Quick Look: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

Well this should be... interesting :)

Not sure I am ready for more BLands, but I am always ready for another quick look.

Been waiting for this for a while.

So I either have to put up with a death countdown, or play as one of the worst video game characters of last-gen? Sounds fun!

@steadying: the o2 mechanic really isnt restrictive in the slightest. It is basically just a way to keep you from having unlimited double jump. You don't even die when the o2 runs out

time to check out whats new in world of borderlands and call it a night, one of these days I will get caught up. I still need to play through borderlands 2.

Nailed it

This just looks....boring.

Oh god bogan accents, argh.

I think I wanna go play Borderlands... Not this one, the first one.

Maybe if this becomes a Plus game I'll check it out. As it stands from what I've seen here though, I cannot see myself spending money or the time investment on this one.

Borderlands down under.

O2 meter alone was enough for me to pass on this version.

Firestarta and the stars and stripes makes perfect sense. Bet there was a Keith Flint NPC involved as well.

This shit writes itself.

Surprising lack of memes in this video

Fuck that oxygen meter.

edit: and claptrap too.

No "lulz," just right.

Pretty interesting. That laser gun with the American flag on it makes me kind of want to get this game, but the rest of the game mechanics remind me of why I don't play games with contrived mechanics (e.g. Lost Planet's Thermal Energy, Dead Rising's time limits) anymore.

I do wonder how the new entry in the game will play, given Destiny exists and all. I mean, Borderlands 2 technically had numerous raid-like experiences with the different "Impossible Monsters" they had. I guess it would be interesting if there was some sort of competitive arena modes where you had to bet your weapons as currency. However, with how fast it is to break previous entries with their duping exploits, that may feel moot.

I think it would be cool if you could pull the camera out into 3rd person like in Fallout.

After spending like 180 hours in Borderlands 1 along with friends, all of us bought Borderlands 2, played it once together for a couple hours , and that's it. I went on to finish the game single player and it was a chore.

I thought the biggest problem with BL2 is that the loot just wasn't rewarding or compelling enough. I never got a drop in that game that I felt was amazing or made me look forward to other drops. I blame this specifically on the stupid golden chest and key system that they came up with pretty blatantly just to get people to tie their social media accounts to Gearbox so they could advertise to them. The golden chest was the only thing that produced amazing drops and if you didn't want to engage with social media bullshit, you were screwed.

@arx724: I played through the entire game pretty much ignoring the oxygen meter. There was one single incident where I ran out of oxygen and wasn't near any source and I lost about 50 health.

I think I'd still enjoy the hell out of this with friends, I'm actually kind of really hanging out for it to hit PS4.

The oxygen system seems worse than pointless.

Definitely borderlands. Maybe someday when its cheap?

It's definitely pointless but I've never found it particularly detrimental. Just on the rare occasion I run out and the screen darkens and then I ask why it's there.

Why, why, and why couldn't they have just ported this to current gen? Might be a GOTY complete bundle definitive enhanced version after all the dlc but fuck that noise

I might play this if hey bring it to XBO. I'd rather wait for a proper Borderlands from Gearbox.

That's, in a way, worse than oxygen actually being a problem. Why is it even there if it's 0 challenge to not run out and nothing but a chore?

These are good points. I still remember going online in the original after playing TONS of it in single and local multiplayer, and seeing a dude with a crazy pistol that I had never seen ANYTHING like. When I expressed amazement the dude just drops a dupe for me. I forget the exact specs or behavior, but I never found anything as powerful or crazy looking. It seemed profoundly cheated in... And probably was. I'm not exaggerating when I say it trivialized every single enemy encounter in an unbalanced way, kind of awesome way.

After playing countless hours of B2 and all the DLC, nothing even remotely similar has happened.

Not a fan.

Because it's a means to limit your ability to dash or double jump forever. Just feels like it's way more obnoxious to call it Oxygen instead of just having a recharging boost meter or something.

I sort of understood why there were crazy people throwing knives or other sharp things at you when you were on the abandoned, insane world of Pandora. But seeing the same type of enemies on this moon kind of puts me off. I feel like if you were on the moon wearing a highly sophisticated oxygen breathing apparatus, you would have it together enough to start using real weapons.

I enjoy the oxygen system simply because the O2 boost is faster than sprinting. Running out of oxygen isn't a big deal since the health DOT is so minuscule and you get oxygen resupplies constantly.

