When it came to starting this blog, I knew from the beginning that I wanted to make it social, as much as I could. One of the things I love most is sharing my passions with other people, anyone who’s had more than one conversation with me has probably heard me rave about some of my favourite games.
Then, it hit me. I had an idea to use this blog as a chance to take onboard recommendations from some of my closest friends, play through them myself and see if I can form a connection to these titles. Push myself out of my comfort zone a little, and who knows? Maybe I’ll discover a new genre that I like, or another favourite game? These won’t be full reviews, but just some ramblings around my thoughts and feelings on what I played, and if I had a good time, that kinda thing.
I soon got to work asking people for games that were special to them, noting down any that I think I could get some mileage out of (or that I already owned and just hadn’t ever played!).
So, with a list of games under my belt, I’ve set out to try some new things, and maybe see if I can see what others see in these games for myself. Plus, I wanted to come up with a series for this blog so this is it. (Bonus points if you get the reference in the title.)
A New Era of Shoot And Loot
In this entry, I’m going to be covering a little game by the name of Borderlands 2. Firstly, I have to make an admission. I have played this before. However, it was long enough ago that I don’t really remember much of it. Checking my achievements on the Xbox 360 version, it appears I completed it in February 2013. 12 years ago. I feel that this just about fits the criteria, but from here on out it is going to be all new games to me. Take this first entry as a test run, just dipping my toes into something that has a slight familar feeling to hone my writing skills a little more.
I spent my Valentine’s Day in 2013 finishing Borderlands 2 apparently. I’ve had worse Valentine’s Days. At least I got this achievement.
Another reason I did want to cover this game is because it happened to be on the list that a very close friend provided me, and the other games on that list I have played thousands of hours of. The game was also made free on Steam recently, so it just felt like a good time to do this game.
Finally, Borderlands 4 is dropping this September. Borderlands 2 tends to be regarded as the pinnacle of the series, so this is also a way of me getting my feet on the ground ahead of time, to see whether I do like this franchise enough to bother picking up Borderlands 4 around release.
Pick Your Poison
The next choice I had to make for this post was actually tougher than many might expect. I had to pick a version of Borderlands 2 to play. Fun fact about me, I do tend to travel a lot, and I have two different locations where I can play games. One being my “main setup” and the other being an Xbox Series S and whatever portable devices I have on hand at the time (setup post coming soon maybe?).
Initially, I’d lined up the Steam version of Borderlands 2 as the one I was going to go with. I already owned it, had a lot of the DLC, it just made sense. However, as I write this, I’m not at my main setup, so no PC. I installed the game on my Steam Deck, and it ran very smoothly, around 60fps at 1200×800 with settings on High. As good as this is for playing the game, I wanted to be able to take screenshots and add them to this review, and I didn’t really want them at that resolution. So, the Steam Deck version also was struck off the list, but if you do own a Deck, it’s a good way to play.
Naturally, I chose the Xbox One version instead, running on my Xbox Series S that I have set up here. I did have to obtain the game digitally to do this, but thankfully Xbox has their sales on right now and I was able to pick up Borderlands: GOTY Edition, Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel all for £7.99. Even though I do already own the physical disc. Twice. All digital future eh? Who’d want it…? The upside to this version is the screenshot quality, and the ability to earn Achievements is always a plus in my book.
Definitive Mayhem
Right, that’s all the explanatory (or as some people would say, boring!) stuff out of the way, does Borderlands 2 still hold up 13 years after its initial release? I’m going to go with a resounding “Yes!” on that one! There’s a lot to cover to the point where I’m almost unsure where to start, but it feels right to be discussing the weaponry we’ll be using. After all, it is a *looter* shooter.
Borderlands 2 has a lot of guns. So many guns that I don’t believe it’s ever been officially stated. The Guinness Book of World Records has the game down as having 17.5 million combinations of weaponry, which is absolutely absurd. It also means that we’ll never get bored of the weapons on offer, which is nice.
BL2 also features weapon manufacturers, eight in total, that all offer distinct differences on the way you’d use a weapon. Tediore weapons are thrown and explode like grenades once reloaded for example, or the Torgue weapons, that use explosive projectiles instead of bullets. During this playthrough, I found myself using Jakobs weapons a lot. High damage, semi automatic weapons that reward accuracy, reminiscent of the Wild West era. It was incredibly satisfying to be in a downed state, land a headshot with a Jakobs revolver and then spring back up to life, knowing that I was victorious that time.
In terms of the weapon classes themselves, you’ve got everything you’d expect from a shooter. Assault rifles, pistols, sub machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, grenades all feature in the sandbox. Each weapon you encounter will have different stats or traits, no two weapons are ever the same. One of the standout weapons for me was a Torgue shotgun that carried me through some tough areas, I was able to rip through robotics with no problem, firing rocket after rocket into hordes of enemies. Another highlight I had during the early game was a Vladof pistol called the DVA Assassin, which had a trait where each shot fired two rounds, but also has a critical hit damage bonus, so it allowed me to rip through enemies quickly, as long as I was able to hit my shots!
A fight happened here at some point, probably. Featuring one of the many, many pistils this game has to offer!
