Borderlands 2 (2012)

I mean game is cool. Awesome in fact. Maybe the best looter-shooter of all time.

But weak DLCs and terrible boss designs makes it hard to give 5 stars.

Also played these DLCs;

-Captain Scarlett and her Pirate's Booty (meeh)

-Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage (subpar)

-Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt (boring)

-Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep (funny)

-Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary (storywise cool)

I mean they don't actually add much but this is Borderlands, so if you don't expect anything new you can enjoy 20+ more hours.

Between the first and the second game without a doubt the second game is my favorite, it tells a "good" story to the point that the player wants to reach Handsome Jack as quickly as possible to kick him in the ass multiple times.

I played as Psycho, so i won't be a Siren again. As in the first game there is a wide range of weapons among other items that the player can choose to suit his play style, between customizing his character. I liked the design of the various areas that the player goes through.

The various DLCs I played, the one I liked the most was "Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep" and the least I liked was "Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt", those Witch Doctor OMG !!! Please no more !!

BUT the enemy's respawns are pretty boring, in my opinion because if the player "cleans" the area why does he have to clean the area again? And why the side quests of the area appear to go the place where the player was in seconds ago?

Although that i think is a good game to play solo or with friends.

I bought this game in 2013 and played through normal difficulty at the time. Since I was a Berserker in the first game, the Gunzerker was the obvious choice. During that year and into 2014 I also played most of the DLC content. In 2019 I bought the Handsome Jack collection (mainly to get Borderlands the Pre-sequel) and it included the DLC content that I had not yet played: Hammerlocks Big Game Hunt, and Commander Lilith the newest DLC, and played through those.

I played entirely solo and found the game to be quite challenging. My character is a tank sniper who favors long range combat; I keep the Gunzerking ability in reserve for emergency close quarters situations. My character build focuses on the Brawn tree to make me as tanky as possible.

Hard to kill 5/5

Asbestos 5/5

Aint got time to bleed 5/5

Fistful of hurt 1/1

Im the juggernaught 5/5

Sexual Tyrannosaurus 5/5

Come at me bro 1/1

Incite 5/5

I did not like the other skills in this tree and so moved to the Gun Lust tree:

Quick draw 5/5

All I need is one 4/5

I finished at level 46 and have plans to go further into the Gun Lust tree. I especially want Auto Loader.

For badass level rewards I focused on survival (shields and health) followed by recoil reduction, gun damage, critical damage and elemental damage.

Equipment:

My primary weapon type throughout the game is a sniper rifle. I like the Jakobs brand and go for accuracy, raw damage, crit damage and scope zoom. I fight from as far away as possible and go for critical damage shots. I have also made great use of fire elemental sniper rifles, sometimes having a fire and normal sniper equipped at the same time (depends on the quality of my loot though). I like to keep backup weapons in case I run out of sniper ammo (which is rare since sometimes I use Gunzerking just to regen ammo). I keep a semi-auto combat rifle with high accuracy and a good scope as a backup, as well as a smg and pistol with similar stats.

My preferred mid range weapon is a combat rifle (does not have to be automatic) and the long range smg and pistol serve as backups. I found explosive shot to be better than full auto normal shot. Sometimes I have another smg or pistol that can be used here in case I run out of rifle ammo. For this type of weapon I go for a reasonable balance of accuracy and damage per second. I keep a shotgun in one slot as a close range weapon which it is all about damage per second, and keep a close range smg for backup. I keep only one rocket launcher which is very rarely used and go for normal or explosive damage.

I also keep a selection of elemental weapons for special situations. 2 corrosive weapons for armoured enemies (usually a pistol and smg) and 2 shock weapons for shields (sniper which is rarely used and something else).

My current loadout includes: Amigo Sincere legendary Jakobs sniper rifle

Blue semi-auto explosive combat rifle with iron sights

Overcompensator legendary automatic shotgun

Those are my 3 main weapons though both legendaries were obtained right at the end of Lilith’s expansion. The fourth slot I swap out depending on need from:

Hector’s Paradise legendary shock pistol

Purple corrosive pistol that shoots delayed damage darts (my go to weapon for anti armor)

Purple pistol with great recoil and accuracy and decent damage

Purple smg with scope and high accuracy

Blue Jakobs semi-auto combat rifle with scope and high accuracy

Blue rocket launcher with explosive damage

Blue bandit shotgun with garbage accuracy but massive point blank damage

Green corrosive smg

Green shock sniper

Misc gear:

Purple adaptive shield

Blue Impervious Tank class mod

Purple protection relic (increases shields)

Magic missile grenade (homing, regen ammo and slag). I also keep a homing transfusion grenade to use like a healing potion and Unhinged Hoarder class mod for bullet regen.

I greatly enjoyed this game because of the combination of first person shooting and Diablo-like loot, though the best part of the game is the hilarious writing (including the story and characters). I liked all of the expansions with Tiny Tina’s Assault standing out as the best and Hammerlock’s Hunt as the worst. The worst thing about the game is the sheer number of pointless DLC (which I now own because they were all in the Handsome Jack collection but otherwise would never have purchased). I found the quest and area design to be a little too much like an MMORPG (like World of Warcraft) with overall a bit too much travel time and a bit too many quests with inane objectives. I greatly disliked the way your character bounces around when struck, which lead to quite a few deaths.

I will return to the game at some point in the future to play through the other 2 difficulties, try the raid bosses and maybe try the other characters.