Borderlands 2 builds up on the original game, streamlining some features and improving the overall experience, while keeping the concept behind the original game intact.
I'm not a fan of Borderlands. When it came out, I felt it wasn't such a great single player game, but it had huge potential to be either a classic LAN-party game or an internet competitive one. If you had a bunch of friends you could LAN with, it was fantastic: funny, challenging and you had many hours of gameplay. The other option was pubstomping some kids in PvP. Whether it was the Pokemon variant - farming the content solo and jumping online to pewpew some randoms - or the Diablo variant - farming the content online with other players - the idea was focused on running the same bosses and levels over and over trying to acquire some very rare and special gear, to then reign supreme in duels. However, not everyone of us had the chance to play the game like that and, if multi-player wasn't an option, you were left with what was a pretty bland FPS-RPG hybrid.
Borderlands 2 made noticeable improvements in terms of gameplay and presentation. Firstly, the game became a ton more humorous. The original Borderlands still tried to retain a gloomy, somber feel that it never quite achieved. This time around, every character you talk to is absolutely hilarious. Big props to the writers. In terms of the actual game, the addition of a mini-map to replace the first game's clunky waypoint-compass system is a simple yet incredible improvement. Missions and side-missions are now very easy to pick up and turn in through MMO-style markers on the map, as opposite to Claptrap just telling you someone has a quest for you and you having to spend 30 minutes looking for the quest-giver. Also in the quest department, even the most banal side-mission now has voice-acting and somewhat of a plot, trivial as it might be. The general user-interface and inventory system, while keeping the same feel as the original, have also been reworked to a much better design that makes item management and stat weighing very instinctive.
Visually, the game also seems to have been slightly improved as well. Pandora definitely looks much more clear and crisp than before, but the cartoony cel-shading graphics are still there, so it's pretty hard to tell how much better the visuals actually got. The important thing is that the balance between looks and performance is still very good, so people with low-tier computers can probably still enjoy this one.
Now, Borderlands 2 still has a few flaws.
The thing that I hated the most about the game was all the senseless running around. RPGs, inherently, come packed with a lot of traveling. Granted. However, in titles like Fallout 3 or Skyrim, where the distances are far greater, walking for 10 minutes to reach some destination didn't feel like such a chore. Maybe it was the fast travel system guaranteeing that you only had to walk there once before you could revisit with just a click. Maybe it had something to do with the atmosphere or landscapes of the game world you're spending so much time running in. Whatever the case, there are many instances in Borderlands 2 that you have to run all the way to the end of a map, complete a quest and then run all the way back to the entrance of the zone. Multiply this a few times per side-mission and I can assure you: it gets old really fast. The simple way to fix this was to add an instant recall item, like the hearthstone in World of Warcraft or the town portal in Diablo 2. Alas, no such device in Pandora.
My second problem is that a lot of the side-missions just seem to not belong there. The mechanic is pretty much constant throughout the game: you complete a few story missions and you unlock a batch of side-missions. Nothing wrong with that. Some of them are even fun, like a whodunit-type scenario or a couple that reference movies and games in pretty hilarious ways. However, towards the end of the game, the narrative is pretty climatic, you know a plot-twist is about to hit you in the face and suddenly a bunch of side-missions markers pop up on your map. I'm all for content and playtime, but cramping a bunch of random secondary missions just because? It doesn't feel right and it seems like a very cheap way of extending the playtime clock. Naturally, don't be surprised if towards the end of the game you start disregarding them. The rewards aren't significant, they add nothing to the story and they get repetitive and boring after a few hours. I would've liked to see, maybe, a lengthier story and less random side-quests.
The third one is a pretty common problem nowadays: DLC. Gearbox announced before the release of the game that there was going to be a fifth playable class as a DLC. Going off the previous game, we can guess there's gonna be a ton of DLC content as well. As is, Borderlands 2 feels a tiny bit empty. It could've been more and I can't help but wonder: how much better would've this game been if all that content they're ripping out on release to get an extra buck later would've been there from the start? At the very least, the DLC-only playable character rose some eyebrows among loyal Borderlands fans.
To sum it up, Borderlands 2 is what the first Borderlands should have been: a polished, extremely funny RPFPS. Nevertheless, the focus of the game is still on the grind/itemization/online play combo. If you have 3 bros you can constantly play with, it's gonna be ten times better. Exclusively as a single-player game, it's not the best game ever but it's definitely entertaining and more robust than its predecessor.
