Borderlands 2 is the Bomb

For whatever reason, as of late, I've been playing games that are way more casual.  I'll get the games off of xbox live, or something off of gog.com, but there universally not as "hardcore" as the games that are coming out for consoles these days.

I decided to remedy that last week.  I'm a very traditional impulse buyer, but besides a game that I bought for Rhianna that appealed to her ladygamer persona (I can make her pretty!?  AND SLUTTY!?), there hasn't been much purchased since... hell, I can't remember the last game I purchased before that.  But when I started seeing comments about Borderlands 2 on reddit, I was intrigued.  I had already played the crap out of the first one, and loved it, but for whatever reason, I wasn't sold on the sequel.

Bored at work one day during my lunch hour, I hovered around on a couple of the game boards, checking out what was going on with the game.  Nobody even really said anything detailed about it, but just hearing it over and over was like pounding in my head.  I decided to pick it up that day, and haven't regretted it one bit.

For the first few days, I was actually unable to wake up at a normal time.  My body was aching for more Pandora, and I had no choice but to mosey over to the living room hours before the buttcrack of dawn to get in some more playtime.  Despite the fact that I've been able to slow things down a bit, the game hasn't ceased to impress at all.

First of all, the writing.  It's not like it's classy - far from it.  But the persona of the game, all of its wit and charm, is one of the best, if not the best in the history of gaming.  Now me, I love my story as much as the next guy, but I've never liked the idea of sitting and waiting to hear the questgiver tell you why he wants you to perform his task so much.  In WoW, I would speed read through everything - I still learned as much as I would have through the formal communication, but at a much quicker pace.  In BL2, I have no desire to cut anyone off, because they're all so hilarious.

You don't say.

Beyond all that, though, there's a subtext that's clever and driving.  There's real emotions underneath the grit, the grime, and the cartoony feel of these characters.  I want to know what they've got to say, because I want to know what makes them tick.

The characters aren't the only major boon to this series.  The first game was a wonderful step in a new direction for shooters, and for RPGs, but it didn't really change the face of gaming through its story.  It was a dull grind (which I was ok with... that's what I signed up for).  After the weak yet arduous trudge through Diablo III's Sanctuary, I wasn't really keen on another grindfest.

The sidequests in the first Borderlands were quirky, but all of them were nearly exactly the same.  It was a very cookie-cutter game, and it got in its own way a lot of the time.  For Borderlands 2, the side-quests themselves have enough personality to drag you away from the main storyline for hours at a time.  On top of that, they aren't the same old "go here, kill this" quest that you're used to.

Not that it would have even been a problem in the first place.  You see, BL2 does an excellent job of managing its gameplay within the world that encompasses it.  There's one quest a few hours in that takes you into a sewer and...

Well, I'm not going to spoil it.  Suffice it to say, Gearbox was on the ball as far as pop culture went.  In the first hour of the game, unless I was mistaken, I saw three references to Doctor Who... or in some cases, Constable What.

As if the series didn't offer a plethora of customability before, the bonuses they offer you in this game are uncanny.  Not only can you slap your favorite shade of post-apocalyptica on multiple vehicles this time around, but you can tinker with your character to your heart's content.

I call this guy "Pimp Daddy".

Of course, that means that you can customize the way they look, not just the way they fight.

The gameplay itself remains largely the same as the first game, but they polished the crap out of it.  Enemies no longer watch you kill them.  They take cover, they roll around on the ground, and they make you pay the price for being careless.  But more than that, the enemies are dynamic.  The first game had a very shallow bucket from which to pull its baddies.  BL2, on the other hand, could throw so many at you that it's easy to lose track of the individual strategies that should be used for each of them.

On the replayability front... well... let's just say I'm a level 21 on one character, and I've barely done any of the main quests so far.

If you like the idea of a hybrid shooter/RPG, there's no reason not to get Borderlands 2.