Back On Pandora.

Well, it's not really back on Pandora.  In case it wasn't immediately obvious, I'm talking about the follow-up to the game I had an embarrassingly long obsession with – Borderlands 2^* – that means I'm talking about Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!.  That exclamation mark seems to be quite important and makes further punctuation difficult.  I think they did it on purpose, just to annoy people.  Like me.

I'm going to go ahead and spoiler the shit out of this game.  It's been out for over a month, but if you've stumbled (miraculously, because hardly anyone seems to) on this post, haven't played Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! yet and want to, I'd close the door quietly on the way out and come back when you can tell me I'm talking shite.

I'll come out and say it right out: I enjoy this game.  I've been playing on my own and with my wife since it came out on 17^th October.  I've kept abreast of the digging into the game and know quite a bit myself, so I decided to give my thoughts on it thus far.  A review, if you will.  But I'll say it again, despite anything else I might say, I enjoy this game.  It is flawed, and because I have the best interests of the game at heart I see those flaws and want to salve them.  Not everybody's going to agree with me, but tough shit.  Opinion, man!  OPINION!  But really if I were a journalist, I'd be the kind who meekly writes the most harmless stories when I know the terrible truth and then after years is found overdosed on booze, sleeping pills and painkillers.  I'm brave, me.

So, what do we have?  I'll tell you what we don't have, it's not Borderlands 3.  That's something that needs to be said outright.  From its setting – the time between Borderlands and Borderlands 2 – to its general feel – it's a tweaked version of the Borderlands 2 framework.  Borderlands 3 will probably be an evolution of what's gone before, and although we have some interesting things happening in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! it's not different enough to be that new game.  I can see why some people have been prompted to say it's a glorified DLC, but it isn't that either, fortunately.  The campaign is too substantial and the four, going to six, playable characters are all hallmarks of a separate, if very linked and similar game.

In this game we follow Handsome Jack, the villain from Borderlands 2, as he gets help from a new group of vault hunters to overcome a new threat to Pandora.  This all takes place on Pandora's moon Elpis and involves all the Borderlands-y insanity and ludicrous violence we've come to expect since the first game.  You get a bunch of twists and turns on the road through Jack's inevitable downward spiral.  It's all fun and mostly funny.  Not everything reaches its hilarious potential.  Davis Pickle is a bit of clunky misstep, the Artful Dodger thing raised a smile for a moment and then I started rolling my eyes when he explained every...bit...of...fucking...rhyming...slang^**.   That aside the story bobs along and we're introduced to the Australian-themed moon with all the cultural nods and winks that entails.  I'm sure there are some American-baffling Home and Away and Neighbours references buried in it, fortunately I haven't seen those, and I'd be too embarrassed to admit I had – fucking soap operas.  I giggled a lot at the wider cultural references and, of course, Mr Torgue.

Also to put in the 'cool' category we actually get to hear what the vault hunters think of all the crazy shit that's going on.  Their reactions lend some humanity and, at times, hilarity to the narrative and its nice not to be in control of a voiceless cypher.  Especially as there's the sense that these are supposed to be independent characters and not faceless clay to be moulded like in any number of RPGs.  Some of the dialogue can get tiresome, though, especially if you're playing the game for an extended time.  For the most part it works and is an extension of what was done with the Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep campaign expansion.  And including different voice overs for the two (current, because after the implementation of Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode in Borderlands 2 I'd be surprised if it didn't make a return here) playthroughs was a great choice as well.

The game feels like Borderlands 2 and the characters and weapons handle in much the same way.  The addition of lower gravity and air-poverty are cool.  The need for oxygen in large parts of the game isn't as terribly intrusive as people feared and it's a lot of fun to use it to soar over Elpis and slam down on...I would say unwitting, because some enemies seem to be fucking clairvoyant...foes.  The enemies are still almost mindlessly aggressive, so you have situations where they are trying to shoot at you through walls, which is frankly weird.  The new cryo element is another great addition and much better than slag.

