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I became aware of Borderlands 2 because a friend told me he was playing it on his Xbox. There was a free weekend of it on Steam and I tried out it then, but not for very long. While first-person shooter games are very popular, I tend to stay away from them, with a few exceptions. I missed out on the Borderlands 2 Cheerful Ghost event. Every seemed to have a good time with that. Someone else mentioned it to me and I decided to buy the trilogy during a recent seasonal Steam sale.

As of less than 20 hours into the game, it seems ok. It has humor, challenge, and fun. I’m getting more used to it, my character is growing, and I’m feeling more comfortable with it. It seemed a bit challenging in a few areas, but then I started to max out my inventory with health kits. I also overlooked my special (F key) ability at first, but I found it to be helpful when I’m surrounded. I decided to be a soldier.

There seems to be plenty of areas and quests. I think some of the most fun I’ve had so far is in the vehicle, especially running over creatures and enemies for easy XP.

I just defeated Mothrakk. That was definitely a tough fight. I had to use a vehicle and alternate between gunner and driver seats. The gunner seat gave me more room to aim, but then I had to jump back in the driver seat to avoid being bombed by Mothrakk.

This isn’t meant to be a review, that may come later. This may just be the beginning.

I wanted to point out the music, though. The very beginning music reminds me of Diablo 3, which is cool. I also heard music that reminds me of StarCraft. So as far as music, this game sounds much like a Blizzard game, to me. As for game play, it seems similar to Fallout 3, NV, or 4.

jdodson   Admin wrote on 02/14/2017 at 05:30am

It's good that you are starting with Borderlands because firstly, it's great and secondly Borderlands 2 adds some mechanics that make it a bit harder to come back and enjoy the first game. Nothing major, but nice quality of life improvements that make Borderlands 2 that much better for it. Personally I enjoy the gameplay focus on the first game over the story and dialog focus on the second. The story is pretty engaging and funny the first time but becomes less so the more times you go through the game. I really hope Borderlands 3 does something that allows you to play the game without dialog or something.

That said, the original Borderlands is a really contained game that provides a nice length campaign that, to me, never felt overlong. I play it mostly on the PS3 and the game shined on that system but still holds up very well on PC. I've always dreamed they'd bring the Mac port to Steam and also port it to Linux but that doesn't seem to likely at this point.

Anyways, glad you are enjoying the game and I look forward to more of your thoughts on it.

Travis   Admin wrote on 02/14/2017 at 10:51pm

Yeah what Jon says is absolutely true. Overall, I remember the first game more fondly. It had more charm somehow. It was rough around the edges but I liked that. The setting, overall, is more appealing.

But Borderlands 2 ramps up the polish, a better written story, more humor (perhaps too much at times), an incredibly charismatic villain, and most importantly tons of balance and mechanics changes that really make it better. Weapon skill leveling is gone, perks are in. Gunplay feels more impactful.

Borderlands 2 is the better game, definitely, but it misses some piece of magic from the first game that I can't quite quantify.

Azurephile   Super Member   Post Author wrote on 02/15/2017 at 05:42am

As for the first game, when is the best time to access those areas? I'm level 27 or 28 now, I have 27 backpack slots. There seems to be plenty to do, Claptrap keeps telling me someone somewhere wants to talk to me or there are new missions available. I'm still just getting around, I just recently got the ability to teleport with that one station.

Travis   Admin wrote on 02/15/2017 at 04:41pm

By "those areas" I assume you're talking about DLC missions? Each mission should tell you what level it's geared toward, and the DLC ones will reset every few levels if you ignore them. So, there's really no wrong time once you reach the first threshold for them. Each one has a different initial level target I think. It's been a while so I can't remember.

jdodson   Admin wrote on 02/15/2017 at 07:30pm

I'd play the DLC after you are done with the main game campaign. You can do it whenever, but I believe the DLC story wise happens after the main storyline.

Travis   Admin wrote on 02/16/2017 at 03:38am

That's a good point. For the most part it doesn't matter but there's one key part of one DLC that wouldn't make a lot of sense if you haven't gotten to a certain point in the main game.

