REVIEW: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! (2014)

I had no idea this would be such a hard review to write. In many ways Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is the natural follow-up to Borderlands 2 (Can we even call it a follow-up?) And it's clear just how much trouble 2K Australia (a.k.a. Not Gearbox) have had trying to make The Pre-Sequel stand out on its own.

For the uninitiated, Borderlands is a co-op oriented multiplayer shooter with a heavy focus on loot - to the point that the original set the Guinness World Record for the most guns in a videogame, at over 17.75 million guns! Borderlands 2 , widely considered the series' best entry, expanded on the original Borderlands concept with more charcters and content, leaving The Pre-Sequel to capitalise on that success by being a prequel to - you guessed it - Borderlands 2, telling the story of how Handsome Jack became the villain we know him to be.

First off, it's good to get out of the way that 2K Australia are trying WAY too hard to make Borderlands 2. This is clear as the UI has barely changed, and the game structure less so. Heck, even the bloody opening FMV has the same structure as BL2 - the characters are on their way to somewhere when their vechile is ambushed, prompting a reel of the characters' names and abilities. It also ends with the four of them blasting off agaaaiiiinnnn! Barely any of the gameplay mechanics have changed. There's an Oxygen meter which allows you to double-jump, but it adds little tothe expreience other than that it's fun to mess about with. I can't understate just how much from BL2 have been recycled - the gameplay, story and world structure really are a carbon copy of it.

It's also clear that inferior writers found themselves under great pressure to be as funny as their Gearbox counterparts. Most of the humour comes off as random, or as dank meme material, rather than being genuinely funny, as opposed to BL2. One of your first allies' defining character traits is that she's a lesbian with an Aussie accent. There are moments when it's funny - a lot of moments - but those moments are outnumbered in frequency by the number of times the game tries to emulate the Borderlands sense of humour and fails. And it's sad to admit that.

That said, it's really not all bad. Most of what you loved from the Borderlands games of old has returned. For the uninitiated, Borderlands' gameplay mixes open-world RPG mechanics with FPS mechanics. Each of the four playable characters has their own skill trees and unique special abilities. Athena has a Captain America-style shield, Wilhelm can call upon attack/support drones, Nisha can gun down enemies without even aiming at them, and fan favourite Claptrap has a selection of randomised abilities, accompanied by Claptrap pizzazz(TM). Because he's Claptrap. The gameplay really shines in multiplayer, as having friends to tackle missions with is always fun. Nothing beats taking out fools with all four heroes at once.

The fanservice here is top-notch - at least 2K Australia knew of one surefire way to please fans, eh? Characters such as Mad Moxxi and Handsome Jack return, and - as already mentioned in what is potentially one of the best pieces of fanservice outside of Smash Bros. - you can play as Claptrap. Speaking of which, I'm liking a lot of the playable characters. They can feel a little gimmicky but their execution in-game is well-done.

Elpis, a moon orbiting Pandora, is an awesome setting, by the way. The locales look really pretty, and it's the perfect setting for focusing on how Handsome Jack came to be the big bad of Borderlands 2. It's nice that the Borderlands universe is expanded on in this way. I WILL say, however, that some of the new enemy designs are remarkably lazy. They're basically redisgned adversaries which fit into the exact same archetypes from before: karrogs are the new skags, and skavs are the new bandits of Elpis. It makes me wonder if 2K Australia couldn't have found a better use for these new enemies, or at least a more interesting context to insert them into rather than so obviously being fodder enemies. But hey, it's videogames.

If it sounds like there's more bad than good in the Pre-Sequel, there isn't, I can assure you. I t's just that nearly everything good I could say about this game has already been said about BL2, and if you're reading this review you've most likely checked out BL2 before in some way, so you know what to expect. It's more of the same, this time made by people who are trying too hard to be something they aren't; they aren't as funny or original as the team behind Borderlands 1 & 2. But more of the same, at least in small doses, doesn't have to be a bad thing. If you enjoyed any other Borderlands game, you're still guaranteed a good time here as far as I'm concerned; just think of it as being more like a new entry in the vein of the Pokémon or Bayonetta series, which which deliver more of what worked, rather than in the vein of BL2, which improved so vastly upon the Borderlands formula.

Ultimately, this game is more of what you know. For a fun FPS/RPG you can;t go wrong here. It's just a shame to see that the game is a victim of the franchise's own success.