Borderlands 2

Game of the Year Edition: Back at it! What a improvement this was over the first game. Not only does the story seem more engaging, thanks to its villains Handsome Jack, but the gameplay/visuals are popping with color, flair, and bloodshed. I also really enjoyed the substantial amount of hilarious dialogue this game had; "That sentence had too many syllables. APOLOGIZE." (Scooter isn't the only funny character this time around). There was also some brutal kills to 3 main characters, which was quite surprising! I might reveal a spoiler so you might wanna stop reading, but I was honestly not expecting to kill Jack at the end of this game. I expected him to carry over in the other games, but nope, I definitely sniped his brains out of his ear holes. It was also a bittersweet goodbye to Angel, but what was the most surprising was seeing Roland die since he was a main character, not only in this game, but in the last one. I'm glad Tiny Tina kept his legacy alive in the Bunker and Badasses dlc. Speaking of the dlc/seasonal missions, I loved pretty much all of it. I was surprised how much better it was compared the Borderlands 1 dlc. Each dlc had lore, and it felt like I was actually doing main missions throughout instead of just doing side missions. Everything in this game feels worth it (minus some of these raid bosses). Not a fan of these repeatable missions, and I'm also not a fan of the enemies not leveling to your character so your forced to do game+ so you can get better loot, which I find a big waste of time. I'm not gonna complete the main campaign twice just so the enemies in the dlcs will feel matched to my level. Hoping they fix this in the other games.

The cream of the crop in regards to co-op loot n' shoot video games. I have spent hundreds of hours on this game over the years, mindlessly shooting down enemies and bosses with friends, leveling up and collecting loot. Definitely the top of the line in its genre.

Ike of the Rehash Critics: Borderlands was a breakthrough in gaming with fast acting shooter action and unique graphics. As a first person shooter Borderlands offered more depth than any other platform with intricate skill trees, endless weapon combinations, and simple yet admirable character customization. Gearbox still delivers a superior product with Borderlands 2.

Gameplay: If you are an anti-social anaconda you are missing out on one of the most important aspects of the Borderlands 2 package. Co-op is a necessity for maximum enjoyment. In single player mode there won't be as much action, survival, killer guns, competition, smack talk, and fun. So pull up your big girl pants and join someone.

Action: Endless, challenging, and engrossing. There may be a long silence amongst your friends during intense battles, so refrain from resorting to your single player cussing at the video game.

Graphics: Gearbox continues with cel-shading and ups the anti on big bad guy design and difficulty. Don't worry, skags (which also describes X'es) are still around but outclassed by the newly introduced bullymongs. The beasties of Pandora, although not vast, add a higher level of difficulty.

New and/or Improved: You will experience more guns, larger territories (vertically and horizontally), enhanced villains, new characters, new talent trees, crazy creatures, the capability of hiding old missions you don't want, and character transferable skill points (i.e. add 1% to shield recharge rate, max health, etc…).

Most disappointing: Here it is in a nutshell: Maps are tricky with multiple levels and poor direction, some talent trees don't have a whole lot of variety, and the story is not as engrossing as the first.

In summation Borderlands 2 met and exceeded 98% of my expectations. I am still playing the second play through and have not maxed out my love for this one. BUY BUY BUY, didn't play the first Borderlands BUY BUY BUY. This game is as flawless as it gets.

It is ridiculous i got this game for like 2-3 euros, and i did not play it for a long time, i had tried borderlands 1 earlier, and it did not seem very interesting.

But then i played this as Co-Op on xbox 360 with a shared screen, and whow! that must be the best real life co-op game experience i have ever had in this life to this day!

Looking forward to play Borderlands 3.

The first borderlands was a fun and unique game when it came out, but I will never go back to it after I played this game. The game play is pretty much the same, but this time it feels much more fluent. The characters each have their own personality, but I really got annoyed with Scooter and Claptrap this time around. Not to mention you never get a break from Handsome Jack, his character is meant to be annoying, but I don't know if they meant it for some of the other characters. I like that they changed the designs of the guns, much more variety than the first game. It was cool to see the first group of vault hunters again. The music is also really good, I especially love the song "Ice", every time I hear it I start getting pumped up. The graphics are better, they look much more clear, but it also has some load in times and the frame rate tends to drop at some points in the game. There is some glitches as well, some of them even screwed up a mission, I had to restart the game. The levelling up system is extremely fun and feels really rewarding. So far this is the only game I got this year and I'm glad I did get it. I did find the second play through mode made things much, much harder, it actually got me angry but the game is too good for me to be put off.

August 20, 2013. Update It's been a long time coming that I wanted to update this review. I've been playing the hell out of this game the last week. Leveling up the Mechromancer I just purchased. The true vault hunter mode just frustrated me with the one shot and I'm done garbage. The Assassin obviously wasn't the best character to try and get to level 50, well I made it to level 42. Any way, the Mechromancer just makes the game much more enjoyable, the deathtrap destroys everything, she is a much better class. That and I've found much better loot this time around. I realized the only difficulty this game offers is enemies that one shot you, it's just plain annoying. 2012 was a pretty crappy year for video games, so this easily takes game of the year for me. There's six characters to play as, so that's 6 play-throughs worth of replay value. I haven't even touched the DLC yet. So this game is on terms with Fallout, for bang for your buck.

Highly recommend to anyone that likes shooters or RPG's, very fun.