Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

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Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
"And Claptrap as a mistake"
Protagonist(s): Vault Hunters Athena Wilhelm Nisha Kadam Claptrap Timothy Lawrence Aurelia Hammerlock Genre(s): Action role-playing First-person shooter Platform(s): Microsoft Windows macOS Linux PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4 Xbox 360 Xbox One Nintendo Switch Release Date: Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 NA: October 14, 2014 AU: October 16, 2014 EU: October 17, 2014 PlayStation 4, Xbox One NA: March 24, 2015 WW: March 27, 2015 Nintendo Switch WW: May 29, 2020 Engine: Unreal Engine 3 Developer(s): 2K Australia Gearbox Software Publisher(s): 2K Games Country: Australia United States Series: Borderlands Predecessor: Borderlands (canonically) Borderlands 2 (by release Date) Successor: Borderlands 2 (canonically) Borderlands 3 (by release Date)

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is a 2014 action role-playing first-person shooter game mainly developed by 2K Australia and published by 2K Games. It is the third installment in the Borderlands franchise.

Plot

Athena, a former Crimson Lance assassin who helped the original vault hunters in defeating General Knoxx, is captured by Brick and Mordecai after finding out she worked for Handsome Jack. While being interrogated, she recalls the events of when she worked for Handsome Jack.

These events take place between Borderlands and Borderlands 2, where Athena, along with five other vault hunters, are recruited by Handsome Jack to help him locate and open a vault on Elpis, which is the moon of Pandora. While on their way to Helios, the space station where Jack is, the vault hunters are attacked by the Lost Legion, a rogue detachment of Dahl's private military led by Colonel Zarpedon. The vault hunters crash land in Helios, where they find Jack and flee the station in the ensuing chaos. After taking over Helios, Zarpedon uses the mounted laser array, the Eye of Helios, to attack Elpis and destroy the vault, which would also kill the planet's inhabitants. Jack and the Vault Hunters then set off to retake Helios, stop the Lost Legion's machinations and open the vault.

Why It Blasts Off

1. Unlike the first two games which take place on Pandora, this game takes place on Pandora's moon known as Elpis and the Hyperion's Helios orbital station, which results in the locations and environments standing out from those games.
   • This is especially true for the Claptastic Voyage DLC, as the locations there range from highly futuristic to downright bizarre.
2. Introduces a new type of weapon called "lasers", manufactured by Maliwan, Tediore, Hyperion and Dahl. The barrels are so different from each other that it feels like they are different types of weapons altogether.
   • In addition, these type of guns always have an elemental effect to them, improving their reliability further against specified targets.
3. The playable vault hunters are more talkative here and not restricted to side commentary like the previous games, as they will converse with the major characters throughout the game.
4. A new element known as "cryo" makes its debut here, and is able to freeze most enemies solid. Frozen enemies take far more critical and explosive damage, the latter greatly improving the utility of an otherwise underpowered element.
5. Elpis' low gravity environment adds much more verticality to combat.
6. Oz kits allow players to slam down on the surface they're above to deal damage to surrounding enemies and reach areas they otherwise wouldn't be able to in addition to providing benefits like the relics from Borderlands 2.
7. The playable vault hunters here have different characteristics and abilities compared to the playable vault hunters in other Borderlands games.
   • Their skills and abilities are also more balanced to prevent one particular vault hunter from being overpowered like in the previous games.
8. A new machine known as the "grinder" allows players to obtain higher tier weapons and equipment by inserting three lower tier items, which allows them to recycle items they no longer need.
9. The store is more involving, and does a good job at showing how the events that happened in Borderlands 2 came to be.
   • The most notable example is of Handsome Jack's simultaneous rise to power and descent into villainy.
10. Although it's nothing different from other Borderlands games, the humor is still well done for the most part, especially when playing as Claptrap.
    • If the player selects Claptrap as their playable character, the game will humorously warn them three times about it.
11. In co-op, The loot is more balanced so every player in the session has a fairer share of loot.

Bad Qualities

1. A lot of assets from Borderlands 2, such as the graphics, weapons, and overall gameplay, were copy-pasted here, which makes the game feel more like an expansion than an entirely different game.
   • As a result of the overall similar feel to the game, problems that are present in the previous games are also present here.
2. There's also less content and DLC compared to Borderlands 2, which doesn't help in making the game feel like an expansion of said game.
   • There's only one raid boss, which is just a rematch with the final boss who now has much more health.
   • Pearlescent weapons are absent.
   • Despite this, the game still costed $60 at launch, which was too much.
3. Unless the player chose Claptrap, the oxygen system can get annoying.
4. In addition to some jokes being hit-or-miss like the previous games, the Australian themed humor can get repetitive quickly.

Reception

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was met with mixed-to-positive reception. On Metacritic, the game has a Metascore of 75/100 on the PC, a 77/100 on the PlayStation 3, and a 74/100 on the Xbox 360. The user scores were lower, with a score of 6.3/10 on the PC and Xbox 360, and a 6.4/10 on the PlayStation 3. On GameFAQs, the game has an averae rating of 3.68/5 on the PC, a 3.86/5 on the PlayStation 3, and a 3.93/5 on the Xbox 360.

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