If I were artificial intelligence, I would have sat in a stupor for two weeks and dreamed of killing all people. These bipeds are amazingly illogical: they spend all day scolding publishers for the lack of fresh ideas and original brands, but as soon as a new iPhone appears on the market, they immediately run to buy it. And they don’t run for Ghost Recon. And they haven’t run for NFS for a long time. But the Borderlands sequel was so rushed as if Half-life 3 (which, by the way, they will also rush after) had come out. Some kind of chaos.
Morality: what they are running after is not boring.
Moral of morality: It was under the slogan “Let’s not get boring” that Borderlands 2 was released.
In this place, technically, there should be a description of the first part: this way the author will prove to the reader that he understands the issue and generally has an authoritative opinion. The paragraph will tell you that the first Borderlands stood out on the market not only due to its ultra-original style and humor, but, first of all, due to its unconventional vision of a Diablo clone. GearBox realized that character development and running around for cool clothes give the player great incentive, but monotonous gameplay with constant mouse clicking and an isometric view, on the contrary, tires. Then the studio went on an experiment and released the first of its kind (Hellgate, due to its failure, is not taken into account) Diablo-like shooter with all that it implies.
The following were the following: pumping, hundreds of identical opponents, collecting, and – disgusting, everything that is not directly related to shooting. Quests were issued in text that no one read. The plot was so conventional that it was described in four words. There were no talking NPCs, dialogues and non-linearity at all. However, the game mechanics turned out to be perfect, and therefore the above did not bother anyone – four players happily ran around the locations for over 60 hours, and then they also played addons. Fortunately, infinitely stylish and cool.
When the time came https://goldenreelscasino.co.uk/bonus/ to make the second part (by the way, the time had come for the reader to make sure that the author was fumbling), the shortcomings of the original turned into advantages with the dexterity of a judoka: GearBox now didn’t even need to turn on imagination, but simply correct objective shortcomings.
I mean, "Oh, we had those bland MMO-like side quests, let’s polish them up.". And they brought it – suddenly, the user received the most interesting additional tasks since Mass Effect 2. Moreover, what makes them enchanting is not the actual tasks of the player (they boil down to the standard “rob-kill”), but the plot and setting. The task of delivering pizza to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has already become famous throughout the Internet, so I’ll choose something less pop as an example, for example, “My gang kicked me out and is throwing a beach party.”. Burn the net and take the volleyballs!». Monty Python rejoices, basically.
The main branch of the campaign has also undergone changes. Personalities are now given much more attention (sometimes they even let us fight with someone as a couple), tasks have become much more meaningful and even (just don’t faint) logically connected with each other. No, seriously, now every second mission has cutscenes with plot twists. Moreover: for once the developers allowed themselves to direct game levels. Now, for example, the player can be limited in the choice of weapons, add almost indestructible helicopters flying overhead, or even offer elements of nonlinearity. Not to say that this radically changes the gameplay, but it definitely entertains the player and resets the monotony counter to a minimum value.
They did a lot with monotony. For example, the “weapon proficiency level” scale (which implies that the hero must run around with the same type of gun all his life) has been replaced by a system of additional bonuses for completing achievements: now all efforts to “kill 500 people with headshots” are paid in the form of one or two percent improvement in the hero’s characteristics. No benefits were noticed from this, but, in general, the process itself is entertaining and forces you to regularly change your playing style.
(A meaningless paragraph has been removed from here, listing a priori clear truths about diversity: a lot of completely different levels in design and structure, random generation of weapons, several dozen types of enemies with an individual approach to each and new skill branches for characters. It would be wrong not to say this, but to write all this is banal and dull).
Good or bad, but despite all the changes listed (the main thesis of the entire review will now follow, arm yourself with notepads), it’s still the same Borderlands.
What GearBox got right the first time was left absolutely unchanged. 80% of the game time you will have to run through locations with a structure completely similar to the original (corridors/open spaces with vehicles), shoot from the same types of weapons and admire the completely unchanged cell-shading. And when, after two days of playing, you realize that you won’t be offered any radically new changes in the mechanics, a tiny shadow of doubt appears in your soul: “Have I been deceived??».
Borderlands 2 is a spherical sequel in a vacuum. In addition to the standard “Let’s double the number of guns and levels,” the game has been polished in nuances: it has become more diverse, improved presentation, raised the degree of epicness and become twice as funnier. For everyone who loved the original Borderlands, GearBox has done the almost impossible.
But, for comparison, it’s worth looking at Portal 2 and, in absentia, the continuation of Bioshock, which seemed to do the same thing, but a little more: they seriously improved and expanded the game mechanics themselves, giving the player a lot of new opportunities and unexpected situations. Don’t think – Borderlands 2 is certainly great, but… I still wanted the authors to take it and suddenly jump over their heads, producing something out of the ordinary.
Pros: variety; more lively cities, quests and characters; more thoughtful classes, longer duration; this is the same Borderlands.
Cons: Side quests sometimes shamelessly force you to go through already completed locations 2-3 times; there are no decisive and strong innovations at all, but damn, who needs them anyway if the mechanics already work like clockwork?