Borderlands 2 Review

[RedDeadFred]

I hated my first vault visit, so I'm just going to go ahead and pass, also, Escapist Reviews going down in my totem of trusted game reviewers. :|

So I'm guessing that this reviewer is your go to guy then: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.388622-Worst-review-I-have-seen-in-a-long-time-borderlands-2
You must not trust any reviewers because if you look on Metacritic, the lowest score is 75% which is hardly saying it's a bad game. The game's average is 90% which the Escapist nailed right on the dot.

The reviewer told you exactly what you needed to know. The game isn't for you but that doesn't mean others shouldn't like it.

 

[Metalrocks]

i dint enjoy the first game, so i highly doubt i will enjoy this installment. pass for me.

 

[Chaosweaver]

Looking forward to it unlocking on Steam tonight

Oh, and:

after all, Borderlands 2 is essentially its predecessor in nearly every measurable way

I think the author meant to say 'successor'.

 

[PH3NOmenon]

Question: does the sequel still use Gamespy for it's multiplayer?

Cause Gamespy can really go die in a fire.

 

[piinyouri]

It's all I could ever ask for out of a sequel.

Fix what's broken or not working very well, don't fix what isn't.

And I'm so glad they upped the difficulty. Makes encounters so much more rewarding.

 

[Kyrian007]

I'm probably one of fairly few people who was "ehh... Meh" about BL 1 who actually has played BL 2 this early... so here's something from someone who really doesn't have any love for the franchise at all.

There ARE big improvements in some areas. For starters, the GUI is LOADS better to use. I won't say it looks better, but it's far more functional. And the visual design is superior. As opposed to the cell-shaded but predominantly "dirt brown and gun metal grey" setting (that was only corrected in the DLC) there is some refreshing variety in backdrop. There is more satisfying variety in mobs as well (there are more than 3 types of 4 or 5 different enemy types in this one.)

The ways it's worse... visually it doesn't seem as "sharp." Like the difference between Skyrim pre and post high rez texture pack. Maybe BL 2 will get a high rez pack somewhere down the line. But honestly that doesn't bother me.

So, it's better than the original. Because everything else (good and bad) is exactly the same, and the one thing I thought was worse... is something I care nothing about. I still don't like the game all that much. No matter how much it claims to have "rpg elements" it really doesn't. Adding fetch quests, loot, and a completely unnecessary leveling system and saying it has "rpg elements" is like saying Call of Duty has "rpg elements" because you level up in multiplayer. For me it loses the rpg label when it shoehorns you into one of 4 premade characters that are not "silent protagonist" types. Being able to change the color of their costumes does not make up for the lack of customization (example from BL 1... want to make the soldier a sniper... he won't ever be as good as the hunter, can't make the siren "the tank" ect.) And the level "perks..." useful but not really necessary. I used them (and the class mods) mostly to regen health and ammo so I didn't have to bother buying health and ammo. And that was just to avoid the extra travel time and hassle, money was pointless too. None of these things have changed or improved (so far anyway.) I played as Roland in the original, and I felt robbed by the perks. One of the weapon types I have perks for is shotgun??? How lame is that? Halfway thru the 1st playthru I already had a volcano and an orion. I never had to get close enough to anything for a shotgun to be effective. If one or the other rifle wasn't effective enough the havoc I carried shredded whatever was left at "medium" range. So one whole class was 1/2 as effective with perks as the others, but could still easily solo the whole game... perks were never needed.

But why did I buy it? Yay for splitscreen local multiplayer. Most devs will never, ever include splitscreen. Or they tone it down to a "arena" mode. And as long as Borderlands continues to include multiplayer splitscreen... count me in. It's great fun with friends (and booze.)

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

You get the Mechromancer for free if you pre-order the game.
Which you can still do in the EU, since it won't be released until the 21st.
A fact that drives me apeshit. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFGHGERHERGHERGHAFS

Would it help your anticipation any if I told you you get to fight Bonerfarts and Bonertoots early on in the game?

 

[Goofguy]

The bottom line is if you liked the first one, you'll probably like this one even more.

And if we hated the first one, what would it be like for us people?

Anyway, from all the previews it seems to have gotten ridden of all the shit I hated from the first one. I'm gonna pick it up tomorrow

That I can not say. I'm too biased towards liking the game to give you such a fair assessment.

