The explosion flavoured milkshake of Borderlands returns; a mixture of guns, loot, glory, humour, love, betrayal, trysts and … well, mainly just guns. Borderlands 2 presents itself in a shiny aura of pure satisfaction and delivers yet another unique experience for you to encounter.

Developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games, Borderlands 2 brings justice to its critically acclaimed predecessor that we all know and love (or hate). Still running proudly on the Unreal Engine 3, it is a truly powerful and stylish SCI-FI FPS, which still maintains some RPG aspects. As you’d expect, Gearbox has taken everything that worked — or alternatively didn’t work — and expanded upon it all.

Expanded Story:
The further you journey into the depths of the game, the more apparent it is that there are actually storywriters in this sequel. Seriously, judging from the nasty twist from the first game, there’s now an abundance of intriguing mystery and sophistication within the plot. It’s the equivalent to staring at a wall with averagely drawn graffiti on it for an unnecessary period of time; but then, you realise that there’s a substantially more interesting wall directly near it that is worthy of appreciation – amazing, really. In hindsight, that was probably the worst example I’ve ever written and it is now time to move on. In a nutshell (without any spoilers), the story briefly consists of this: five years later after the events of Borderlands, Handsome Jack (the main antagonist), dictates the lands of Pandora. After taking credit for everything you (the original vault hunters) achieved in the first game, he invites vault hunters from all across the galaxy to hunt for what they hunt best; the vault. Four vault hunters – Axton, Maya, Salvador and Zer0 – fall into Jack’s trap to eliminate all of those searching for the vault. Surviving this incident, of course, your objective is to now dish out some good old payback (as in, kill Handsome Jack).

Off the rails.

Unfortunately, the mysterious and omniscient scan-lined woman returns to your screen out of nowhere. She now offers the outmost obvious advice and repeats literally everything she says twenty times (that was an exaggeration). On top of that, she tips the awkward scales beyond the imaginable limit by smiling at you sheepishly. Fortunately, Borderlands 2 extends tremendously upon the backstory of almost everything that was unclear in the first, so don’t take the annoying woman for granted.

STOP SMILING AT ME!

Character depth in Borderlands 2 is much more apparent than its predecessor. The playable characters available to you have small backstories that are exposed through audio segments that can be located throughout the game. Each character you stumble across within Borderlands 2 each have their own unique and (un)likeable personalities. For instance, Handsome Jack – the best antagonist ever – is an utterly huge wanker. There’s no need for discretion here, that’s the outright truth; Jack is an asshole, and I love it. His persona is riddled with charm, humour, badness and cockiness – he generously names a diamond horse “butt-stallion” respectively after you; it’s an absolute joy to be mocked by this guy.

The fresh aroma of douchebaggery.

Improved Visuals:
Borderlands 2 maintains its renowned and artistically lush visuals, delivering them better than ever. As soon as you reach the main menu, it becomes clear that the quality and attention to detail is immense; you’re ultimately hit in the face with a water balloon filled with eye candy. As you rotate around your selected character in the main menu, you oversee the various lands you’ll visit within the game – it’s one big foreshadowing of what’s to come, which is smart. Unlike its predecessor, the attention to detail is preserved throughout the entire game, which is a real treat that unfortunately hurts. I’ve gotten myself killed more times staring at the admirable environment than I have in the heat of battle. Dying is actually surprisingly satisfying, I might add; you get to see your lifeless body flop to the ground then warped particle by particle back into solid form at a checkpoint. Borderlands 2 offers a great extent of environs you’ll encounter, which is a drastic improvement from the first game. Whether you’re in acid-drenched caves stationed under an artificially grand city or within a vast, frozen desert with hazardous conditions, everything feels as if it’s alive and flourishing. What I really enjoy throughout the game is the sense of threat shun down upon you as Jack’s gigantic Hyperion station (which is ironically shaped as an ‘H’) stares down at you from space.

I can almost feel the 'H' mocking me...

If you were to hop back onto Borderlands after playing this, it’ll feel like you’re peering through a magnifying glass. Borderlands 2 gives you the option to increase your field of view so you can see more than a few pixels of what’s in front of you. The graphical user interface is indeed streamlined … in a good way, though. Borderlands had a pretty cheap “press this key to invite your friend!” vibe to it, whereas now you’re offered a more dynamic interface that is more than friendly to the keyboard and mouse.

Heroic and colourful spandex.

Borderlands 2 introduces the latest PhysX integration, which proves to be extremely awesome. It provides particle-generated fluid and realistic fabric destruction animation. This means you’ll be shooting countless holes in all kinds of fabric materials and splashing around in reactive fluids like a child in a kiddie-pool.

Glorious holes.

The only problem I’ve got with the visuals is the ultra realistic reflections … and by that, I mean how realistically they reflect one-hundred metres above you. Unless the laws of physics on Pandora aren’t present, I’m not buying the reflections.

...Seems about right.

Refined Gameplay:
As you’ve probably noticed, everything from the first instalment has been taken and improved. Apparently, it was physically impossible for one to climb a ladder in Borderlands, now it seems that everyone has unlocked the ability to do such a thing. You can now move (slowly) when in “fight for your life” mode (which is basically close to incapacitation), so you can shoot that cowardly bastard that’s hiding around the corner. These small things add up to a huge and enjoyable experience within the game.

BLAARGH!

