We have taken a closer look at the brandnew Borderlands – The Pre Sequel.  This new part of the series was developed by 2K Australia. It is the first game they developed completely on their own.  What we get as a result is not a game-play revolution but it is – still – fun to play.

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The story is settled between the other two borderland titles. It takes place on Elpis, one of Pandoras’ moons. Rumors have been told about a mysterious chamber, promising power and wealth to whoever is able to find it. This time our client is the well-known Handsome Jack.  But in Borderlands – The Pre Sequel he is just called Jack and we are about to witness his transformation into a real tyrant. Borderlands – The Pre Sequel is – as always – filled with great black humor, like any other Borderlands title so far.

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This part of the Borderlands series is predominated by its unique comic style again. Although we think it is purely a matter of taste, we have to admit at the same time that all style elements are just fitting. Thinking of a moon you may imagine a quite monotonous surface, but Elpis is not like the moon of the earth. Elpis is marked by several catastrophic events. Generally speaking the game offers a varying and great atmosphere.  We enjoyed the scoring of the character a lot; the player senses the love for details. In addition all sounds and the soundtrack are fitting.

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On one hand Borderland is an action-packed first-person-shooter, on the other hand we loved the thrill of exploration and loot-runs. The randomizer is quite reliable. It delivers a variety of many different weapons, therefore finding new amazing guns is a great pleasure. A large number of weapons can be upgraded by freeze-damage.

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There are four new character-classes in the game:

• Athena, ‘the Gladiator‘, is a rogue assassin of the Atlas Corporation first introduced in the Borderlands DLC campaign The Secret Armory of General Knoxx.
• Nisha, ‘the Lawbringer‘, first appeared in Borderlands 2 as the sheriff of the town of Lynchwood.
• Claptrap, ‘the Fragtrap‘, is the last remaining robot of its kind as of Borderlands 2.
• Wilhelm, ‘the Enforcer‘, becomes increasingly augmented with technology and weaponry over the course of the game, transforming him into the more familiar cyberneticform he possessed as the second major boss in Borderlands 2.

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Like in previous parts of the series we distribute XP to three tech-trees while leveling up.  The new modifier becomes quite handy, as it crafts a better item from three equal items. Which one we get is chosen by the game at random. After a while we got used to the controls. We may not be able to sprint as fast as usual, but due to the lower gravity we can perform huge jumps. In addition we have to watch out constantly for new oxygen at specific stations. We need to decide from time to time as the valuable oxygen is needed for those big jumps.

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The variety in enemies is not that overwhelming like in previous parts of the series. Boss fights are now more challenging as they use the low gravity to their advantage.
The co-op mode in Borderlands – The Pre Sequel is huge fun. We share some of our characters’ skills with other players, making the game more flexible and rich in variations.

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The already approved formula from other parts of the Borderlands-series is – again – convincing. Especially the co-op mode with up to four players is marvelous. But unfortunately this game is not the expansion pack we hoped for. Although all game elements are well fitting, but the game overall is smaller and as not as funny as Borderlands 2 was.  Still, a lot of entertainment is included in this game.

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 It is definitely a must-have for fans of the Borderland series.

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Tested and written by Pascal van der Meer & Marcel Krafczyk

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