Borderlands 2 Xbox 360 and PC Review

Borderlands 2 follows the ever popular gameplay style of the original with its heavy focus on “shoot n’ loot” mechanics. With the prospect of, in Gearbox’s words “Bazillions of guns” which actually is only a few million guns, but lets not be picky, it’s still likely more guns that any other game on the planet.

Guns are randomly generated, both in loot drop chance and their abilities, with each of the games gun manufacturers offering something different. High elemental weapons that burn, corrode and shock your enemies, to guns that you throw away in stead of reloading only to spawn a fresh one and the old one explode like a grenade in your enemies face. There certainly is a colossal amount of variety here, you’re sure to find the one or more that is perfect for you.

On top of the monumental amount of guns and huge array of enemies, which range from simple midgets with shotguns to screen filling beasts of destruction. You will find that each character’s comes with a robust skill tree that you can unlock through leveling up. Allow the use of items like turrets, dual wielding, phase lock (think magic that holds the enemies in a force field), invisibility, all the way upto the deployment of huge explosions and health boosts. These really change the pace of gameplay and its by far one of the most fun features in the title.

The game world is one of the largest in the genre, in fact I’m hard pushed to think of anything bigger! given the games semi-open world nature, it’s like running around Skyrim while armed to the teeth with rocket launchers and shotguns. While Borderlands featured mostly dusty rocks for terrain, Borderlands 2 sees you scaling lush green environments, snow capped mountains and more, making this one of the most colourful games in the genre. Great if your bored of the ever brown and grey modern shooters that are currently flooding the market.

Co-op is the best feature here though, with support for local and online co-op, or of course both at the same time to allow for 4 player vault hunting with your friends. Bring more people into the mix and you’ll find you’re faced with more enemies and even better loot for your troubles. It’s still a great single player game, but the shooting and looting can get a little repetitive when you don’t have a friend alongside you to share in the adventure.