Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Main game
3.30 average rating based on 1673 ratings
- Developers
- 2K Australia, Gearbox Software
- Publishers
- 2K Games, Aspyr Media, Take-Two Interactive
- Franchises
- Borderlands
- Series
- Borderlands
- Platforms
- Android, Linux, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
- Genres
- Role-playing (RPG), Shooter
- Themes
- Action, Comedy, Open world, Science fiction
- Steam
- View on Steam
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel?
Related Content
Borderlands II:2
This review is for the PlayStation 3 version
This game definitely feels like "The Space DLC" for BL2. If you liked that game, it stands to reason you'd like Pre-Sequel, since they're damn-near identical gameplay.
I can't say that I was a big fan of the floaty moon-physics, nor the awkward "Skyrimming your way up a mountain"-feeling platforming that it occasionally influenced. Oxygen conservation is a neat idea, in theory -- but in practice it was 100% inconsequential for my playthrough. Never once was I at risk of dying from lack of oxygen.
Being "on Handsome Jack's side" is an interesting story turn; and I actually enjoy Jack as an evil psychopath SOB antagonist-type character.
Level progression from side quests didn't feel quite as forced in this game as they did in BL2, but that might've just been from me voluntarily doing more sidequests. EDIT:I did, however, skip the Claptastic Voyage DLC due to the few hours of endgame grinding the game seemed to want me to do before attempting those missions. (The final mission of the base game is a Level 26 quest, and Claptastic starts at Level 30.)
Other good news: I did not have a single crash to the PS5 dashboard in my Pre-Sequel …
This game definitely feels like "The Space DLC" for BL2. If you liked that game, it stands to reason you'd like Pre-Sequel, since they're damn-near identical gameplay.
I can't say that I was a big fan of the floaty moon-physics, nor the awkward "Skyrimming your way up a mountain"-feeling platforming that it occasionally influenced. Oxygen conservation is a neat idea, in theory -- but in practice it was 100% inconsequential for my playthrough. Never once was I at risk of dying from lack of oxygen.
Being "on Handsome Jack's side" is an interesting story turn; and I actually enjoy Jack as an evil psychopath SOB antagonist-type character.
Level progression from side quests didn't feel quite as forced in this game as they did in BL2, but that might've just been from me voluntarily doing more sidequests. EDIT:I did, however, skip the Claptastic Voyage DLC due to the few hours of endgame grinding the game seemed to want me to do before attempting those missions. (The final mission of the base game is a Level 26 quest, and Claptastic starts at Level 30.)
Other good news: I did not have a single crash to the PS5 dashboard in my Pre-Sequel playthrough. This was a vast improvement from BL2 (also part of the Handsome Collection), which probably crashed a dozen times (no exaggeration) for me during my playthrough.
The bad news: WTF was up with that first boss fight? I'm guessing a lot of people fell off this game on the Deadlift fight because they didn't have a shock rifle, which is required to beat that dude on a solo run. Even the final boss, while appropriately difficult, didn't seem nearly as impossible as the first boss without a shock rifle.
The Best Borderlands
For me this is what I would show people who are wanting to get into the series. it is for me the best in every single area of the game in the borderlands series. This is the best that Borderlands has ever looked especially with all the spacey stuff they have included and just the way it feels makes it the best one yet. Of course for me the story is really good especially if you played as Handsome Jack as a few extra quotes are thrown in every now and then that will make you stop playing and just have a nice laugh. If you have yet to play this game then give it a go if you like the mixture of RPG and FPS
The ballad of Handsome Jack
This game lives in the shadow of Borderlands 2. It's a very good game, but it doesn't have the variety and impact of its predecessor. Even with some new features -Ice weapons, lasers, the grinder, low gravity- it's not enough to create its own impact.
Still has all the charms of the series: bigger-than-life characters, a great game loop based on loot, lots of humor and great gunplay.
Let's see if Borderlands 3 is able to be more than this one.
It doesn't decline like most 3rd installments
Basis:
Story= plot progression, intrigue, characters, world Gameplay= Mechanics, gameplay options (freedom), repetition, goals, difficulty Presentation= graphics, animation, environment/character design, Art direction, Script, music
Gameplay: 4 /5 Story: 3.5 /5 Presentation: 3.5/5 Difficulty: 2 / 5
Being the third game of the series the game made improvements, but also didn't change things up a ton. The new mechanics of the game were a lot of fun such as Spoilers: O2 masks( slam move), The gun grinder, and new vehicles
I did get a bit tired of the grinder though as it destroyed my income and really offered me one good item after lots of grinding. I could have used more moonstones, but I spent them more on SDUs. It was too much of a gamble to really feel worth it to me on a first playthrough at least.
