Has anyone here played Borderlands games? I recently watched an LP of Tales from the Borderlands and found the world quite interesting. Thinking of playing the actual games at some point. Any opinions on them without spoiling much?
PS. Posted in “Games We Play” but got only one reply, hoping for more, so making a separate thread.
Lets put it this way. If you like Looter shooters you must play the Borderlands games. Simply because its the only actual Looter Shooter still on the market. It has its flaws, but still awesome games. The others are just to simple and lame.
Later this year Borderlands 3 gets released. And on Pax East this month they will make some announcements. Hopefully the BL1 remake will be part of that. So will get it then.
Bl2 with Community Patch is still the best experience. The Pre-quel was also enjoyable, but less so.
Yes, IMO 1 is the best, 2 is ok and the D&D dlc is awesome. 2.5 I never finished.
Iirc, 3 weeks ago there was a sale on a bundle with everything…at least check dlcompare or isthereanydeal as you should be able to get them on the cheap.
When I look into games, I prefer to read negative comments over the positives, as negative thoughts can be hidden positive thoughts for the other user, if that makes any sense. So here are my issues with Borderlands and you can use this as you see fit.
There’s no RNG on damage. I like floating damage numbers, but not when every number is fixed. What I mean is, if you hit 55 on an enemy with your rifle. Expect every shot to do 55 unless you hit a critical spot.
Levelling actually makes combat worse. Enemies turn into bulletsponges that require significantly more shots. When I play shooters, I prefer both the player and enemy to be killed easily.
Those are my major gripes, and if those sound fine with you, the game will be enjoyable.
One of the best mods for BL2 is hiding the damage numbers with texmod. It feels like a whole new game being able to see things the damage numbers were obscuring. The mod may be hard to find though.
Just thinking about playing with the hidden damage mod is making me want to install the game now
I’ve been a big fan of all 3 borderlands games.
1 was really well done, but high end gear can sorta trivialize all but the very hardest boss (even that if you combine skill with said gear it’s a near insta kill) Uniques drop mostly at random, which is nice and something they really should have kept in the later 2 IMO.
2 has the best story, getting even better with the DnD DLC. Scaling is very punishing in 2 though, I ended up being unable to play anything other than Gage (with lots of difficulty) or Gunzerker in later difficulties. Strangely survival usually goes down when taking defensive skills in this game as it’s going to be ‘kill em before you get hit’ no matter what (unless Gunzerker, which most consider easy mode) Also some skills like Maya’s Helios are the worst balanced skills I’ve ever seen in a game. Also I despise a loot game where randomly finding uniques is as rare as finding a leprechaun in your garbage can - and horrifyingly enough that basically describes the main method of finding random uniques.
2.5 (The Pre-Sequel) This one actually has the best scaling and fewest dud skills, but environments and story just didn’t have the same appeal as in BL2. Also uses the ‘only bosses really drop the really-really interesting items, and only THEIR item’ which was annoying. Being able to tell you exactly which unique dropped simply because it was boss X that dropped it is boring.
Me, I’ve only played BL1 and BL2 - neither to completion (mostly because I’m like a hummingbird on crack when it comes to games and my attention span).
I enjoy them both - for the humor, as well as for when I need to vent - I like to describe my venting time as “Blowing up mutant dogs with rocket launchers”.
I’ve never been much into FPS games, but these will both always be installed.
You should play them, definitely. Personally, I recommend BL2.
