So I got this game about a week ago. It’s one of the three games that went on sale. It took ’till now to finally begin playing it.
So…have you ever wondered what was happening behind the scenes between Borderlands 1 and 2, and what made Jack a total douche to you, that you wanted to kick his head all the way to the moon base? Well, we would have to go in the past to this time (aka a Pre-Sequel). Where the Helios base is under attack by a group of enemies, known as the “Lost Legion”, and Jack is not in power, nor is he a douche.
And I’m getting ahead of myself. The story starts at the floating city at the end of Borderlands 2 (and the ending of the final EP of the game). Jack is dead, the loss have been mourned. But we still want Hyperion to pay. I mean, screw having dibs on those vaults, Brick. This is more important.
Athena has been captured by three of the new Vault Hunters. You probably remember her back in Borderlands 1, who assisted you to eventually bring down General Knox.
Now, she’s seen as a Hyperion supporter and faced with death of her treachery, unless she can answer one question truthfully. “Why?” As in, why the betrayal? You used to be good, Athena!
Even in ‘Tales of the Borderlands’, she hated Hyperion. This doesn’t make sense.
She answers the question word for word, and you’re brought into her story. A story that happened after the defeat of General Knox. She used to work for the Lance, the group that oppressed the area. And you had to go in and kick their asses.
After the defeat, she became a mercenary. That was until one day, she got a call from a low ranking Hyperion(aka Jack) that the under construction Helios One moon base needs help with an unknown assailant. She doesn’t support Hyperion, but she couldn’t turn down the reward. She then hired a group of three mercs to come with her, and head to the moon base.
They are Wilhelm(the Enforcer), Athena(the Gladiator), Nisha(the Lawbringer)…
and then… then there’s Claptrap(the Mistake). Yes, you can play as the lovable, yet very annoying robot. And I love how the game questions your sanity three times after picking him to be your player character.
So anyway, as I said earlier, Helios is under attack by the Lost Legion. It’s up to you to get to Jack and rescue him. Remember, this is before he turned into a bird-killing douchebag, and actually had a boss. He was somewhat nicer back then, and cared about people. He was also more jittery.
Once finally reaching Jack, you have to rescue him from a large wave of Lost Legion fighters. And without a shield, you got to really know how to use cover. I even died once when they had me pinned against a wall.
After rescuing Jack, he gives you a shield and explains it in the best way possible. That when it depletes, get to cover.
He then tries to activate the security systems of the station, only for them to be jammed by an unknown signal. There’s no other option but to abandon the moon base. Later, Jack discovers it’s coming from the moon, Elpis. You eventually meet the leader of the Lost Legion, a bitch named ‘Zarpedon’. She has no desire to kill you; all she wants is Jack.
She destroys the only sensible way to escape the base, which are ships. Jack knows the only way to escape is to use the Moonshot. You know, that big blue thing in the middle of the H? Yep.
So after some big battles (and even a boss battle), you get loaded up. Jack originally wanted to go with you, but was forced to stay behind due to systems continuing to fail on the base.
Now on Elpis, you get help from an interesting woman named “Janey Springs” who gets you started on the right foot, and a way to get to the largest city on the moon; ‘Concordia’. There, you will hopefully find the source of the signal (or at least someone that can help track it), and then finally destroy it.
.
And now I feel I should get to my review of what I’ve seen so far;
Good:
-Laser Weapons, yo! We’re talking Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon quality(without the Blood Dragons). They are better than EXPLOSIONS!!! Just.. don’t let Torque hear that. He doesn’t like laser rifles.. as they don’t CAUSE EXPLOSIONS!!! Fucking Micheal Bay here, folks.
-The game also has two new weapon types. A new Cryo elemental weapon type that freezes enemies solid, and a grenade that makes sure the enemy is thoroughly dead before exploding.
-0g gravity is sort of realistic. As in, Sounds play when they shouldn’t in a vacuum(but not many games actually “get it”). But what’s lovely is the way when you cause someone to bleed, it gushes out of them in blobs. Also, when opening a container in a vacuum, the lid flies off due to the rapid change in air pressure, and the items inside go flying out.
-Instead of seeing when you have the game paused about “Handsome Jack isn’t going to defeat himself”, it’s replaced with “These bad guys aren’t going to butt-slam themselves”. I just found it funny.
-0g is fun, and so is butt-slamming on the ground. It’s another way to kill weakened enemies.
-Claptrap’s interesting skills. For example, two of the ‘Subroutines’. One, is it will randomly pick a gun. Whatever gun is picked, you’ll do more damage with it(for like 5 minutes). Yet all other guns (eg: using a Pistol when Shotguns are active) do less damage. It’s quite wacky in that regard.
-Claptrap’s action skill, VaultHunter.EXE (depending on several combat factors that would take too long to mention) can be either life-saving or down right unhelpful. It’s all random. There’s one where you gain the Gunzerker’s trait from Borderlands 2. Except.. no infinite ammo.
-Claptrap doesn’t consume oxygen, being a robot. It gives me one less thing to worry about when on Elpis.
-Attacking an enemy has a chance to suffocate him by popping their oxygen bubble. It’s a good way to kill a weakened, ranged enemy.
-No Point of No Return main mission. Really do love this decision not to put a “You must do all of your side quests before this mission, as you will not be able to do them afterward” thing.
Bad:
-Fast travel points are very scarce compared to the other games.
-The Oxygen-powered jetpack, the oxygen depletes way too quickly(for air-breathing humans). Fortunately, being Claptrap, you hardly use any.
-The game world seems a lot smaller than the other games. Of course, this doesn’t even require you to own Borderlands 1 or 2. It’s its own game.
Neutral:
-The Black Market exists from Borderlands 2 (and even the same guy runs it), yet the only change is Eridian is replaced with Moonstone. Feels like lazy… something.
-Having a Borderlands 2-themed GUI and HUD. Was hoping they’ll go with something different, instead of rehashing their current content.
-Shields that regen health seem to not exist or are very rare, compared to the other two games.
-The Golden Key chest from Borderlands 2(the one that has a chance to give you rare weapons and items) has been brought back. I got three free keys (according to what I see), yet ingame, I have 0?
-It seems 2K hired a bunch of British voice actors for the game. Because nearly everyone on Elpis speak British(even enemies). And we’re talking the stereotypical kind of British(crumpets, jolly-ho, flushed down the loo, etc). I personally don’t really like it.
Possible Bugs that need to be addressed;
-Being in a buggy for a good long while, then getting out and being spammed with Subroutines showing up on your HUD. Obvious bug. But maybe this is another Claptrap ‘feature’. The game did warn you.
-1/2 of dialog directed to you (and if you play by yourself), I keep hearing “Get those Vault Hunters!”, and other things like it to “simulate” you playing with real people, which is not possible in Single Player.