Perhaps one of the most important improvements to the game is the refined inventory and other menus. They are a lot clearer and easier to navigate this time round. Even if your inventory gets cluttered with stuff you can handily mark any weapons or equipment as either trash to be sold or favourites to be held onto.
This makes clearing everything out at the shops without accidentally selling some of your best gear a breeze. And you’ll be spending a lot of time at the shops considering just how much loot you’ll be picking up during your excursions.
Which I guess finally brings us to the loot. One of the biggest selling points of the
Borderlands games. The bazillions of guns. And it’s not just empty marketing spiel; there really is an unmatched amount of different guns in this game.
Gamescom 2012
Early on this might not mean much, you’ll just be getting a basic selection of guns with slightly tweaked stats, but as you progress things will get much more interesting. Higher level and rarer weapons with all sorts of crazy combinations will start appearing with increasing frequency as you level up and advance through the story.
Whether its machine guns that fire little rockets or rocket launchers that fire entire salvos at a time that float your boat, you’re sure to find all sorts of things to experiment with. And that’s really where the long-lasting appeal of
Borderlands comes from, continually upgrading your arsenal with new instruments of destruction and becoming more and more powerful. Even if it is just to show off for your friends.
Gamescom 2012
Speaking of friends, you might need them. One of the last nigglesome little issues with
Borderlands that hasn’t been addressed is the loot, including ammo and healing potions, being shared between all four players. This isn’t an issue when playing with friends as you can easily organise things between yourselves - but if you’re just dropping into a game with random Live players then it might raise some issues. Whether it’s one guy hogging all the ammo or, in the worst case scenario, rushing ahead to steal all the weapon drops, there’s definitely potential for trouble in the multiplayer.
Gamescom 2012
Borderlands 2 is that rare gem, a sequel that takes everything people loved about the first game and just makes it better. All of
Borderlands’ strengths are refined and all of its weaknesses greatly improved upon. It’s a massive game packed with stuff to do and is geared towards re-exploring areas and trying out different characters and builds. And that’s before you even get to the challenging New Game + option.
Borderlands can easily provide a good fifty hours of entertainment even if you only casually get into it.
The overhaul of the main story missions makes
Borderlands 2 a far more engaging single-player experience, but it’s still best played as part of a group. If you’ve no like-minded friends or a pathological fear of meeting strangers online then you might not get the most out of the game. But if you do there are few more entertaining cooperative experiences you can have with your clothes on.
Gamescom 2012
Pros
+ Borderlands but better.
+ Tons of collectible stuff.
+ Great offline and online co-op.
Gamescom 2012
Cons
- Limited customisation.
- Loot shared between players.
SPOnG Score: 9.5/10
