We should all know that I love crazy stuff. I have reviewed movies involving giant radioactive dinosaurs fighting 3 headed space dragons, a short man fighting a dragon turtle to save a princess and then there’s the mountain of anime. But there is a game series known for its weird sense of humour, the Borderlands games and today I look at Borderlands 2... Because it was on sale around Christmas.

Borderlands is an action role-playing first person shooter. What does that mean? Well it’s a first person shooter (you should know that part) but with some rpg elements like leveling up and acquiring new gear to raise your stats. This takes the form of weapons with progressively better stats, items that raise some elements of your stats, the ability to raise key abilities effectiveness by completing challenges so on and so on. This kind of game play has become known as looter shooter, gear and weapons falling off of defeated enemies or found in locations like chests.

But that’s not what makes Borderlands memorable. It’s the tone, it’s the insanity, it’s the setting, it’s the characters, it’s… it’s driving over a rocky outcrop at high speeds to land in the middle of the helicopter cults volleyball court to set the net on fire drawing out their big burly volleyball players who you blow up with a rocket launcher all cause some guy told you to.

Set 5 years after Borderlands you select a character who each have different abilities, (I chose the Mechromancer who can summon forth a killer robot to destroy her enemies while filling them with lead, missiles, radioactive goop etc.). You are out to stop the evil handsome Jack  president of the Hyperion Corporation who wants to take over the world. The opening cut scene has you on a train trying to kill him, but it’s a trap big explosion and you’re woken up by a somewhat nutty robot in the middle of a glacier.

Progression through the story is done through quests handed to you by NPCS this also gives other rewards like Exp to level up and equipment like guns. However you are also able to explore freely on your own. You may end up in areas with enemies whose levels are too high for you to take on and have a chance of winning. Though it’s still a good idea as secrets and chests can be found while exploring (go on, look for the Minecraft Easter egg).

Borderlands 2 can be played single player but you can also be joined by 3 other players allowing for the madness to increase which helps a lot with the vehicle segments as one person can go in the driver seat while everyone else can fire guns and explosives from every other seat.

The game was released in 2012 and it’s a testament to how fun it is that it still has a dedicated player base, probably helped that its sequel is still only available on the Epic Games Store and its best to avoid the Epic Games Store – they don’t even have a shopping cart.

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