[h1]Borderlands 2: The Best in the Series, Jank and All[/h1]
[h2]TL;DR[/h2]
Borderlands 2 is still my favorite game in the series. Later entries have smoother gunplay, better movement, and plenty of quality-of-life improvements, but none of them put everything together quite as well.
The loot chase is addictive, the Vault Hunters offer genuinely different playstyles, Pandora is packed with memorable content, the DLC is excellent, and Handsome Jack remains the best villain the series has produced.
It is also undeniably janky. Movement feels old, vehicles are awkward, the UI is dated, and the endgame becomes far more restrictive than the campaign.
[b]8/10: Still the best overall Borderlands package for me, even with all the jank.[/b]
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[h2]Combat, Loot & Builds[/h2]
Borderlands 2 understands the satisfaction of finding a gun that immediately makes you rethink your loadout.
Manufacturers feel distinct, elemental damage encourages matching weapons to enemies, and shields, grenade mods, class mods, and relics add plenty of customization. The Vault Hunters are equally important, with action skills and skill trees that support dramatically different playstyles.
[b]The shooting itself has aged more than the systems surrounding it.[/b]
Movement is stiff compared with later entries, weapon handling lacks some modern responsiveness, and enemies occasionally behave strangely. Second Wind also has an incredible ability to make the enemy you need suddenly hide behind something.
None of it ruins the combat. There is simply a layer of 2012 jank covering an otherwise excellent looter-shooter.
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[h2]Pandora, Quests & Co-op[/h2]
Borderlands 2 massively improves Pandora's variety over the first game. Frozen wastelands, deserts, wildlife preserves, settlements, industrial zones, and Hyperion facilities give the world far more personality.
Side quests are worth doing because they regularly contain memorable characters, ridiculous situations, unique rewards, or additional world-building, even when the objectives themselves are fairly standard.
[b]Co-op is where the Borderlands formula becomes especially difficult to put down.[/b]
Different Vault Hunters and builds working together turn already chaotic encounters into complete nonsense in the best way possible, while the entire game remains perfectly enjoyable solo.
Traversal is weaker. There is plenty of backtracking, some maps are awkward to navigate, and the vehicles have never felt particularly good to control.
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[h2]Story, Characters & Handsome Jack[/h2]
This is the biggest reason Borderlands 2 still stands above the rest of the series for me.
[b]Handsome Jack is an incredible villain.[/b]
He spends most of the game talking directly to you, mocking your progress while gradually revealing how terrible he actually is. He is funny without being harmless, threatening without becoming generic, and given enough time to become an actual character rather than simply the final boss.
The supporting cast is equally memorable, with Claptrap, Tiny Tina, Scooter, Moxxi, the returning Vault Hunters, and countless side characters giving Pandora enormous personality.
The humor is definitely a product of its era. Some jokes still work perfectly for me, while others have aged exactly how you would expect.
More importantly, the game can become serious when it needs to. Beneath all the stupidity is a surprisingly effective story with characters I genuinely cared about.
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[h2]Endgame & DLC[/h2]
There is an absurd amount of Borderlands 2 to play. Multiple Vault Hunters, higher difficulties, legendary farming, raid bosses, challenges, optional areas, and years of DLC can easily produce hundreds of hours.
[i]Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep[/i] is the obvious standout, turning Borderlands into a fantasy tabletop adventure while delivering both ridiculous comedy and one of the more emotional stories in the series.
The endgame is where my enthusiasm drops.
Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode pushes enemy health and regeneration hard enough that slag becomes close to mandatory for many builds, while later scaling restricts some of the experimentation that makes the campaign so enjoyable.
[b]I love Borderlands 2's progression far more than I love its highest levels of progression.[/b]
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[h2]Presentation & Final Thoughts[/h2]
The cel-shaded art direction has aged extremely well. Technically, the game clearly comes from the Xbox 360 era, but it still looks distinctly Borderlands.
The jank is much harder to hide. Menus are clunky, physics occasionally lose their mind, enemies do strange things, and legacy features such as PhysX can still cause unnecessary problems on PC.
[b]Borderlands 2 is polished where it matters and held together with duct tape everywhere else.[/b]
Later entries play better, but none of them have matched this combination of loot, builds, world design, co-op, DLC, humor, and memorable characters.
If you want the smoothest Borderlands experience, play one of the newer games. If you want the entry that best represents why people fell in love with the series, this is it.
[b]Borderlands 2 remains the high point of the series, jank and all.[/b]
[b]8/10: Highly recommended.[/b]
