Launched just prior to the full holiday shopping swing in a season full of FPS competitors, does Borderlands 2 have what it takes to set itself apart? Find out here!
In a word, yes. Borderlands 2 is an addictive, raucous, irreverent joyride through the visually distinctive and hilarious world of Pandora. Its limited narrative and weak audio are certainly points of contention, but those points are easily outpaced by its addictive loot-grabbing, co-operational gameplay and incredible art-style.
Visuals
Borderlands is easily one of the most visually distinctive franchises in modern gaming, no small feat in the overly-crowded FPS field. The franchise’s vivid cel-shaded art-style is very much to thank for this, and Borderlands 2 maintains this choice with an array of ridiculously epic set-pieces and new environments, moving away from the almost-universally desert-themed environments of its predecessor to icy mountain ranges, poisonously acidic swamps, and many others.
The title boasts universally great performance across all platforms with little in the way of visual grading. The only foible is a regular but brief texture pop-in in virtually every single area. The title also serves a solid frame-rate with little-to-no slow-down, and only very rarely a glitch – with the exception of a very few lighting errors. The guns, lighting and particle effects, and liquid and fabric physics are highlights of a very solid engine with a great art-style.
Audio
Mediocre at best, and certainly the worst single (technical, not presentation) aspect of this title. The guns lack punch, the explosions have little to no force or impact, and the surround-sound work is merely adequate. The best thing that can be said is that the audio doesn’t seem to be broken in any way, simply mediocre.
Gameplay
While it may not reinvent the wheel like its predecessor, Borderlands 2 certainly does a great job updating various aspects of gameplay while staying true to the core design that make Borderlands great. The addition of badass ranks and character customizations are welcome, though relatively shallow additions at best, and while the four-player vehicles and cross-character stash options are so obvious that one wonders how they were left out of the first title, their inclusion in Borderlands 2 is certainly still welcome.
Core twitch-shooter gameplay married with a deeply innovative loot-system is every bit as addictive as the first title, with hours upon hours of replay value, and nearly a full-year of DLC support promising that it won’t be abandoned anytime soon. Borderlands 2 is also significantly more difficult that the original, with a smattering of new enemies like the Loot Goon (a giant marauder with a loot chest on his back) and the Loader-class (Hyperion manufactured mechs) joining our beloved Marauders as objects of player-punishment. It’s obvious that Gearbox really wanted to create a deeper and more varied-gameplay experience with Borderlands 2, and the addition of more puzzle-and-solution focused enemies was a main tactic in pursuit of that focus.
Presentation
Borderlands 2 features agreat sense of style on virtually every level of design, from its very clean and easily navigable menus to its stylish mini-cinematics from opening splash-screen to credit roll. The HUD is far from minimal, but slick and unintrusive. Much like the first title, a lot of the charm of the gameplay revolves around constantly finding more and more guns that do more and more damage, and the UI’s choice of floating damage indicators, the graphic-novel-inspired critical flash text all serve this presentation and choice of art-style brilliantly.
The narrative, on the other hand is unimaginative at best. Several of the characters are inherently charming (Handsome Jack, Tiny Tina, etc) and there a few moments approach compelling storytelling, the overarching narrative is weak and predictable. Many speak to shocking moments of darkness in the plot, but that does not itself a story make. The narrative elements for the first Borderlands were obviously a back-burner priority – it seems the narrative for its sequel got just enough in the way of attention to avoid an exact repetition of that complaint, but only barely. Explanations for the weak ending of the first and an overtly-obvious set up serve only to frustrate this further.
That said, the universally above-average voice-over work, supported by an incredibly appropos soundtrack (both licensed and original) really elevate the title. They deserve credit for establishing the Borderlands franchise’s winning aesthetic, and Borderlands 2 does nothing but improve this reputation.
Value
A single jaunt through the vital story sequences of Borderlands 2 will run you a minimum of twenty-five hours, but if you want to see everything Pandora has to offer this time around, you’ll likely drop closer to 45 hours. The True Vault Hunter difficulty (this title’s equivalent of New Game +) will provide another 20 or so hours, and with five different character classes and infinitely variable loot, as well as at least 3 raid-styled bosses and near 50 Legendary drops, this game has a replay value you just don’t find in its competitors.
You won’t see this one cheaper than $45 anywhere, and you’d have to look hard and luckily for that, but even at a $60 MSRP this game is well-worth it, and with a promise of close to a year of DLC support, this isn’t a title likely to sit idly on your shelf.
Borderlands 2 didn’t reinvent the wheel, and neither did its predecessor, but they both neatly and addictively married two fan-favorite genres in a clever and well-executed fashion. The sequel’s job was to perfect the details that made Borderlands a commercial and critical success, and viewed in that light, Borderlands 2 is a great success. Its imperfections are apparent, but they are far from enough of a concern to skip this little gem.
Intangibles
Gearbox has hit on a really great vibe with this title. It’s slick, it’s clever, and it’s fun, but there’s still something about Borderlands 2 that’s ultimately a little disappointing. You’ll enjoy yourself immensely, as all the hallmarks of a blockbuster are there to be found, but the factors that make a piece of interactive entertainment a true masterpiece are ephemerally absent.
The title is intended to be a rollicking joy ride, and it certainly fails to disappoint on that point. And yet it somehow misses the arthouse marks set by blockbuster franchises like Uncharted, Mass Effect, or Bioshock. There are also a few balance issues, and . . . a lot of other minute criticisms that applying with any seriousness to Borderlands 2 would define missing the point. I suspect Gearbox set out with the express purpose of simply creating one hell of a romp, and without question, they succeeded.
Review Score: 8.8