Borderlands 2

Borderlands 2 is an open-world action role-playing first person shooter game that was released on the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in 2012. It was later ported to the PS Vita in 2014 by Iron Galaxy Studios. It is developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games.

The game was free for PS Plus users via The Handsome Collection for June of 2019.

Plot
Four Vault Hunters are recruited by Hyperion Corporation's president Handsome Jack in helping him find a certain Vault. As the Vault Hunters are riding a train to meet Handsome Jack, it turns out that the recruitment was a trap and the train gets destroyed. The Vault Hunters are rescued by Claptrap while he was investigating the wreckage, and are contacted by Angel, who instructs them on how to kill Handsome Jack. The Vault Hunters are told to join forces with the Crimson Raiders, a militia founded by the four original Vault Hunters, and find the original Vault Hunters in order to stop Handsome Jack from opening the vault in order to take over Pandora.

Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty
The Vault Hunters travel to Oasis, a seaside town that has since been abandoned due to the ocean drying up and becoming a barren desert. There, they team up with the notorious pirate Captain Scarlett to find Captain Blade's Lost Treasure of the Sands, while being wary of Captain Scarlett's treacherous nature.

Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage
The vault Hunters are offered to participate in a tournament at the Badass Crater of Badassitude, which is hosted by Mr. Torgue, the explosion obsessed CEO of Torgue. Unfortunately the Vault Hunters are ranked in 50th place due to Piston, the 1st place competitor, deliberately cheating. With the help of Mr. Torgue, the Vault Hunters will have to track down and kill the top four competitors (including Piston) in order to claim the number one rank in the tournament.

Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt
The Vault Hunters receive an invitation from Sir Hammerlock to travel to the continent of Aegrus to find and hunt exotic wildlife. This hunting trip is interrupted when former Hyperion scientist Professor Nakayama sends his tribe of savages to kill the group. After discovering that Nakayama is planning on bring Handsome Jack back to life via cloning, the Vault Hunters and Hammerlock set out to stop Nakayama and his tribe of savages.

Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep
The Vault Hunters play a game of Bunkers and Badasses, fantasy-themed tabletop role-playing game, with Tiny Tina as the game master. Their quest is to save the queen of Flamerock Refuge from the Handsome Sorcerer (a parody of Handsome Jack), while Tiny Tina struggles to come to terms with Roland's death.

Headhunter packs
In T.K. Baha's Bloody Harvest, the Vault Hunters are tasked by Zombie T.K. Baha to kill the Pumpkin Kingpin, who's been terrorizing Hallowed Hollow.

In The Horrible Hunger of the Ravenous Wattle Gobbler, the Vault Hunters compete in a tournament hosted by Mr. Torgue to hunt down and kill a giant, turkey-like monster.

In How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day, the Vault Hunters are tasked with finding Marcus' missing shipment of weapons while restoring the town of Gingerton.

In Mad Moxxi and the Wedding Day Massacre, the Vault Hunters have to help Moxxi get two gang members from the Zaford and Hodunk gangs respectively to marry each other to end the dispute between the two gangs.

In Sir Hammerlock vs. the Son of Crawmerax, the Vault Hunters and Hammerlock take a vacation on Wam Bam Island, but Hammerlock gets captured by the Invincible Son of Crawmerax the Invincible, forcing the Vault Hunter to recue him and defeat The Son.

Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary
As the Crimson Raiders figure out how to reach the Vaults across the galaxy, Sanctuary gets attacked and taken over by Hector, a Colonel from Dahl. Hector then tries to infect Pandora with a mysterious parasitic spore (that has many similarities to the Flood from the Halo games) in order to turn Pandora into his view of "paradise". It is up to the Crimson Raiders to wipe out the spore and Hector to save Pandora.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Although the overall gameplay might be very similar to the first game, Borderlands 2 improves on most of them while addressing flaws present in the first game.
 * 2) Beautiful cel shaded graphics which is further enhanced with the improved visuals, textures, and more detailed character models.
 * 3) Despite running on the same engine as the first game and having better graphics, the game's framerate is improved upon, staying at a consistent framerate more often and experiencing fewer framerate drops. This makes it well optimized for many different consoles and PC builds.
 * 4) Combat has been improved. It is faster paced compared to the first game, and the enemy AI is smarter. Most importantly, there's an even higher variety of weapons than the first Borderlands, now with visible part variations for each weapon, and the weapons have much more interesting effects, such as Tediore's reload-throw explosions inflicting insane damage comparable to even rocket launchers.
 * 5) *There is also four new weapon rarities, which are the E-tech, Seraph, Gemstone, and Effervescent rarities.
 * 6) *Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty feature Captain Blade's cursed weapons that come with unique attributes and significant drawbacks. (I.E. Rapier has a massive melee damage modifier, but causes the user to take far more melee damage from enemies. Midnight Star does high damage with submunitions chasing the user)
 * 7) A much wider variety of enemies to minimize any repetitiveness. Some examples include Goliaths, who go berserk if their helmets are shot off (while also yelling hilariously angry insults), Varkids, insects that continuously evolve if not dealt with quick enough until they become monstrosities, or the Loader Bots that come in a fairly large variety. The DLC's further expands this variety:
 * 8) *Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty introduces the sand pirates, who's tactics and designs take cues from real-world 17th/18th century pirates.
 * 9) *Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage introduces various biker gangs, who fight on-vehicle more commonly than other enemies.
 * 10) *Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt introduces the Savages, who are based on real-world tribes, and include Witch Doctors that can boost the stats of the Savages.
 * 11) *Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep has a completely different set of enemies than the base game, as the players fight against fantasy enemies such as wizards, dragons, goblins, pixies, or treants.
 * 12) *As mentioned above, Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary introduces the infected, a spore/zombie-like enemy.
 * 13) A new element called "Slag" is introduced, which causes enemies to receive more damage from non-slag weapons when they're "slagged".
 * 14) A new currency called "Eridium" is introduced, which allows players to upgrade their max ammo and inventory capacities, as well as accessing most of the game's raid bosses.
 * 15) *The DLCs also introduced "Seraph Crystals" which are dropped by raid bosses and can be used to purchase the very powerful aforementioned Seraph weapons.
 * 16) *Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage introduces the Torgue Tokens, which can be used to purchase Torgue manufactured weapons (including most legendary weapons, which are always listed as the weapon of the day).
 * 17) Even better humor, which is made better by how the game takes itself less seriously that the first game. Logic amongst most characters is even more nonsensical, and the humor is represented outside of mission summaries more often.
 * 18) Handsome Jack is considered one of the best video game villains out there. He is a condescending, yet hilarious jerk to the Vault Hunters, and his psychopathy and power also makes him feel like a truly threatening antagonist.
