Borderlands 2 Review (Re-Upload)

"Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good." - Pope Francis

[Note that this is an old review from several months ago. All opinions stay the same though.]

Although appearing fairly repulsive by
its box art to some, what lies within is one
of the greatest game narratives.

 This game, a modern masterpiece if I must say, is a co-op player-vs-enemy open-world quest based game with rogue-style aspects. Borderlands, as a series, blends the looting and level systems of role-players with the intense, adrenaline pumping combat akin to first-person shooters. Now, this game does have its flaws but those tend to be overshadowed by its beautiful positives (all of which will be covered in this review).

The insane world of Pandora is the
perfect haven for the insanity and
lawlessness the land possesses.

SUMMARY: You play as a “Vault Hunter” (mercenaries hunting after the newly opened “Vault”, AKA a powerful cache of alien technology and presumed wealth) who has just survived a train wreck caused by the CEO and dictator of the Hyperion Corporation, Handsome Jack, operating and mining on the planet of Pandora. Through your journey, you join with the resistance operation named The Crimson Raiders in the final bastion of resistance on Pandora, Sanctuary. The greatest

and possibly most essential part of this game is its main theme: There are no heroes. Not in Sanctuary, not in Hyperion’s crew, not in the wilderness, not on Pandora, not even in our own world. There are merely those that have the power to change their world that have the choice to use it for good or for bad. All men are good and bad, some are just more on one side the other though.

While cartoon-based, the art can still
remain fluid and beautiful in its
own way.

VISUALS: Where do I begin? Borderlands has its own unique art style, something rarely seen in the likes of Triple A titles these days who pump in their greatest processing abilities to make games look as realistic as possible. Sounds bad that Borderlands doesn’t do this, right? Wrong. Borderlands develops a comic book style artwork, thus increasing the sense of madness and comedic essences of Pandora and its citizens. On a whole, the visuals excel at what they do and make the game beautiful in its own aspect. However, I feel the need to point out that I did experience some drops in frame rates and sometimes lagged during huge fight scenes, but I think this might be my own fault for playing on a mediocre processor and running a few other programs in the background. Whateves.

The utilizing of RPG elements in a FPS
defines the Borderlands franshise, and
is perfected in Borderlands 2

AUDIO: Let me be clear: the music in this game is amazing. Granted, it isn’t “epic” or “catchy” per say, however it excels at what it does: accenting the mood of the fight (with adrenaline rushing drum pounding), with shock (due to absence of music at pivotal moments), and even the beauty of the title screen (a sick acoustic accompaniment). Overall, I have no qualms with the music, but I do regret that it isn’t as powerful as it could have been. No big deal though.

GAMEPLAY: This is where the game truly shines. In Borderlands 2, the whole world revolves around the guns, baby! Borderlands does a beautiful job of keeping the randomness of the universe consistent with the randomness of guns and loot, making it so that a low level player has the same chance of getting a Legendary gun as does a powerful, level-capped monster does. Granted, there are some guns that can only be acquired through quests, but that’s beside the point. Speaking of quests, there are a TON of them, and each and every single one of them (with the exception of timed ones, in my opinion at least) are incredibly fun and I found myself completing all possible side quests I could before continuing my story mode. 

The beautiful chaos that defines
the world of Pandora suits the action of
the game perfectly.

THE BREAKDOWN: A self-proclaimed “Shoot n’ Loot Adventure”, Borderlands 2 infuses aspects of RPG's and FPS's into one unique, comic book style antihero adventure. With pulse-pounding action, side-launching comedy, and revolutionary themes Borderlands 2 is easily a modern masterpiece in the gaming industry, one that didn’t receive enough credit or recognition in the mainstream market (i.e. CoD Advanced Warfare is outselling Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel on Steam. This is why we can’t have nice things guys).

OVERALL RATING: I can easily and wholeheartedly rate Borderlands 2 a near perfect score of 9.75/10 - Buy this Game!