14 DAY TRIAL // Borderlands 2 is a massive game and Gearbox Software, the developer of the franchise, reckons it’s about 50 to 60% bigger than the first game in the series.
Gearbox delighted many shooter fans back in 2009 with Borderlands 1, delivering a stylized experience centered on shooting, progressing in an RPG-like manner, and discovering all sorts of impressive guns through the arid wastelands of Pandora.
With Borderlands 2, the studio is trying to deliver an upgraded experience, with the same cel-shaded visual style, but with many improvements, lots of new abilities, as well as even more weapons.
Just to put the array of new things and features into perspective, Gearbox Vice President Steve Gibson, told Games Master magazine, via CVG, that Borderlands 2 is around 50 to 60 percent larger than the first Borderlands.
"I wouldn't be surprised if it was about 50-60% bigger [than Borderlands 1]," he said. "But it's also so much denser. Heck, just the city of Sanctuary, something like that couldn't exist in the first game. Our technology has evolved a lot to enable us to do that now."
Many of these new areas and adventures have been showcased in recent videos and plenty of new content will also be released for Borderlands 2 after its official launch in September, including a fifth playable character class – the Mechromancer.
Given this huge increase in scope and scale, Gearbox has tried to make things easy for those who haven’t played Borderlands 1.
"A decision that was made at the very beginning of the game was that at no point at any time could someone in the story or design team ever assume that some person has played Borderlands 1. You just start it from scratch."
Those who did play the first game will be in for quite a few treats and surprises, including the unlockable customization options we saw last month.
"There are cute winks at different things. For example, we have this thing where if you played the first one we detect your saved game and you get some cool unlocks," Gibson added.
Borderlands 2 is out on September 18, in North America, and September 21, in Europe and the rest of the world, for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.