Now, we come to the segue-way from me being purely complimentary to me being critical.  Loot is still a problem in this game.  Mostly, you can charge through with the weapons you pick up, get from the golden chest or missions^†.  What if you want the rarest of the loot?  The legendaries.  There are a bunch in this game, some of which return from Borderlands 2 or look exactly like ones in Borderlands 2, which was a bit disappointing in itself, but not awful and gave a little extra bit of familiarity and a link to the games nominally bracketing Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.  The drop rates are still an issue, one-in-thirty from sometimes quite challenging enemies still feels mocking.  It's even worse, now that I know that legendaries, skins and heads are all linked to the one pool.  Character customisation shouldn't have to come at the expense of hours upon hours of grinding and legendary equipment shouldn't be made even harder to get because those same customisations push them out.  You shouldn't need to fight a raid boss thirty times to get a single legendary, if anything it should have a high chance to drop multiple legendaries.  It all goes back to what I said before about the difference between frustration and fun, dudes.  There have been people who defend this policy, often with empirical data, but the act of playing a game isn't quantifiable with numbers, it's a lot more about how a player feels and if we feel like we're getting a bit screwed (whether we are or not) it's going to impact our enjoyment and whether we pick up another one of your games.  Here's a wee, hastily thought out suggestion for those with the numbers mind: have a sliding scale dependent on the type of boss.  Mini-bosses will have a one-in-twenty chance to drop their legendaries, main bosses have one-in-ten or -twelve and raid bosses have one-in-five for one, one-in-ten for an extra and one-in-thirty for a third.  Raids should never drop anything lower than blue, either.  That would make raid bosses more rewarding and rewarding is what this is all about, right?  I'm sure I'm right.

This neatly moves me onto the other great frustration about the game and that's the non-respawning enemies with assigned loot-drops.  Why have an enemy, with a legendary that has that horrible drop rate, that you can't get to go after again?  It beggars logic and it's ruler-across-the-knuckles mean.  I can see a vague argument that it's in keeping with Borderlands, but why add such an unfair feature?  There are plenty of call-backs to the first game and that's one of the shittier ones.  It's a bizarre decision, but then Gearbox seem to enjoy their bizarre design and gameplay-tweaking decisions.  The most recent of which was lessening the drop rate of a grenade from an uncommon enemy, when most players hadn't seen the drop.  I think it comes from a bunch of people saying they'd seen this item drop a few times.  This was a tiny percentage of a community that, has been said time and again, is a tiny percentage of the overall player base.  It's nice that Gearbox pay attention to the community, but this is just silly – it wasn't game-breaking and the item dropped isn't that great, so why mess with it?

Admittedly, the legendary problem has been mitigated by the addition of the Grinder, into which you can throw items you don't want and possibly get items of better quality.  That's a fucking cool feature, I have to admit.  They've also boosted the quality of the equipment you can buy from vendors, so that legendaries have a good chance to appear in the items of the day.  And it's even better when you can afford them, and it means money actually has value again in a Borderlands game.  Those are design decisions I can approve of.  However, not everyone wants to play that way, they might be weird and messed-up^‡, but some people like to farm allocated drop sources for their stuff.  These people don't want to stand at the grinder hoping to get the item they want, they want to go out and find a high-powered enemy and make them PAY!  Reducing so many enemies to single-instance encounters robs the players of end-game experience.  And we want end-game experience, we want to play this for ages.  Choice is a big part of the Borderlands experience and the choice to get equipment in different ways will extend the life of the game more than making enemies bullet sponges.

And that's the problem, and a problem I understand Borderlands 2 suffered from early on, too, there's not that much to do once you've completed the game a few times.  The single raid boss isn't enough to sate most players.  There is more content to come and that's good.  There is a single campaign add-on advertised.  I really hope this is groaning with content.  An absolute ideal is something that's as long as Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! main game.  That's unlikely, but it would be wonderful if it happened.  Regular events would be another fantastic way of boosting the life of the game.  Things like scaled-down versions of last year's Loot Hunt event would be fantastic, with a weekend or a week of an item or two getting a drop boost.  We've already had the Jack-o'-Cannon in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! for Halloween and it was a great bonus.  You have the power to make us want more, Gearbox!  You know, by giving.

So those are my thoughts on Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel after over a month playing it.  It's a great game and, with a few tweaks, can be a terrific game.  I'll be playing it for some time to come.  Shooting insane arseholes in the face is surprisingly addictive.

