Borderlands The Pre-Sequel Hands On
Its good to be annoying, or at the very least, its better to be annoying than being annoyed. At this year’s Gamescom I managed to have a go at the upcoming Borderlands title, with the option of playing as Athena “the Gladiator” or Claptrap. I chose Claptrap. Obviously.
When I first loaded up the game, it was hard to immediately notice the difference between this and Borderlands 2. It looks pretty much the same, and with a similarly silly setting this could have been just another add on. That was until we started playing.
The first, and most important thing you’ll notice in The Pre-Sequel is gravity, or the lack there of. Being on Pandora’s moon rather than the planet itself comes to the nifty advantage of lower gravity. Lower gravity that means you can float through the air with each jump.
Not only does this change up the way combat is played out, that we’ll get to later, but the level design has also shifted. With the inclusion of this third dimension of gameplay, maps begin to take a more vertical approach to their structure. It’s a refreshing change from the more flat landscapes of the previous games and really improves your options exploring. As well as this, there also comes a more platforming element to the game, with the next location not always so easy to reach.
In combat, caution is thrown into the same pit as gravity as we leapt about the environment unleashing amusing one liners and poorly aimed bullets. Being able to jump the length of any battle means that there’s no reason to play by the rules as we knew them. And with the added ‘butt bounce’, I was raining shiny metal asses on my victims, which is a hilarious and advantageous way of dropping into the middle of the fray.
As the battles began to get harder, I decided to use one of Clap Traps special powers and high five my partner (Athena). She was having none it, preferring to actual shoot the baddies. Phfft. Maybe it was because my, or should I say Claptraps, infuriating dialogue had been shouted across each encounter, or maybe she just didn’t notice me awkwardly waiting for her approval. Its a distinctive feeling being left hanging, especially when you’re being shot as well. But luckily the buff of Sadness really helped, even if I’d been abandoned by my virtual friends.
Thankfully, however helpful cooperation is in playing, it is not necessary. With me and my partner at either sides of the fight, it felt fairly automatous, only really joining forces to dispatch the last few enemies with our favourite guns.
Like all the other games, Borderlands offers so billions of weapons with elements that are strong and weak against certain enemies. My favourite weapon however, and a new entry to the Borderlands series was the over the top and fantastic laser beams. With huge columns of light exploding from your gun, all you have to do is point it at your target and watch the numbers fly. It felt kind of like using a laser pointer to highlight the biggest threat, especially while we were working as a team, but its inclusion just adds to the bigger science fiction atmosphere of the Pre-Sequel.
While the earlier games were clearly sci-fi in nature, the tone of the game never really had that feeling in anything but tongue-in-cheek comedy. The Pre-Sequel embraces the absurdity of the genre whole heartedly, with giant space ships, military AIs and much much more. You’ll find yourself assisting Handsome Jack through the adventure on his raise to power, so you can expect his hilarious and offensive voice to crop up from time to time.
Although The Pre Sequel might look the same at first glance, 2K has filled it with enough new features and interesting concepts to make the game feel completely fresh. With another dose of pitch perfect humour and outrageous and intense combat, The Pre-Sequel is set to become another favourite amongst fans of the RPG shooter. It captures what was so great with the first games, without feeling dated, and adds new elements to the mix without spoiling the formula.
Plus, it pretty fun running through a battlefield trying to high five your partner.