 * 19) *Dameon Clarke did an excellent job at voicing Handsome Jack. He was able to convey both a condescending tone and a cold-blooded and serious tone pretty well, and still sounded natural while doing it.
 * 20) Larger, more interesting maps that aren't just mostly wastelands or deserts like the first game. The game puts emphasis on this by starting out in a frozen tundra, and ending in a volcanic area heavily polluted by Eridium and Slag.
 * 21) It also added a compass and mini-map for easier navigation, which carried over to the GOTY version of the first game.
 * 22) The story is better written compared to the first game. It features much more memorable moments throughout, and is higher stakes than the first game's story as the Vault Hunters aren't simply trying to find and open a Vault this time.
 * 23) Many fun missions, whether they are main missions or side missions. They are more eventful, have more story included within them, often give out better rewards for completing them, and sometimes contain different or optional decisions that offer different rewards.
 * 24) Lots of funny and memorable characters are introduced here, like Mr. Torgue and Tiny Tina. In addition, the returning characters are more fleshed out and now have more personality than before.
 * 25) A lot of great DLCs, most of which introduce tons of content and overall have great replay value. The most notable one is Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, which stands out due to it being a parody of Dungeons & Dragons.
 * 26) Each Vault Hunter has their own abilities and skill trees, like from the first game. In addition, there's more skills to choose from, the level cap is higher, and there's six vault hunters to choose from instead of just four if you have the DLCs.
 * 27) Added more impactful single-point mid-tier skills. For example, Zer0's "B0re" makes all of his bullet shots pierce enemies while Maya's "Cloud Kill" spawns a lingering corrosive cloud that damages the first enemy hit with a bullet and all enemies that are near it.
 * 28) Badass Ranks are introduced, which levels up when completing challenges (most of which are attainable through general gameplay). Ranking up gives the player Badass Tokens, which are used to increase the player's stats by a very small amount.
 * 29) Character customization is greatly expanded upon. Instead of just a few palette swaps like in the first game, this game features many different unlockable customizations for the player character's head and clothing. What's better is that the customization options are different for each character.
 * 30) The bosses are more exciting and challenging than the previous game. Similarly to common enemies, there is a wider variety of bosses to fight since they aren't mostly just bandit leaders like in the first game
 * 31) *There is also a bunch of "raid Bosses" in the DLCs, who are extremely difficult to defeat and encourage the player to fight them with other players.
 * 32) Most bosses and unique enemies can respawn and have an increased chance to drop a certain Unique or Legendary item, which makes farming said gear a bit less tedious.
 * 33) There is three difficulty modes instead of just who like the first game. When the player reaches the level cap, they unlock "Overpower Levels", which can be adjusted to make the game even more difficult in exchange for obtaining more powerful gear.
 * 34) It's now possible to view your weapons and gear up-close. Here you can zoom in and out, rotate the item, pan the camera around, and take screenshots.
 * 35) Tons of memorable quotes. Some examples include:
 * 36) *"Keep your wits about you, minion -- this glacier’s run by a bandit named Captain Flynt. The jerk kept me as his torture plaything for a few months. We played games like ‘dodge the blowtorch’, and ‘don’t get dunked into the pool of acid.’ I was really good at the first one."
 * 37) *"PROTECT ME, SQUIRE!"
 * 38) *"We'll strangle him with his own intestines!"
 * 39) *"Argh, this is so frustrating. Y'see, this is what I don't get about you bad guys. You know the hero's gonna win, but you just don't die quickly. Example: this one guy in New Haven, right? City's burning, people are dying left and right, yadda yadda yadda. This jackhole rushes me with a spoon. A fricking spoon! And I'm dying laughing, right? So I scoop out his stupid little eyeballs with it, and his kids are all, waaahh!, and, he can't see where he's going, he's bumping in to stuff, and ah... I don't know, maybe you had to be there. The moral is: you're a total bitch."
