fuzzy logic said:
Ranting, based on limited playtime, ahoy: The skill trees are only slightly less boring than they were in the original. The (4 main) characters are as lifeless as the original squad.
Maybe the problem is that I played Roland in the original and Axton in this playthrough, but the skill trees I've experienced are drastically more interesting and often game changing. Being able to drop nukes on enemies just from deploying your turret and then having it continue to fire is a pretty drastic change from Roland's rather sedated trees. Even more of a game changer is Axton being able to deploy two turrets. It completely changes how you can run the game, giving you an Axton that can distract, give support fire, and main fire all at the same time. It can essentially make Axton his own team. The skill trees are, by far, improved from my perspective.
Why is there only one active skill? We're not brain-dead. Couldn't you have added a toggle button, or a modifier button/key to use maybe 3 or so different abilities? Multiple abilities would be hard to balance? Who cares if they're balanced? The first game wasn't balanced and it was still fun.
Personally, I don't feel there is a need for more than one Action ability. If you want to drastically change your playstyle, just buy a respec and change where you have put your skill points. For example, if you were fully sniper tree with Zero, you use your action ability to distract enemies and get distance so you can heal and make use of your sniping skills. If you respect and select a fully bloodlust tree Zero, the whole point of his action ability is to give you a massive boost to melee damage that can then be nearly endlessly chained. Your whole combat style goes from "hang back and shoot" to "Get directly in the middle of the fray and knife guys." For me, the sheer diversity the trees create makes adding another Action ability pointless.
Borderlands limited combat system once again demonstrates it's not versatile enough to have interesting boss fights. Boss fights need to be all about the spectacle in this game, because mechanically they're grey dish water. I mean, you can only 1) jump out of the way, 2) sprint out of the way (while losing sight of the boss and not being able to fire :/), 3) damage the boss. Mechanically, there's not much room for any tactics beyond: hope your health and shields last while you shoot them, don't stand in the fire, attempt to dodge the thing that's 8x faster than you, ration out weak minions to second wind yourself, I guess Zer0 can dodge with his ability. And all that was in the first game.
This I don't understand at all. Maybe we play very differently, but there is a huge amount of strategy for me when dealing with boss fights. For example, fighting the constructor that captured roland was a hell of a task. It constantly summoned enemies that could rip into you AND it had ridiculously high health. Using the turret the options become massive. I could drop the turret near the constructor and let it provide fire against the beast while I handle the minions, I could do the exact opposite (having my turret take on the little ones while I concentrate fire), I could repeatedly strafe around the constructor throwing out heavy fire and just avoid minions and save my turret to be a distraction when I need to run away and heal up. This is all going into a boss fight with just one character. As you add more co-op companions, the strategy just keeps increasing. I'd say the only one who lacks tactics beyond SHOOT MORE BULLLETS is Salvador the gunzerker, but that is kind of the point of his class.
On a more general note, there are many things yahtzee said that I agree with. However, one issue I see touted in the video and this thread is one I don't understand: constantly checking in the inventory to see if you have picked up a drastically better weapon. I can honestly say that in about 35 hours I have only done this a scant few times when trading. I usually see a gun on the ground and look for three or more green arrows. If there aren't that many, I just pass it over or pick it up and know it is worse than what I have, thus leading to me selling it without even thinking about it. The only thing I've really read on the guns is the secondary effects like slagging, it gaining extra accuracy upon firing, etc.
I really liked this game, though I can understand why some might not. Opinions.
At the very least, it's something to pass the time with until XCOM:EU comes out.