^* And you can read all about that creeping insanity: here (part one) and here (part two), if you're so inclined.  The first one caused a tiny (not being ironic, it really was barely visible) stir on the Gearbox forums, but hardly anyone read the second.  Maybe I got gun shy after the first.  Some people got quite aggressive and unpleasant and it didn't encourage me to want to discuss the matter on the forum further.  A needless explanation there, for people who didn't care.  And unexpected poetry!

^** His sister, the Pygmalion/My Fair Lady-inspired, Eliza does the same.  Now, she's a character that deserves the hate Pickle gets on the Gearbox community forum.  In a game full of nasty sociopaths, she is one of the worst: screwing people over and leaving others for dead is all par for the course in Borderlands, but we're expected to like Eliza.  Problem is there's nothing about her that is likeable.  Even Handsome Jack's funny.  Eliza is just a monster and it feels off, even for Borderlands, to let her go about her dastardly business.

^† Admittedly, the mission rewards are still some of the best in the game.

^‡ Okay, okay, it is fun to go off and shoot a baddie in the face until he tearfully hands over the legendary you've been after.  Within a reasonable time-frame, not three days.



Will




P.S. Gearbox, gies a writing job.  I can write good!

Pointless or Ahurgaflurgan?

I may have mentioned before that I enjoy Borderlands 2.  I may have mentioned something along the lines of being a little addicted to Borderlands 2.  You probably don't get the scale to which I threw myself into this game.  It's so bad I'm embarrassed^* to talk about it.  Really, I shouldn't even be admitting to it.  Am I creating strong enough picture?  No?

Right.  I got sooooo into this game that I spent three fucking weeks looking for the rarest weapon in the game.  I found the bloody thing and then Gearbox did their Loot Hunt^**  month and for a glorious day one boss enemy dropped the weapon one hundred percent of the time, and now I have a bunch of them.

This doesn't even cover the HUNDREDS of hours looking for other slightly less rare, but still hard to obtain weapons.  I give one word to people who might know: Norfleet.  I'll now give you two words: fucking Norfleet.

Anyway.  Now that I've given you some idea the extent to which I let this game take over my life, I'm going to go through a few things about the game since it's coming to the end of it's very long cycle^†.  Is it a review, is it an overview, is it me taking an opportunity to whine about things I don't like about the game?  Who can say?  I present this little essay and I'll let you, demented reader, make up your own confused, confused mind.

I'm pretty heavily into the game is what I'm trying to get across to you.

Let's start with what Gearbox got right with Borderlands 2, shall we?  From the outset it's a pretty game.  The overexposed opening reminds those of us who played the first game just how unforgiving the planet of Pandora is.  Each of the playable characters is distinct and quirky, as you would expect from a game as quirky as this.  Once you're knee-deep in the game you're presented with bleak environments and amusing new enemies in wonderful cel-shaded-fi.  Lovely.

We also get to meet the two characters that eased us into the first game: Angel and Claptrap.  There are too many spoilers when it comes to Angel, so let's not bother with her.  Claptrap, I perversely find a lot more likeable than in the first game.  I know he's supposed to be a really irritating character and he was much more annoying in the first game.  In Borderlands 2 he's just kind of tragic and everyone hates him, even though he turns out to be incredibly useful.  Maybe it's my sympathy for the underdog, dunno.

The story is coherent, which is always a plus in an FPS.  I'm staring directly at you COD.  It doesn't suffer being lost quite as much as in the first game, though there's so many side quests to do, there's still that drift and you can sense it on the periphery of you consciousness.  But there are so many amusing asides and so much funny dialogue, you don't actually notice too much and by the time you might be in a position to notice, you're too busy killing baddies to really care.  Which, mostly, is the point of a game like this.

That brings us to the extra content.  So much of it.  A good lot of it I haven't indulged in because it's in the form of skins and heads.  I mean they're cheap and all, but I can't get terribly excited enough to fork over the money to buy them.  It's a clever way to grab a few extra quid without people feeling like they're being squeezed, even though they are a little bit, not a full squeeze of the testicles^‡ just a little pull of the sac.

