Welcome to another part of the Should You Play series where we talk about old and new games and reasons why you should or shouldn’t play it. Last time the answer to the question, should you play CS GO in 2020 was easy, a yes.
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Today, this will be a little bit complicated as it purely depends upon the type of games you like to play. Let me give a short review and then we’ll decide the answer to the aforementioned question.
Borderlands The Pre Sequel Story
First and foremost, Borderlands is not a story-focused game. The story is just there to carry the events that put you in the game’s situation. It takes place somewhere between the events of the first and the second game and follows the evolution of Jack, the main villain of Borderlands 2 and probably one of the more unique villains in gaming.
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The game tells the story of how he transitions from a hero trying to save the world to a villain. You are stuck on Hyperion and you send your Vault Hunter to various locales to save the world. The plot is okay, considering this is not the main focus.
There are some strong moments that portray the betrayals faced by Jack, but it never takes itself seriously, which is a good thing.
Borderlands The Pre Sequel Gameplay Mechanics
The gameplay is standard Borderlands stuff. You hop into the world either solo or with friends(which is the recommended way to play the game) and complete quests, level up and grind for better loot and gear. The mechanics are standard FPS that, for the most part, are good.
A nice twist to the formula is zero-gravity gameplay. Since, for the most part, you roam around Moon which is a zero-gravity zone, you have to have an Oz kit on you at all times. The Oz kits deplete with time and need to be refilled by cylinders or specific points that are generously littered throughout the world.
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This also gives you a glide and double jump move that is used in light platforming sections. Combine that with jump pads and movement becomes really good.
The gunplay is also good. There are a ton of weapons in the game that are randomly generated. Each gun has a distinct feel. The shotgun will have a distinct feel from a revolver which will feel different from a laser gun and so on. The variety is astonishing.
Some weapons also have nice reloaded animations. One of my favourites is when the Rocket Launcher runs out of ammo, you throw the rocket launcher into the air like a rocket and bring out another one.
There are also alternate fire modes and elemental buffs that make the combat extremely satisfying. Combine that with the movement tactics and every encounter becomes a dance of random moves and lucky shots.
The World And Enemy Design in Borderlands The Pre Sequel
The world is split into different small areas. To be honest, most of them look the same with many textures and assets being reused over multiple areas. The moon surface itself is split into so many areas that are basically indistinguishable from one another.
The areas seem large and many of them suffer from the problem of being empty. You could go a considerable amount of distance without even encountering a single enemy or a single quest.
The enemy design is a mixed bag for me. For the first half of the game, you just keep fighting Scavs and Lunatics, with the addition of some creatures like Works or Shuggaraths. The second half of the game pits you against varied enemies that are quite a joy to fight, with the exception of some.
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The best enemies to fight were the Lost Legion Soldiers. They always spawn in groups and there are multiple variants of them. There’s the medic that will heal his friends. There’s the scout that turns invisible every now and then.
The engineer puts up turrets and shields to protect his friends. This results in an interesting combat dynamic with you deciding who to kill first.
The worst enemies, in my opinion, are the Eternals. These have a lot of hit points and they strike really hard. If you leave them unattended after firing a few shots they turn into o phases and respawn with a new move-set and a full health bar. They caused me many deaths in a boss fight that I talk about below.
The bosses are well, a mixed bag. The game starts out strong with the first boss, DeadLift that uses electric attacks. This turned out to be a challenging boss fight for me. The other bosses were unimaginative and quite frankly, pushovers.
The only other boss I died to was Zarpedon, a boss you encounter midway through the game. This was an extremely frustrating boss fight for me since her robot’s melee attacks can one-shot you and Eternals are introduced for the first time in the game.
These Eternals require all your attention to kill and make the boss fight even more difficult than it needs to be. The final boss of the game was a test of endurance rather than skill as you need to deplete his health bar 6 to 7 times before he goes down.
Quests And The Writing in Borderlands The Pre Sequel
The quest design is nothing special on its own with the same fetch quests and visible padding that we know most games do. But all of this is redeemed by the writing. This is hands down one of the most humorous games that I’ve played in recent memory.
There’s one bit in the main quest where a CL4P-TR4P is required to open a door. The stupid guy opens the wrong door 3 times which leads to 3 different ambushes and finally, he stupidly electrocutes himself to open the right door.
There are many other examples littered throughout the game that do the same thing, alleviate the frustration with smart writing. The side quests are surprisingly varied, with the same quality humour.
One of my favourites is a description where the target does more trash talk than a 12-year-old kid on ECHONet Live. There’s also one side quest that involves fetching a cricket ball for a guy named Don(referring to Don Bradman).
I do have a silly complaint here. The main quest is a race against time, it requires urgency. For the most part of the game, I largely ignored the side quests and stuck to the main quests gaining a strong sense of momentum.
For the most part, I was a tad bit under levelled which was fine for the most part. The level requirements for most of the quests are fine, except one of the late-game quests that are supposed to be the finale.
I was at level 22 and the quest required me to be 26. So, I had to break my momentum here to do the side quests first to level up that broke all of my momenta.
Although I know it’s a silly complaint but I put it here because the rest of the game does a good job of giving and maintaining that momentum.
The Characters in Borderlands The Pre Sequel
The characters are distinct and funny. All of them have a distinct personality and the art style provides for some goofy-looking faces that go well with the vibe here. There are 4 playable characters in the base game, Athena, Wilheim, Nisha and CL4P-TR4P. Each character has a unique skill that is a short cooldown and a skill tree associated with that to improve on them.
There are two DLC playable characters as well, namely Jack’s Double and Aurelia. I chose Jack for my first playthrough, which I would recommend to anybody starting out with the series.
His special spawns Digi-Struct clones of him that aid him in battle. This proves really useful in encounters that outnumber you. This is the ideal character for anyone going through the campaign solo, which is not recommended. For more info about the other characters click here.
A Wrap-Up
Borderlands The Pre Sequel, when broken down to the basics, is a game that tasks your to shoot your way through the lengthy campaign. There’s surprising depth in the combat loop. But nothing can save it from feeling a little bit samey throughout the whole experience. If you dig that, you and your friends should surely try to give the series a try.
Do you agree with our opinion? Will you play the game? Tell us down in the comments and for more on video games and anime stay tuned to The Profaned Otaku.
