Borderlands 2 Previews and Video Interview

No big announcements for Borderlands 2 at this year’s E3, but it’s worth noting that the title was playable at the fair, so we managed to round up quite a few hands-on previews for it.

Neoseeker:

Loot like money and ammo is automatically picked up now, which is a convenience many Borderlands players will be happy with. Expect a lot more weapons too, not to mention a crazier arsenal. One of the demo favorites was a corrosive rocket launcher that shot out globs of acidic goop, dishing out tons of damage and dissolving enemies upon death.

The bestiary has been expanded to combat the repetition problem many complained about in the first game. During the demo, for instance, we faced a wide variety of robotic enemies sent by Handsome Jack — the new main baddie in Borderlands 2 — to thwart our heroes’ ridiculous plans. Those plans, by the way, involve destroying statues of Jack in a pristine futuristic city; no real reason was given, but Jack’s kind of a prick, so we’re not going to argue.

NZGamer:

I normally prefer to play a ranged character, but Axton brought a bit of a ranged approach to his otherwise in-your-face character build, with a special ability that allowed him to hurl a grenade-like object a few metres away, that then assembled itself into a defense tower, spraying bullets at the enemy. Zero, on the other hand, was able to go into stealth mode and make critical strikes on the enemy that way. It was a good combo, that generally brought down the enemy, a combination of heavy mechs and human thugs, pretty quickly.

Matt told me that initially, the new characters are a bit naive, in that their driving ambition is initially the same things as the last: fame and fortune. However it’s not long before they run afoul of Handsome Jack, who is after the same thing: access to the legendary “vaults” which are rumoured to contain vast amounts of wealth. Then it’s not long before everyone is caught up in trying to stop handsome Jack from completely taking over the planet. (In addition, Matt adds, players are likely to want to seek a bit of revenge on HJ for taking credit for all of their achievements in the last game.)

VG247 has a first look on the PC version:

Speaking with VG247 during a behind-closed-doors PC demo at E3, Borderlands director Jeremy Cooke explained: (If you’re playing with someone on a different level or on a different quest, that won’t be a problem. We’ve fixed all that.)

The system now works much as does the glorious drop-in-drop-out co-op of Diablo III. You can jump in or out of anyone’s game, and vice versa, no matter what quest they’re on. Whomever runs the server runs the quest just like Diablo. However, unlike Diablo, when left alone you can play Borderlands 2 offline. Crazy, I know.

Also added to the PC version are a number of refinements courtesy of Nvidia and the latest Unreal 3 tech.

There’s no insane DX11 tessellation, but there’s all the PhysX destruction you could ask for. You’ll tear up cloth, shatter windows and splinter wood. Cooke says he’s even seen a corrosive skag barf corrosive liquid which then rolled downhill breaking into smaller puddles along the way. That’s the type of thing you’ll only see on PC, and it’s pretty damned cool.

There’s even radiosity lighting, day-night cycle support (finally), next-gen pixel shading and loads of other new UE3 stuff we’ve seen being added of late. As Jeremy pointed out, the team got the budget to do things its own way this time around, and making a proper PC version was certainly part of Gearbox’s plan for Borderlands 2.

Finally, Destructoid has a video interview with writer Anthony Burch on the title’s story.