David and I of course got the new Borderlands game as soon as it came out or more specifically as soon it was actually available in our town. During the week we do not get much gaming time in, but this weekend we went to town on Borderlands the Pre-Sequel. We are still fairly early in the game, but so far I am really enjoying it. It has a lot of similar elements as the other Borderlands games, but it has a different enough twist on it to keep things interesting. As we are on Pandora’s moon instead of on Pandora they were able to add a few different elements to make the locations interesting and some times frustrating. The moon means less oxygen and less gravity, which plays in to many parts of the game. The other part that I have really enjoyed is how they have chosen to tell the story. It definitely feels that they recognize that most players have played the previous games, which is nice and creates a sense of familiarity.
Borderlands the Pre-Sequel may not bee too much different than the other Borderlands games, but it has enough elements to make the experience feel new and not repetitive.
We Love the Moon
The fact that the story takes place on the moon definitely adds a couple of new elements to the gameplay. One of the first things that you discover is that the lack of oxygen causes problems. Luckily there are spots where you can get oxygen, but if you have no oxygen your health constantly depletes. This makes it impossible to just be running around the world. One of the early quests you have to find an Oz Kit (it is supposed to say O2, but it ended up looking like Oz). This is another piece of equipment that you have to wear and gives you various bonuses. The other part is that when you are not in an oxygenated environment your oxygen slowly runs out, so while you can last longer away from oxygen spots it is still something you need to watch.
The other part of being on the moon is the fact that there is lower gravity. So you can use the oxygen from your Oz Kit to jump higher and to slam down on your enemies. Now this does use up oxygen so you have to be careful, but it does mean that you have to think in more three dimensional spaces because you can reach much higher locations. Then you can slam down on enemies from those heights doing damage. It definitely adds an element for needing to pay attention to your oxygen levels because you need the oxygen to double jump or slam down. In the game there are also some challenges based around the fact that the game gives you this ability.
Storytelling
The first two Borderlands stories are told by Marcus, but that does not quite work for Borderlands the Pre-Sequel. Instead we get to hear the story from Athena after she has been captured by Lilith and the gang on Sanctuary. We start out after Borderlands 2 with the characters interrogating Athena about how she got involved with Jack in the first place. The story that is unfolding is very interesting. Jack at this point does not have the mask and he genuinely seems to want to help people. There are glimpses, I feel, into the maniac that he will become, but early on he is still snarky, but a lot nicer. The basic premise in this game is that the Dahl commander has decided that the moon and Pandora need to be destroyed, so she is using Hyperion’s ship to shoot a giant laser at the moon. We do not know why she is doing it just that she will destroy all life on the moon and Pandora and our characters along with Jack are trying to stop her. Turning Jack from the bad guy who claims to be the good guy to the actual good guy is definitely an interesting twist.
Conclusion
These are the big areas that I noticed some interesting differences that have definitely added to the gameplay. These areas made the game different enough that it is an exciting new Borderlands experience. As mentioned some of the double jumping causes problems and David and I have definitely died a few times from attempting a jump that did not actually work. It is one of the frustrating things about the game, but at the same time the overall experience is still tons of fun. Also, as always this is a great two-player co-op game and is one of the reasons that we love it so much.
Comparative Geeks 
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