 * 40) *"STAIRS?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
 * 41) *"Dammit, Jack - how did you know stairs were my ONLY weakness?! Next to electrocution, and explosions, and gunfire, rust, corrosion, being kicked a lot, viruses, being called bad names, falling from great heights, drowning, adult onset diabetes, being looked at funny, heart attacks, exposure to oxygen, being turned down by women, and pet allergens! Your brilliance is matched only by your malevolence!"
 * 42) *"THAT SENTENCE HAD TOO MANY SYLLABLES! APOLOGIZE!"
 * 43) *"I punch the initiative."
 * 44) *"My Siren's name is Brick, and she is the prettiest."
 * 45) *"I'M STARVING! I WANNA EAT YOUR BABIES!"
 * 46) *"I'M THE CONDUCTOR OF THE POOP TRAIN!"
 * 47) A good amount of Easter eggs, with the most notable one being a hidden area in the Caustic Caverns that features stone, ores, and creepers from Minecraft.
 * 48) A better and more diverse soundtrack compared to the first game. The intro song, Short Change Hero, is just as great, if not better than the first game's.
 * 49) There's more types of lootable objects, including twelve types of lootable chests (compared to three in the first game).
 * 50) *The Golden Chest debuts here, a re-lootable chest which always contains purple or E-tech rarity weapons, but requires Golden Keys to open.
 * 51) *Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep includes the Dice Chest, which will appear with two twenty-sided dice (D20s) on top. Opening the chest either rolls one D20 or both if the player spends five Eridium, and the amount shown on the roll will determine the rarity of the loot.
 * 52) The PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita ports contain cross saving with each other, meaning that you can play the same save file on both consoles.
 * 53) You can now play as a Bandit - Krieg the Psycho has an unconventional set of melee/kamikaze skills offering unique options, not to mention his maniacal quotes.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Enemies re-spawn constantly in some areas, making it difficult to explore without being bombarded.
 * 2) A few problems with the first game return here.
 * 3) *The strange case of checkpoint starvation remains, where players only spawn at a fast travel station or at the entrance of an area when loading their save.
 * 4) *Dialogue often happens when in combat, making it difficult to hear. This problem is made worse here due to combat being more action-packed, and dialogue is more common.
 * 5) The Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode makes Slag weapons a necessity due to almost every enemy becoming bullet sponges (x4 stats compared to normal). Mobs also regen health constantly, requiring even more ammunition to completely kill.
 * 6) *This problem is made worse with the fact that certain enemies and bosses can't be slagged, unless the player has a certain type of grenade.
 * 7) Although most of the humor is funnier than the previous game, some of it can be hit-or-miss. Two examples include the pop-culture references, or some characters coming across as being more annoying than funny (especially with Tiny Tina).
 * 8) Slight SJW influence thanks to Anthony Burch, but it's completely ignorable. One such example is how Burch claimed that a bunch of characters are LGBT, even though there's no in-game evidence to support most of these claims.
 * 9) In co-op, the loot drops act as if only one player is in the session, which causes the players to not receive enough loot, or can cause a player to steal most of it.
 * 10) Some combinations can be incredibly broken, such as Flakker & Quickswitch RL, Salvador Pimpernel RL, etc.
 * 11) There is a difficulty spike between normal and TVHM since the given weapon levels won't be able to match the enemies presented in the vicinity, causing the player to get stuck at a certain point.
 * 12) Your guns run out of ammo really quickly and unless you're Salvador with a hoarder class mod you'll be running dry most of the time.
 * 13) You don't start from the checkpoint you previously reached when you start your current playthrough and instead respawn all the way at the character selection point, which can be redundant depending on how far you've gotten in a level.

