Borderlands 2 is the sequel to the sleeper hit Borderlands, which is essentially Fallout in space with comic books and Diablo. The appeal of Borderlands comes from its wild humor and the random monsters and loot drops that range from crappy pistols a baby couldn’t even hurt itself with, to rocket launchers that fire rockets that fire rockets that fire rockets. And the rockets explode into lightning when they hit. Borderlands 2 takes the glory of Borderlands, and squeezes it into the package of a game people are actually expecting to be a hit. It’s also finished, with some 60 days left on the clock until release. GameSpot has the story.
Borderlands should never have been a hit. It was a side project, redesigned at the 11th hour to be something new and different from its original roots as a Fallout clone. There are just too many game design holes in Borderlands, too many empty spaces where something should be.
Borderlands 2 has a chance to change all that, now they know what sort of lightning they’re bottling. It remains to be seen if Gearbox can deliver what they promise, but what we’ve seen so far is intriguing.