Majestic mayhem or simply BOREDerlands?

The world of video games is one that’s dominated by first person shooters. Yearly instalments from the likes of Call of Duty, and EA committing to biannual releases of the Medal of Honour and Battlefield franchises mean that not a year goes by without at least a couple of gritty, authentic war shooters. It’s safe to say that, while these continent spanning shooters are decent offerings, the whole “shooting men in the desert” scene is more than a little over-saturated. Enter Borderlands 2.

This follow up to Gearbox Software’s 2009 smash hit (named Borderlands if you hadn’t already guessed) does away with any authenticity and realism, replacing it instead with a heavy dose of wackiness. It’s a wonderfully refreshing change to see a shooter as colourful both in its visuals and writing as Borderlands 2 is.

The thing about Borderlands 2 is that it’s so much more than an FPS. Positioning itself as an RPG shooter, enemies spill hit points as well as blood when you tear away at them. There’s a wealth of levelling up to be done and nearly every bad guy you down drops loot.

So much loot! The loot is the main reason you’ll keep coming back to Borderlands 2 long after its release. Everywhere you go you’ll see safeboxes, chests, and even toilet cubicles bursting with loot. Loot consists of cash, ammo, grenade mods, shields, and most importantly, guns: the lifeblood of Borderlands 2. Similar to the first game, guns can have all manner of devastating abilities, and there are literally millions of possibilities, so the chances of having the same loadout as everyone else is almost non-existent. A shotgun that fires 8 shells that set your enemies on fire? How about a sniper-rifle that deals extra explosive damage? Whatever your play style, there will come a point where you find a gun that you fall in love with, and that’s where Borderlands 2 excels.

It’s because of this that the game feels a little slow to start off with. Once you pick your class (turret launching Soldier, blade wielding Assassin, tank-like “Gunzerker”, or the healing Siren) you make your way through the first few story missions. It’s not a bad start to the game, but it doesn’t feel massively different from any other FPS, due to the fact you haven’t had the opportunity to mould your character and find choice weapons. The game really hits its stride around level 10, when the gunplay and the story get rather interesting indeed.

You’re a vault-hunter, back on the planet Pandora ready to get down to some good ol’ fashioned vault hunting, when your train is derailed by the game’s masked villain, “Handsome Jack”. Handsome Jack is trying to wipe out all of the bandits (including you) so his company Hyperion can drill into Pandora and mine its precious resources. Naturally, you join the revolution to overthrow Jack. Not exactly groundbreaking, plot-wise, but the script is genuinely second-to-none. It’s one of the funniest games you’ll ever play. Characters are varied, interesting and always amusing. You’ll find yourself laughing out loud regularly, which isn’t something you can usually say about video games, which have the tendency to miss the mark when it comes to humour.

It’s not just the script that’s funny though. Visual humour is rife as well with some hilarious character designs, place names and propaganda posters. The attention to detail is excellent and on the whole, the game is beautiful. It looks like one big graphic novel. Gearbox have perfected the art style from the first game. Pandora is a huge landscape of colour and variety, with blue icy mountains, and bright orange wastelands. It’s a joy to explore and you can spend hours just wandering around searching for loot, not to mention the story and side-missions (some of which are good enough to be actual story quests). There is some slight texture-pop upon loading up a new area, however it soon evens itself out and both textures and frame rate generally hold up well, even when the action is particularly intense.

As well as the running and gunning, vehicles are back in Borderlands 2. Easy as ever to get hold of thanks to the handy “catch-a-ride” spawn points located across the map, you’re more than welcome to race across Pandora running over Bullymongs and bandits and leaving a trail of chaos in your wake. Once you get over the unorthodox vehicle controls (which, after a bit of a drive feel natural) it’s a thrilling time, which becomes ever better with a friend manning the turret gun whilst you boost around corners. Yeah that’s right, Borderlands 2 is desperate for you to bring your friends along. While it’s a brilliant single-player experience, 4 player co-op makes its return and it really is an absolute joy to play with your friends. It’s without a doubt up there with the best co-op experiences on the market at the moment. Gearbox have done everything they can to make playing with your mates as easy and as painless as possible. You can jump into a friend’s game from the main menu and within minutes be by their side fighting off packs of Skags. The only criticism here is that if one of you is particularly far behind in terms of level, you might feel like a bit of a liability, as no allowances are really made for particularly large level differences. I played one game as a level 8 Soldier, jumping into a friend’s game who was quite far ahead, boasting a level 21 Gunzerker. I was incredibly ineffective and needed constant reviving, so it’s best to either start a game from scratch and work together throughout or play with people on similar levels. The game lets you have multiple characters on the go at the same time, (even allowing you to transfer equipment between them) so it’s more than possible to have a dedicated single-player campaign on the go as well as a co-op exclusive character.

In summary, Borderlands 2 is a lesson in crafting an imaginative, thriving world built to have fun in. It’s a game genuinely made for gamers that improves on its predecessor in every possible way. Hooking its claws into the addictive side of your personality with its endless supply of goodies (insert your own “Hoarderlands 2” joke here), it follows up with a brilliant array of ways to use said goodies, providing hours of entertainment both alone, and with friends.

THE GOOD

– Addictive loot collecting allows for huge replayability.

– Incredibly fun co-op campaign.

– Huge variety of unique and enjoyable weapons.

THE BAD

– Slow start.

– Co-op can be imbalanced with level differences.

SCORE: 9/10

Borderlands 2 is out now on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 (reviewed).

Review copy kindly provided by Premier PR.