Borderlands 2 Previews

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Written by BuckGB on April 6th, 2012

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Borderlands 2, while contextually connected to the previous game, is in many ways, all new. Most obviously, the four original vault hunters have checked out, and in their place are four new playable characters: Maya the Siren, Salvador the Gunzerker, Zero the Assassin and Axton the Commando. The original heroes will have cameos in this sequel, but are not the focus of the story. What is the focus is the sinister plan of scheming Hyperion CEO Handsome Jack a cunning new villain who's determined to (clean up) Pandora.

At a recent event, Gearbox paired off members of the press and let them loose on the game's co-op mode. We were lucky enough to be there, and the first difference we noticed between the old Borderlands and Borderlands 2 was the expansion of the characters' skill trees. Given the choice between a level 20 Maya or a level Salvador, I chose Salvador (the ability to dual-wield rocket launchers made it a no-brainer) and quickly dumped my skill points into things like Quick Draw (faster reload) and Die Hard (increased max health). I could have easily spent more time with customization but I was itching to get started, and once my co-op partner got set up, we jumped head-first into an expansive, rocky level called Wildlife Preserve. Gearbox's promise of original character cameos proved true almost immediately, when we ran into Mordecai holed up in a shallow cave at the top of a hill.

The original Borderlands toted something like a gazillion guns, give or take. With Borderlands 2, Gearbox is still saying the range of weaponry is near infinite, however, they're making significant strides to distinguish their portfolio. There are now manufacturers. Guns crafted by (Tediore,) which are disposable after firing off a single clip and turn into a grenade on impact, are much different than the (Dahl) brand, which resemble weapons of modern shooters, for instance. And those are just two of the weapon brands found on Pandora.

Individual guns are also quite differentiable. When push comes to shove, I felt all the weapons had that right amount of punch and plenty of visual flair to go along with their respective brands. And this in turn makes combat a satisfying experience. As you mentioned while we were playing, there's something immensely satisfying about pumping bullets into a skag or bandit and seeing hit points rise off their bodies until they drop over dead.

The stage demonstrates two key factors about Borderlands 2. The first is the vast improvement to the game's visuals. It shares the same cartoon look of the first game, but the Wildlife Preserve is more colorful and vibrant than any location in the first game, with deep green hills dotted with pulsing orange mushroom-like trees, filled with violent neon purple and orange critters, and surrounded by blue ocean. Even the game's many, many randomly generated guns are brighter than those in the original.

Which brings us to the game's other major improvement. It is now far easier to weigh the merits of new weapons found in the wild against what you're already carrying. A handy display listing a gun's attributes appears to its right when you look at it alongside a display of the gun you're holding's stats with positive and negative bumps highlighted by red and green arrows. The ability to alter your kit on the fly is a huge help compared to the clunky menu diving in the first game.

The demo featured two boards: Wildlife Preserve and Caustic Caverns. The Wildlife Preserve was the more bland board. However, it did have one standout difference. Transformers. That's right. The Wildlife Preserve focuses on Mech enemies. One is called the Loader. This Mech is basically Scrapper from the Constructicons in the G1 Transformers series. The Mech has a loader for a shield, but then transforms into a front-end loader to mow you down. Another Mech transforms into a jet. The colors on this board were predominantly brown and drab. Reardon thanks Monster Designer Ruben Cabrera for the diverse sci-fi and anime inspired enemy concepts found in the game.

Caustic Caverns is setup similar to the look and feel of a swamp. However, instead of simply having murky waters, this wasteland is filled with lakes of acid. Although the acid lakes seem dangerous, they are filled with rewards. One of the giant acid monsters, called the Crysalisk, has legs covered in gold. Shoot the legs and you'll get tons of loot drops. Just avoid the actual acid. Because, it's well. you know. acid. This stage is filled with lots of crisp green colors with hints of orange. Acid bubbles will explode all around you so it's best to move cautiously through these Caustic Caverns. During our Caustic Caverns mission we uncovered some very scandalous pictures Marcus had of Moxxi. Depending on what you do with the pictures will affect the story.

One anchor of strong plots in the gaming medium is the presence of an evil force. While not a requirement of great narrative expression, bad guys make storytelling a lot easier. The first game lacked a clear and present enemy, but Borderlands 2 brings us Handsome Jack, his money and his hilariously huge, h-shaped moonbase.

Every time you're outside in this game, at least in the demo I played, you can see Jack's base in front of the moon. Even further, Jack can launch attacks from said base whenever he wants, and that happened a lot in my demo. He's gunning for you constantly, and that means you'll always know the difference between good and evil.

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