Systems: All of Them
Original Release Date: September 18, 2012
There really is not a lot that I can say about this game that has been out a few months shy of a decade and has spawned a second sequel, a pre-sequel, an episodic game from TellTale Games, a spin-off game, and a movie which to me has some very interesting casting choices. I played the first
Borderlands a few years back (read
six years ago) and had a lot of fun, being what I was looking for in a first-person shooter. You have a game that doesn't take itself too seriously, taking place in a seemingly post-apocalyptic-
Mad Max-type wasteland that is full of characters ripped out of
Twin Peaks if George Miller, David Frost, and David Lynch all had a single baby. Or something like that. What I am trying to say is that the writing in
Borderlands was top-notch hilarious when it needed to be.
What inspired me to play Borderlands 2 was listening to an episode of The Besties podcast from April 8th, which was mostly about Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, a spin-off of a character from Borderlands 2 that was described as a mix between Borderlands and Dungeons & Dragons. I was told that playing either Borderlands 2 or the Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep was not necessary to play or enjoy Wonderlands, but me being me, thought that I had Borderlands 2 sitting unplayed in my Steam library so why not install that game up and give it a go? So that is what I did.
I decided to pick Maya, the Siren as I chose Lilith (also a Siren) in the first Borderlands because she seemed more interesting than 50% of the other base characters. The Gunzerker and Commando classes felt like generic dudes with guns, and Zero the Assassin seemed to be the cool-looking character (Zero also focused on melee weapons in the opening, and while I know that there would not be as much hand-to-hand combat in the game, I thought I would lean away from that, especially if some of the skill-tree abilities focused on melee combat. Because I apparently have whatever version of the game that also gives you access to the Mechromancer and Psycho, two added classes that were not part of the original four, I thought that I would play the game with one of the original characters, at least to start and if I did not like Maya after an hour or so, I could start a new game and switch it up. Well, I am currently 28 hours in at level 17 and I really like the Maya character. Her primary special skill being able to isolate a single enemy by levitating them in the air and immobilizing them temporarily, allowing you to shoot at them at point-blank range, or just temporarily taking out another enemy from the fight so you can focus on other enemies for a few extra seconds.
Like the first Borderlands, Borderlands 2 feels pretty weak on story as you are again playing a vault hunter who gets caught up in squabbles between weapons corporations, and you just kind of go along for the ride. Killing, looting, selling, repeat. But honestly, that is really all that I am kind of looking for right now as I am also playing Final Fantasy X and Dragon Quest IX so having something that is not too story intense with fun characters is rather nice.
As for how I am currently playing, I have found that I am favoring sniper rifles coupled with a shotgun for close encounters. After unlocking the third equipped gun option, I would have either an SMG or assault rifle, depending on what kind of damage I wanted to do and if I needed something with elemental damage. For bosses, I will usually swap out the sniper rifle for a rocket launcher (or when I had to go up against those annoying
mutated varkids). As with the first game, I have found that I tend to shy away from shotguns and rocket launchers where you can only fire one or two shots before reloading because one of the quirks in this franchise is your gun randomly jamming which triggers an automatic animation where you essentially reload again and that is just as annoying as having to reload period.
That is really all I came here to say.
Oh, and I am playing the game solo without any online co-op and I have not delved into any of the DLC. At least yet.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Many Moons Ago, In a Faraway Land
So I was looking over the first Borderlands, and I apparently blanked that while I did play as Lilith for a while, I forgot that I decided to restart the the game and did beat it with Mordecai because I remember using Bloodwing a lot and powering up that beautiful bird. Ah well.
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