First off, let me say that I am typing this up on my phone so bear with me for spelling errors and such.
Borderlands was a good game. Solid gameplay and good graphics, minus some issues with the graphics engine and a story that might as well have not been there kept the game from living up to my hopes. Borderlands 2 fixes most of these issues and leaves the players with a more complete game that feels a lot like what the first one should have been.
The graphics are an upgraded version of the previous game's engine. There are major texture loading issues, especially while driving or changing chracter skins. With this being the.second game in the series with these issues, I'm beginning to think that it's an engine issue, not a programmer issue. The art style fits the game very well, with characters popping out a bit more in the environments. There are also some very sharp looking environments and sections of the.world to look at and explore through.
The sounds don't really need much said about them. The characters are voiced well, and there is a good bit of dialogue to listen too. It is well written and moderately funny. I particularly enjoyed the lead villain in the early game, he had several very good lines. Guns have a nice pop when fired, though jumping more than once or twice in a row makes your character sound a bit like they're in an adult situation if you get my drift.
Short bit about the story. There actually is one this time, complete with double crosses, twists, turns, and predictability. The story is fun and does have a good group of characters involved, including some familiar faces from the first game. I won't give away any spoilers, but I will say that this story line will not be winning any awards, but it's still way better than the last one.
The gameplay is identical to the last game. Get a gun, kill things/complete missions and get shiny new equipment. This game focuses heavily on what loot is dropped by the enemies. There are millions of weapons to choose from and a major satisfaction is finding the gun that fits you. I have found a sniper rifle that I.absolutely love, outside of Borderlands 2 I do not use snipers so it's an interesting change of pace for myself. The enemy AI has been upgraded making your enemies much smarter than they used to be. I noticed quite a few times where the enemies would take cover while I was aiming at them, or split off into smaller groups to try and flank me during a firefight. There have been some moderate tweaks to the level up system and a persistent challenge system that helps give you goals to work towards while playing. The skill trees are still broken up into three parts, however each one is considerably different than the others, offering more options for things to spend skill points on. Focusing your points into one tree can make your character a specialized badass, while spreading them out over two or three trees can make them into an average murder machine. I found with my Commando that I was leaning towards spending points in the column for my turret, giving it more time on the field, rocket pods, and specialized ammo. Other options would have given me more health, more ammo capacity, faster reloads, and things along those lines. So, the game helps you tailor your character to your play style a little bit more. The persistent challenge, or Badass Ranking is a system that carries over all of your characters. As you complete challenges which range from dealing X damage with this type of weapon to kill X number of a certain enemy, you gain Badass Ranks, which convert to coins. You spend these coins on very small upgrades, 1% or less than 1% to various stats, such as Max Health and Gun Damage. These carry over all of your characters on your profile and help give you a little boost in online multiplayer. The online game is just like the single player, except with friends or strangers helping you. The difficulty scales depending on how many players there are, and the more people that are playing, the better the loot that drops. That said, the loot is not for everyone, it's first come first served, so if you are playing with strangers this can be a serious problem.
All in all, I've heartily enjoyed Borderlands 2. I played through some of the first one and felt no need to try and make it to the end to see what happened, because there wasn't any kind of pull for me to get there. Borderlands 2 has fixed that, and brought the series a little farther in terms of what can be done with a game like this. I'm awarding an 8.5/10 to Borderlands 2. See You Online.
Borderlands was a good game. Solid gameplay and good graphics, minus some issues with the graphics engine and a story that might as well have not been there kept the game from living up to my hopes. Borderlands 2 fixes most of these issues and leaves the players with a more complete game that feels a lot like what the first one should have been.
The graphics are an upgraded version of the previous game's engine. There are major texture loading issues, especially while driving or changing chracter skins. With this being the.second game in the series with these issues, I'm beginning to think that it's an engine issue, not a programmer issue. The art style fits the game very well, with characters popping out a bit more in the environments. There are also some very sharp looking environments and sections of the.world to look at and explore through.
The sounds don't really need much said about them. The characters are voiced well, and there is a good bit of dialogue to listen too. It is well written and moderately funny. I particularly enjoyed the lead villain in the early game, he had several very good lines. Guns have a nice pop when fired, though jumping more than once or twice in a row makes your character sound a bit like they're in an adult situation if you get my drift.
Short bit about the story. There actually is one this time, complete with double crosses, twists, turns, and predictability. The story is fun and does have a good group of characters involved, including some familiar faces from the first game. I won't give away any spoilers, but I will say that this story line will not be winning any awards, but it's still way better than the last one.
The gameplay is identical to the last game. Get a gun, kill things/complete missions and get shiny new equipment. This game focuses heavily on what loot is dropped by the enemies. There are millions of weapons to choose from and a major satisfaction is finding the gun that fits you. I have found a sniper rifle that I.absolutely love, outside of Borderlands 2 I do not use snipers so it's an interesting change of pace for myself. The enemy AI has been upgraded making your enemies much smarter than they used to be. I noticed quite a few times where the enemies would take cover while I was aiming at them, or split off into smaller groups to try and flank me during a firefight. There have been some moderate tweaks to the level up system and a persistent challenge system that helps give you goals to work towards while playing. The skill trees are still broken up into three parts, however each one is considerably different than the others, offering more options for things to spend skill points on. Focusing your points into one tree can make your character a specialized badass, while spreading them out over two or three trees can make them into an average murder machine. I found with my Commando that I was leaning towards spending points in the column for my turret, giving it more time on the field, rocket pods, and specialized ammo. Other options would have given me more health, more ammo capacity, faster reloads, and things along those lines. So, the game helps you tailor your character to your play style a little bit more. The persistent challenge, or Badass Ranking is a system that carries over all of your characters. As you complete challenges which range from dealing X damage with this type of weapon to kill X number of a certain enemy, you gain Badass Ranks, which convert to coins. You spend these coins on very small upgrades, 1% or less than 1% to various stats, such as Max Health and Gun Damage. These carry over all of your characters on your profile and help give you a little boost in online multiplayer. The online game is just like the single player, except with friends or strangers helping you. The difficulty scales depending on how many players there are, and the more people that are playing, the better the loot that drops. That said, the loot is not for everyone, it's first come first served, so if you are playing with strangers this can be a serious problem.
All in all, I've heartily enjoyed Borderlands 2. I played through some of the first one and felt no need to try and make it to the end to see what happened, because there wasn't any kind of pull for me to get there. Borderlands 2 has fixed that, and brought the series a little farther in terms of what can be done with a game like this. I'm awarding an 8.5/10 to Borderlands 2. See You Online.
No comments:
Post a Comment