Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Review

I don't normally play FPS games. If I am to play an action oriented shooter game that game must meet certain requirements, like a fantastic humour, very well written characters and story, fun gameplay. Borderlands have it all, and it also has Handsome Jack, who actually happens to be the ONLY reason I even started playing the franchise in the first place :D

Here are my thoughts about Borderlands Pre-Sequel (Will refer to it as TPS). I just finished the game as Jack’s Doppleganger and I had massive fun. Gameplay wise TPS was a lot better than Borderlands 2 (Will refer to it as BL2), however narrative and story telling wise BL2 overshadows TPS in every aspect. TPS was also unexpectedly shorter to complete. While I finished BL2 main story including all optional missions in my first playthrough in about 65 hours, I finished TPS ones in only 27 hours. Main story in TPS was quite intriguing. I loved witnessing the construction of the bots we kill in BL2 and then the events leading to the madness of Jack. In my eyes Jack is actually similar to Illidan, a misunderstood so called “villain” whose intentions are taken the wrong way.

To compare the two games further; BL2 had dozens of likable characters who added a lot to the story overall with really funny dialogues but TPS feels like it’s going over the top with “trying” to be funny but ends up just the opposite. For example Dr. Zed from BL2 was quite hilarious but Nurse Nina in TPS is completely ridiculous. I felt no positive feelings towards any character I came across in TPS except Claptrap units and my beloved Handsome Jack of course. I mean he’s the sole reason I’m playing the game in the first place!

Jack is such an entertaining character to play with. His reactions to events and even quest giver Jack’s reactions to his body double are totally hilarious which is why I feel so sad for having killed him in BL2 for a certain mission! But I think his action skill Digi Jacks were a little too powerful. I put all my skills in improving my Jack clones and when I reached the last skill of that tree, my Jacks became “Badass” Jacks and they could 2-3 shot pretty much anyone except bosses of course. I’m positive that this will change in True Vault Hunter Mode but I still had tons of fun punching my enemies while my Jacks showed everyone how to be Badass “handsomely”.

The final boss in the game was such a fun encounter that had a lot of jumping around, tons of adds and millions of things to avoid on the ground. The whole encounter reminded me of “Ready for Raiding” achievements in World of Warcraft. Sadly the boss didn’t drop “Handsome” skin (BL2 Jack’s mask) so I definitely have to farm this boss until that skin I covet so much drops.

Now that I finished the game with Jack, I really would like to play support Claptrap but that skill tree is pretty much useless in a solo play. Aside from Claptrap, I definitely want to finish True Vault Hunter mode and eventually move on to Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode with my main Jack and subsequently do raid bosses. I didn’t enjoy BL2 enough to have such long term plans for the game but I feel like I’ll play TPS more often in the future.