Media Monday: Borderlands 2
Watch out: I am making up Memes! (Okay it is entirely possible this exists somewhere but I haven’t seen it.)
So I was thinking about things to post about other than books, and I was thinking about how nerdy I am and realized I can also talk about movies and video games, through probably not music (my ignorance terrifies). We got two new games recently XCOM Enemy Unknown and Dishonored. Ben started out with aliens and I with the rat plague, and then we switched. I am super excited about both but… they’re both pretty new so I will wait… thus Borderlands 2 which is so good I wish I had the capability to play 3 games at once. (I will focus I promise.)
Quick recap: Borderlands was groundbreaking. Visually interesting, quirky, team work encouraged and a high replay value had people replaying, trying new classes, jumping in and out just to help each other. It is the kind of game I still want to go back and finish things like Crawmerax, even though the sequel is out. The DLC was fun, even funnier than the original content, but a big plus was that the story line was complete without the DLC. If you loved the game it was a great way to keep going but if your budget is tight you aren’t missing major plot points because the developers decided to finish the story in DLC.
The game: There were originally 4 classes, with DLC there are 5. They fit a variety of play styles and among our friends we always have variety. Personally I have a Siren that is in the second playthrough, and a low level Commando and Mechromancer. The skill system is the same basis as the original game in which each character has three skill trees and your choices further customize your play style. Before the game even came out, Ben and I sat and read the skill trees and honestly even the characters that aren’t my normal play style have things that make me go ooooooo that looks fun! There are a variety of quests from the absolutely silly to item retrieval to seriously hard monsters. If you prefer you can stick to the main quests, but the experience from side quests definitely benefits you later on. Also the sheer diversity of loot in this game is just fun. Randomly generated means some seriously random and some seriously cool stuff. One of the major things that brings people in about this game is the cooperative play. There is not a versus shooting unless you spend the whole time hitting someone in the face and dueling them. Anyway you can have up to 4 person co-op. You could have four people all playing Zero or you could all be different characters. The more people the tougher the baddies but the better the loot. A high level can jump back for a friend and help a low level catch up and then the progress will sync. A low level can jump forward into a friend’s game and level fast but possibly die often. It is very replayable even though the story doesn’t change. I expect that like the first game when there are gaps between new games we are excited about this will be on the top of the go back to list! Love it!
