Borderlands 3 or Borderlands 2

Hey Duders,

I'm in the mood for some Borderlands! I see Borderlands 3 is on sale for pretty cheap on PSN, I also somehow have both the Presequel and BL2 in my game library (Maybe a PS Plus at some point?)

I'm okay buying BL3 if its worth it but I've seen mixed reviews if BL3 is even much of a step up or even actively worse then BL2.

I doubt I have it in me to play more then one of these games so give me your hot takes! BL2, Presequel or BL3!

Thanks!

I mean Borderlands 3 is fine but if you already have 2 and just have a hankering for some dumb loot shooting then I would just fire up Borderlands 2 instead of buying something else.

You can probably get your fill from the Handsome Collection. It's a lot of Borderlands.

I'm apparently one of those weirdos who still likes the first game the most.

I enjoyed Borderlands 3. Having said that, I got the end wondering why exactly there needed to be a Borderlands 3. Everything it does, Borderlands 2 does just as well. And Borderlands 3 is long. Kind of tediously long as it happens. I got to a point where I felt like it should have ended two acts ago - and then had two more acts after that.

I like the first game the most, but between 2 and 3, I'd pick 3 in a heartbeat.

The guns in 2 are crazy, but obnoxiously crazy, to the point I don't like playing with most of them. The map and quest design are just obnoxious compared to 1 and 3.

3 inherits some problems from 2, but the weapons, the feel of the shooting, the enemy design, are all better. It's kind of weird that a couple of the maps in 3 are just -- straight, linear paths forward -- but I'll take that over the mazes in 2 any day.

What makes this a weirder value proposition is the fact that you own 2 already. If it was a choice between buying 2 or 3, I'd say 3. But is 3 that much better than 2? $30 better? Especially with how poorly BL3 runs in menus on the PS4, and many of my positive impressions come from playing on PC?

That's a personal decision.

I think 3 is pretty good. Lots of guns, pretty long, lots of dumb UI decisions that drive me crazy. But it's really long so if you're in the mood for lots of shootin' action it might be up your alley. Just be warned that most of the villain/evil people in the game are ATROCIOUSLY written. Actually I can't even say they're poorly written, just poorly conceived and super lame in a meme-y way that was better off left in 2010.

I would only recommend 3 if you buy the season pass. Without the DLC, the game is lacking. Also they're doing even more paid content in the form of things like new skill trees for each character, so you might be better off waiting to play. I haven't done the most recent DLC yet either because the one that came before it was kinda dull. I didn't find a single of the new weapons useful compared to what I had at Mayhem 10.

Nah. First game had better guns.

I mean, I know the second one has crazy weird guns, sure, but none of them ever felt effective. In 2, I occasionally got effective guns from random drops, but most of the guns I got that were actually reasonably effective and fun came from that box in the middle of the game's hub area where you had to put in a code you pulled from Randy Pitchford's Twitter or the Wiki or something. I hated that.

I also hated the vast majority of the dialog in that game. Some of it was all right, but the vast majority of it was incredibly irritating.

I don't know why I finished that game, but it killed any interest I had in the franchise, even though I finished the first game a few times. Three, I think, maybe four?

I guess I'm alone and that I really like Pre-Sequel. I think it's the only Borderlands I liked it enough to actually finish. Nearly all of the other games I burn out at around 20 to 30 hours in.

Thanks for the feedback!

I think I'm definitely leaning towards 2 or Presequel since I apparently already own them!

For everyone that seems Pro 3 there seem to be just as many or more that hold 2 in higher esteem.

Ultimately I just want some un-curated, mindless shooting fun I can blast away at for an hour after the kids go to bed and this seems to be the game(s) to do that.

Can anyone weigh into 2 vs the Presequel? As far as I can tell its just 2 with different characters/missions and maybe less content? Although more isn't necessarily better in my case, I find as I get older and busier I'm just happy to finish something then squeezing every hour I can on the "Time Played" clock.

Thanks for everyone who took to the time to reply so far! Probably going to install the 2/Presequel collection I have in a minute here.

@junkerman: The Pre-Sequel is 2 with a constantly diminishing oxygen meter in the open-world.

Flippancy aside, they are very similar, but there are specific changes (like the oxygen and gravity) in parts of that game that are either neat or totally off-putting. I happen to fall in the latter camp.

I tried playing pre-sequel twice, each time getting to right before the end of the main campaign. It's worse than B2 in almost every way. The low gravity mechanic isn't fun, the enemies in the open-area sections are annoying, and the world is mostly boring. It's not terrible, it's just not that good either. It's what it is, a DLC turned into a full game as was popular then.

The Handsome Collection is a great deal for the money and has a very large amount of content.

