Borderlands 2 Review

The promise and potential of RPG looter-shooter Borderlands was always there, with the Mad Max-meets-Diablo mix of driving, shooting, and RPG looting in the comic-book-come-to-life world. The first game didn't quite realize all of it, with a notable lack of depth and a storyline that ended with a thud. Right around Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot DLC adventure, however, Gearbox appeared to find its Borderlands groove, embracing the over-the-top comic adventure and tapping into what it truly meant to be a Vault Hunter on Pandora. The band doesn't just continue playing that groove in Borderlands 2, it embraces its inner Nigel Tufnel and cranks the volume up to 11.

Everything is bigger and better: the size, color, and character of Pandora (particularly with PhysX effects enabled); the truly amazing variety of detailed weapons and equipment; the laugh-out-loud dialog; a monster manual full of enemies (human, animal, and robotic alike); RPG and customization options; a lengthy and gratifying storyline; and a diverse cast of characters new and old. The driving... well, that's still as shallow as before, but cruising across Pandora is still a way to experience the lush and detailed environments.

A Kid, Some Bombs, and a Train

I've enjoyed many exploits in Borderlands 2 that convey the experience it offers, but I'll share just one of my favorites: Roughly a quarter of the way through my battle against Hyperion Corp. and Handsome Jack, I was sent on a train-robbery mission. Playing as the new Assassin class, Zero, I hooked up with Borderlands 1's Hunter, Mordecai, who's now a quest-giving NPC. He put me in contact with the local explosives expert, Tiny Tina, aka The World's Deadliest 10-Year-Old. After playing a gruesome game of Pop Goes the Bandit with the murderous grade-schooler, Tina told me her train-blowing explosives (rockets strapped to stuffed animals) were stolen by the local gang, so in order to blow the train I'd first have to get Tina's bombs back. That's the setup. Here's how it unfolded:



I hit the sizable, guard-filled badguy camp from an elevated position with my fire elemental sniper rifle -- perfect for toasting bandits. The moment I opened fire, Mordecai -- from an in-game mile away -- also began lighting up the camp with Slag rounds, which deal their own elemental damage that makes affected enemies more vulnerable to any other type of elemental damage. Hooray for teamwork! My first target was a massive bandit Goliath who, instead of going down when I scored a perfect headshot, transformed into a powerful and appropriately named Rampaging Goliath. That would have been bad for me if I was up close; fortunately I was at distant sniper range, grinning with satisfaction as the enraged, headless Goliath went berserk on whoever was closest -- in this case, his bandit friends. As my fire rounds and Mordecai's Slag tore targets apart and the Rampaging Goliath pummeled his bewildered bandit buddies with his massive fists, Tiny Tina broadcast over the camp comms, shouting, "Nobody steals Mushy Snugglebites!" The besieged bandits screamed their own confused reply: "Who the hell is Mushy Snugglebites?" Ah, good, ridiculous times.

Sniping Hero, Melee Zero

While I love that particular mission and embraced Zero's ranged tactics, I also felt locked into sniping with the Assassin class. If you've seen any of the previews, you'll likely have noticed the lightsaber-meets-katana sword Zero wields in all the previews. True story: I was more than five hours into Borderlands 2, searching high and low for the blazing blue sword (or any other edged melee weapon) before I discovered Zero starts with it as his default melee attack. D'oh.


Now, up to that point, I'd been slotting all of my experience points into my gun and critical-hit Sniping skill tree. When I realized the sword that should allow me to carve up enemies like Sho Kosugi was just a melee button away, I reconfigured my skills (courtesy of one of the numerous handy vending machines) and threw all of my Sniping points into my Melee skill tree in an effort to get the full, visceral, and up-close fighting experience. (Zero's third skill tree is focused on improving shields, armor, and reload and weapon swap speed). I only succeeded in doubling my disappointment: Zero only does one basic sword slash, and even when he's using his melee enhanced abilities, it's not nearly as gratifying or effective as sniping.

There are four classes to play as -- the Assassin, the Gunzerker, the Siren, and the Commando -- but since I only had a week for this review, I couldn't thoroughly sample all three skill trees of each. That, by design, will take many weeks of play. Trust me, it took me 40-plus hours to hit level 30 and fill out one skill tree with Zero. I can say that Gearbox did a great job in adding a wider variety of skills and creating some needed character diversity relative to Borderlands 1; I can't say if all three skill trees in each class offer real, worthwhile gameplay options. For the Assassin, at least, there's one that came off as a loser.

