By: Michael Dao
Media Hour started at PAX Prime 2011 not with a bang but more of an ooze. It was actually delayed by about 35 minutes as some of the exhibitors were not actually finished setting up yet. The gates went down, and the hounds were released, and I made my way over to Gearbox to see their Borderlands 2 presentation.
The first thing you notice are the improved visuals. Gearbox stressed to us pretty heavily that Borderlands 2 is not a game that they turned around in a year, immediately after the success of the first Borderlands. The game has been in development since 2009 and it’s clear the care that Gearbox has taken in making Borderlands 2 a full-fledged sequel. Borderlands is going to be a fiscal 2013 release, and with that much time in development, you can see how Gearbox has really embraced the concept of a, “Living, breathing world.”
The level shown takes place about a third of the way through the game, and upon first glance, we can see the improved graphics, and we know immediately that this isn’t the Pandora we knew from the first game – we were dropped and left for dead in a wintery, cold, mountainous range. Your objective is to find an NPC. The player characters this time around are all new, and the events in Borderlands 2 take place five years after the vault opens in Borderlands 1. The environments look more alive, and things are moving, and felt during the entire demo was that you really were moving around in a real world, that these things would be happening were you there or not. They’ve also gone down the route that Skyrim has in making sure that if you can see a place in the vast distance, it is also a place you can go to, a concept they call geographic authenticity. Fancy talk for having a huge, interesting game world.
Though the graphics and more interesting game models are nice, there were a ton of small changes made to the game that really make the game shine, even in this early state. A good amount of time has been spent in unifying and delineating the guns in the game. After all, Borderlands always was and probably will always be about the guns. Specific manufacturers’ weapons will share a theme. A great example shown was the disposable line of guns from Tediore. The weapon models show a cheap half plastic gun, and instead of reloading a gun, you simply throw it away and grab another – if you manage to hit an enemy with it, it takes some damage and is stunned. The interesting tactical wrinkle here is that how much damage and how long they are stunned for is dependent on how many rounds you have left in the clip when you decide to hurl your disposable rifle at a mob.
However, that’s not all – the AI truly shines. Wounded mobs will stagger and retreat and limp along, and they’ll also work together to make combat a ton more interesting. At one point during the session, we saw a wounded mob retreat, drawing the player in while its mates flanked and attacked from the side – something Gearbox called “running a play” on you. We saw huge ice creatures grab stones, vehicles and whatever and hurl them at the player – something that was not scripted. Vehicles were spawned in at random and were used as projectiles.
Multiplayer has been touched upon as they’ve revisited the quest eligibility system as well. But the most important part about Borderlands 2 is that so far, it still retains all that made it so very near and dear to our hearts. There are more guns than you an shake a stick out, now with improved models and more interesting capabilities and there is some bits that are just straight up clever. The four characters from Borderlands 1 make appearances as NPCs, shown was a psycho that decided to jump off of a high rampart instead of being killed with its compatriots, a boss robot that had helper surveyors that would heal it, and in what was probably the best way to end the demo, the character being played was knocked off a ledge, and as he fell, he extended both of his fists, both giving the boss the middle finger.
Borderlands 2 is set for a fiscal 2013 release.
Tags: borderlands 2, gearbox, pax, pax 2011, pax prime 2011, Preview, Xbox 360