That said, BL3 is the better game in nearly every way. The quality of the shooting mechanics between BL2/Pre-Sequel and 3 is like night and day. BL3 has great combat and a lot of good loot which makes it stand above those other two games handily. A lot of the guns in 2 are simply not fun to use, and a lot of that stems from what are generally pretty lacking and unsatisfying shooting mechanics. That, and you'll likely never see a vast majority of the best gear because the drop rates are fucking atrocious. 3 basically throws Legendaries at you after a certain point. The Pre-Sequel is a lot better with this, too.

Borderlands 2 has a better story and a better main villain. Yes, I actually like Handsome Jack as a villain, sue me. But despite beating Borderlands 2 and all the DLC several times, I kinda don't care for any of the classes.

Borderlands 3 however has improved on a lot of the things I did not like in Borderlands 2, but it has kinda dull main villains. But it has Typhon DeLeon, which I absolutely love. Also, while I haven't played through the game with every class yet I actually like all the classes.

I guess that if you are just in the mood for some Borderlands you can't go wrong with 2 or Pre-sequel if you already own them. I actually really like Pre-Sequel as well. The whole oxygen-depleting-all-the-time-thing is really not a problem. And if you like Handsome Jack like I do you get more of him.

I just realized there was a 7 year gap between Borderlands 2 and 3. At that point, your fps game kinda has to feel better than the previous one i feel :D

I found the shooting and general gameplay of BL3 to be vastly superior to 2 (as it should be, after 7 years), and would recommend that. The story is absolutely awful and a good 80% of the characters are completely unlikable, however.

I will say however that BL3 runs like garbo on PC for how unimpressive it visually looks, while also doing nothing spectacular with the A.I. So if you are playing on PC, I'd go with BL2 + DLC.

Borderlands 3 picks up only after you've finished the main story.
But it's littered with bad level design, a lot of backtracking, bad or nonexistent scaling until you finish the story.
But the gunplay is great and way better than in Borderlands 2 which has better story, characters and world buidling.

I know a lot of people don't go to Borderlands for the story, but that's the biggest issue with three alongside its new characters being a bit boring with many of the older characters being underutilized, and the humor doesn't hit the right notes where I felt it was fine or good in the previous games. That said, the shooting is slightly better (they're all good, but three is... slightly better, as I've just said). Some of the levels look cool, and music can be good. By the end of three, I was getting pretty tired of it, but in hindsight, it's a good game still overall. I'd go with two if you hadn't played that yet.

If you’re looking for story then bl2, the third one is better for loot and gameplay, also the dlc for 3 is very good.

I would advice going to 2 unless you have played so much there is nothing new to see. As others have said, the story, writing, performance and characters on 2 are miles ahead of 3. Even when no one goes to Borderlands for the story, there are differences between being there and actively harming the experience. In Borderlands 2, I muted the dialogue after I completed the main quest. In Borderlands 3, I muted the dialogue after the first hour and skips all cutscenes...

Even when the gameplay is arguably better in 3, without the world being engaging, it needs to be a lot better than this for me to play it despite hating my time exploring it.

@doctordonkey said:

This is another thing that I noticed... I don't know why, but almost every session I have played with friends have ended because someone's game freezes, or crashes with a Windows exception, or I get disconnected and can't get back, or have lag that amount in seconds, so that I am fighting entirely different enemies, or they aren't spawn.

Honestly, Borderlands 2. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but there’s something about the way Borderlands 3 plays that feels off. The way the characters speak, the quest design, level layout etc all feel like a step backwards from 2. The characters and unique weapons just don’t feel as cool either.

I’d say go with 2, unless you really want to see what happens in 3.

BL3 plays great and has a terrific endgame loop to it. That said, the writing is godawful. It's astonishingly bad, and I've generally liked everything about Borderlands up until this point. My recommendation is to play BL3, but have something to listen to on the side.

Echoing sentiment of others, something is off in 3. I had to put it down, and beat and enjoyed 1 and 2 quite a bit. I don't even remember why I stopped playing it, but it left a bad taste.

I've been chipping away at BL2 the last few nights for an hour or two. Seems to have scratched what I was looking for - there seems to be a lot of game here that I doubt I'll ever have the time to see it all.

Not to derail my own thread but I cant help but feel like the randomized guns is the worst part about Borderlands... with limited inventory space and constant leveling I cant help but feel the parts I like (playing with builds, experimenting with weapons) is a bit watered down by the constant cavalcade of weapons, the many of which seem less enjoyable to fire then then the few I've really connected with.

Inventory limits serve no purpose 99% of the time, and yeah they are one of the worst things about the borderlands series... feels like artificial padding to get you to run back to town randomly.

Would very much like to hear a dev's take on why inventory limits are so oppresive in these sorts of games.

My theory is they want that inventory to fill up so you sell shit. It's another part of the treadmill.

@shindig: Well that, and the fact that it would be a major pain in the ass to have to scroll through hundreds or potentially THOUSANDS of items in your inventory. It also might be a technical limitation to load them all. It already took Gearbox a full year to make the menus run smoothly in BL3 so I don't think that's something anyone wants.