It also depends on what you disliked from the first one. If you hated the style/combat/characters/humour well then you're shit out of luck because they're all back in spades. If you hated the loot management/interface/lack of customization, those have been improved.

 

[Thomiroth]

snip

I liked the game when I tried it, but didn't like the shoe-horned characters idea. To be honest, you're being pretty damn fair.

I still really enjoyed the game, though, didn't really notice the lack of background since I was too busy trying to kill things, then loot their bodies, their possessions, their families possessions, their life's savings, etc.

The thing is, though, your complaint about the soldier. The reason he could solo the game so well was the fact that he could regen ammo and health. Thing is, he was also better at tanking damage, which is why shotguns were in his perk tree. He should either be in the thick of it, or at least at medium range, hence the emphasis on AR's as well. You can play any class how you want to, and since you can level up the weapons, anyone can use anything, given time, effort and the right gear. The Soldier was, by nature, the jack-of-all-trades, so he had the best kit for general purpose, which is pretty much the best kit for soloing the game.

I agree, wholeheartedly, though, with you on split-screen. Too few games have it at the minute and some of my fondest memories of BL1 was of split-screening with my pals.

Anyways, I'm super excited for Friday (which is when it comes out over here, why they didn't do a worldwide release I don't know, but since it works out better for my paydays, I'm not complaining TOO loudly. ) and I look forward to giving it a good solid weeks worth of play with my mates.

Also, captcha: bond, james bond. Thanks captcha, I'd like to think so, too.

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

This review is pretty much spot on. If you loved the first one, you'll love the second one even more. If not, well then you should stay away from it.

 

[RJ 17]

I....I just can't make up my mind about this game.

Truth be told: I loved the first game. Had a lot of fun playing with friends because that's essentially it the game is: shoot shit while chatting with friends. Problem is it got very old very fast...especially after some assholes started making modded weapons and then joined random games to just throw said weapons at people. My problem with BL was that it was way too repeticious, often sending you to the same "dungeon" numerous times for BS reasons. "We need you to go kill all the crab guys in this cave." Next quest: "Thanks for killing all those crab guys, now go back to that exact same cave and grab me some crystals." God forbid the first quest was simply "Kill Crabs, Grab Crystals". No, they felt it necessary to draw it out.

Again, I had my fun with BL, but when I was done with it, I never touched it again. The fact that BL 2 was described as being "More OF Borderlands!" doesn't really help convince me to pick it up...seeing as how more of a game I'm already done with isn't really something that I'm interested in. And if, indeed, you're once again seeking out The Vault, I'll be less interested in the game seeing as how anyone that beat the first game already knows what the Vault is. What, did the Vault Hunters from the first game forget to tell everyone that "Oh yeah, it's really just a big gateway to *insert spoilers here*".

So on the one hand, I know for a fact that a lot of my friends are going to get/have already gotten this game and I do know that the BL experience is a lot more fun to play with friends than it is to solo...........but I just don't know if I can put my heart into more BL grinding.

Edit: Ahhhhh who the fuck am I kidding? I'll probably end up getting it here in a day or two.

 

[maninahat]

I still can't decide which class I'm leaning towards - most likely the gunzerker - and I want to know people's experiences of playing each one. I have heard that Zer0 can be a bit of a scrappy character to solo with. Is there anyone with incite who agrees or disagrees?

 

[Kyrian007]

snip

The thing is, though, your complaint about the soldier. The reason he could solo the game so well was the fact that he could regen ammo and health. Thing is, he was also better at tanking damage, which is why shotguns were in his perk tree. He should either be in the thick of it, or at least at medium range, hence the emphasis on AR's as well. You can play any class how you want to, and since you can level up the weapons, anyone can use anything, given time, effort and the right gear.

I understand that was the intention, but in my playthru with the weapons I had found and constant ammo regen, and bad enemy AI... if anything got that close I was playing it wrong. There was one area with tight enough close quarters to warrant using close range weapons (Sledge's Safehouse) but all the other quests were outdoors, or in big caverns or warehouses. Even if I was dumb enough to charge when there wasn't any real reason to (there never seemed to be) my long and mid ranged weapons (and my roomate's who usually took a longer range character) would chew thru any amount of resistance well before I got to point blank shotgun range.