I am a Gunzerker. I have never been more sure of anything as I loot the carnage that lies at my feet, a machine gun and a mini gun strapped to my back. Welcome back to Pandora. This is Borderlands 2.
Keeping the same cartoon, almost comic like, animation style this game takes you to a much prettier, but just as savage side of Pandora. While in the first game you found yourself smack in the middle of the desert, surrounded by mutant dog like creatures called skags, Borderlands 2 explores the snowy hillsides and frozen tundras of this fictional planet.
The object of the game is to kill Handsome Jack, who has recently taken control of Borderlands and taken credit for finding The Vault, the protagonist’s objective in the previous game. Handsome Jack is a ruthless Dictator who wears the face of another man upon his own. He has caught wind of your plan, and is in turn sending his men to try to kill you. These enemies include the familiar bandits and psychos from the previous games, along with some new soldiers. One type is the Nomad, who are essentially really big bandits, sometimes equipped with shields.
New pest enemies are also included. They are called Bullymong, and look like popular depictions of abominable snowmen but will go down just as easy as the Skags from the previous games.
Boss battles are also essentially the same as well. New areas typically have bosses, which can be beaten and turned in as objectives. As in the previous games, these bosses send out bandits and other soldiers to try to take you down, and rare items can be looted after winning these boss battles.
Essentially, with the exception of a new final objective and name and look changes for the original title characters, nothing about the game play has really changed. But no one buys the Borderlands games for the gameplay, they buy them for the weapons and the destruction that this wasteland offers.
In Borderlands, machine guns were super rare to find. In Borderlands 2, you find them so frequently, there isn’t even time to unleash a full round before a better gun is found.
For the Gunzerker perk he dual wields whatever top two guns are equipped at rapid speed. Load him up with two high level machine guns and he is near unstoppable.
The mini gun, the rarest gun in Borderlands is also back for Borderlands 2, however this time it is readily available.
Some may argue that easier access to better guns makes gameplay easier. But having more in your inventory than a couple sniper rifles and some incendiary pistols makes the game all the more fun.
Borderlands 2 brings back the three branch skill trees, specified for each class. In addition however is the new feature, the Badass Points. Token’s can be earned whenever the player completes a challenge. With these tokens you can buy percentage increases on firing rate, reloading time and a number of other useful perks.
Despite the repetitive game play Borderlands offers a fun experience with enough weapons to make even the toughest of enemies heads spin.
