One of the best video games of all time packed with a 'Meh' game.
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection is a Remastered Double back of Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The PreSequel with all their DLCs. This is a great collection that comes with 2 fantastic Looter Shooter RPG games.
Borderlands 2 Gameplay: Borderlands 2 steps up in almost every way from the first game. This game’s combat and gameplay style is very similar to the first game with a few minor tweaks to keep it running smooth. Much like in the first game this is an open world RPG, looter shooter where you go from area to area doing quests and looting the map for better guns and gear. You pick from 4 different characters (plus some cool DLC characters) and can play this game entirely 4 player co-op or solo. The level up system and skill tree is very similar to the first game with how it works, they now added challenge tokens and challenges that allow you to upgrade things like your health and damage as well. A new gameplay feature to BL2 is the inclusion of Eridium which is a new rare purple currency you find throughout the game to upgrade your ammo and backpack slots whereas in the first game this was done via claptrap missions. The combat gets better with an all-new variety of enemies like different types of new bandits, creatures and loader bots to fight. The new way we fight enemies in this game with elemental weapons was a huge step up as well and made for a much more fun and satisfying play style.
Graphics, Voice Acting, Music: A lot of the much-needed changes came for the visual art style in this game. The game is still a comic book, cell shaded game but a big complaint with the first game everything was a baron waste land with little room for color or interesting environments. This game brings in beautiful and vastly different environments with, Cities, Green pastures, Oasis Desserts and even Ice and frozen areas. My personal favorite area was the Caustic Cavern which had green rivers of acid and gold bundles everywhere. It made for a fun map sweep and grind to sweep the area of its resources and do quests. The voice acting is much better this time around with characters like claptrap being much funnier this time around and people, like the new villain Handsome Jack giving incredible performances. The music and environmental sounds and themes are all a huge step up as well with lots of fun and catchy themes coming through the mix. The main song from 'The Heavy' is great and fits borderlands so well.
Story/ No spoilers: The story continues after the events of the first game some years later, on the bandit planet of Pandora with an Eridium event erupting from the planet and bringing in a corporation called Hyperion with a new villain, Handsome Jack. Handsome Jack has to be one of the all-time best villains in a video game. He's funny, tragic, evil and it comes as easy to see his perspective on things and how the outside world sees him as the hero. Very cool story telling stuff and honestly, I'm not sure if borderlands will ever be able to keep a good story like this going into other games. I don't usually try to over hype games when I don't need to but let me put it to you this way, I didn't play this game with friends or when it came out. I played it years later not knowing anything about it and It's probably one of my all-time favorite games and I'm not a huge RPG kinda guy. This game is fantastic and the DLCS are just as amazing, can’t recommend this game enough. I don't want to spoil much more about it than this so go play it, especially if you loved BD1 or like RPG looter shooters! Overall, aside from some minor glitches and maybe 2 crashes id give this game a 9.5/10
Borderlands: The pre-sequel: The Pre-Sequel is best played after 1 and 2 but you could play it before 2 if you wanted to. The presequel is sort of an in-between story for 1 and 2 and tells some back story to some of the bosses and the main villain from 2 (Handsome Jack) along with introducing us to some new characters as well. This game takes place on the moon of Pandora and because we are outside on a moon our characters constantly have to worry about Oxygen depletion and bounce around in zero gravity. The game definitely isn't as long or interesting as 2 and the gameplay mechanics are exactly the same and only differ with new weapons and the annoying oxygen system. There are some cool ground slam moves you can do with the zero-gravity system but aside from that there isn't a whole lot of variety with the moon. The environments aren't super amazing either since most of them are either traditional moon scapes or indoor city/ base areas. The ending and overall outcome of this game is very cool and the DLC is fun. The graphics, music and voice acting are, for the most part all similar to 2 and pretty much this entire game feels like a standalone expansion to 2 rather than a full new title. The story is complex and pretty cool, so I'll leave that for you to uncover as it sets up 2 and Handsome Jack really good. Overall, I've heard people complain about this game for being boring, having annoying side quests and characters and of course the dreaded oxygen system and I must say I have to agree with the majority on this one. This game feels much smaller than 2 especially with it only having minimal DLC content which probably isn't a bad thing since it isn't as liked as 2. Overall, this game is a big letdown compared to 2 and isn't bad but isn't anything too memorable, I’d give this one a 7.5/10
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection is a Remastered Double back of Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The PreSequel with all their DLCs. This is a great collection that comes with 2 fantastic Looter Shooter RPG games.