That's vague as hell, but I don't want to spoil things.

Azurephile   Super Member   Post Author wrote on 02/16/2017 at 04:21am

After asking my question here, I decided to Google it hours later and what I read is what Jon said, play them after the main story.

As for Borderlands 2 and the prequel, what order do you suggest for those games? I believe a friend told me I should play the prequel before the 2nd game as that's how the story flows, but I was thinking that I might just go by what was released first (B2).

Travis   Admin wrote on 02/16/2017 at 04:31am

That's like saying you should watch the Star Wars prequels before the original trilogy!

Definitely go in release order. The Pre-Sequel kinda assumes you know things that happened in BL2 in a sense. It actually takes place *after* BL2 in a sense, since there are characters from BL2 telling the story. You'll spoil plot points in BL2 by playing The Pre-Sequel first.

jdodson   Admin wrote on 02/16/2017 at 04:32am

Borderlands => Borderlands DLC => Borderlands 2 => Borderlands The Pre-Sequel.

jdodson   Admin wrote on 02/16/2017 at 04:33am

That said, I still have yet to play the Borderlands DLC, finish up Borderlands 2(I am very close) and then the Pre-Sequel. I have games for ages.

Azurephile   Super Member   Post Author wrote on 02/16/2017 at 05:09am

LOL @ Travis. Why wouldn't you? Hahaha. Well, I did play Wolfenstein The Old Blood before I played The New Order and I think it was fine.

One of the reasons I thought about playing the BL trilogy by going by which was released first, was because I imagine various game mechanics are different or improved upon in the newest version (the Pre-Sequel).

Thanks for the input and helping me choose a path.

I'm 30 hours in, feeling a bit more comfortable, happy with some guns, not so happy with others. I tend to use a shotgun or sniper rifle, hardly anything else other than grenades, which I use to give me health.

I'm still learning the game. Claptrap keeps telling me about new missions via a notice board or person. But, I bounce around so much that I hardly get to know any areas or the people in them. I'm also not sure about Class Mods, particularly what I should be using. I haven't quite learned all of the benefits some of them provide and some of those seem to be for co-op play.

Azurephile   Super Member   Post Author wrote on 02/17/2017 at 04:43am

I found those people and notification boards I needed to see for more missions. After finishing a bunch of missions, I completed the "first playthrough." Now I'm working on Dr. Ned's DLC. I also looked up info about "class mods" and went with Commando.

jdodson   Admin wrote on 02/17/2017 at 05:51am

Cool! What did you think of completing the base game? What did you think of the ending?

Azurephile   Super Member   Post Author wrote on 02/17/2017 at 08:28am

In a way, I expected it to be longer, yet I didn't really know what to expect. It has it's challenges and fun. I didn't complete all of the challenges, I only looked at that screen once, I think. I'm not sure if I found all the Claptraps, but I think my backpack has about 36 slots. Also, I only completed it once with Roland, the soldier, so there is definitely more to do other than the DLC.

I wasn't expecting the storyline to end the way it did, so I was surprised.

Travis   Admin wrote on 02/17/2017 at 02:25pm

Ah, I forgot about finding claptraps to get backpack upgrades. I kinda like that more than spending that secondary currency on them in BL2.

Azurephile   Super Member   Post Author wrote on 02/17/2017 at 08:49pm

Have any of you gone through the game more than once? What classes or characters did you choose?

Travis   Admin wrote on 02/17/2017 at 10:37pm

Not all the way through, no. But I tried all of them for a few hours but Lilith was my jam.

jdodson   Admin wrote on 02/18/2017 at 05:43am

I beat the game with Lilith too. Roland was also pretty fun.

Timogorgon   Member wrote on 02/20/2017 at 09:21pm

I beat the game with Roland and Mordicai. Played a bit as Lilith and Brick. Roland is by far my favorite character in the first Borderlands. You can set yourself up to basically have unlimited ammo and grenades. :P

Azurephile   Super Member   Post Author wrote on 02/21/2017 at 12:10am

Nice! I was waiting for you to join us in this post, Tim. :)

So, I tried out the 2nd DLC, Mad Moxxi's Underdome and I don't think I'm going to complete it. I tried and found it to be a bit too difficult and the battles were too long. It seemed like it'd take forever just to beat one of the three arenas. I can imagine that it could be better with friends. So, I'm working on the 3rd DLC now.

