Borderlands 2
Banging music for banging action
This loot shooter is undisputedly a great representative of its genre. The addictive nature of collecting better equipment is brought to perfection here. Especially in co-op, competing for the highest damage figures is great fun. The gunplay is good, the world is wonderfully wacky and the characters in particular make the story quite entertaining. Alongside kingpin Handsome Jacko , explosives specialist Tiny Tina is one of the stand-out characters. She may still be a child, but she has already experienced a lot of shit and explosively declared war on the nasty bandits. Thanks to the great voice acting (at least in the original), the more serious passages also come across well, and I had a lump in my throat every now and then when we learn about her tragic background story.
At the very latest with the DLC Tiny Tina‘s Assault on Dragon Keepwhere you play a round of fantasy-style pen and paper, I was hooked. Keyword DLCs: They are generally okay and add more content to the already quite long main game. In my personal ranking, Assault on Dragon Keep is followed by the first, Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate‘s Booty, then Mr. Torgue‘s Campaign of Carnage and finally Sir Hammerlock‘s Big Game Hunt. There's less story and more collecting tasks and challenges. But anyone who enjoys this kind of content will certainly have fun with it.
The heart of the Borderlands-series is, in my opinion, the shared experience with friends in co-op. For solo players, the mindless farming and the rather simple quest structures can quickly become monotonous. Instead, with a buddy you can provide your own entertainment or set yourself goals. And of course it's much more fun to hold your new, epic weapon under someone's nose and then shoot them to pieces in a duel.
Let's move on to the music. Assassin's Creed composer Jesper Kyd and guitar master Cris Velasco are among those responsible for the soundtrack. It's okay, but hardly anything really stands out here. A bit of techno, a bit of space and the occasional western. As expected, the atmospheric tracks are trivial, too. The action tracks for the firefights, on the other hand, are fun. One example is Dam Top , which brings a bit of hard rock feeling to the uniform droning. In keeping with the DLCs, the music here ranges between jungle, metal and fantasy. Overall, however, the soundtrack of Borderlands is not the real reason why you should play it.
All in all, an experience that is relatively unique in this quality. Repetitive quest structures, a comic style that takes some getting used to and XP farms don't manage to diminish the positive overall impression. So get it, please. And by that I mean Borderlands 2! The first part is good, but has been improved here in the right places, and the Pre-Sequel is just crap!
