The Milking of Borderlands 2

I have been a huge fan of Borderlands 2 and waited for it with bated breath since it’s first trailer. The Borderlands franchise is one of the very few series of games that I will buy DLC. But, I don’t think I’m going to any longer.

The original Borderlands was fantastic with its DLC.

• “The Zombie Island of Doctor Ned” was a fantastic insert of zombie enemies with plenty of humor.
• “The Secret Armory of General Knoxx” was an incredible add-on, not only to the gameplay, but to the story, as well as adding a raid boss, and, most importantly, a huge reward after finishing it (the armory itself).
• “Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution” was also a fantastic set-up for the next game.
• The only thing I had a problem with was “Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot.” It indirectly introduced a new character, reused everything that was done before, and was ultimately pointless. When I play a game of levels, weapons, and story, I don’t want to grind killing things that does nothing to advance a story or give me levels. If I find a weapon, I almost want the discovery to have a story behind it, not “I was grinding in the arena and it finally showed up.” That’s lame.

Borderlands 2 has been pretty good with the DLC, although I would argue not as good as its predecessor. It’s fine if you disagree with me, but I have my reasons.

• “Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate Booty” was a fun diversion.
• “Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage” added nothing but more easily accessible legendary weapons.
• “Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt” added a bunch of monster variants and an almost sequel-esque DLC like General Knoxx, but not quite.
• And of course, “Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon’s Keep” blew the rest of them away.

However, none of these provided the impact that General Knoxx did. With Knoxx, the story moved forward. With any other DLC, it didn’t. Now, with the release of the Ultimate Vault Hunters Packs, I see what Gearbox is doing. Add a third playthrough, people will play longer. Add some guns, people will play longer. Add some levels, people will play longer. And finally, add some fake levels, and people will continue to play. Oh, and the smaller DLCs where you kill a boss and get a Head for your character, people will play longer. Mad Moxxi was my least favorite DLC, and I feel they’re just re-adding it.

I remember once a Gearbox employee said they added Overlevels because they were running out of room for Skill Points. That just lets you know that they hadn’t planned for this. In fact, they’re adding things on as they go that they hadn’t mapped out.

Borderlands overcame the initial doubt that there was really a story in place. Maybe I’m naive for wanting them to keep up the expectation that they can tell a story. Tiny Tina was fun, but in the overarching world, nothing happened (like Assassin’s Creed: Revelations).

Even just ignoring the other Vaults, we still have Hyperion to finally destroy, particularly their moon base. Instead of getting to do that, we keep hearing of these tiny DLCs that offer new heads and the change to make the game still more difficult. Give me something to experience besides running around, shooting guns, and killing the same old things with a new face every thousand or so. Give me interactivity.

As someone who enjoys a story, this milking has greatly lost my enthusiasm for the series. I’ll probably pre-order Borderlands 3, when or if it ever gets announced that they’re planning it.

And for goodness’ sake, give us the Game of the Year Edition already!

Roland’s Not Dead Theory

Major spoilers, if you couldn’t tell by the title, but the game’s been out for a while.

There’s something about Borderlands 2 that urks me in the way of the plot, The New-U Respawn Stations. When Roland dies in the mission Where Angels Fear to Tread, we’re not given an explanation of his connection with the New-U Respawn.

In the first game, the Vault Hunters are connected to the New-U Respawn Stations with the help of the original Claptrap. Since that moment in the game, anytime a character dies, they respawn (albeit with a little less money than before). When the second game comes about, there is no clear indicated that they no longer have access to the New-U Stations. Thus, if one of the original Vault Hunters died, they should respawn, right?

Obviously you’d think Hyperion, the owners of the New-U Stations, would just cut their accounts, correct? Well, if that was the case, why didn’t Handsome Jack do the same thing to the second generation of Vault Hunters when he was legitimately trying to kill them? Don’t tell me he didn’t think of it, or it’s poor plotting.

According to the Twitter ECHOcasts (currently hosted by Tiny Tina) there was a picture released here. If you’ve clicked it, you’ll see Roland (as well as Ellie) is seen in the garb of the new DLC, Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon’s Keep. Unless this is a cruel, erroneous picture meant to bring false hope to loyal followers of the Borderlands franchise, I believe this alludes to Roland (despite being ‘dead’) being a part of the DLC.

So how can Gearbox spin this to where Roland actually died but he’s alive in the new DLC? Well, the New-U is Hyperion’s property, perhaps Hyperion captured and incarcerated him, letting him watch as Handsome Jack’s plans come to fruition. Maybe Blake, a strangely odd benefactor to both T.K. Baha and Dr. Zed, if you listen to the gameplay.

Either way, it’ll be interesting to see what happens.

Borderlands 2 – Krieg the Psycho Review

May 14th, Borderlands 2 released Krieg the Psycho as the sixth playable character to their roster (Microsoft paid to get Krieg only hours earlier; I wonder how much those hours cost?). His back story is really vague (not as bad as Zero’s however) but it is known he has some type of dual-personality, one that desires to kill, the other to protect those who’s innocent. Also he’s worried if some girl managed to get away, leading some people to believe the ‘girl’ is either Tiny Tina or Gaige the Mechromancer. Also, somewhere in this video, the Creative Director Paul Hellquist claims that Krieg was previously a bandit, turned into a Vault Hunter, and was then caught and experimented upon by Hyperion until he escaped (kind of like a Rat enemy that turned out…right, I guess?).

Krieg’s Action Skill is Buzz Axe Rampage, where he gets a melee boost of 500% (100% less than Zero’s Deception melee boost) but receives full Health upon a kill, as well as being able to throw your melee weapon for the same amount of damage. Unfortunately, it has a short duration and 120 seconds to recharge, off-set by quickening the recharge rate by taking damage.

Krieg has three main trees, almost every skill is worth investing in (in my opinion). Bloodlust, Mania, and Hellborn, representing ranged combat, suicide and badass psycho abilities, and Burning psychos abilities with numerous elements (I’m currently playing through with Mania). What’s unique with Krieg is that his abilities across all three trees blend together so well. Buzz Axe Bombadier (Bloodlust) is boosted from Strip the Flesh (Mania). Strip the Flesh also boosts Light the Fuse, Pull the Pin, and Bloodsplosion.

One fantastic combination of skills requires Light the Fuse, Redeem the Soul, and Release the Beast. Revive an ally with Redeem the Soul, revive yourself during Light the Fuse (which can be boosted from Strip the Flesh), reviving with low health to immediately turn into a Badass Psycho with Release the Beast restoring 100% of health and major bonuses, and immediately after, finish back into Buzz Axe Rampage to help finish off with some more damage. You can seriously alter the flow of a battle with this.

As I have yet to finish a second playthrough with Krieg, I’m not completely sure which tree would be the most worthwhile to combine with Mania, but based solely on statistics and chain-skilling, Mania is probably the best and/or most entertaining tree to play.