PlayStation Vita port

 * 1) Horrendous framerate with the game commonly struggling to reach 30FPS, thus causing difficulties when aiming.
 * 2) The co-op mode allows for only two players as opposed to up to four like the other ports.
 * 3) Fairly outdated graphics that look like a 3DS or a late PSP game.
 * 4) Frequent freezes and crashes (although patches later came to mitigate some of the crashes).
 * 5) Some of the DLC is unavailable.
 * 6) It shares the same trophy list with the PS3 version, and the DLC that isn't in the Vita version still has trophies, therefore forcing trophy hunters who bought the Vita version into buying the PS3 version as well.

Tips

 * 1) Three Horns Divide is a great early-game farm for two of the most powerful legendary gear in the game, which is the Unkempt Harold pistol and the Fastball grenade. Unkempt Harold is dropped by Savage Lee, while the Fastball is dropped by Boll. Unkempt Harold can receive massive amp damage bonuses from amplify shields due to firing 7 unlisted projectiles, while Fastball's damage is extremely high for a grenade, making it very useful for taking out some annoying minor enemies that would have been a huge pain to kill.
 * 2) The Pimpernel sniper rifle is extremely powerful if used correctly. Instead of aiming for the enemy's head, aim for their lower body instead as the 5 orbs that spawn when the bullet hits something will all most likely hit the enemy's head, dealing massive damage.
 * 3) The How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day DLC provides the best farm for powerful gear and Eridium once the player completes the main mission. Players will have to go to the frozen pond, fight and defeat Tinder Snowflake, then go back to Gingerton to loot the train that arrives.
 * 4) It is possible to skip almost the entirety of The Raid on Digistruct Peak on OP level 5 and higher. Once the player reaches Deprivation Depot, they will make a left turn and reach a corner with a wall and a small rock cliff. The player will then need to make a grenade/rocket jump (preferably with a Badaboom) to boost themselves high enough to reach the top of the cliff (this is easiest with Salvador due to gunzerking). The player will then need to make another grenade/rocket jump to clear the gap between the cliff and the Tower of Torment. This is a good (but difficult) method of farming pearlescent weapons as OMGWTH, the final boss of Digistruct Peak, is guaranteed to drop a pearlescent weapon on OP levels 8 and higher. A video tutorial can be seen here.
 * 5) On PC, there's an exploit that allows players to open the Golden Chest without using up any Golden Keys. View this tutorial to know how to do the exploit.

Reception
Borderlands 2 was met with critical acclaim from critics and fans alike. It is not only considered an improvement from the first Borderlands in almost every aspect, it is also regarded as the best Borderlands game in the series. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version a 91/100, and the PC and Xbox 360 versions both an 89/100. The users scores were slightly lower, with a user score of 8.2/10 for the PlayStation 3 and PC versions, while the Xbox 360 version has a user score of 8.3/10. On Steam, 95% of the reviews are positive (indicating "overwhelmingly positive" reviews). Due to its technical issues, the PlayStation Vita port was met with much more criticism, having a Metascore of 64/100, and a user score of 7.7/10.

Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep was critically acclaimed and it is considered not only the best DLC for Borderlands 2 but also one of the best DLC ever. Particular praise was set towards its fantastic setting, humor, varied length and as an obvious homage to the Dungeons & Dragons series. On Metacritic, the DLC has a Metascore of 86/100, and a user score of 8.3/10. On Steam, it the highest rated DLC, with 93% of the reviews being positive.

Borderlands 2 was one of the best-selling games of 2012, and has become the best-selling game in the history of 2K Games, with 8.5 million copies sold by February 2014. The following year, it was announced by Gearbox that the game had sold "well over" 12 million copies. As of August 2019, the game has sold over 22 million copies, making it not only 2K's highest-selling title, but also one of the highest-selling games of all time.

Borderlands 2 was nominated for five awards at the 2012 Spike TV Video Game Awards: "Best Xbox 360 Game", "Best PS3 Game", "Best Shooter", "Best Multiplayer Game", and "Best DLC" (Psycho Pack). Actor Dameon Clarke was also nominated in the "Best Performance By a Human Male" category for his role as Handsome Jack. Finally, Claptrap was included in the viewer's choice "Character of the Year" category. Borderlands 2 would go on to win "Best Shooter" "Best Multi-Player Game" "Best Performance by a Human Male", and "Character Of The Year". Borderlands 2 wound up with five D.I.C.E. Awards nominations at the 16th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, including "Game of the Year", "Action Game of the Year", "Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction", "Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay", and "Outstanding Achievement in Character" for the characterization of Tiny Tina. At the ceremony, the game won only one award for 2012's "Action Game of the Year".

Trivia

 * All of the Headhunter packs, except for Sir Hammerlock vs. the Son of Crawmerax, are based on certain holidays.
 * T.K. Baha's Bloody Harvest is based on Halloween.
 * The Horrible Hunger of the Ravenous Wattle Gobbler is based on Thanksgiving.
 * How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day is based on Christmas.
 * Mad Moxxi and the Wedding Day Massacre is based on Valentine's Day.

Videos
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