Borderlands the Pre-Sequel

 Borderlands the pre-sequel is a borderlands game that was released in 2014, as you can maybe tell from the name, the game is set between the first and the second borderlands game but since it was released after the second game it it much more similar to that one rather than the first game. After finishing BL2 I started playing the pre-sequel, but didn't finish it until ages later so much of what I remember from this game is from the last half of the game

Story

The story of the pre-sequel is focused on the events that happened before BL2, on how handsome Jack became what he is in BL 2, and on the moon of Pandora, the planet where BL2 is set. Most of the story of the pre-sequel is a little bit different from the normal borderlands story but it very quickly deviates back to it. First you are helping out handsome Jack on his quest and after that you go right back to vault hunting, which to be honest was a bit of a surprise since I thought that there really was no need for that part in this particular game. Overall the story flows quite nice and makes sense except for the vault part that I mentioned earlier. 

Gameplay

The gameplay of the pre-sequel is very similar to that of BL2, however there are some new mechanics added to the game, on top of all the new and different guns with their own new mechanics. The main new mechanic from previous games is that there is no atmosphere on the moon so you need to refill your oxygen from time to time and can upgrade your O2 capacity with better equipment. The thing is that the O2 capacity is almost always so high that it might as well not be there, the other ways how this mechanic works is a lot fun though. The enemies also need to have an O2 mask on, and there is nothing as satisfying as shooting their mask broken and watching them suffocate. The lack of atmosphere also makes it so that whenever you loot containers all the stuff just flies out, you usually have enough time to catch the loot but sometimes it just drifts off. Other than that the main gameplay is very similar to BL2 and there isn't much to say here.'

I also got a similar feel from this game as I did from AC origins where I had to grind a buttload of side quests to be high enough level to do the main quests. Now this isn't anything new for Borderlands games and they are usually much better done, and by that I mean that the side quests are not a bother to do and you don't need to do too much of them to progress on the story. For this game it felt like it had gone to the worse direction to the point where when I approach late game I had to grind more and more and more side quests to be viable in the main quest line. Some of the side quests were also a pain to the point where I had to be above the level of the side quest to be able to complete it. For some people this might not be much of an issue, but for myself this is not fun.

Open world

You thought I forgot about the jetpack? Nope, but it's a much better fit here. See one of the new mechanics with the O2 is a jetback that jettisons O2 to work as a sort of double jump. The issue is that with the weaker gravity of the moon and a double jump, the levels also need to be built for those things in mind. If you had your general maps that you had in the previous games, you could just fly through the entire map. The map has been made so that it works better with the low gravity and a jetpack, but in the end it works worse. There are so many places that you need to reach, or you think you can reach easily thanks to these before mentioned mechanics but in the end they are almost impossible to reach or there is a completely different way that makes sense. So to put it simply, it's a nice idea but lacks a bit in the execution. 

Comparison to the previous one

I've already mentioned it a couple of times how the game is quite similar to the previous one with the exception of some new minor mechanics and a world that is more built around those new mechanics. But there is also something else that is new to this game compared to BL2. The amount of bugs is something that I've not seen in the previous games. Now I say bugs but there was really just one major bug that annoyed the shit out of me and that is when certain enemies would just fly into walls. This was specially annoying when I was downed and needed to just kill that one low health enemy, who then decides to fly into a wall and left me for dead. And this isn't something that happened once or twice. This was something that happened almost every time that there was flying enemy and a ceiling above them. So to if we do not mention the bugs, it was pretty much the same experience as BL2.

The review

Well I don't think there is much more to say on top of the things that have already been said. Pre-sequel is basically BL2 game with more bugs and some new features that frankly lacked on the execution and with some much grindier progression. Even another copy of BL2 might have been better but this game is still not horrible. 6/10