On paper Borderlands 2 is still just a medium-budget shooter with an addictive loot system, but once four-player co-op is added to that mix you quickly begin to wonder why all first person shooters aren’t made this way.Ĭo-operating is always more fun than competing, and appearing to co-operate while secretly stealing the best loot when your team-mates aren’t looking is even better. Unlike other games though nervousness over radically changing the formula is easily understood. There’s still much more that can be done with the Borderlands blueprint but this improves on every aspect of the original, even if it doesn’t do so equally in all areas. But they really do make all the difference here and elevate a fun but roughly hewn co-op shooter into a genuine classic. Artificial intelligence usually lags well behind graphics in terms of technology priorities in games, for the simple reason that its benefits are hard to get across in a screenshot or video.
It’s the enhanced enemy artificial intelligence that makes the biggest difference though, with different foes exhibiting very different strategies and often co-operating with each other. Vehicles are a little better too, but they still feel like an afterthought, and we’re not sure why more effort wasn’t put into expanding their role. There’s also a strange lack of visual customisation, which would have been understandable if they all had strong personalities but they’re virtual blank slates.īorderlands 2 may feature few genuinely new ideas but every element is inarguably improved, from the more varied missions (some of which can be failed, thereby altering the plot) to the greater range of enemy types.
These intrinsic skills greatly influence the skill trees and although it’s possible to create characters with very different sets of abilities, the nature of their specialties is still mostly focused around improving their unique skill.Īlthough the four main characters are all-new it’s not particularly obvious why, except from a story perspective, as they’re all very similar to the originals.
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But Borderlands 2 also has an expanded skill system that makes it even more of an action role-player in shoot ‘em-up clothing.Įach of the characters has three different skill trees full of unlockable abilities, as well as intrinsic skills such as Maya’s ability to capture enemies in balls of anti-gravity or Axton’s to deploy robotic gun turrets. The constant search for the ideal weapon is essentially identical to that which drives Diablo, despite their combat systems being completely different. In most cases the difference this makes between different guns is negligible but the feeling that you’re constantly being rewarded with useful loot, and that the next perfect weapon is just around the corner, is worryingly addictive. This doesn’t come across terribly well though and the various different regions never really feel genuinely connected – not least because there are still significant loading pauses between them.īut there’s really only two things Borderlands 2 is about: shooting mutants in the face and finding ever more elaborate weapons to do it with.Įach gun can be made up of hundreds of different parts, ensuring what Gearbox conservatively estimate as ‘gazillions’ of different weapons. The attention to detail is excellent but the major graphical advance in this sequel was meant to be the more cohesive game world. The now iconic cel-shaded graphics are another welcome deviation from the norm: reminiscent of comic book art but with a distinctive style all of their own. Borderlands 2 stops just short of breaking the fourth wall but it gets pretty close with jokes at the expense of everything from Skyrim to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.īut the important thing is it’s genuinely funny, and the lack of seriousness with which it treats itself, and gaming in general, is a welcome relief from standard military shooters. The extra effort isn’t wasted though and not only is there a lot more dialogue and speaking roles but the script itself is even sharper.
The story doesn’t really amount to much though and never really drives either the action or the exploration. Borderlands 2: Game Of The Year Edition (360) – if you’ve got a backlog problem don’t buy this