this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2024
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TLDR: I loved Borderlands two and I'm going to start a replay with a different character, which i almost never do.

I had fun with Borderlands 1, but was basically pushing through by the end trying not to fall asleep.

B2, on the other hand, I was very engaged in the entire ride through, although it seemed well balanced and the game ended when it should, even including the side quests.

Improvements -

The writing! I think I heard a reference to Anthony Burch writing in Borderlands 2 from hey ass. Whatcha playing episode, and he got some award?

Experience tiers, which I didn't initially like because it wasn't explained, but basically the quests are more important than farming enemies for experience, so you get much more engaged with the stories because you're following quests instead of trying to kill enough boring enemies in the same way to get high enough of a level to destroy future enemies.

In any case, the writing that I did like in Borderlands 1, was perfect in 2. Not too long, always funny, always engaging, every character very well defined, which brings me to my next point:

The voice acting was hilarious and perfect, again, very well defined and idiosyncratic for every character, just so much fun to listen to. Every time handsome Jack pops up. It's fun to listen to him be an a******.

The quests were so much more satisfying. At the end of the first game, I was basically just following marker to marker without caring what anybody said or what was written down just tapping through to the next wavepoint until the quest was finished.

In Borderlands 2, Even if I accidentally clicked through the introduction to the quest, I would go back and make sure to read because I know that the paragraph introducing and explaining the quest is funny and that the quest is going to be rescuing lab experiments and I have to find a particular valve or putting together a treasure map with a weird lure, rather than just find the bigger bad guy punch him to death.

Driving was huge - I was not into driving in Borderlands 1 and got really bored and irritated every time I had to drive. I felt like the aiming system was complete dog s***, and it was just not very fun to drive around in general, like the handling was terrible.

I loved driving around the Borderlands too and was actively bummed out whenever. I didn't get a car, but it made perfect sense and they used the car just enough so that the game wasn't too easy. But you could still boost and race around however you wanted, or chase down a beer van. So much fun driving, such a huge improvement from the first game.

Larger levels with more interesting landscapes in them, each level felt much more unique than the entire The first game to me, like each area had its own style to a degree I hadn't seen before.

I can't remember a single place from the first game, but I'm going to remember the different style of the underground bug. Bunker and the dust and all these other places that had an impact on the personality of the game.

Lastly, art is more efficient, not as many bold lines emphasizing the comic book quality, which is carried through more by the personality of the game instead of by the specific art.

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[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Oh they're fantastic. Tiny Tina's and Torgue's especially. Oh man, and the Mechromancer and Krieg!

BL2 is one of my all time favorite games, like many others here. It's nearly perfect.

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 months ago

The Krieg trailer is still absolutely iconic and memorable for me.

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Haha, oh that's awesome.

Thanks.

Let's go nitpick.

I can literally only pick out one systematic problem of BL2, which is every now and then I would pursue a side quest that cannot be actionable unless a previous quest is activated, but there's no indication that the previous quest has to be activated.

So I wasted hours, because the game is so captivating, running around in circles jumping on top of houses that shouldn't be jumped on to activate part of the map that shouldn't be activated because there was no indication that I was doing the wrong thing because the quest told me to go there when in fact it was a different quest.

What's yours?

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Two (well, three) things later games improved on, for all their faults: slag and the map. 3 removed the former and vastly improved the latter, as well as the split screen menus being actually legible. Slag was really just a damage gate that felt obligatory on everything endgame, and the map became 3D and much easier to parse quickly.

I'd forgotten about those kinds of issues with following some quests, that was definitely irritating too

Still, I love BL2

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

That's so funny, I assumed slag wouldn't work on bosses and never tried the whole way through.

Haha, I guess that would have made it easier.

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, once you're on your second and third playthroughs of New Game + it's obligatory for everything gig. You'll want a good slag weapon to swap to constantly. Which is very irritating with only 4 slots, it becomes harder to cover all your bases.

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Okay, that's good to know, thanks.

I've switched to the siren and I'm just using a sniper rifle right now, but I'll keep that in mind for when I start getting my ass kicked.

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Have fun! Siren's always my first playthrough and she's awesome in BL2.

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Thanks, I am kicking ass this playthrough and I'm excited to get to the really badass siren powers later in the skill trees