First up, guns … judging from our review of the first Borderlands; it’s obvious that guns were an important factor in Borderlands (and they still are). Borderlands wouldn’t be Borderlands if it didn’t contain the dynamically generated array of weaponry to introduce to your friends (and enemies). There is an even bigger variety of guns in Borderlands 2, and not just the same old model with different colours, a broader selection of unique weapons; it’s like being a grown adult in a … gun shop. Another thing worth mentioning is the amount of grenades available to you. There’s literally a grenade for anything: turning into more grenades, leeching health from enemies, homing in on enemies, cleaning the floor, firing employees and making sandwiches. Of course, not all those grenade functions are true, but there’s a lot.

Greeting the locals.

Speaking of variety, the amount of enemies you’ll encounter is huge. AI has also received an upgrade since Borderlands, and enemies will react to the death of their peers, which is a cool and funny addition. Enemies also react to where they are injured; you can impair their movement by shooting their lower body etc. On a bad note, AI can occasionally become stuck or end up using the force to levitate in the air.

You’ll have the choice to play as one of the four characters: Axton, Maya, Salvador and Zer0. Axton (the Commando) is a cocky mercenary with nothing to lose, and is ultimately a “mechrophiliac”; he constantly refers to his sentry turret – which is his special ability – as his girlfriend. Maya (the Siren) is a confident and strong female character that utilises her “phase-lock” ability. Salvador (the Gunzerker) is a tiny Mexican who has a thirst for killing with his ability to duel-wield weapons. Lastly, Zer0 (the Assassin) is an extremely talkative thing that cites everything in haikus; his special ability is “decepti0n” (stealth) mode. I couldn’t help but exploit Zer0’s ability that lets you lunge at enemy targets until you hit them. You can literally fly and land on virtually unreachable platforms by lunging at airborne enemies.

The gang.

Borderlands had a dire feeling of repetition: fetch this, fetch that, kill these things, and don’t forget to fetch those! Thankfully, almost all the side missions in Borderlands 2 have more depth than being a delivery man. Hidden missions are sometimes found within certain areas and it’s your job to find them. The best addition would have to be the optional criteria for certain missions. This is where humour is injected masterfully within every opportunity of a mission. It keeps the flow and excitement to a maximum as you’re asked to walk away from an explosion without looking or leap off of a gigantic structure like a badass.

No problem.

If you’re a completionist such as me, then you’re going to fall into some difficulty fluctuation. You’ll gain a lot more experience and level up a whole lot more if you complete every mission available to you. My completionist experience made the game a walk in the park, when suddenly I was violated in the rear end by an extremely difficult section in the game. It’s either the difficulty isn’t exactly balanced as it should be or the game realised I was just too good for it. Once you’ve completed the game, you can choose to embark on a “true vault hunter” mode, which scales enemy levels to what you end up with (that’s a real challenge).

Good as new.

I find that I’m constantly reminded whilst weaving through the creatively designed environments that there is no falling damage. This really peeves me off since I occasionally lunge off something three metres tall, finding that it absolutely destroys me since I’m not supposed to go there (that didn’t seem to matter when I leaped off of a colossal structure). I find that I kill myself more by curiously stepping under a big thing that slams onto the ground really hard than I do in battle (it’s becoming a trend).

Fabric, break my fall!

An interesting – and sometimes rewarding – side note are the slot machines: throughout the course of the game, you can amass quite a sizeable fortune, and when the vending machines just aren’t turning out weapons with the right combination of "oomph" you’re looking for, you can blow you hard earned cash on the slot machines scattered throughout Pandora. Valuable loot, elusive eridium (currency for upgrades) and surprise explosions can keep you sufficiently entertained for some time. Just be careful you don’t develop a gambling addiction, which I totally did not.

Ding ding ding!

Vehicles return with a new physics system, which makes it difficult to ram your friends off of a cliff face, but all the more satisfying. You can customise your vehicle’s colour by finding skins throughout the game; this also applies to your characters and their heads. This is handy when you have more than one person playing identical classes.

Catch-A-Ride!!

Humour plays a huge part in Borderlands 2, as evidenced by the countless jokes, references and easter eggs. For example, it pays homage to pop culture and films such as ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ and ‘Top Gun’. This game will make you chuckle frequently, period (unless I have a bad sense of humour).

If an important mission item ends up being unreachable or clips through the ground, I’ve noticed the game compensates for this and either resets the item or overrides the mission to continue, which is a neat feature.

Enhanced Sound:
Unlike the almost mute predecessor, Borderlands 2 sounds richer than listening to a radio track in a soundproof room. The diverse soundtrack and ambient sound effects that accompany the array of landscapes you visit really emphasise the sense of atmosphere. Voice acting is wonderful in Borderlands 2. Aside from the awesome humour, the characters are really brought to life by the way lines are delivered within the game. Although the soundtrack can get a little repetitive, it’s exceedingly more bearable than it was in Borderlands. Oh, and, I should mention that lip syncing is apparent this time around, and the residents of towns have slowly eased off of their balaclava fetish.

Soft to the touch...

Where Borderlands was an explosion, Borderlands 2 is a nuclear explosion. A lot is expanded, refined and smoother than ever and is an absolute thrill to play. From the fulfilling kinesthetic power of an even larger variety of weaponry to the satisfying abilities, (almost) everything feels right. You seriously get the sense that you’re a badass when you play this game, and it is not something you should pass up! It’s currently $69.99 on Steam, and is a total bang for your buck; an experience — which is best experienced with friends — that will last you hours on end.