What I have paid for are the DLC campaign add-ons , and largely I've been happy with what I've handed money over for.  You get a few extra hours of gameplay for about eight quid.  Can't complain even when they don't quite measure up to the main quest, though I was very pleased with the Tiny Tina DLC, which was huge for an add-on.  And then there are the other bits, like the extra characters, level upgrades and the Head Hunter packs.  That adds up to a lot of extra stuff.  And we consumers do like our extra stuff, unless it's hot coffee in the crotch, we're not so keen on that.

The whole package is crammed full of references.  Brimming over, dammit.  I like me a good old reference, and this kept me amused, I'll tell you.  There were so many references I didn't even know them all – not that I'm some kind of pop culture guru, it's just amazing the breadth of things they pulled in.  There's even one I'm sure no one's copped to and that's from the Torgue DLC with one of the gangs called the Burners, looking very similar to a faction in the game Rage called the Scorchers, even having a thing about bikes.  Am I seeing things?  Hmmm.

There is a lot to like in this game.  Perhaps not enough to take it to the insane extremes I've gone to in playing it, but a fun game all the same.

Of course, it isn't all good.  I wouldn't have written this if it were a fannish look at what makes it work.  You're not getting off that lightly, oh no.  I have things I want to say and I want to suggest.  As if anyone from Gearbox is going to read this.  Just like Dean Koontz is never even going to be aware of my open letter.  It's all just honking in the dark.

I'll not bother with bugs and glitches and things, because you could write a book about them.  Borderlands 2 isn't quite as bug-ridden as, say, Fallout: New Vegas, but it has its fair share.

What I am going to say, is repeat what a guy who goes by the Youtube user name Morningafterkill observed about Gearbox's handling of the game: they don't seem to know how to handle it.  The first Borderlands felt slight and experimental and it almost feels like they were throwing stuff at to see what worked.  This extends into the DLCs for the first game which were kind of messy and, in the case of the Mad Moxxi DLC, was just badly put together.  Yes they hit the right notes with some parts of campaign add-ons, but you could feel they were kind of winging it.  For all that Gearbox addressed a lot things to improve the experience of Borderlands 2, there's the niggling feeling of not being sure what to do with it.

Sure their blogs make it seem like they have everything well in hand, but when you look at certain things, you start to see cracks.  It was most illustrated for me when someone on their forum asked a question about one of the big mechanics of the game and the developer who answered essentially explained the point of the mechanic and then said it wasn't desirable^§.  Bit of an odd thing to do when you should be in control of the game.  Their last couple of non-Borderlands games have been embarrassing failures and it makes you wonder how good they are at producing games.

Even the Loot Hunt event had shades of this.  Actually, more than shades.  Huge big signs, telling us, "WE DON'T HAVE A FUCKING CLUE!" The first part of giving players the opportunity to find some rare items, yeah I can get behind that.  It was a fantastic idea.  Gets the interest again.  But the added stuff, like buffing the game's weapons went a little awry.  There were a handful of weapons that got good upgrades and then the rest just got tweaks, like the weapons known for having huge magazines getting an extra one ammo.  One, in weapons that carry hundreds.  A lack of awareness there, Gearbox.  Lots of people were disappointed by that, but what was most disappointing was the inability for international players to help out with the targets.  It was made clear from the start we couldn't get the prizes and no one was surprised, but when we couldn't even help out in the US players reach the goals, it felt a bit like the company couldn't give a shit about their overseas players.  This might not be the case, but you feel that twinge, like non-US players aren't important.  WE'RE PEOPLE TOO!  And if it wasn't apathy, it gives even more this impression of not knowing their market reach.  A tad strange, don't ya feel?

For the record the Loot Hunt is a great idea and wouldn't go amiss being part of the ongoing promotion of a third Borderlands game, and not just for other corporate sponsorship.  Something other than the golden keys.  Keep interest and maintain a cool connection with the fanbase, doing these events one weekend a month or something.  See, I'm still trying to be positive in this sea of criticism.

