14 DAY TRIAL // The developers at Gearbox working on Borderlands 2 are interested in keeping the core mechanics of the franchise relevant while making sure that players have access to more content than in the original video game.
Scott Kester, who is a the concept designer working on Borderlands at Gearbox, told the 2K TV show that, “What we’re trying to do in this game … Borderlands is really about the loot, about the mechanic of levelling up and getting new gear. Focusing a lot more on the actual gun content creation, making those really interesting and fun, and a new thing around every corner, a new loot.”
He added, “I think focusing and doubling down on what our core was, designing the best characters and guns and environments we could to make the loot as interesting as possible. The guns this time around are so much better. they look different, they do different things. There’s a lot more gear that’s dropped.”
Kester criticized the first Borderlands, saying that the differences between the various sets of loot were too small and the player did not have enough incentive to switch from one to another, something that will be changed in Borderlands 2.
The new loot creation engine will be focused on delivering meaningful variety and cut down on the repetition factor.
Borderlands 2 will take place on the same Pandora as the first game with the main enemy this time around being a corporation known as Hyperion, which plans to industrialize the planet and to exterminate the colonist population.
Players will have to explore the game world and battle Hyperion while fighting regular raids launched from a base set on the planet’s moon, with the gameplay again focusing on cooperative play between as many as four gamers.
Borderlands 2 will be launched on all major gaming platforms during the third quarter of 2012.