I’m a little torn on how to respond to people’s views on Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. It seems that it wasn’t a particularly popular game, with just four of you deciding to share your thoughts on it. However, the four that did take part all seemed to be reasonably impressed by the Pre-Sequel, although psychobudgie did say that while “It’s good… it’s not Borderlands 2 good”, and marked it as their least favourite game in the Borderlands series.
What’s interesting about psychobudgie’s view is that he couldn’t quite put his finger on why The Pre-Sequel didn’t tickle his fancy in the same way the earlier Borderlands titles did. Instead he simply said that it’s lacking “that certain thing, whatever it is that makes me love Borderlands 1 and 2”, and stated that he’s “just not feeling it at all”.
However, this view runs in pretty much the complete opposite direction from the others who shared their views on the game. In a short comment, scavenga said that “The Pre-Sequel is awesome for any Borderlands fan looking for more”, and nicely fills the void they experience when they haven’t dipped their toe into the Borderlands universe for a while.
MrYd had a very similar stance, saying that while The Pre-Sequel might not be “better than the second game… somehow that doesn’t matter”. Instead of the game feeling like more the same in a negative way, MrYd felt that “it’s more of the same, but that’s exactly what we want. And it’s a bit different”.
On the topic of minor differences from the earlier games in the series Forrest_01 felt that the “lasers and double jumps” in The Pre-Sequel really shone through, and made it hard to return to Borderlands 2. A slightly stranger difference from the earlier games is the fact that “everyone on Elpis has an Australian accent”, presumably due to the game being developed by 2K Australia. While this certainly didn’t put Forrest_01 off, they did find it “a little jarring as we are so used to hearing American accents of different types in our games”.
However, by far the best element of Forrest_01’s comment was a brief foray into writing a cookbook when trying to describe the game:
Basically, take Borderlands 2, add in some floaty type physics for the fact that the game takes place on Pandora’s moon (one of them?), sprinkle some new enemy types across the landscapes & leave to settle. Add a double jump, a butt-bounce & some pretty devastating lasers as new weapons, pop it in the oven for around 30-40 minutes and you have a pretty good (pre)sequel.
When it comes down to the game’s overall rating, just one person rated the game at Sale It, while the other three all plumped for Buy It. In fact both Forrest_01 and MrYd have some more specific advice, saying that people should pick up The Handsome Collection on the current generation of consoles, which not only includes The Pre-Sequel, but also Borderlands 2 and all of the DLC for both of the titles. If you’re still having doubts, MrYd said that the collection is “better value than a pony made out of diamonds”. If that doesn’t seal the deal, nothing will!
In tomorrow’s WeView we’ll be taking a look at Battlefield: Hardline. We previously featured it in WeView at it earlier in the year when it had a public beta test, but this left people a bit uncertain and undecided. I wonder if the final game will have faired any better?
As always, you can vote for next week’s game below.
djdustb
I love the game it fits with the other two parts of the trilogy really well. The main thing the Borderlands games do that win me over is local co-op. The fact that me and my girlfriend can play the WHOLE game together. More games need to offer this.
tactical20
I will pick up the Handsome collection when it’s £20.
matthangzhou
I loved the first 2 but for me they got the timing all wrong for this release and I am yet to pick it up.
It released around the ps4 launch so I’d crossed over to next gen and then releasing the handsome collection remake with 2 included wasn’t great as I’d already played through that and all the dlc.
I’m waiting for the standalone game on ps4 or a decent price drop on the collection.
Forrest_01
I think a lot of people fell into this boat tbh. This is probably why there was so little response to the weview.
They released it as the new gen was picking up speed & then foolishly said they ‘may’ release it on next gen too. That was personally enough to deter me buying it until the handsome collection appeared.
However, its still great value to have the 2 games in one package & have been having a blast playing through borderlands 2 again (4th or 5th time probably now?) & it means I got to play this for the first time too. Win win for me.
I wouldn’t hold your breath on a standalone version of the presequel though. There is pretty much no reason for them to separate the two. A price drop may be some way off (or at least to be discounted to the kind of level both you & tactical want), but I guess it has to happen at some point.
MrYd
If you’ve got a PS4, just buy the Handsome Collection. Even at just under £40, it’s better value than a pony made of diamonds. Even one called Butt Stallion.
Borderlands 2 was already quite a big game, and then they added 4 quite large expansions. A good 50% more game there. Including the wonderful Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep (the funniest one, also featuring a certain pony). And then the 5 smaller expansions. And extra classes to play as.
The Pre-sequel got less extras. A couple of classes and the Claptrap expansion.
That’s an enormous amount of content over the 2 games. And runs better on the PS4 too. And as a bonus, if you transfer your PS3 saves across, you get bonus badass rank. But all your badass points are unallocated and you get to set there for ages spending them again. Which is fun ;)
If you’ve played as every class before and got them to the top level, it might not be for you. Otherwise, pick a new class and play through it all again.
It could only be better value, even at full price, if they’d included the original game. But then I guess nobody would buy Borderlands 3 whenever that inevitably arrives, because they’d still be playing the first 3 games.