@arx724: It's there to give you one more slot of gear. It's basically the armor thing they're talking about in the QL without the effort of having to create vast set of different looking armor. You can get kits that increase your damage reduction, fire rate, gun damage etc.

@arx724: i think it has to do with limiting your ability to buttslam and boost etc...

i mean i think it probably would have been fine if you could do those things infinitely but the system works out alright anyhow. its certainly not tedious or frustrating which is the worst thing it could have been and what i assumed it would be when i heard about it for the first time.

i actually really hope they keep some kind of aerial movement mechanic in borderlands 3 because it works well with the general gameplay of borderlands. the guns and all that have always been whacky i just want the movement to be as fast and ridiculous as those.

@casper_: @efesell: It doesn't really limit your movement much though. Any time your out and about your most likely in a vehicle and the vast amount of fights take place either inside or near oxygen bubbles which give you infinite oxygen. Through the last half of the game I was basically double jumping my way everywhere since it gives you a speed boost.

This game looks dumb as a butt.

@ares42: Oh no it's definitely not a huge factor in that aspect either but it definitely feels like that was the intent behind the whole thing, and there have definitely been some fights for me where I've ran low enough to not being to dash around and slam as much as I would like.

A lot of what you're saying just sounds wrong, but what i'm seeing looks so right.

As a huge Borderlands 1 and 2 fan your podcast rant pretty much drove me away from this, but... the laser weapons look fun... playable Claptrap... I think you sold me on this but not at all trying to.

This game inpired me to actually play the copy of borderlands 2 I own.

Not sure If i'll ever make it to this one though.

Also as an Australian, all the Aus voice acting in this game is grating as fuck.

I like Claptrap, despite the unrestrained over-use of the character (and variations) in Borderlands 1 DLC. The sequel used him a bit more sparingly, and as the butt of some "Claptrap has no friends" jokes, so it worked.

But as a playable character? That just sounds dumb. There are robots I'd play as in a shooter or action game. I'd totally play a Star Wars game as HK-47 or Proxy. But as a wheeled C-3PO with a gun? That sounds like less fun than farming spinmetal on a bad mobile-phone port of Destiny while having a tooth pulled in a dentist's office where the Black Eyed Peas are performing an impromptu live set.

Will be getting this on my break. The aussie and british accents are strangely reassuring for me.

I feel about exactly as Dan does on this. Was hesitant about if I really wanted to play more Borderlands that is so much the same, Quick Look confirmed most of my suspicions but weirdly made me want to play it a lot more than before.

I will say though that the "meme" bullshit people throw at Borderlands 2, while at times true, is pretty overblown. Sure those jokes more often than not didn't land so well, but people are waaaaay overstating how many there were or how often they actually came up. They were kinda front heavy before the story really kicks in, but were pretty absent for most of the game.

As someone who usually agrees with what Jeff has to say about a game, I disagree with a lot of what he says about this game after putting a lot of time into it. The moon gravity gives this game a sense of verticality that wasn't present in the previous games. The oxygen is NEVER an issue. There are O2 geysers all over the place, you are in and out of interior spaces which refill your O2, and enemies drop O2 canisters. Even if you run out of Oxygen you only lose about 1 point of health per second--it's no big deal. The mechanic seems kind of pointless, but it never hinders you.

Maybe my sense of humor is more juvenile than Jeff's, but I thought Borderlands 2 was overall pretty funny, and I have let out a number of audible chuckles in the Pre-Sequel. I feel that if you have enjoyed Borderlands in the past, this is a good game to pick up. It's just more Borderlands, but hey, if you're into that, it's more Borderlands.

Also, Claptrap is really enjoyable to play as, and in my opinion, has the most unique and interesting action skill of all the characters.

Has Dan made a piece of content without referencing wrestling?

Where are the Australian accents? I wasn't paying attention to the entire video, but the only accents I picked out were American and Cockney English.

I don't remember much of the 'meme' stuff showing up in the story at all. It was mostly in the challenge names, which wasn't a big deal. BL humor trawls more in 80s pop culture and broad characterizations.

@rustafur:

I had the same thought but, when I looked through my game collection, I couldn't find it :( I do still have Borderlands 2 though so I am going to play that. This does look interesting to me though. I will wait for it to drop in price though.

@smokepants: Most of the accents aren't Australian. When Jeff was talking about that on the podcast he probably hadn't played much of the game yet. One of the major characters, Springs, has as Australian accent, as do many of the random psychos. Most of the named characters do not.