Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel review

Everything about Pre-Sequel screams middle step: in plot, mechanics, graphics, the whole studio hand-off rigamarole, console politics, the whole she-bang. And, y’know, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. 2K Australia isn’t disingenuously re-inventing the shoot-and-loot genre the way the first two games managed to, rather, they manage to continue to carry the strong lead that Borderlands 2 set-up in 2012. For fans of the series, or people just looking to sate their desire to grab new weapons, there’s plenty in this middle chapter to tide players over.

Story-wise this time around, we’re filling in some of the blanks between the original and the sequel, hence our naming scheme for the game. Perhaps more so than any other previous installment, narrative is brought to the forefront. We’re mixing characters from 1 and 2, and watching character motivations play out in more understandable fashions than before. The initial setup of the player character Athena being captured by the city of Sanctuary set’s up the story to be told in medias res (or flashback for you less fancy folks out there), with a focus to see how a lowly Hyperion programmer ends up becoming the big bad of number 2: Handsome Jack.

Future scourge of the universe, a real up-and-comer.

Much like the second, Jack is in constant communication with the player, yet this time as a friend, instead of foe. You’ll be following his directions from the Hyperion space base to Elpis, Pandora’s moon. Jack manages to steal the show again for the Pre-Sequel, being both a charismatic leader with hints of a psychotic twist waiting to be fulfilled by the ending. Characters in general end up being more expressive than they’ve ever been, with favorites returning for new quips, and the Vault Hunters being much chattier than they were in the past. Story characters will refer to who you play as with unique dialogue, and often, you’ll be throwing out your own hilarious one-liners as you play. Finally, the interrogation arc of the story plays out similarly to the Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep DLC, with the Vault Hunters from 1 commenting on the story as it’s told.

First bit of gameplay for any new character.

Elpis as a local feels smaller than Borderlands 2, and slightly less varied to boot. The moon itself does have a surprising amount of variety for what most would assume to be just a hunk of rock, but it doesn’t match the scope of Pandora. A sort of hilarious side-effect of the game’s development in Australia shows a great number of the moon’s inhabitants speaking with an accent. It’s not hard to imagine the moon as a sort of analogous land-down-under-but in-space. Take it one step further, and we’ve essentially turned it into a backwater penal colony.

Characters feel much more diverse for our 3rd Borderlands game (reminder: this isn’t Borderlands 3), both in personality, and in design for skill trees. More complicated skill builds run rampant through character builds, from simple melee, team healing and minion builds, to more complicated playstyles involving constantly stacking buffs, weapon-type focus skillsets, or even progression built around pure randomness. These help to break-out of traditional MMO trinity rolls into much more varied playstyles. Best of all, skill trees are slightly smaller, with more one-point wonder skills, allowing players to experiment with major playstyle altering skills sooner and more frequently. Badass ranks return as well giving players extra incentive to keep playing.

Travel the moon!  Dispatch bandits with interesting and exotic weapons!

Loot-wise, we’re looking at a lot of the same weapon types and styles from 2, with some minor tweaks. For story reason, slag weapons are out for this outing, but replaced by cryo weapons, which manage to pack more punch as a status effect. Having enemies take more damage was cool from a teamplay perspective, but freezing enemies and watching them shatter to pieces is far more satisfying. A brand new addition to the weapon types for this space-going adventure includes laser-type weapons. The handling ends up feeling mostly like a different rifle type, but with incredibly varied firing modes. One laser might give you a constant damage stream effect a la Ghostbusters, while another might be a more sniper affair with a rail gun shot. All and all, fantastic additions to any Vault Hunter’s arsenal.

The new mechanics introduced for a game taking place on a moon are somewhat hit and miss. Oxygen is now a slight concern, and a particular loot slot will dictate just how much O2 you have to burn before needing a refill. Oxygen also helps to fuel some of your extra mobility options, short bursts being used as propellent for a little extra jumping power. The extra mobility feels good once you get the hang of it in combat, and Oz kits end up gaining unique affixes that will facilitate different playstyles. A butt-slam rounds out your move arsenal as an AOE option for foes crowding your space. O2 never ends up feeling like a super-huge concern throughout the game, with plenty of oxygen sources to be found around the battlefield, and very minor penalties show if you do manage to stop breathing.  If you really want to ignore O2, you can always play as Claptrap.

What a gunfight looks like in True Vault Hunter Mode

Visually, the series is starting to show it’s wrinkles for sticking to it’s platforms. The Cel-shaded look still manages to be visually distinct in a market focused on hyper-realism, but the cracks in the architecture are under more scrutiny than ever. NPC’s don’t animate in convincing ways, texture pop-in is a regular occurrence, and environments are a largely static affair. Performance hits are much more noticeable on the console releases compared to the PC version, making it the superior choice for play. Tons of customization options are still present however, and the generous feature of console split screen is still a nice touch.

Other minor gripes that still plague the series are mostly holdovers from 2: True-Vault Hunter mode isn’t super compelling unless you're playing with friends (although alternate storylines help to inject a little extra humor). Objectives being spaced out over large areas and the necessity of vehicles feels like an oversight. The writing style is still going for a very narrow slice of absurdist parody mixed with internet memes. If you found the jokes to be tedious in past games, this one will probably end up grating on you even more.

To be fair, it is probably the weirdest action skill in series history.

At the end of the day, Pre-Sequel feels like a glorified expansion pack (which is saying something considering the boatloads of DLC that came with 2), and for fans of the series, that’s absolutely fine. This installment manages to sharpen a few points in the franchise, while overlooking the same few flaws the series always has. The only real quantitative statement that you can say about it is that it is more Borderlands, and there are quite a few worse things you could be spending your money on this fall.

8/10