So one way or the other I will be done with Borderlands 2 tonight so I figured to give this a go.
Borderlands 2 is a 2012 first person shooter/rpg from the people who brought us the Bioshock series and of course, the original Borderlands. Borderlands 2 returns to Pandora for more action in the wilderness against bandits, robots, and megalomaniacs.
Borderlands 2 opens some five years after the end of Borderlands. Handsome Jack, the president of the Hyperion Corporation has found another vault on Pandora and it taking steps to open it sooner than 200 year to release a dragon-like abomination, the Warrior,to wipe out the bandits and creatures of Pandora to make it into a paradise. Wait...we want to stop that? Well yes, because Jack is a prick and tried to kill you after luring you to Pandora. Wait, what? Yeah, ,Jack, as part of his master plan lures new vault hunters to Pandora to kill them. Risking if one lived they would come back and try to stop him. But if he didn't lure him there, he'd already crippled the resistance against him and there would have been nobody to stop him. Again: Wait, what?!? Why would he do that? Why would he take the risk? I don't know, but that's where the fundamental story breaks. Sure, there's plenty of the juvenile humor that made Borderlands so much fun; a lot more of it. Crammed down your throat at all times. Constantly.
The controls for Borderlands 2 closely match the original except for the redone inventory system. The original's inventory system made more sense and was far more intuitive, but after some time this one grows on you. Though why it can't default on the weapon type sort is beyond me. Player skills are more diverse allowing for a more customized game play and there's a "badss" rank system that helps to enhance your skills. My complaint from Borderlands about the driving system seems to have been addressed to a degree - the driving while controlled the same is not as haphazard as the first.
Sound in Borderlands 2 is still top notch. Returning actors voice the citizens of Pandora and the original crew of vault hunters return as NPCs to support and give missions. The music helps set the mood as always and isn't obtrusive.
The cell shading technique in Borderlands was enhanced for this outing, making it look even more like a comic book. At times in this game it is off putting. It can make it difficult to see targets in the background at times. At other times, it makes it easier to see than the photo realistic graphics can, especially at "night"" While I didn't like the style as much it is still novel and fresh and I appreciate it for what it is.
Summing Up:
Story: 3/5: The story is fun and who doesn't like the old revenge trope, but don't expect Shakespeare.
Sound: 5/5: Another excellent job.
Grapics: 3.5/5: I don't like the cell shading style used. I think its a little cheesy, but I appreciate it for what they were trying to do with it.
Controls: 4/5: Good control but I miss the old inventory system.
Playability: 2.5/5: Sure the average is closer to 4 on this one, but I'm taking a couple of points off and here's why:
The game is shockingly hard in spots. Assininely hard to the point where I'm pretty certain the developers were trolling me. Difficulty and level and available weapons and equipment are not congruous and the game around level 25 becomes so tedious just to walk five feet that it ceases being fun. Respawn costs a lot of money and it is easy, in the hundreds of times you will die to find yourself constantly flat broke. A full week of my playing was picking off people in Lynchburg for 20 minutes and then jumping to three gun machines to see if anything better was available so I could continue in earnest. Video games should not feel like a job and this one did.