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Preview: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

At a recent preview event in Sydney, Stevivor spent two hours of hands-on time with Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. We also had a great chat with Matt Armstrong and Tony Lawrence from Gearbox and 2K Australia, respectively, and were teased with all the promise and (Australian) potential the title is set to bring.

While I was quite excited for The Pre-Sequel after the interview, I must confess that my actual time with the game was quite underwhelming.

The Pre-Sequel is everything you’ve come to expect from the popular Borderlands franchise, just with a brand new location and a different set of physics. During the event, the running joke was that the game’s marketing campaign need merely to proclaim, “Borderlands… in space!”

Vehicles in space. Loot in space. Claptrap in space. Borderlands… in space!

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While the game’s mechanics are quite enjoyable in the new lower gravity – butt slams are great fun — the new angle of The Pre-Sequel means that several of its aspects should have been redesigned accordingly. The biggest problem that I had in my two hours with the game, playing alongside other journalists, is that we were directionless.

Because of the game’s near zero-G environments, Borderlands is far more vertical than ever before. The problem is, the game’s map and quest markers don’t reflect that. Our group spent far too long confused, heading in the wrong direction altogether or sitting near a map marker, unsure of where we were supposed to go. At the very least, our group was consistently unsure of how to get where we were supposed to go.

In one mission, we were told we each needed to equip a special shield and head over to five power boxes in a room. Once there, everyone in the group had to go and lob a grenade at their feet – at the same time — to disrupt the boxes. There were so many problems with that scenario. First, we weren’t equipping the right shields, and second, we couldn’t find a single power box in the room. Turns out, I was the only one with the special quest-fulfilling shield (oops) and that “power box” apparently meant “security camera” to the quest’s narrator. We were the poster children for dysfunction round about that point.

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It probably didn’t help that we were deposited into the game as level 15 characters, unsure of what was happening in the middle of The Pre-Sequel‘s plot. Having played Borderlands and Borderlands 2, I had a general idea of where I found myself, but not much beyond that. For those uninitiated, you’re essentially playing as a new group of four Vault Hunters in-between the previous two titles, although two of your group ending up being baddies – at least, from Borderlands 2’s perspective. It’s all about moral ambiguity, yo.

My time with the game wasn’t all bad; shooting and loot mechanics are as good as you remember them in Borderlands 2, and the zero-G combat provides an extra layer of fun. The Pre-Sequel is also funny as hell, with situations, characters and dialogue all prompting many laugh-out-loud moments. My group of four also had a blast together in the middle of the preview, simply trying to make crazy jumps – with or without vehicles – across large chasms. We also spent a bunch of time simply duelling one another. Still, that general lack of direction was worrisome.

Speaking with Gearbox’s Armstrong, it was clear that we previewers were missing a lot of context when it came to Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Hell, we were also missing context when it comes to the upcoming Telltale Games’ Tales from the Borderlands. Armstrong said all four games work together in tandem, deliver layer upon layer of complexity.

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The new Vault Hunters are quite fun to control. I used the cowboy-esque Nisha for most of my run, taking advantage of her special to increase my aim and damage. Hell, with the special on, my character did all my aiming for me; I merely had to slam down on my right-trigger as quickly as I could to blow enemies away. Most of us in the group shied away from Claptrap, mostly because we didn’t think we could handle his ability-changing special, granting a set of skills that the robot deems necessary at that specific point in time. Wilhelm’s special attack and defence drones also proved quite useful in firefights.

With a rabid fanbase, and the recent success of loot-loop titles like Destiny, you’d be a fool to think Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel will fail. With Destiny, those who didn’t have an Xbox One or PS4 could grab the game on Xbox 360 and PS3. That said, no one did; most bought Bungie’s shooter on current-gen, showing that gamers have moved on. This handy stat, to me, disproves Gearbox’s claim that most Borderlands‘ players are still on last-gen.

Ultimately, that’s the problem with The Pre-Sequel: it’s a last-gen effort. Not just in availability, but also in engine and mechanics. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it certainly makes for a tougher sell when you have to reconnect that older console.

Stevivor.com was flown to Sydney recently by 2K to spend hands-on time with Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Thoughts and feelings on the game remain the writer’s own.


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About the author

Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.