I think the best solution, and one that I'm surprised wasn't implemented into BL3 already, is to have a dedicated "Pick up as junk" option and have a separate, larger inventory for junk items and just have the 48 or whatever slots be only for non-junk. It would alleviate a huge problem the series has had since the beginning.

@killem_dafoe: I think you’re right and that’s a wonderful solution. Having to mark junk as I picked it up easily added over an hour or two to my play through of 3.

To the OP, I just finished playing through 3 and am working on the DLC. It’s a well made game, and I find that the poor antagonists at least make them hatable to hunt down. But, they definitely aren’t funny, or interesting...or good. I had way less of a problem with Handsome Jack in 2, and in fact wasn’t as bothered by the humor. I’m not a huge fan of the humor they developed after 2, but it provides a ridiculous backdrop for the ridiculous action. Seeing this post made me wonder if I played the DLC for 2. Just seeing the names made me remember it was a fun ride. I’d play through 2 since you have it. And maybe run 3 when you can get it on something more optimized like a newer console or pc down the road (it still has some weird hitches on high end PCs, but not the issues I’ve heard complaints of on the consoles). Not to mention it’ll be even cheaper by the next time you are wanting borderlands. And, by the way, my favorite is still the first game. What a charming gem.

Let's be honest, if it's not equipped, it's all junk. That's how I play Borderlands.

@shindig Thats the path I've started taking, I've just been righteously selling everything until I start to feel underpowered then take a gamble on a few guns.

I thought snipers were complete trash until I found one with a huge clip, high damage, fire elemental, no recoil and somehow seems easier to aim then any gun I've used. Its green but man is it ever fun to playwith... already dreading the time when I have to give it up.

My current primary for example is a hideous hand cannon that is not fun to play with but is just too good not to use.

Kind of a weird game in that regard... I'm hoping at some point I'll hit named Loot that someone will have hand crafted and actually made it fun to play with because right now the randomness is a complete crapshoot.

I was pretty down on the "story" the entire time although I'm surprised to admit a few of the side quests I've done recently have had me chuckling a little bit. Hopefully thats the sign of some being good and not me slowly draining out my brainbox.

Stumbled across some sort of double rainbow Handsome Jack Trigger that was pre-meditated assault however lol.

So a year later and I've gotten around to playing Borderlands 3.

In my opinion its the far superior game on all levels. The most important being fun. The shooter gameplay is a lot tighter and mobility is more fluent allowing for running and gunning on a closer level to the likes of Destiny/Halo. Which is more my cup of tea. Fast travel and navigating the world also seems a lot more fluent and enjoyable. Borderlands 2 might have more content but I found it very tedious to engage with.

Leveling also seems considerably quicker and more fun.

The other large factor contributing to my enjoyment is weapon scaling. I was able to use the first few legendary guns I recieved from level 8 all the way until beating the main story and I really appreciated that.

A lot of my beef with Borderlands comes with the fact that you're often required to use weapons that arent fun to play with simply because the numbers are better. I dont really care for charging energy weapons, or weapons that shoot non-standard projectiles with strange gimmicks. I found this legendary rifle with a 3 round burst that played identically to the halo 2 battle rifle and a really powerful shotgun around the same time that one shot everything at close range from level 9 when I found it until the end of the game as long as it wasnt fire resistant. This allowed me to experiment with my other two weapon slots with level appropriate loot, but if I wasnt having fun I could switch back to my reliable with only a minor step back in power.

I prefer Borderlands 2, mostly because I haven't played 3. But from seeing the villains, to what happens to a certain character in the story, to being limited to 4 characters, I probably won't be playing BL3 anytime soon.

Reading through this thread was blowing my mind. A lot of nostalgia colouring opinions. Borderlands 3 is the best game in the series, hands-down, when you're looking at it from pure gameplay and mechanics. They finally made good on the guns thing which BL2 bungled by having some manufacturers just suck. The movement is way better. The guns have a heft and a punch to them that makes them super satisfying to use. It's quick, it's snappy, the loot flows freely, it's a good time.

Except the writing. it's worse than BL2 and 1, which were also badly written.

The first Borderlands is my personal favorite. That all being said, I've always thought that if anyone were to dive in to the series they should start with 2. Over all it is a better gaming experience. However I also believe that's right around when the series starts losing its charm.

I also echo Borderlands 1. It was the only Borderlands I connected with in atmosphere, gameplay, and even the story, while playing the soldier by myself.

Otherwise I would recommend Borderlands 3 for modern improvements. Plus I felt the odd stuff added around after Borderlands 2 was simply inferior in conception and game-play.

Borderlands 1 is the only one that you don't have to play on mute, so I'll say that.

Haven't played 2 since launch but I was luke warm on it back then, I really enjoyed 3 despite it's pretty bad writing all around(beyond a few side quests that are actually kinda funny).