Gamescom 2014: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Hands-on Preview – Lunar Lunacy
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Tuesday, August 19, 2014 @ 05:53 PM
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Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Let’s get the name out of the way first and foremost. This game is a sequel to the original Borderlands but a prequel to Borderlands 2, so in effect acts as a bridge between the two of them while helping to fill in interesting gaps in the stories from both. Of course nothing lets you understand a game more than getting your grubby mitts on it, so we hopped right in and went hands-on for a second time with the latest taste of Pandora.
With 2K Australia taking the lead for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, there had been a sense of trepidation that this game might not live up to what had come before. After all, no one wants to play a glorified expansion pack that doesn’t add anything new to either the gameplay or story. Mercifully that doesn’t seem to be the case and the developers seem to have taken a lot of time and effort to replicate the same zany tone and humour that was prevalent in the first two titles. In fact, if anything, this one may well prove to be even funnier.
Our little band of reprobates is made up of: Athena, the bad ass assassin that you may have run into during the General Knoxx DLC, who can use her main skill to deploy a shield for offensive and defensive use. Wilhelm, a mercenary with a penchant for augmenting himself as you may have noticed in Borderlands 2, and you can physically alter his appearance by tinkering with his skill trees to give him the cyborg parts he craves. Nisha the Lawbringer, future Sheriff of Lynchwood and something of a mean gunslinger who can copy any pistol she gets ahold of to turn into a permanent dual-wielding killing machine. Finally, we have Claptrap. No don’t roll your eyes. If anything his skill tree, which is based on the Vaulthunter.exe programme (itself a form of malware that he can’t shift), is the best of all. Full of random bonuses and strange upgrades, he can turn into a cannon wielding pirate ship, demand a high five to buff the team (or be turned down and steal all the buffs for himself) and when you utilise his primary skill he randomly uses one of a multitude of attacks.
The team wanted to make sure the main posse was full of character so they have included double the amount of dialogue this time around. Obviously we were never going to play as anyone but Claptrap and it was certainly a wise choice. His one liners are pitch perfect (“I do not have a suitable macho response for this situation”) and his bizarre series of abilities make him wonderfully unique to play.
The plot of the game revolves around the ever present, but never visited, Hyperion base for Borderlands 2. Not to mention Elpis, the moon of Pandora, as Handsome Jack seeks to escape from his banishment there and thwart some nefarious evil doers from destroying the planet below. Obviously over the course of the game he turns into the, ahem, dick that he was in the sequel. So it’s an exploration of how a guy with initially good intentions can turn to the darker side, not to mention being a bit of an origin story for its main characters.
The developer wanted Elpis to be drastically different to the arid landscape of Pandora, and play accordingly. Therefore you can expect lower gravity conditions and a reliance on oxygen to breathe in the harsh environment. However, you can also use the conditions to your advantage. Low gravity means you can jump and float to out of the way areas, as well as using some of your oxygen to deploy a devastating butt slam attack on unsuspecting enemies below you. Oxygen can also be used for unique attacks, to revive your team and to augment your other abilities, with the overall idea being to add more tactical options to combat.
Other new additions to the game include weapons with a freeze element, so you can slow down and even fully ice your opponents allowing you to smash them into a million pieces. Ice them in the air and they will slowly float to their own doom, before smashing into a thousand pieces on impact. There is also a handy new range of laser weapons that can spit out a continuous stream of damage, but come with the risk of overheating and leaving you vulnerable.
To be honest once you're in the game, it’s not the same as its predecessors, but that's certainly no bad thing. The new gravity and oxygen mechanics are useful additions without ever feeling overbearing, and O2 supplies are regularly found or dropped by enemies so you never get distracted by having to constantly be on a scavenger hunt for your next breath. As ever, various characters drop in and out to provide a running commentary on what it is you are supposed to be doing, and the back and forth banter still raises a chuckle.
We guided Claptrap in a bid to free a disgruntled Captain from her far too hands-on Bosun, while aided by a ten year old hacker, with Handsome Jack chirping in from the sidelines every now and again. As we took down hordes of foes, activated oxygen bubbles so we could ignite barrels and slipped into the familiar habit of looting everything in sight it became clear that this was going to be another entertaining slice of shoot 'n loot action. The range of guns are satisfyingly meaty and the randomness of Claptrap's skill set meant that every time we hit the skill button a fresh delight awaited us. The freeze weapon did seem a touch overpowered at times though, stopping even badass foes in their tracks for a good amount of time, but that’s just a minor quibble.
While Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel may not offer much of a twist on the old formula, and if you were never a fan of Borderlands in the first place it's unlikely to sway you, the game still has plenty of humour, interesting characters and novel new ideas to keep long term fans more than happy. We are still in the dark about just how big the game will end up being, and we suspect it won’t quite hit the same scale as Borderlands 2, but Gearbox and 2K Australia are keen to show players the Moon and Hyperion base they had been clamouring for without it just being throwaway content. Plus with the game mooted to be released at a lower price point than usual then this could be the perfect bridge between the two games so far.
Expect to join the newest, or oldest, or middle groundiest, bunch of vault hunters when Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel launches into orbit on October 14th (NA) and 17th (EU) for Xbox 360 and PS3. No word yet on whether the newest generation of consoles will see the game, but don’t rule it out.