Video Game Review: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.

Borderlands is somehow the gifted problem child of the video game world. It's incredibly open and free to traverse however you please and the cel shaded environments are designed to please whilst flipping the bird to the people who buy annual instalments of Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed to see how many threads in a t-shirt can be rendered or how many polygons are in a nearby rock.

Oh yeah, how's Unity working out for you, Ass Creed fans?

At this point I think there's been a misunderstanding with the dev team who went with the working title Assassin's Creed Made On Unity, but that wouldn't even explain the number of bugs in this game.

Going off topic, main point is that I have no sympathy for those who bought the game whilst review embargoes were up. Shop smarter, goddamn it.

Anyway, Borderlands the Pre-Sequel carries on, carrying back, before the events of Borderlands 2. You assist the villain from the Borderlands 2 in his rise to power which is an interesting premise. It was made by 2K Australia, the Australian branch of 2K games who spent time making the game WHILST Borderlands 2 was being designed, which is why this game was released after only a year after the release of the second game.

Granted, the characters are all fresh in your mind, and that may have been the idea given the number of self-referential jokes throughout Borderlands: The Presequel.

Oh and it's in space, and everyone has an Austalian accent and the O2 kits that keep you breathing in between lunar air pockets and atmosphere bubbles are called Oz kits. Oz as in down under. Oz as in Australia. Oz as in, we-are-trying-to-be-funny-do-you-get-our-jokes-please-get-our-jokes-we've-tried-to-put-them-in-everything.

You play as one of four vault hunters, Claptrap, Athena, Wilhelm or Nisha who all have their own play styles and are designed for different types of players. Same story as always, which is a bit sad. Change it up a bit, fellas!

Granted, the game is fairly big. However, it does feel a little bit of an under budgeted version of Borderlands 2. This isn't helped by the fact that it is, by definition, an under-budgeted version of Borderlands 2.

There are some neat twists though, such as Cryo. 

Cryo is a new enemy freezing type which allows you to break and smash your foes in a satisfying manner. Oz kits also allow you to double jump and "butt-slam" enemies for damage at the expense of Oxygen.

Cryo replaces Slag as an elemental type, Scav replaces Bandit as a weapon type, Moonstone replaces Eridium, Oz Kits replace Relics and I'm left wondering why this game cut so much from the second game when they could have left everything in and given it all a place for added customisation. 

Badass ranks remain exactly the same, (For the uninitiated, Badass ranks are rank levels the player gets for doing anything from opening boxes to kill enemies with barrels which then give the player bonuses.) This all very well and good, but there are no additional stats this time around. The game could have added faster player speed, increased player jump height, more vehicle damage, specific elemental damage increase, specific elemental chance effect, specific weapon damage, better vehicle accuracy or a bunch other stats, Just heighten the percentage increase after you rank up and then leave it at a flat rate like 5% so I give a damn. Twenty stat boosts are great. But I want two hundred. And I even got a notebook out and found that it is perfectly possible to do just that.

DON'T CALL ME SAD. I WORK ON PERFECTING SKINNER BOXES IN MY SPARE TIME.

Randomise them if you have to, so that players have to specify in specific weapon skills/vehicles.

So Brad uses shotguns because he has +10% damage with shotguns, Bob drives vehicles around because he can drive +10% faster and shoot +15% faster with vehicles and Mark uses snipers because of all the bonuses he's got for snipers. Multiplayer matches would be a lot more fun, with experienced players being incredibly overpowered and sought out for their hardcore bonuses.

Hell, make it so that I can transfer my badass rank from Borderlands 2 and get a halved version in Borderlands : The Pre-Sequel so that I become better and better not just as I get through the game, but better as I progress through the SERIES.

This is how you make video game veterans who will buy your product addictively, instead of pulling bullshit like having enemies enemies dropping customisation skins to use with the DLC you haven't bought.

That can fuck RIGHT OFF.

Hey, maybe even cap badass rank at 50 badass tokens instead of making it more and more tedious to rank up as the rewards drop off until you lose interest and turn the game off.

Woo. 0.5% Accuracy. ugh. So pumped. Yeah. Go me oh yeah I guess. I do so love your enthusiasm for creating a balanced game instead of something fun and that I was planning to fricken' ENJOY.

Add in an item that allows the player to get extra randomised ranks so that they can choose how they rank up. Players like a decision on what they like doing and maybe find themselves doing it more if you didn't stop giving rank points for it. I mean it's better than Destiny's shitty system but it's far from perfect.

Maybe make that in-game item buyable with the Eridium you got rid of for no fucking reason, opting to change a pointless currency for another one instead of finding a place for everything you've worked so hard to develop.

Give the player the option to unlock a relic slot for moonstones or whatever.

The phrase "Throwing baby out with the bathwater" has never been so accurate.

Apart from that, it's incredibly fun. In fact, I will admit that it is much more frenetic and fast paced with flying enemies everywhere. 

Well, usually fun. Apart from the occasional death from being knocked into bottomless chasms that have you yelling "BULLSHIT" at the TV. But yeah, that's Borderlands.

Conclusion? More of the same, for better or for worse.

£24.99 at GAME. Try CEX for lower.