A Standard of Excellence

Another area Borderlands 2 improves upon the original is overall variety. The main factor that bored me with the original Borderlands is the lack of diversity or difficulty in enemies, not to mention no big, bad Darth Vader character to hunt down. The devilish Handsome Jack, a sociopath hellbent on unlocking an alien artifact on Pandora, plays the role of the latter to a T. His dialog is written with brilliant black humor, and delivered convincingly by voice actor Dameon Clarke.


It's not just Jack -- that excellent standard is the norm for characters in Borderlands 2. The original cast of Vault Hunters that help players along as NPCs, along with other carryovers like Claptrap, Dr. Zed, Scooter, and the many enemies who hurl insults and bullets your way are all well done, and as a result Borderlands 2 is brimming with terrific, unique, and funny characters and dialog. I still get a chuckle out of the lowly Hyperion security guard who, in his death throes, laments the fact he just finished paying off his mortgage.

Jack's Legions

As for the enemies, Gearbox has done a stellar job of creating bandits, soldiers, creatures, and robots galore. The robotic Hyperion troops in particular are terrific to fight -- from basic machine-gun toting bots to advanced ones that transform into jets and attack you from the air, Handsome Jack's android army provides some formidable foes, and you'll face them in droves. Just about every main-quest mission throws wave after wave of enemies at you. While the AI is only a slight improvement on the bullet-sponges of the original (they'll actually take cover and occasionally try to flank you this time around), Gearbox makes up for a lack of smarts with numbers. I was absolutely stunned at the sheer volume of enemies I faced in mission after mission, making every inch of advancement a tough, fun battle.


One piece of advice, though: make sure you complete a mission before quitting. Your progress is saved automatically at various stages in a mission, but you can't create your own saves wherever, whenever you like. Quitting mid-mission and reloading will rudely zap you back to the very beginning of your mission.

Elements of Co-op

That volume and diversity of foes makes Borderlands 2 a great co-op shooter (made much more enjoyable with Steamworks this time around). Not only is each character class designed to take on a specific, helpful role thanks to their unique skills, there's a terrific rock-paper-scissors element created by enemy types and the various elemental abilities of weapons. For example, shielded enemies can be countered with Shock elemental weapons, armored enemies with Corrosive, and everyone takes more elemental damage when first hit with Slag. Because Gearbox ups the difficulty (and the loot drops) in co-op, I had to outfit myself with the right weapon for the right foe and work in tandem to do the most damage, particularly when it comes to fighting in Borderlands 2's much tougher boss battles.


Correction: most boss battles are much tougher. No longer one-trick ponies, almost all of the boss characters forced me to stay on my toes to avoid the variety of ranged, melee, and area-of-effect attacks they threw at me. In particular, the Hyperion robot Wilhelm is one tough droid. He not only attacks you in every way possible, he's got an insane amount of health, healing bots that regularly fly in to replenish him, and a legion of other attacking bots who make it impossible to focus in on Wilhelm.

But as I said, there are exceptions to that rule. I faced a handful of bosses at key moments in the campaign whose weaknesses were far too easy to exploit. Most notably and disappointingly, I hardly even took any hits in my very first battle with Borderlands 2's final boss. How? I immediately discovered a spot on the map where I was nearly untouchable -- and it's not a glitch or tough to find. Borderlands, it seems, still hasn't beaten the final boss curse -- it was a lengthy letdown of hunkering down in one spot and simply unloading from cover.

Gearbox Rises

Immediately after that, however, came the last surprise gift from Gearbox: completing Borderlands 2, in many ways, is just beginning. A host of all new quests and enemies (not to mention any quests we may have missed the first time through) open up when the campaign ends, giving us a ton more to do. Add in the complementary Bad Ass leveling system, which allows players to add attributes to their characters for infinity, and it will be a looong time before I'm finished adventuring on Pandora.

It feels funny to say this about a 13-year-old developer with a portfolio of work that includes Half-Life and Counter-Strike expansions, stellar squad-based WWII shooter franchise Brothers in Arms, and the original Borderlands, but with Borderlands 2, Gearbox has arrived as a real blockbuster studio. Right from the toe-tapping "Short Change Hero" opening cinematic, Borderlands 2 stands out as Gearbox's magnum opus, and one of the most memorable and fun gaming rides I've ever been on.