Thank you all for the info. Seems like they will be fun to play after all. I will def get to them, eventually. Once I finish Witcher 3, that is. In a few months XD
so… you learn of borderlands from the tales version?
are you looking to enjoy the lore of the series?
if so, i recommend playing borderlands 2 first.
borderlands 1’s main story is quiet simple and linear. bl1 puts much of the
world lore in the background, quest descriptions, and world props.
your character only speaks when they headshot kill enemies, kill badasses/bosses,
dying, or any combat related quotes. they doesn’t have
unique interaction with the npc, the main story or any quest.
its disappointing… though the world background lore is good imo. it has the
best post apocalyptic atmosphere in the series, reminds me of fallout.
borderlands 2’s main story is wacky and bombastic, with a bit sadness
sprinkled on it. main story is linear, but the npc’s are more livelier and has
many voiced quotes that gives more color to the story.
your character’s quotes are kinda the same like bl1 at the start (too focused
on combat…)
they only give opinion on the main story just 1 time… at a main quest in the
middle part of the game…
very disappointing… considering the bl2 vault hunters are much more vibrant
and unique (i main gaige myself. she’s what i consider the best thing ever
happened to bl series. but gearbox wasted her potential by not giving player
characters unique to the stories or any npcs).
however, gearbox finally listened to player complaints and gives the
vault hunters unique quotes to the story and npcs on dragon keep, wedding
day massacre, and son of crawmerax dlcs… (its far toooooo late imo. but its
better than none).
the world design is much more livelier and colorful than bl1.
though the stories start veering into the direction of too much wackyness,
immature jokes and not enough grittiness imo (anthony burch writes bl2 and
bl1,5. replacing mikey neumann who writes bl1 story. though i heard mikey
comes back for bl3. rejoice!)
and most of borderlands 2’s main story is focused on handsome jack btw.
much of his quotes are crude and immature jokes that gets old quickly.
borderlands pre-sequel (or bl1,5) is focused on elpis and athena’s recounting
of how handsome jack save elpis and helios space station (and of course,
opening a vault). and also tells the fall of handsome jack (seriously this guy
gets too much undeserved attention, the vault hunters deserve more
attention imo)
the main story is linear too. but its so all over the place. you mostly follow
handsome jack’s direction of go here, go there, fetch this, and so on. overall,
the main story feels okay-ish for me. but there is still many influence of bl2’s
unbalanced wacky-gritty writing.
the world design is quite different from its predecessors. elpis feels spacey
and pretty similar to moon. other than that, its mostly indoor space building
or inside space station. but the way the world lore’s provided is pretty much
the same as bl 1 & 2.
and the major difference i like to say about bl 1.5 is that all vault hunters
have unique quotes to story/npcs! and the npcs have unique quotes too for
each vault hunters! (these should have been added since bl1!!! why gearbox
why… grumbles in corner). you’ll certainly feel the quote differences between
bl1,5 vault hunters and bl 1 & 2 vault hunters. this is a strong point for bl 1,5.
and so, tales from the borderlands continues the lore after bl 1,5 (which takes
place simultaneously between bl 1 & 2 and after bl 2).
you’ve played it, so you’ve already understand the lore there.
i don’t have much opinion on it. feels like a filler story for me.
after that, the borderlands community waited for bl 3 in anticipation by shooting
and looting like the fine gents/ladies at gd here (well gd have more hack & slash
though).
thats my opinion on the borderland series’ lore. if you want to enjoy the lore
more, i suggest playing the game yourself, then read some top rated
borderlands fanfiction which doesn’t feature unspeakable things shudders…
for the gameplay… the commenters here’ve pretty much explained it all. play
the game already!
start with borderlands 2 if you want challenge! (the unbalanced scaling starts
appearing at mid true vault hunters mode (~lvl 35), rise dramatically at
ultimate vault hunters mode and just plain insane on OP mode!).
start with borderlands 1 if you want to play casually!
borderlands 1,5 is best played after you understand how bl2 works!
you want to enjoy borderlands series, you have to enjoy fps style shooting
and looting!
The first Borderlands game… probably Thee Greatest Beginning to a Video Game. Loved that game. Dunno why but my interest in 2 waned a bit after starting it. It’s likely I got distracted by some other game around that time period. Who knows.
