Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel review

Recommended

by Friday Tartaro

First Of All: Contains Spoilers! Very briefly: Not the best Borderlands. The Campaign is dragging on, but at least the Story is good. Lang: The Pre-Sequel (BPS in the future) plays between Borderlands 1 and 2 in time, all of which is a Flashback told by the Character Athena (the Timing of her Narrative is after the End of Borderlands 2). Essentially, it's about Jack's Story, how the little Hyperion employee became the Upper Villain Handsome Jack, whom we knew and hassy-lie-li're in B2. The Action takes place entirely on Elpis (Moon of the Planet Pandora) and the Helios Space Station (the flying H that hovers over Pandora; Jack'S Base in B2). The Main Story is quite good, the Transformation of Jack is beautifully represented. In the Beginning he is still the Hero who wants to save the Moon and its Inhabitants from the Destruction of the Cest, but it becomes clear again and again in places that he has one or the other Macke. The Following is really Fun to watch him descend further and further into madness until at the Very end the well-known Handsome Jack is there. So The Plot goes OK, I liked it well after Teething problems. I Also liked the fact that some other Backgrounds are explained (E.g. the Creation of the Constructor units or why Jack Lilith and Roland So hates). The big Problem with the Story, though, is that it drags on enormously. Actually, you don't do a lot of Action, but the Game pulls up pretty much all The Orders through rogue Intermediate steps and "Diversions" extremely long. Small Example pleasing? I'm supposed to recover something from a crashed Spacecraft. To get there, I have to cross a Bridge over a Lava flow. When I want to do that, the Bridge gets in and I don't get over it. So the Next Stop is bridge control; But this one does not work. Next, I'm supposed to direct Coolant into the Lava to make the River freeze so I can overflow. But don't Go either, so I'm sent across the Map to the pump station To throw the Coolant flow back on. But that is not enough, because after that I can still dazzle for River Control in order to divert the Coolant in the right Direction. When this was done, I was allowed back across the Map back to the Valve, where I was finally able to direct the Coolant into the Lava. Now, when I wanted to cross the hardened River, a Horde of Enemies attacked me, which I had to handle first. Then I was finally allowed to enter the Spacecraft, where I wanted to go in the face of the Nov. Duration of the Detour: Just over half an Hour. Exactly THAT makes BPS constant. In Both the Main Missions and the Sidequests, the Brakes are so brakes that at some point it just annoys and you need a Break. I strongly suspect that the Developers wanted to extend the Game Time in order not to stand so badly compared to B2. Because even with a standard Extension, BPS "only" lasts about 25h (Main Story + all The Sidequests I could find; DLCs don't). For Comparison: For Borderlands 2 you could easily set 35h (with DLCs then 50 +). Problem, Part 2: Like the other Borderlands games, BPS is designed to pull the same Character through the Campaign multiple Times at the various Levels of difficulty to reach the Maximum level. That drags on. Infinity. Like Swimming in Chewing Gum. From the Gameplay, not much has happened. New Are only Laser weapons and Ice Damage (can freeze enemies). Make Both Fun and expand the playful possibilities in a meaningful Way. Further Hanging, the Moon has a low Gravity, which allows us to jump higher and farther. Otherwise, BPS is still a Shooter with Role-playing Elements, which is mainly about Looting and Leveling. Oh, Level is as slow as in B2-as I said, the Whole thing is designed for multiple Gameplay runs. Conclusion: BPS Is highly recommended for the History surrounding Jack'S professional descent and spiritual Descent, even if, as mentioned above, a lot of Patience is sometimes needed. The Most Sunny is Borderlands 2 overall the better Game in pretty much every Way. If you have BPS on the Wish List, I therefore definitely advise you to Buy in a Sale. You don't need the Season Pass, because only the Claptastic Voyage DLCs is really interesting.