The original Borderlands can easily be considered one of my favorite games of all time. I invested hundreds of hours maxing out each character and beating the game countless times with my buddies both on Xbox 360 and PC (Yep I bought two copies). It seamlessly blended the high octane intensity of a First Person Shooter and character progression with crazy amounts of loot of an RPG. Needless to say, Borderlands 2 had a lot to live up to, at least in my eyes. I was able to attend a presentation of the game at PAX which showed off the game’s first unveiled class, the Gunzerker and some much needed improvements (finally a Mini-map).
The presentation kicked off with the player starting in an arctic setting, which was followed by a humorous statement saying “Yes, we have finally discovered other colors.” It was completely refreshing to see a setting that isn’t completely covered in brown tones like the first game. The first notable addition was that enemies can be damaged in certain parts which leaves them handicapped. For instance shooting an enemy in the leg will either make them crawl or limp towards you, giving you the upper hand in a firefight.
We then got a glimpse at some of the new weapons in the game. Every gun manufacturer will be distinguishable from one another and all the guns will completely different from the first game. Along with the returning manufacturers like Tediore or Vladof, there is the new Bandit brand which just like it sounds, is made up of scraps of junk put together, and tends to hold a massive amount of bullets, for those that aren’t fond of reloading frequently.
We also caught a quick glimpse of a new four-person vehicle, which apparently now handles much better than the cars from the previous games, though I couldn’t really tell since it wasn’t hands on, but they definitely did look cool. A little bit later we also got to see the Siren class, Maya for the first time. Nothing was revealed about her however except for how she looks, as Gearbox is saving her for some future announcements. The talent tree screen was also showed for the first time and boy did it look great! Now the menus appeared in 3D right next to your character in real time, which eliminated the needless back and forth between menus.
We were told that the AI is going to much improved this time around as well, and what better way to support this claim than showing it. The enemy psychos didn’t just run towards you this time, they actually scaled the level when you jumped around on various platforms. The bandits aren’t your only enemies however. The robotic heavy Hyperion (which just so happens to have a home base on the moon) would like nothing more than to see you and everything in their path dead. That means bandits that stand in their way will either get blasted away, or just run away with fear. It’s a neat dynamic that shows the hierarchy in how the worlds inhabitants view each other. Much like shooting bandits in the legs, the robots can be slowed down by shooting away their robot limbs. Being the technologically advanced faction that they are, they can summon Servitors that will regenerate and heal any robots that aren’t disposed of quickly. This means you either have to concentrate your fire on the robots as much as you can to destroy them completely, or focus on the Servitors before they can swoop in and regenerate the robots.
We then got to see Roland, the former Lancer and main character from the original Borderlands being held captive and it was up to us to destroy the mobile prison he was being held in. We were told that if we can’t save him in time, that will actually carry over into following quests, which means that quests will dynamically change depending on how you go about doing them.
Everything about the game looks to be improved, which means I’m already looking forward to the hundreds of potential hours I’m going to spend in the world of Pandora. Make sure to check back for more continued coverage of Borderlands 2.
