Borderlands 2 Preview

If you’re like me then you picked up a little gem called Borderlands and enjoyed the hell out of it. Well Gearbox looking to outdo themselves is aiming to top what was a great game with an even greater game so much improvement the way they talk about it makes you think the original game was a bad one instead of the classic it is.

First off is the games new villain a devilish mastermind called Handsome Jack who has purchased the Hyperion Corporation and is aiming to become the Emperor of Pandora and to achieve this devious plan he has put a giant H-shaped Moon base from which robot reinforcements will be deployed from. It also is a screw you to the player, a constant reminder that this man is changing everything that we know and love about Pandora and this is intentional.

On top of the new villain we have new vistas. If you can see it you can travel there and this is no exaggeration. This new feat is very impressive considering the relatively large but still small by comparison vistas you had in Borderlands. Another great surprise is that the artists did their research and discovered other colors than brown which is nice.

Some of the new environments include blue lakes, light blue ice, green fields, and I’m sure they will bring our favorite brown back.

Though the original characters were good they are being replaced by a whole new caste with new abilities and new looks. But because we all love the original cast so much they are being brought back as important NPCs. One of which is on display in the leaked footage above. It has been revealed in Game Informer that the back story of the original cast will be revealed in Borderlands 2.

Missions in the first game were pretty simple in their design. They were fun but they were also boring on occasion. That changes in the sequel with a new dynamic mission set that you can actually fail missions and have to do other missions that pick up after the failure of the last mission instead of simply driving back to the quest giver and receiving the quest again. I have to say I have not seen that level of dynamic mission structure in many games and I’m a pretty avid gamer.

Guns, it isn’t Borderlands without guns well the guns from the original game have been scrapped and replaced with a whole new arsenal. Now arguably they could have just tacked on a few hundred more and fans and none fans alike would have been happy but to go out of the way to make whole new arsenal with guns that are disposable, that explode when thrown, and guns that fire mini missiles is pretty impressive.

With so much change one can easily begin to get worried about their favorite enemies making a return in the sequel. Well rest assured that in addition to new enemies like the BullyMong and Thresher along with a plethora of Hyperion War Bots classic characters like the bandits and skags will return, some just as they were and others with upgrades.

The upgrades for the skags are the new elemental skag who can charge up younger members of the pack and unleash more element based damage on the character while resisting the same type of damage from you. Bandits will see more coordination along with the classic run at you in a vain hope of killing you.

The new Nomad carries a shield with a psycho midget strapped to it as a meat shield. Once freed the midget will turn on its capture and attack giving you an opening and a potential temporary ally.

There is so much more coming about Borderlands and it looks like that number 2 despite the failings of so many other number twos will actually top the original game with quirky antics and great mission design. I for one definitely can’t wait to sink my teeth into Borderlands 2 when it is released in 2012.