Also, at least 2 or 3 of my friends have told me that the Pre-Sequel is their favorite. Some of them still recommend playing it before BL2.

Azurephile   Super Member   Post Author wrote on 02/21/2017 at 12:59am

@Tim, what class mod did you go with for Roland?

Travis   Admin wrote on 02/21/2017 at 02:10am

Moxxi's DLC is a very different kind of expansion since it's just an arena. It's fun but not like the others.

Azurephile   Super Member   Post Author wrote on 02/22/2017 at 07:28pm

Oh wow, the visual difference between the first two games is..."wow!" BL2 looks wonderful! I played it before, or at least during a free weekend, but I only spent a couple of hours in it. I like that I've now played the first game and have moved to the second, because I know things and see recognizable things in the world. I chose Zero when I played it years ago, but this time I went with Axton because I got used to the first game with Roland, a similar character.

I might go back to Borderlands eventually, but I think for now I'm going to move on to BL2. I left Moxxi's Underdome and Crawmerax unfinished.

Travis   Admin wrote on 02/22/2017 at 10:35pm

I guess by Crawmerax you mean the General Knoxx DLC? If so, yeah you got the best ones done. Although I was getting quite annoyed with Claptrap by the end of the Robot Revolution DLC, I still enjoyed it. Zombie Island is the best I think.

Azurephile   Super Member   Post Author wrote on 02/23/2017 at 01:16am

Yeah, I think that's where Crawmerax is. I read that it's hard even with 4 people. I got kind of tired of driving all around back and forth in the General Knoxx DLC. I thought Robot Revolution and Zombie Island were good, though. I turned in hundreds of Clapcomponents, but at the end decided to not continue that cycle, I was ready to move on.

BL2 seems to be better many ways, but not necessarily all. I liked having the markers on the compass instead of just the mini-map. I don't think I've run into any med kits that you can buy, store, and use later. I'm still quite impressed at the visual upgrade from BL to BL2.

Travis   Admin wrote on 02/23/2017 at 03:26am

I think I ended up kinda cheesing Crawmerax. It doesn't give you good enough loot to punish yourself with it unless you're on your second (or higher) playthrough.

Timogorgon   Member wrote on 02/26/2017 at 03:39am

It's been awhile, so I don't remember the specifics about my class mod I preferred with Roland. I just remember it had team ammo regen.

For BL2 I play Salvador or Gaige.

For Salvador I invest heavily in the rampage skill tree. I'm all about being able to spend as much time gunzerking as possible! I stick to class mods that give team ammo regen plus whatever the best skill bonuses I can find.

For Gaige I went down the Little Big Trouble tree, which gives a bunch of fun bonuses to electric damage weapons, as well as some fun stuff like sending out an electric shock-wave every time you reload or causing an electric AoE when you score a critical hit. Early on I just look for whatever mod gives the best stat bonuses. Once I get interspersed Outburst, I look for a mod that gives me a bonus for that.

Travis   Admin wrote on 02/26/2017 at 04:49am

Gaige's skill tree is tons of fun to experiment with. It looks like you put way more thought into it than I do! :)

Travis   Admin wrote on 02/26/2017 at 04:49am

Also Greg, your header image broke!

Azurephile   Super Member   Post Author wrote on 02/26/2017 at 05:23am

That's cool, thanks for sharing, Tim!

Travis, it looks like my image on the post is fine.

Travis   Admin wrote on 02/26/2017 at 05:40am

Weird. I wonder what's breaking it on my end!

jdodson   Admin wrote on 03/01/2017 at 02:33pm

Occasionally the avatar images break for some reason(not sure why though). All of them are simple links back to whatever service the person selected.

Travis   Admin wrote on 03/01/2017 at 06:29pm

I meant the post's embed image. It was gone for me for an hour or so but then it was fine.

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