Quite frankly if you value hack’n’slash games, you owe it to yourself to play the Borderlands games. Because at core these games are hack’n’slash: the Itemisation (especially how guns are generated) is truly genius, especially from Borderlands 2 and on. Also if you like extra content (DLCs and stuff) the Borderlands games will treat you well, only Crate Entertainment can compete on that point. 
Borderlands 1: the first and the prototype of the better games to come. B1 has a Mad Max feel to it that is quite unique and much less present in its sequels. B1 has a lackluster story to be honest. Also you level up much faster in B1 (compared to B2 and the Pre-Sequel), also if you like DOTs (damage over time) this game is truly awesome, ^^
Borderlands 2: a better game on almost all account. The DLCs on this one are incredible, epecially “Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep”, maybe you’ll see for yourself, haha. Also in B2 you level up much slower than in B1,
Borderlands the Pre-Sequel: excellent game. Never ever listen to the Internets who will mock and turn down this game. 2K Australia (RIP great developers) made a much more balanced experience that B2 (in B2 the last levels of difficulty, Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode and “Overpower Levels” were a pita as far as I’m concerned.^^ Maybe the Australian accent of NPCs might turn you off but I’m not even sure. On a side-note the French dub for Borderlands the Pre-Sequel in insanely funny. The only real flaw of the Pre-Sequel is that a few levels (3/4) are “mazey” but this will only bother you on your first playthrough and that’s ok after that.
When talking about Borderlands games I think it’s worth mentioning how good the music is. Jesper Kyd created beatiful soundtrack for BL2 + you have a couple of songs from this cool band (no spoilers):
I played BL1 and 2 and while they were fun at first they did not have any replay value for me, and I never even finished BL2.
The things that bothered me the most is loot (in BL2 99% of drops are crap, can’t remember how it was in BL1) and inventory management (it’s just a pain in the ass). It’s a bit more fun with friends but my friends weren’t really motivated to play thru the games either. So yea i guess if you can get the games in a sale give them a try.
I think I still have 100+ keys for the chest in Sanctuary…
The way the guns are generated in the later games is truly fantastic, you never find the same exact one twice. One of the best systems around honestly.
My only annoyance with these games is that the higher difficulties can turn into a dull grind, enemies turning into bullet sponges, slow progress. But there are many classes and builds to play, so I don’t really mind, I just pick another instead of going up a difficulty.
that’s why Borderlands is the only actual Looter Shooter. Destiny and Anthem are horrible when it comes to itemization, skills, build diversity and everything that makes a such games actually great.
its probably because you like the ‘brown effect’ and mad max post apocalyptic
feels of bl1. bl2 and 1,5 is written by different person, so the world design feels
different (more colorful, insane, adventure!, in yo face! effect).
you need to farm red chests or certain major bosses to get good drops!
or you can look around in bl2 forums to see which quest gives you the unique
blue item you need to make your build exciting! (bl2 veterans has a lot of list
for recommended gear, whether it drops from certain enemy or from quest
rewards.
blue unique quest reward is easy to get!
pimpernel and hail is a good example of weapons that functions differently
from other of its kind, and they are quest reward! you just need to farm the
quest and use the method for farming quest rewards! there are helpful guides
in bl2 forum, use them!
also, the loot drop chance gets better in uvhm (its in update 1.8.3 or 1.8.4 or
something, i forgot). still, you need slag as crutches to survive uvhm! and use
correct elemental weapon when fighting enemies!
skeleton chest in sanctuary is best used for leveling. it can be helpful if you’re
stuck on the quest with bad gears. but i recommend just farm red chests in
easy to reach area such as the torgue arena where there are several red
chests you can farm without encountering any enemies!
i’ve seen some weapons appearing 2 time in a short amount of times near each
other with the exact type, prefix and suffix.
Still, borderlands series has the
best variation of weapon components among other of its genre. you need
to farm them though. borderlands is not a crafting game.
Possible, but there’s more than two parts (usually 6 to 8) that give that prefix and suffix. Getting all the parts the same is a tiny chance.
See here: https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Gun_Component_Charts