Borderlands 2

For those of you who haven't been reading these reviews for long, let me summarise my thoughts on the original Borderlands: not enough variety, no story, not that fun single-player.
So obviously, I wasn't a fan. But let it never be said that I don't give second chances. Since then, I played another notable 2K Published game. Look how that turned out (It was Duke Nukem: Forever, by the way). So now on with the Borderlands 2 review! Will 2K redeem themselves in my eyes?

STORY
Borderlands 2 picks up 5 years after the opening of the vault in the first game. Since then, a rare alien element known as Eridium has spread across Pandora, and Hyperion's owner, Handsome Jack, has almost conquered all the land in order to mine as much of it as he can.

The game begins with a failed assassination attempt on the four main vault hunters of this game. After being dug out of their snowy grave by Claptrap, the Vault Hunters make it their mission to take revenge on Jack; meeting a familiar cast of characters along the way. Also guns. A lot of guns.

The fact that Borderlands 2 actually has a coherent story, with a clear enemy to focus your efforts on, makes it infinitely better than the previous game already. Whether you're playing by yourself or with friends, you'll always have the goal of shooting Jack in his smarmy face leading you on like the proverbial carrot on a stick.
Not only does the story exist, but it's actually pretty good, with lots of twists, interesting characters and interesting locales, as well as a plethora of side stories.

It's still not quite Mass Effect, but it's an epic improvement on Borderlands. And it's really funny. It's almost Portal level in it's humour.

PRESENTATION
Like Borderlands, Borderlands 2 stands out from the competition with a cell-shaded visual style. Unlike it's predecessor, however, Borderlands 2 features a wide array of colours and a variety of different environments, keeping the visual style of the game interesting. In the same way, it's characters are all visually distinct an interesting, from the volumptuous Moxxxi, to the short, funny looking Claptrap, and interacting with these characters is equally interesting.

The soundtrack is very dubstep/electronic/rock filled, and fits the "shoot things in the face" mentality of the game. It's not too serious, but it gets you in the right mood for the gun filled violence to come.
The voice acting is pretty good, with characters like Handsome Jack coming across as both a maniacal douchebag AND a suave leader at the same time. Overall, the major characters you interact with are endearing, in part due to the perfectly cast voice acting.

Finally, the games animations vary. In combat, enemy animations are varied and smooth, whereas in conversation, characters seem very rigid.

GAMEPLAY
It's here that I found quite a large departure from Borderlands. I mean, yes, there are some substantial improvements that I've already mentioned, but the gameplay also gained a massive overhaul.

For starters, the new classes all work really well. The turret flinging Commando, the dual wielding Gunzerker, the phaselocking Siren and the cloaking assassin all have their own roles to play, but they're all surprisingly diverse. Their individual skill trees (of which there are three each) allow for multiple different approaches, from support, to offensive play styles, and defensive tank play styles. Playing in a group or playing solo are both viable as you'll have enough skills to combat any situation.
I found that this was more intuitive than the original Borderlands, as that often got quite overwhelming when playing solo, no matter how I approached the situation.

In keeping with the boost in variety seen in other areas (the characters, colours and locations), the combat also keeps you interested by throwing a larger amount and variety of foes your way. From the standard Skags, to Badass Bullymongs, to suicide robots and robots that make other robots.

There's also a larger emphasis on the changing statuses of enemies. For example, bandit Goliaths get enraged when you shoot there helmets off, causing them to attack their allies. On top of that, with each person he kills (friend or foe) he can level up, making him more difficult to kill. At the same time, it makes the experience and loot drops better. It adds a layer of strategy to Borderlands that didn't really exist before. The way that enemies interact with each other also keeps combat varied. Do you take on the legions of EXP Loaders and GUN Loaders, or do you take on the Constructor robot to stem the tide.

With all these great changes or additions to the formula that made Borderlands a favourite for so many (other) people, the base game still remains fairly unchanged. Unchanged, but refined. The gunplay feels smoother and faster, the rpg elements allow for multiple approaches to any fight, and maybe most important of all, the inventory system is vastly improved. Being able to sort by weapon type, mark junk items or favourite items and compare weapons easily makes the loot-fest undeniably fun. This coming from someone who isn't all that into loot-fests. While these aspects are good, the RPG and shooting aspects have been done better elsewhere. But, not every game has to be CoD or Dragon Age: Origins, and Borderlands 2 reinterprets these genres in a perfectly functional way.

HOWEVER, the fun of the loot-fest is diminished somewhat, by the claim of "bajillions of guns" that Gearbox have totally made good on. The problem here is, you'll often come across a randomly generated weapon that makes everything else you have look like crap. OK, fair enough. But then you take down a particularly difficult boss, and the loot is very mediocre. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but that makes the prospect of an upcoming boss battle that much less exciting.

The driving is still kind of shitty too. Just saying.

REPLAYABILITY
As of writing, I'm on the verge of finishing the main mission. I'm level 30, which is only just over halfway to the level cap. That took at least 16 hours to get to. Now add to that the advent of new game plus, allowing you to hit that level cap. Then after all that, you can always try out a new character. Then there's the multitude of challenges and trophies/achievements to get. And side quests. There's a lot of replay value here.

OVERVIEW
So, I didn't like the first Borderlands. It was repetitive, boring by yourself, and the only up side was that the gunplay was pretty good. There was no story to keep you going and alot of the game was just boring. I must say, Borderlands 2 has improved in almost every aspect. The addition of a central villain with which to focus your efforts on, as well as an interesting story surrounding a cast of fascinating characters keeps me wanting to play Borderlands 2. The loot-fest, RPG and shooting gameplay all work well, but have been done better elsewhere. As a combination of these elements, however, it's great.

In all, Borderlands 2 is what a sequel should be. It takes what the original was lacking and added to them, while taking the parts that sort of worked and polishing them to a mirror shine.

If you enjoyed the original, I would assume that Borderlands 2 would be more of the same fun for you. If, like me, you disliked the original, then I still wouldn't write this one off. It may not be the best game out this year, but it may be the best value for money you'll get.