They added a third playthrough to the game.  It was designed to be very tough.  The main problem you see with it, is it kinda broke the game.  It's actually incredibly difficult to progress in this playthrough without specific weaponry, even with multiple players.  In a game of 'a bazillion guns' it's a little strange you find only about a dozen weapons make doing it feasible^§§.  How much thought did they put into this mode that wrecks the notion of customisable characters?  Probably not quite as much as they should have, as they added in regeneration to enemies that negates another major mechanic.  I can't say that was well-thought out.  It's one of the things the first game got right.  You could go through any mode with gear that wasn't the rarest and have a good time making it through, even when it was quite challenging.

Then there's the tendency to aim to be annoying and frustrating with game mechanics.  Yeah, they actually want to frustrate their player base with enemies.  What the fuck?  Going out of their way to make something so annoying it will make people rage-quit?  Is that really a desirable goal for a game?  I don't want to play a game to be frustrated and angered^§§§.  I want to have fun on a game for a few hours, not have the creators yank my fucking chain.

The rarities of equipment is all fucked up.  It shouldn't take days or weeks to get certain weapons, no matter how good they are.  Fighting a tough enemy for hours or one that has a fight time that's tediously strung out shouldn't yield rubbish and fucking consolation items.  It's not rewarding.  At the moment I'm trying to get weapons that only drop from enemies that only occasionally occur.  Someone quoted these weapons have a drop rate of one-in-thirty.  I started counting and as of writing this blog I've fought ninety of these enemies and not a one of these weapons has appeared, and some people have talked about fighting one or two hundred of these guys and only got one or two weapons.  And remember these are rare enemies already!  If you're going to have these things in the game give a fucking decent chance of a drop^§§§§, because the enemy's rarity is going go on top of the item's rarity.  I'm not some fancy mathematician, but even I can see that.  It's clear most gamers aren't even going to encounter them, as they play through the game once and move on, such deeply buried items seem pointless, don't you think?

Players want to feel rewarded.  It's something that Minecraft – a game Gearbox admire so much they have an entire section pay homage to it, including fighting enemies from Minecraft – understands all too well and though you can spend a long time doing something it never feels frustrating.  Yes, Borderlands 2 is a very different game and that's my point, it's a fast-paced shooter that's repetitive enough with three playthroughs available, adding in sections that need to be done over and over and over and over and over and over^§§§§§ for the item an enemy is supposed to drop takes away from that.  S'not rewarding.  Players want rewards not grinding chores.  The slavish adherence to the RNG in the inevitable sequel^§§§§§§ has to go and with it the mindless 'random is random' mantra.

And finally, probably more personal to me, but I've seen a few grumblings about it: ditch the fucking raid bosses.  This convention of MMOs isn't required in a game like this and it feels like giving the single player or people playing splitscreen at a home a raw deal.  I've told you my feelings on forcing people to play online – I'll give a hint: I don't think it's good.  That's only part of it.  Super powerful, can take a ridiculous amount of damage and, the cardinal sin, most possess unfair attacks you can't defend against marks all of these enemies.  It doesn't fit in with the rhythm of the Borderlands games and, again, feel desperate, like Gearbox don't know what the hell's going on.

There you go, the good and the bad of a game I've spent far too long playing.  There's more to love and more to get annoyed about, but I've rambled enough.  Don't you people ever sleep!

^* And mortifying.  Don't forget mortifying.

^** I think some people were pissed off that the super-rare weapon they'd spent ages looking for was now very easy to get a hold of.  I thought it was only fair of Gearbox.

^† By the time the final DLC comes out Gearbox will have been supporting the game for eighteen months.  Quite amazing for an FPS when most other companies give up on a title after a year.  Unless it's Insomniac games with Resistance 3 and they walked away after about months, the fucking wimps.

^‡ Or ovaries.  Whichever, it all adds up to the same.

^§ I would link it, but I don't have time to dig through the forum to find the thread.

^§§ Although the minority of really good players will claim this is nonsense.  They're talking out of their arse.

^§§§ It will likely happen anyway, but that's not the point.  The creators of the game baiting the player that way is trollish to me.

^§§§§ Yes, yes, they drop other rare items, but only at the top mode and the rare items aren't that good and, again feel like patronising consolation prizes.  I don't want to be patronised any more than I want to be frustrated, man.

^§§§§§ ...over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over...

^§§§§§§ Because it will happen.  They made too much money on it and had too many high-profile fuck-ups to not support the Borderlands universe with a second sequel.


Will