The game stuck to its funny humor and its cartoon shader art style. They took the story full circle which has played all three games it makes me realize how in depth the Borderlands series is in terms of rich characters with backstories. At first glance or even after playing the first game it seemed like just a fun co-op shooter with …
Basis:
Story= plot progression, intrigue, characters, world Gameplay= Mechanics, gameplay options (freedom), repetition, goals, difficulty Presentation= graphics, animation, environment/character design, Art direction, Script, music
Gameplay: 4 /5 Story: 3.5 /5 Presentation: 3.5/5 Difficulty: 2 / 5
Being the third game of the series the game made improvements, but also didn't change things up a ton. The new mechanics of the game were a lot of fun such as Spoilers: O2 masks( slam move), The gun grinder, and new vehicles
I did get a bit tired of the grinder though as it destroyed my income and really offered me one good item after lots of grinding. I could have used more moonstones, but I spent them more on SDUs. It was too much of a gamble to really feel worth it to me on a first playthrough at least.
The game stuck to its funny humor and its cartoon shader art style. They took the story full circle which has played all three games it makes me realize how in depth the Borderlands series is in terms of rich characters with backstories. At first glance or even after playing the first game it seemed like just a fun co-op shooter with no real deep story elements.
The game, as all the others, excelled at its voice acting. I have been impressed throughout all of the games how they have such unique crazies that just nail it. It really fits the theme of the wild Borderlands universe.
You'll like this game as much as the others and if you haven't played the others I recommend that you do so before playing this one. If you just want to have a good time blowing stuff up and don't care too much for the story skip the first two.
Kilroy09's review of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
doesnt do handsome jack justice
paycheck_stevens's review of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
This review is for the PC (Microsoft Windows) version
This was pretty fun. The ability to boost and slam added more mobility, which made the game more enjoyable than Borderlands 2 for me for the first 2/3 of the game. Then the areas you had to traverse got much larger, and access to vehicles was limited. The slow movement outside of atmosphere made the game drag on, and the story totally went off the rails. I also only did story quests and was severely under-leveled for the final quest. I won't be revisiting this one.
deepdoop's review of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
9/10
I mean.. it's more Borderlands which is great. It does add some things like low-gravity and whatnot but it's the same experience we're used to. It isn't old yet.
Gobelin_Powa's review of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
5/10 Ca reste du Borderlands mais bof bof en vrai de vrai
Howdy_Partner107's review of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
If I was rating based on enjoyment it would be lower. I think, truly, the reason I didn’t like this game was because it wasn’t for me. The whole story is just an excuse to shoot npc’s, which is not something I like in games. If you like to play a game with barely any plot and lots of fights (like so so so so so many) then borderlands is for you. It wasn’t for me tho.
Honestly, a Pretty Fun Game
This review is for the Xbox 360 version
I mean, the main storyline's kinda boring because prequels are always bad, but the world is fun, with some nice variation from the mostly-desert Pandora, the characters are fun (the Australia of it all is endlessly charming) with some great side-missions, and the new mechanics like low-grav and laser weapons were fun. The Baroness is absurdly broken against goons but then kind of terrible against bosses, so there were some balance issues there (obviously the class is designed for multiplayer, but I couldn't get either of my roommates to play through more than half of the game with me), but still a cool class, and the other classes seem interesting (especially Claptrap, I love randomness).
So yeah, narratively weaker than Borderlands 2, but the world is more interesting, and it's better in pretty much every way than Borderlands, and (as with B2) the more-developed characters and actually having voice-acting definitely helps slow you down to smell the roses so you're not just on a constant dopamine rush.
Quite enjoyable.
Overall, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! is very enjoyable and a worthy heir of the previous titles. Keeping the over-the-top, unhinged tone, the game is also noticeable for many gameplay improvements that make it stand apart, especially the high/low gravity that allows you to do long controlled jumps (and taking advantage of it through gear), the space with or without air that modifies the burning effect, the new laser guns that be as good at close, medium and long range, the ice effect and finally the new characters. The only part I wasn't so happy about is that you cannot really play the game by only following the main storyline, because your character will eventually hit a difficulty wall with enemies with a level "way higher" than yours and also bosses that cannot be defeated until you level up... turning playing into grinding if you want to make your way through the end.