BL2 also features an elemental damage system, and this will apply to your weapons. Some weapons will do Fire damage and will tear through Flesh enemies, whereas others will feature Corrosive damage, or Shock damage. This system allows you to become a master at a certain element, allowing you to tailor your build entirely around Fire if you wish, or tearing through shielded enemies using Shock weapons. Speaking of builds and creating certain setups, I guess it’s time to talk about the other key part of BL2’s sandbox, the characters.
Main Character Syndrome
BL2’s weapons are stellar, and the abilities each character possesses are the perfect compliment. During this playthrough, I selected to play as Maya for the first time, who is known as the Siren. Her ability is Phaselocking, which allows you to select a specific enemy in a fight, and suspend them in the air for a few seconds, stunning them out of a fight completely. As you play through the game and level up, you can spec into Phaselocking further, either choosing to get health back from enemies you’ve killed in Phaselock, or using these to increase your critical hit bonus damage. Maya has three Skill trees, Motion which focuses on defence and crowd control, Harmony which focuses on healing and Cataclysm, which focuses on elemental effects, perfect if you have an elemental build in mind.
Playing as Maya just felt fluid to me, taking a particularly annoying enemy out of the fight and just shooting them in the face felt cathartic in some places, especially in fights which I was struggling with. I tended to spec into the Motion tree, to manage fights the way I wanted to.
The other classes are things such as the Assassin, the Commando, the Gunzerker, and two new classes which were later added as DLC, the Mechromancer and the Psycho. Each of these have unique abilities, with the Assassin being able to go invisible and create a decoy of themselves, or the Gunzerker who is able to duel wield weapons for a limited time, yes even rocket launchers and sniper rifles.
There is plenty of choice when it comes to the character select, with each one being as pixelated as the next! (Thank you Xbox Live capture for ruining this screenshot!)
Each class also has something known as a Class Mod. These are pickups that upgrade certain aspects of your class, depending on which ones you find in the wild. You can only have one active at a time, which will give you a buff to certain stats. For example, I had one for Maya known as the Fox Class Mod. This mod increases the chance of Fire procing on an enemy, and also increases the amount of damage that Burning does to an enemy. There are versions of this mod that also give bonuses to certain skills, such as the Hell Fox class mod, which gives bonuses to Maya’s skill that creates an explosion on a Phaselocked enemy.
Clever Nods
This is a minor point, but it’s something I always love in a game, and I just had to write about it here. BL2 is *full* of references, to the point where I’m almost smiling like a 5 year old every time I see one. From little tiny references such as the PWR Loader in the middle of the game (fantastic reference to Aliens there Gearbox!), or the massive Minecraft easter egg that is a whole playable area and rewards a cosmetic, I could talk about these forever!
Oh man! One of my favourite areas in the whole game, and one that has to be seen to be believed! The cosmetic unlock is also badass.
One of my favourites was such a small reference, and it’s the fact that one of the pistol challenges is named Hard Boiled, after the John Woo film. When that first appeared, I was very much like that one Leonardo DiCaprio meme pointing at the screen. It isn’t compulsory, but in my opinion, little things like this show a labour of love, and I was glad to see them there.
The Final Piece
With all that being said, did I enjoy my time with Borderlands 2 upon returning to it 12 years later? Absolutely yes. There is more than enough here to justify the very low asking price on any modern platform, and if you haven’t played it before, I’d thoroughly recommend giving it a try. Even as a game that’s designed around co-op, it still holds up as a single player experience too. There is the occasional difficulty spike where I had to spend a few minutes dying and respawning before I finally got through the chapter (looking at you, beacon repair mission!), but it’s very doable solo.
So, whilst I did enjoy my time with BL2 thoroughly, did it change any of my previous perceptions of the genre? Will it make it into my favourite games list in 5 years time? The answer is a mixed one in this case. It has for sure changed my perceptions on the genre, I definitely did not appreciate this game as much as I should have done previously. I liked the series, but always waited for a sale or a huge discount before jumping in. I previously viewed the looter shooter genre as one that was dying, with The Division 2 dying a slow death, and Destiny 2 being executed once a week by its creators and their leadership team. Both of these games I did love, and I was expecting it to die out. My replay of Borderlands 2 has shown me just how good single player looter shooters can be, and it’s filled with some hope for the genre. Borderlands 4 is out in a few months, and with every other game in the genre seeming to die around it, there’s a space here for it to take over and reign supreme again. I can certainly see how a game with this much content, charm and variety can be so special to someone, and I hope Gearbox remembers how good this game was before they ship BL4 later in 2025. This replay has me on the hype train for that later on, and I’m excited to get on board at launch for the first time.
Now, I did say my answer was mixed, and that’s in regards to this being one of my favourites of all time. It doesn’t quite make it to that list, but there is a caveat to that. If I played this game with a full lobby of my friends all the way through? This would absolutely have the potential to be up there as one of my all time favourites. Alas, it doesn’t quite reach that height for me, but maybe, just maybe, I’ll be ready to get that experience on BL4 launch. And if I do? It would all be down to Borderlands 2.
Thank you for reading this far, and I hope you’ll join me again for the next entry in this series, where I’m going to be taking a deep dive into the world of ABZU for the very first time. Take care.