Wirehead Studios

Who here is playing Borderlands 2, and what's your opinion? Like BL1, there is a trick (http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=151660) you can use to run 2 windows simultaneously, and easily play Co-op with 2 people on 1 PC. My girlfriend and I have it set up so one window launches on the tv, on the other to a monitor on the coffee table so we've each got a screen to ourselves.

I feel it's a major improvement over the last game, even though it seems identical at first glance. The human AI is much better at either taking cover, or rushing you down rather than just standing out in the open, and the missions seem both longer and less repetitive. Overall, a really fun casual game to blow through with friends.

On the critical side, I do feel the game would be improved if stat bloating were entirely removed from the game. There's no practical difference between using 100 dmg guns against 500hp enemies in the beginning of the game, and using 500dmg guns againt 2500hp enemies at the end, besides the fact that you have to constantly replace old gear with new gear as it goes obsolete. If the stats of everything didn't continually bloat as the game progresses, it would put much more emphasis on weighing the strengths and weaknesses of gear's tactical attributes, rather than merely looking for the highest damage or shield number.

Of course, the above is an inherant problem in ALL traditionally-structured RPG's. Rage was a bit more solid in this respect; it's a shame the co-op was limited to 9 missions.

The weapon selection is only slightly improved from BL1. For a scifi title, there's still not much variance in projectile speeds. You do occasionally find an elemental weapon that perform more like a plasmagun or nailgun than traditional "realistic" machineguns, but the attributes rarely combine to provide a reward for the extra leading. In general, unless you're a soldier or siren respectively, there's little reason to use the assault rifles or SMG's, as their low accuracy and damage 75%+ of the time. The ability to weild elemental grenade launchers, sludge guns, plasmaguns, nailguns, and lasers couldn't have possibly hurt this game, so why stick us with only generic pistols, shotguns, and sniper rifles?

Lastly, one can't help but think more could have been done with the class abilities. Why aren't there characters with acrobatic dodges, slides, wall jumps, or rocket boots? Dualweilding and damage +1 seem more than just a little bit uncreative.

Fortunately, co-op blasting through BL2's huge world is so much fun on its own that the above downsides can't really detract much.

I don't have Borderlands 2.  One of my favorite aspects of the original is as a Hunter I get to use Bloodwing.  Bloodwing makes Phoenix happy.  No Bloodwing, no happy Phoenix.  That's one of those aspects of the original that makes it a different kind of game for me.  Hanging back and sniping bandits and monsters is ho-hum by itself, but Bloodwing mixes the game up strategy wise.  When I want to rush a crowd or if I'm getting rushed by a crowd I can just send Bloodwing out and if they're not dead outright they're stunned and I can get up close with a shotgun or assault rifle or revolver or even just melee and deal out a lot of pain.  Bloodwing is also helpful in recovering health really fast if I'm taking damage.  I kind of like having a minion that way.

I will admit that I've not played through with the other character classes yet, not enough time for that as I've not even finished all the mission packs with my Hunter yet either.  Maybe down the road I'll check out Borderlands 2, but right now I just have too much to do to mess with another RPG-ish shooter when I haven't even really played out the first one.  :smirk:

I was really disappointed with the AI of the bloodwing in BL1. All too often he'd be flying in circles ineffectually when there were plenty of targets available and I really needed the health/distraction. In one instance I had a firefight with a guy on a bridge above me. I got his health down, but then he retreated to an angle in which I couldn't hit him with line of sight fire or reach with grenades. So I sent Bloodwing in, hoping he would fly OVER the bridge and finish the enemy from above....instead he flew straight to the bottom of the bridge and circled there till he timed out.

Eventually I gave up on him and respec'ed, reapropriating all the skillpoints from my bloodwing to damage and weapon bonuses, and this tactic ultimately brought down more enemies faster and kept me healthier in the process.

It's a shame, cause the bloodwing was a good idea. There's no reason they couldn't have improved the AI of the bloodwing for BL2, and provided a choice of multiple action skills for each character. A wealth of unique action skills would be more interesting than a class tree full of stat bonuses and gimmicky conditional powerups.

If it's any consolation, conventional sniping is much more interesting in BL2. I don't blame you for finding BL1's sniping boring, as it mostly consisted of shooting the same enemy repeatedly while he stood mindlessly out in the open for minutes on end. In BL2, crit damage is higher across the board, and few enemies can survive more than 1-2 headshots, regardless of whether your skill points are invest in damage bonuses. The enemies also do a much better job of taking cover, manuevering, and attacking, presenting more of a skill/strategy challenge than the raw time/patience sucking of BL1's high-HP enemies. Bloodwing or no, it's hard for me to think of going back to BL1 now that BL2 is out, even though I never finished all of BL1's addon missions myself.

Like Pho, I haven't even played all the mission packs of BL1.. despite owning them (I think I do, anyway). My time has been severely crushed, but nah.. I've burned out of Borderlands more than anything. I also haven't played any of the other classes except soldier, perferring the machinegun variant of the 'combat rifle'.. with some sniper rifle action as a change of pace style against distant enemies.
Other than that, I forget how I had my turret set up.. it's been so long.

But, eh.. I'm not all that intersted in BL2, right now anyway. Maybe in the future when it goes on sale I'll give it a try. Till then though, I have no real opinion.

Haha oh man...It turns out Bloodwing actually DOES appear in BL2, as a story character. Without giving anything away, based on some of the in-game dialog, it's clear that Gearbox was painfully aware of the Bloodwing AI issues I mentioned.

I played BL2 coop for a while, and it is amazing!  :slippy_thumb: