Borderlands 1.5: The Pre-Sequel

The main thing about the first game is that it was given a graphical overhaul halfway into development, going a straight-laced Real Is Brown realistic shooter to a shooter that doesn't take itself too seriously and has Cel-shaded graphics. As such, the story had to be scrapped and redone. Bits and pieces of the original story were converted into the new one, but the story is somewhat fragmented. The story is peppered with plenty of comedy, but nowhere near the level that they take things to in BL 2. It isn't until the DL Cs came out that they really started to go in that direction.

Mechanically, the game is virtually identical except for a few features that were just made better in Borderlands 2. First off, in BL 2, you could hold down the loot button to pick up everything in the area around you. In the first game, you have to pick everything up one by one.

BL 2 features Badass Tokens that give you accumulated percentage bonuses to your stats like gun damage, shield recharge, accuracy, etc. In Borderlands 1, you had to level up gun types to increase your steadiness, accuracy, damage, and all that. This isn't a terrible thing, mind you, as each character focused pretty heavily on a certain type of gun, so there'd be certain types you might not even use very often. The gun types are Pistol, Shotgun, Assault Rifle, Magnum, Submachine Gun, Rocket Launcher, Rifle, and Eridian weaponry. That last category of weapons were only found rather late into the game, but provided some pretty cool effects, similar to E-tech weapons in BL 2.

• Roland focused mainly on Assault Rifles and submachine guns.
• Brick focused on shotguns and Rocket Launchers (one of his skills regenerated rocket ammo, very useful).
• Lilith was mainly pistols and magnums.
• Mordecai focused on rifles and pistols.

Finally, while the graphics were given an overhaul during development, most of the environment stayed the same. Real Is Brown is in full effect here, as most of the areas are dusty badlands or littered for miles with rusted out junk. There is some variety, but they realized when they developed BL 2 how much they had gone overboard with the whole "This planet is a total shithole" angle they were going for in the first game.

edited 14th Aug '14 11:34:32 AM by DRCEQ

I remember hating borderlands when I first played it. I thought I would like it since FO 3 had grown on me but it was too much FPS and not enough RPG for me, and the MMORPG style quests were really kind of a turn off, as well as the low brow humor(which admittedly I still found plenty obnoxious in BL 2 but it got better 2nd half of the game minus the infamously bad buttstallion). Plus the story was too bare bones. Roland was SO much cooler in BL 1 and I hate how they sucked out all his personality for BL 2. Mordecai was super fun and I never played Lilith but she's just cool, not a huge fan of Brick though. Fair warning, the ending of the game sucked which made Gearbox admitting it in the 2nd game pretty funny.

Also there's this boss in the first game that's MEGA annoying. Words cannot describe but it's probably one of the most frustrating main-game fights barring the bonus boss in the 2nd game.

edited 14th Aug '14 8:39:41 PM by Vertigo_High

What's his face skull guy?

I think.

Mothrakk actually, such an annoying fight. Mad Mel sucked too.

No no it was an early level guy I was thinking of.

Dropped this nice SMG called "Boneshredder" or something

The guy right on the outskirts of Fyrestone?

I guess you're talking about Bone Head, because he's the main dropper of the Bone Shredder.

I found Sledge rather annoying too. His shotgun was pretty fun for launching people though.

Mothrakk was indeed quite annoying. The only way I could beat it was to spawn a turret at the Catch-A-Ride station near where it spawns, and use the station itself as cover from Mothrakk's attacks. It took me about 20 minutes to finally Cherry Tap that thing down.

Pre-orders are up. 59.99. Was kinda hoping we'd get a discount due to the "giant DLC" nature of the game, but oh well. And you get 10% off (at least on Steam) if you have Borderlands 1 or 2.

I didn't wanna necro the Borderlands 2 thread but it's free on Steam for the weekend. Also on sale for $5.

I'm picking it up again, how are the DLCs? I never actually played any of them past the first 3

edited 21st Aug '14 10:18:10 AM by LeGarcon

Dude, you stopped right before the best one!

I can see why you would stop there, though—Hammerlock was kinda a letdown. Lot of poor level design choices that made questing annoying. But yes, Dragon's Keep is awesome.

I'll have to get the big season pass eventually then.

Things are going well so far, killed Boom and Bewm, got some lovely Vladof guns.

Decided to play as Axton this time, I've got a level 50 Zer0 sitting on my Xbox somewheres.

Are they still handing out Golden Keys? I got the one but I'm gonna be a bit bummed out if that's all I get.

They hand out codes for golden keys every two minutes on twitter, it seems.

Pre-sequel intro by Hammerlock and Torgue.

Hmm, just maybe this won't be a glorified expansion pack.

Optimism ho!

I'm operating under the assumption it will be like Assassin's Creed: Revelations: Nothing new gameplay-wise, just story and new levels. If I'm proven wrong, that's great. If not, I'm still looking forward to it anyway.

I gotta say though, none of the characters this time around are appealing to me.

Maybe Athena and Wilhelm but that's about it.

Nobody I'm actually excited for.

I'm damn excited to get my Athena on!

Xiphos is a cool word, and using them sounds as cool to me

You know, rewatching the video I'm feeling much better about this game.

I'm actually getting pretty excited for it. Lemme see some skill trees and I'm probably sold.

I got ya.