Borderlands 2 Gameplay: Borderlands 2 steps up in almost every way from the first game. This game’s combat and gameplay style is very similar to the first game with a few minor tweaks to keep it running smooth. Much like in the first game this is an open world RPG, looter shooter where you go from area to area doing quests and looting the map for better guns and gear. You pick from 4 different characters (plus some cool DLC characters) and can play this game entirely 4 player co-op or solo. The level up system and skill tree is very similar to the first game with how it works, they now added challenge tokens and challenges that allow you to upgrade things like your health and damage as well. A new gameplay feature to BL2 is the inclusion of Eridium which is a new rare purple currency you find throughout the game to upgrade your ammo and backpack slots whereas in the first game this was done via claptrap missions. The combat gets better with an all-new variety of enemies like different types of new bandits, creatures and loader bots to fight. The new way we fight enemies in this game with elemental weapons was a huge step up as well and made for a much more fun and satisfying play style.
Graphics, Voice Acting, Music: A lot of the much-needed changes came for the visual art style in this game. The game is still a comic book, cell shaded game but a big complaint with the first game everything was a baron waste land with little room for color or interesting environments. This game brings in beautiful and vastly different environments with, Cities, Green pastures, Oasis Desserts and even Ice and frozen areas. My personal favorite area was the Caustic Cavern which had green rivers of acid and gold bundles everywhere. It made for a fun map sweep and grind to sweep the area of its resources and do quests. The voice acting is much better this time around with characters like claptrap being much funnier this time around and people, like the new villain Handsome Jack giving incredible performances. The music and environmental sounds and themes are all a huge step up as well with lots of fun and catchy themes coming through the mix. The main song from 'The Heavy' is great and fits borderlands so well.
Story/ No spoilers: The story continues after the events of the first game some years later, on the bandit planet of Pandora with an Eridium event erupting from the planet and bringing in a corporation called Hyperion with a new villain, Handsome Jack. Handsome Jack has to be one of the all-time best villains in a video game. He's funny, tragic, evil and it comes as easy to see his perspective on things and how the outside world sees him as the hero. Very cool story telling stuff and honestly, I'm not sure if borderlands will ever be able to keep a good story like this going into other games. I don't usually try to over hype games when I don't need to but let me put it to you this way, I didn't play this game with friends or when it came out. I played it years later not knowing anything about it and It's probably one of my all-time favorite games and I'm not a huge RPG kinda guy. This game is fantastic and the DLCS are just as amazing, can’t recommend this game enough. I don't want to spoil much more about it than this so go play it, especially if you loved BD1 or like RPG looter shooters! Overall, aside from some minor glitches and maybe 2 crashes id give this game a 9.5/10
Borderlands: The pre-sequel: The Pre-Sequel is best played after 1 and 2 but you could play it before 2 if you wanted to. The presequel is sort of an in-between story for 1 and 2 and tells some back story to some of the bosses and the main villain from 2 (Handsome Jack) along with introducing us to some new characters as well. This game takes place on the moon of Pandora and because we are outside on a moon our characters constantly have to worry about Oxygen depletion and bounce around in zero gravity. The game definitely isn't as long or interesting as 2 and the gameplay mechanics are exactly the same and only differ with new weapons and the annoying oxygen system. There are some cool ground slam moves you can do with the zero-gravity system but aside from that there isn't a whole lot of variety with the moon. The environments aren't super amazing either since most of them are either traditional moon scapes or indoor city/ base areas. The ending and overall outcome of this game is very cool and the DLC is fun. The graphics, music and voice acting are, for the most part all similar to 2 and pretty much this entire game feels like a standalone expansion to 2 rather than a full new title. The story is complex and pretty cool, so I'll leave that for you to uncover as it sets up 2 and Handsome Jack really good. Overall, I've heard people complain about this game for being boring, having annoying side quests and characters and of course the dreaded oxygen system and I must say I have to agree with the majority on this one. This game feels much smaller than 2 especially with it only having minimal DLC content which probably isn't a bad thing since it isn't as liked as 2. Overall, this game is a big letdown compared to 2 and isn't bad but isn't anything too memorable, I’d give this one a 7.5/10
Reviewed on Apr 04, 2023