Not gonna lie, developers left me astounded with how repulsive they made this entry, despite how much i enjoy previous Borderlands games. Unbearable level design where you can fall at every corner, obnoxius enemies AI making them wiggle left and right and run away from you even if they're full hp, annoying and exhausting boss fights making you run out of all bullets two times at one boss fight. And on top of all that, game is terribly balanced for solo playthrough, it was obvious with BL1 and BL2, but Pre-sequel takes the cake in that department too.
I want to commend Gearbox for going with experimental stuff and not just making another game with Pandora setting, but other than that Pre-sequel doesn't have any new good things to show off, that wouldn't already been shown in previous games. I'm giving Borderlands Pre-sequel 3 out of 5 and taking a break from videogames for a week or two.
I really liked Borderlands 2, and this is more of that. Solid shooting, lots of looting with a massive variation of guns, a large open world with many sub-quests, and the hit and miss humor. I played this in The Handsome Collection, and the distinctive cell-shaded graphics are on par with Borderlands 2.
I liked Borderlands 2 better though. In that game you are trying to take down the villain Handsome Jack. In this game you are a mercenary for Handsome Jack and storyline feels kind of gross doing missions for an asshole.
Okay, what the actual fuck. Why is the first boss in this game (Deadlift) waaaaay harder than any boss in Borderlands 2?
EDIT: As is tradition... Complain about boss here. Beat boss on next attempt. (He's still BS for a first boss)
Well. It was fun.
But. Mixed feelings.
I mean it's a Borderlands game, you can't make it bad.
Also that doesn't mean that it's very good, solid game either.
Gameplay feels slow.
Story is okay. Played as Athena. Completed all DLCs. Claptrap one is especially interesting.
Graphics are nothing to suprise about.
That's it.
Plugging away a little here and here with my friend whom I play with once a week. I don't think he's paying too much attention to the story - it's just a bit of mindless fun while we catch up about our week.
Beat this game in NVHM as Nisha. I've only scratched the surface but it's a solid game but it'd probably be a while before I play this game again. The PreSequel felt a bit dull to me as it was lacking in personality compared to BL2. Zarpedon and the Lost Legion fell flat when it came to personality. The loot isn't all that satisfying except for some laser guns. There weren't as many farmable enemies/bosses as I wanted. There weren't many synergies as I wanted. The world here seemed really bland as it just consisted of the moon and spaceports. BL2 consisted of deserts, glaciers, ramparts, caves, etc. Concordia was the only exception. I wanted more maps like that. The PreSequel has some solid gunplay and an interesting story about Handsome Jack before he became the villain of BL2. Your character actually talks back unlike in the previous games. I know I ragged on this game a bit and I do like it, but I had to understand that 2K Australia made this instead of Gearbox (even though Gearbox helped with this game) and this game is more of an extension to BL2 than a game on its own as …
Read MoreBeat this game in NVHM as Nisha. I've only scratched the surface but it's a solid game but it'd probably be a while before I play this game again. The PreSequel felt a bit dull to me as it was lacking in personality compared to BL2. Zarpedon and the Lost Legion fell flat when it came to personality. The loot isn't all that satisfying except for some laser guns. There weren't as many farmable enemies/bosses as I wanted. There weren't many synergies as I wanted. The world here seemed really bland as it just consisted of the moon and spaceports. BL2 consisted of deserts, glaciers, ramparts, caves, etc. Concordia was the only exception. I wanted more maps like that. The PreSequel has some solid gunplay and an interesting story about Handsome Jack before he became the villain of BL2. Your character actually talks back unlike in the previous games. I know I ragged on this game a bit and I do like it, but I had to understand that 2K Australia made this instead of Gearbox (even though Gearbox helped with this game) and this game is more of an extension to BL2 than a game on its own as only a few mechanics were added. But at the end of the day, I did enjoy myself with this game. Once I play this game again, I'll be sure to play the Claptastic Voyage. Now back to Borderlands 2.
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The announcement of Borderlands 3 made me want to go back to this one, which I never finished.
Just started a new solo run as Nisha in PS4 (The Handsome Collection). Let's see if I like it as much as BL2.
Finished it, started a new game already and of course Deadlift is giving me shit already.
This game is nowhere near as bad as I was led to believe. I might have a harder time 'getting it' if I wasn't Australian though.
Extra-lifers that are part of the Grouvee team - You guys want to play some Borderlands pre-sequel together?
I think it would be fun to do some multiplayer. As it stands I think I will be playing a different game each hour just to keep things interesting, but it might be fun to do some multiplayer games for longer.