Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Review

I wrote up this review to publish on Steam, but unfortunately it won't let me publish it for some unknown reason. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.

I finally finished my first playthrough of Borderlands:  The Pre-Sequel.  I have to say that I am a bit relieved to have finally finished it.  My first full completion of the game took about 33 hours (I sought out and completed as many side quests as I could).  You could undoubtedly finish up the main storyline much quicker.  My overall verdict is that fans of the game will want to play it to continue the storyline from the previous games.  Gamers who are new to the series would be better served to pick up at least Borderlands 2 and might find themselves a little disappointed with this game.  Overall. I’d give it a 7/10.

I have always felt sort of torn about the Borderlands series.  I love the quirky/dark sense of humor that is infused through the game but I find myself getting bored about halfway through. I’m doing the same things over and over--and yes, shooting things over and over can entertain me for a good chunk of time--but eventually it gets tiring.  I find myself sighing a lot as I fetch another weird quest item and run it back to some central location.  Great games keep you excited throughout--so I can’t really classify Borderlands:  The Pre-Sequel as a great game.

Here’s what I enjoyed about Borderlands:  The Pre-Sequel:

--Low-Gravity and everything associated with it.  

I was highly entertained by this aspect of the game.  Simply jumping higher, hanging in the air, and slamming down was a lot of fun.  I loved boosting my character over huge gaps or butt-slamming foes.  When I got to the part of the game where there wasn’t low-gravity I missed it and couldn’t wait to get to the next zone that would bring it back.

--Cryo-Weapons/Laser Weapons

A game that boasts a bajillion different types of weapons is hard served to keep dishing out new types.  The cryo weapons added in a fun freezing ability that made butt-slamming and shattering foes even more fun.  Laser weapons gave the game a sci-fi spin that fit the setting really well.

Here’s what I found lacking:

--Interesting NPC’s.

In the previous Borderlands games there were many entertaining NPC’s that made me laugh.  Characters like Tiny Tina or Ellie always had something hilarious to say or some ridiculous quest to send me on.  I was more than willing to do a repetitive step and fetch type of quest just to turn it in and listen to the quest dialogue.  In Borderlands:  The Pre-Sequel there are very few memorable NPC’s.  Janey Springs is interesting and somewhat entertaining, but she’s no Tiny Tina.  Maybe it’s partially due to the fact that 2K handed the game over to 2K Australia--there seemed to be some Australian humor in the game that as an American I didn’t really get.  I missed the fun characters like Sir Hammerlock and Mr. Torgue.

--Boring Foot Travel

Sure, there are vehicles in Borderlands:  The Pre-Sequel, but I spent a lot of time on foot.  I found myself getting irritated that I would return to Concordia or a different area and find a quest for an area I had just cleared on a bounty board.  I would have to pick up the quest, travel back, and re-clear the whole zone.  I really wish they would put the bounty boards with quests for the zones in the zones themselves.  I found this especially apparent when I was on the Hyperion ship and had several side quests that forced me to return to the veins of Helios (lots of jumping/navigation to traverse).  By the last side quest I was tired of going back and almost skipped them.  In the few zones where you can use a vehicle, the vehicles are sort of lackluster. The boosting/jumping feature on the Stingray felt weird and I never could get it to function comfortably.

I would recommend Borderlands:  The Pre-Sequel to fans of the series.  It’s not the best entry in the series, but it’s recognizable and adds some interesting features.  To a new player of the series I wouldn’t recommend it.  Pick up Borderlands or Borderlands 2 if you want a better installment of the game.