14 DAY TRIAL // While Borderlands 1 delivered a pretty good experience by blending role-playing game mechanics with first-person shooting and a special cel-shaded visual style, Gearbox wants to improve upon the recipe with Borderlands 2.
The game has finally been released and, with the promise of an actual story, not to mention more varied skill trees for the new characters, it’s definitely looking like an improved experience.
Does Borderlands 2 manage to impress or does its huge number of guns drag it down? Let’s have a quick look.
Borderlands 1 was a great game to play but its story, however, was practically non-existent. Borderlands 2 could have easily skipped over that plot and start a new one but the game actually owns up to the events from the previous title in its opening sequence.
The planet of Pandora was changed by the opening of the vault and now a rich mineral is growing all around the planet. This mineral also hints at the possibility of an even bigger vault, so hunters from all around the universe are converging on the planet.
This interferes with the plans of the Hyperion Corporation run by the evil Handsome Jack, so he has special plans for all the hunters that reach the planet, including the four main protagonists.
Fortunately, the player escapes Jack’s evil and quite deadly plan and, thanks to the ever-so-friendly Claptrap, you start having your first adventures on Pandora.
Gameplay feels much like the original but there are some crucial changes, like the addition of a mini-map in the top right corner of the screen. This means you’ll spend less time in the menus and way more time actually shooting enemies, looting chests, and generally enjoying the game.
At least in the beginning, all characters feel the same, as Borderlands 2 once again keeps actual skills locked away from players until they reach level 5. You can, however, spend tokens unlocked by completing various challenges on different passive skills.
In terms of visuals, Borderlands 2 retains the cel-shaded look but refines it a bit with sharper lines and, at least on the PC, with a variety of special visual effects, including PhysX ones available only on PCs with Nvidia graphics cards.
Worthy of a full Softpedia review? Yes.