, especially the bandit weapons which are basically homemade out of random parts. The drop in and out is very well done also. I jumped in a game with Gunny yesterday and he had to go shortly there after and I jumped right back to my game were I left off, no issues.
Leviticus78: The big improvement for me is the hit detection. In BL1 if the enemy was a distance out there the bullet only alerted them and no damage was done. BL2 seems to have fixed that. If they show up in the scope, and your aim is right, you'll get a hit.
Enemy AI seems to have improved as well. Even at level 3 they start dodging around pretty rapidly if they are getting near death.
Last but not least is my favorite addition to the game. Baddass tokens! Side challenges you complete and use the tokens to pad things like reload speed, weapon damage, etc, etc. There was something like this in the first one but it seemed hidden in the menu system and really of no use other than reading material.
KamakazeTaco: I really love how they handle the drop in/drop out campaign. Before if you joined a buddy who was even 1 quest ahead in the story you didn't get any xp then had to go do it all again on your play through. Now no matter where you join you'll get xp for every quest. Then when you get to that point on your playthrough you get the option of skipping all the quests you've already done, or you can do them again for extra loot. And mission loot is actually good now. No more crappy SMGs that might have been okay 4 levels ago.
My only complaint is just about every weapon now takes 2-4 ammo per shot so you wind up burning through ammo incredibly quick. Especially if you roll with a Tediore weapon since you throw the gun instead of reloading. The ammo cap seems like it'll be a lot higher than in the first one, so that may not be such a big deal later on.
Jikado: The enemies are more diverse, intelligent, and tougher. For example, you can no longer just catch a ride and splatter your way across the tundra. Even the skags have built up a fender immunity. Speaking of skags, they now have ways of buffing each other to inflict even more corrosive, or fire, or shock damage.
I'd write more, but, I've got some questing to do!
InfernalGiggler: I like that ammo is also shareable in co-op now so if you have full ammo you can pick it up and it will go to your friends. I have to agree with Mr402 that as far as graphics are concerned the pc is friggin gorgeous. I played on both the 360 and my pc runnin a gtx 680 on my samsung tv...and the pc outstripped the 360 by a decent margin. I honestly didn't think there would be that much of a difference. The game has been a blast though and I love the personal recorders that you start with that give you just a small look into your toon's history.
Favorite quote so far for me has got to be "looks like you head butted a belt sander"
Borderlands 2 brings back the best in co-op fun. Grab a friend or friends and loot but be quick because if you snooze, you lose.
… and we’re back
It looks like the game so far, is living up to the 90/100 Metacritic score. I did notice a couple of glitches while playing last night like a couple of Bullymongs either stuck in the side of a mountain or suspended in mid-air. The moment you hear Handsome Jack talk about his diamond pony, Butt Stallion, however, makes these glitches memorable. GunnyBass mentioned in the comment that he left, “So far?? TOTAL WIN!!!! If you’re on the fence??? GET IT!!” and I have to agree. It might be too early to tell if this game truly is worthy of the 90/100 but if a game has you enthralled every time you put it in, you can be pretty sure that you are going to be in for one heck of a ride. This is a definite MUST HAVE so go get it!
Still there? What are you waiting for? Go get it!
Still reading... there’s nothing left to read here... Go get it!
Still looking at this article? Do we need to send ClapTrap over to your house to clap-slap you in the face? Go get it!
If you're still looking for a great group of gamers check out the new Division that opened up on 2old2play for Borderland 2 here!
