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The fresh batch of Vault Hunters to choose from! Who will you main? [2K
Games, Gearbox ©, Image Source: Destructoid]
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Borderlands, as a franchise, wasn’t actually my cup of tea when it
originally debuted way back in 2009. I had friends who would play it non-stop
and encourage I do the same, but it never really stuck with me. I never played
either of its sequels either. In fact, the first time I sat down to commit with
the game was when The Handsome Collection
released on PS4 and Xbox One back in 2015 when I had the opportunity to play
through the campaign with a friend. From that point on I was hooked and the
announcement of Borderlands 3 earlier this year had me more excited
than I thought possible for a Borderlands
game. Now that’s its out and I’ve managed to run and gun my way through the
campaign, I thought I take the time to write up about 2K Games and Gearbox’s
latest entry to the series.
For anyone who couldn’t tell, this is a follow-up to Borderlands 2 and takes place an undisclosed amount of time afterwards. Anyone
who played the Commander Lilith and the
Fight for Sanctuary DLC for The
Handsome Collection will know a bit more than those who missed it and just
jumped straight through from 2 to 3. But the long and short of it is that the
Vault Key the Crimson Raiders had up and went missing (assumedly destroyed) and
they want to find it as it holds a map
to other Vaults across the galaxy. Your player character, one of 4 new Vault Hunters,
is hired by Lilith (and Claptrap) to help find it and ultimately the vaults.
Opposing you are a psycho cult that has formed on Pandora called The Children
of the Vault led by the Calypso Twins, Tyreen and Troy. Really, I don’t want to
go any further into any story stuff because while story isn’t the focal point
of the Borderlands games, it’s still
worth going into it blind and experiencing it for yourself. It has a variety of
call-backs for long-time fans and some clever Easter eggs hidden around the
place if you’re willing to look for them.
Gameplay is pretty much the driving force behind the Borderlands games. It’s fast paced,
hectic as hell gun play is pretty much what the series is known for, as well as
its signature self-titled looter shooter mechanics. Enemies will drop randomly
generated guns and you can swap and change them from your inventory as you
please. The game trailers boast something ridiculous like “Over 1 billion guns”
and it’s not too hard to believe. There is plenty of variety in weapons but
they all fall into the basic categories i.e. pistols, shotguns, assault rifles,
SMGs etc. which was the exact layout of gun types I used throughout my time
with the game. It’s all down to experimentation and that again is its driving
force; you’ll find a layout that appeals to you, you’ll use that to your hearts
content and then you’ll find something new to play with! Basic stuff.
The differences between this game and previous comes down to
the smaller details, otherwise everything else is nearly identical. You’ll
level up and earn skill points but instead of having one super powerful “oh no
I’m nearly dead” move you can choose from 3! Which skills you’ll get will
change depending upon the character you choose, but the character I chose had 3
skills they could use (although I only ever used one of them). Speaking of
characters, the choices on offer this time are as follows;
- Zane - The Operative: To my understanding he’s a pretty standard assassin/rouge type character as he can use one of his abilities to create a decoy or summon a flying robot helper.
- Moze - The Gunner: Arguably a cross between a tank and a soldier as her specialty in normal play is the standard assault rifles and SMGs. Her main skill is to summon a giant mech called the Iron Bear that you can pilot around the battlefield for a short time.
- Amara – The Siren: A staple character type found in the numbered entries now is the Siren character, a pretty well rounded character type that had use of special powers like a huge ground pound and the ability to spawn multiple arms that will smash up bandits and psychos.
- FL4K – The Beastmaster: A first of his kind in the series, FL4K uses Ai controlled companies during battle in the form of tamed beasts found out in the wild (although it is jarring when you have to fight those same beast types throughout the game). He can have at his side a Skaggs, Spiderant or a Jabber each sporting a difference play type and having multiple evolutions when you level up enough in a certain skill tree
If it sounds thus far like all I’ve done is describe the
game and not review it, well you’ve caught me there… The difficulty with this
game is, if you’ve already played a Borderlands
game then you’ve pretty much seen all there is to see I’m afraid. Like I said
there are some mechanical changes that I’ll go over in a moment but other than
that, it’s pretty much just another Borderlands
game and that in itself will be what puts people off or makes them want to
play.
I didn’t title this review “A great new Borderlands game” for no reason; it’s simply another game in the
series that has some quality of life improvements. Like getting money and ammo
is more streamlined now with not having to hold down the ‘pick-up’ button to
gather a group of items, instead just walking past will auto collect any money
and necessary ammo nearby. The new clambering feature is great and adds a whole
new level of verticality to proceedings, with hidden crates and small
platforming sections. They added a much needed slide function for when you need
to get behind cover in a fire fight; it was so useful a feature that going back
and playing the Pre-sequel, I would
be running and press the crouch button expecting to power slide only to stop
dead in my tracks. These feature are all great new additions and really add to
the experience of playing a Borderlands
game but that doesn’t take away from the fact that is still the same game at
heart.
Although I do want to mention one big gripe I had with the
game. As mentioned before, story isn’t the biggest driving force in these games
but character is; the worlds you explore are full of interesting and fleshed
out characters that add some colour to your missions. These games are known for
their memorable characters and even the villains, or at least one great villain
being Handsome Jack. Do you see where I’m going with this? The Calypso Twins
are just not very interesting in my opinion. They fill the stereotypical
eccentric bad guy role well and literally everything they do makes me want to
shoot them in the face… repeatedly. But beyond that they’re just so dull.
They’re whole reason for what they do is to find and open the “Great Vault” and
become gods, they see the whole opening of the Vaults as their birth right
(which is explained later on) but beyond that they’re so one dimensional. At
least Jack was interesting because in his own way he thought he was the hero
and he sought to open the Vault and save Pandora, Tyreen and Troy are more like
spoilt brats and annoying social media ‘influencers’ that constantly vie for
fans and followers while streaming everything. I wanted to defeat them because
they were annoying more so than because they tried to rule the universe.
Before I waffle on I’ll finish up this review now. But it’s
like I said before, it’s a difficult one to review because of its similarities
to its predecessors. It adds enough little changes that make the overall
experience better for it, but simply quality of life improvements does not a
whole new game make. The gun variety is expanded upon and there are newer
additions to give more variety to customization and play style. The bad guys
are underwhelming and the story investing enough that I saw it through to the
end. But all of this still comes back to that one glaring point I made earlier;
it’s just another Borderlands game.
So if you are an avid fan of the series looking for more of what you like but
improved upon slightly then you could do worse than playing Borderlands 3. If you are a newcomer to the series than it’s a great place to
start and get a feel for it, but a lot of the story beats and call backs will
go completely over your head and going back to play the older games might feel
a bit jarring. If however you just liked the other games, then you could give Borderlands 3 a go but don’t come into this expecting a drastic change up to
what you’ve already seen.
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