It’s been a good month for lovers of bootylicious action games, where the swag is plentiful and the guns are ridiculous. With its novel Grindhouse aesthetic, Borderlands 2 comes hot on the heels of last week’s similarly loot-obsessed Torchlight II, replacing that game’s swords and skeletons with sniper rifles and caterwauling midgets. It also has one of the best, most stylish opening sequences I’ve seen in a game for a long time.
Lured by the call of the charismatic and treacherous Handsome Jack, your character (be it the weapon-obsessed Gunzerker, the sneaky Assassin, the magical Siren or the turret-spawning Commando) embarks on a mission to uncover a mysterious alien vault. However, you soon find yourself blown up and abandoned in the middle of a snowy wasteland, at the mercy of a perkily unhinged robot called Claptrap.
From there on in it’s a long and slightly lonely road to civilisation, which is where the game really opens up. As much fun as it is careering through the wilderness collecting increasingly awesome kit, the constant bombardment of weapons and objectives can feel a little exhausting, particularly when there’s no one else around to help clean up. This game clearly has multiple players in mind.
Your character’s motivations are also a bit confusing. You’re simultaneously on the run from Handsome Jack whilst hunting for him and his mysterious vault. If that isn’t confusing enough, you’re soon roped into a resistance movement on behalf of a grim guy named Roland, whose audio logs are about as rousing and charismatic as a fart in a jar. (Handsome Jack’s frequent audio interruptions, on the other hand, are hilarious.)
With bandits spouting lines like “Give me back my hit points!”, while their shotgun-wielding midget chums trip up under the weight of their own guns, this is violence with a real sense of humour and attention to detail, right down to the robot porn in Claptrap’s arctic hideout.
Borderlands 2 requires dedication, and - if played alone - many hours of your time, but when the action is this slick it's an easy game to give yourself over to. So when you unpeel yourself from the sofa with a rumbling belly and a dazed look in your eyes, you may feel annoyed at how your free time has evaporated – but you'll almost certainly be back.
- Borderlands 2 (2K Games) developed by Gearbox Software. Platform: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
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