Then get Borderlands 2 right now. Sometimes I fill all four weapon slots with different types of shotgun and throw myself into a nest of Skags – as one does – to take notes. Dying in a boss fight also undoes all the damage you've dealt, wasting all that time and ammo. I tried to solve a murder, and shot the wrong guy. If you actually need to kill him, you have to be strategic about how much damage you let him do first. I could prey on groups by taking out the weakest first, invisibly eliminating each until only the toughest was left. This is the game, and it makes Borderlands persistently fresh in a way other shooters never are. And Constructors churn out a slow but endless stream of new bots until they're killed. Receive mail from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors. Even if it's not a concern, it's worth saying that this one is freakishly good. I took photos to inspire a garage mechanic's terrible poetry. Black Friday deals: see all the best offers right now! The Gunzerker can enter a rage that lets him use two guns at once, regenerating health and ammo as he goes. Jet Loaders transform from humanoids into fighter jets, and bombard you with missiles. It's ages before the first randomised gun even drops, and for ages after that, it's all useless inaccurate trash. I stuck with him for my main character, upgrading to give myself lots of buffs shortly after every kill. I think I had one or two guns I really liked in Borderlands, and the rest were necessary but uninspiring situational alternatives. Prepare to level. New York, It's not the most consistently brilliant game, but I can't think of another singleplayer shooter that's given me more hours of fun. My only issue is that levels load before the textures are ready, so everything's hideously blurry for a moment. Even if you stick to one class, you can start the game again after you complete it, taking your levelled character into a mode with new high-level enemies and loot. The Assassin can cloak, leaving a hologram of himself to keep enemies focused on his former location. PC Gamer is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. In 2, I have a full loadout of weird, powerful and satisfying weapons I love, and an entire 'alternate' set in my backpack that I switch in and out to compare potency. Borderlands 2 book. Prepare to get lost in the hilarious, bizarre and wonderful world of Pandora. Then there are the robots. But we still couldn't connect to each other without some port-forwarding faffery, and we still had to argue among ourselves about who got what loot. Because they're not about saving the world, they have room to have fun with the whims of the characters, who are always the strong point in Borderlands. Thank you for signing up to PC Gamer. Please deactivate your ad blocker in order to see our subscription offer. Summary: Borderlands 2 advances the distinct blending of FPS and role-playing genres to create an evolution of the Role Playing Shooter. The Commando can throw down a turret, a play style that needs some planning: you can execute satisfying pincer movements, but it doesn't help you escape if you screw up. We encourage you to read our updated PRIVACY POLICY and COOKIE POLICY. Borderlands 2 is a first-person shooter that randomly generates the guns you find, varying damage values, clip sizes, accuracy, and even how many bullets they fire at once. 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And if you don't, of course, there are three more classes to try. Turns out you can't travel back to that particular beacon, so I had to do the whole mission again, with all enemies respawned. Bull Loaders can drop their shield to the ground and ram you like a bulldozer. My Assassin's second playthrough is as interesting as starting fresh with a new class, and I plan to do both. I helped a malfunctioning robot delude himself into believing he was human. Additional visual customization options would make it better, and the occasional technical issue takes away from the experience, but overall this is an excellent shooter no one even remotely curious should overlook. I was chased by Skag-riding cops five levels too high for me as I hunted for a cursed gun. If you're taking a lot of damage from a particular droid's weapon, you can aim and blow that arm off. I probably found half of them, and the game took me 30 hours to complete. The sidequests are a different story. “Why are you so mean? Sign up to get the best content of the week, and great gaming deals, as picked by the editors. That was already compulsive in Borderlands 1, but here the formula's been tweaked to ridiculously addictive effect. Best of all, the robots, the bandits and all of the world's gargantuan wildlife hate each other. There was a problem. More than the class abilities, it's the enemy design that keeps the combat fresh. You spend most of your time trying to figure out why your robot guide Claptrap has stopped following you, and backtracking to unstick his sloppy scripting. Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, But it's hard to bench the Tediore, because when it's out of shells, you can throw it at someone and it explodes and a new one teleports into your hands. The majority of the game is tied up in these side quests, and it's mind-bogglingly huge. Luckily, you can level up by doing side missions first, where these problems generally don't come up. It's generally well-adapted to the PC: graphics options, an FoV slider, some sensible control tweaks, and most importantly smooth and responsive mouse movement. I set up a tea party for a 13-year-old girl. So it's weird that they kick it off with a painfully slow introductory segment that strips the game of everything that makes it good. I've been playing Borderlands 2 all day, every day, for five days – and I'm probably going to play it again when I finish this. Borderlands 2 for PC game reviews & Metacritic score: Borderlands 2 advances the distinct blending of FPS and role-playing genres to create an evolution of the Role Playing Shooter. I was dubious about how much fun it'd be to shoot metal instead of flesh, which now that I write it down doesn't make me sound like a particularly great person. I had a mission objective to endure a boring party. It's spectacularly cool to leap into the air to get a perfect shotgun critical on your hovering victim. Please refresh the page and try again. I had a three-way shootout with two other bounty hunters looking for the same long lost gun stash. To that degree, the sequel offers significantly more choice and customization than its predecessor. He turned to the other Goliath and screamed: “Ever been strangled with your own intestines?” then projectile vomited a stream of caustic acid into his face. Facing two of them in a bandit camp, I shot one in the head.