Abandoned by the original developers, the Gearbox, and left in the hands of 2K Australia, relegated exclusively to older generation machines, torn from the Pandora universe and taken to the Moon, can the new insane Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel repeat the success of the first two chapters of the saga?
We've been to the Moon in the company of the Crypt Hunters and we're ready to tell you in our full review!
THE ORIGINS OF JACK THE BEAUTIFUL
The idea of this chapter of Borderlands comes from a very interesting incipit that tries to reveal the facts, so far told as a real legend, within the first two episodes of the game.
This Pre-Sequel shows the race for power of Handsome Jack, most often narrated by Athena, one of the 4 Vault Hunters available at the beginning of the adventure.
Each character introduces a new class to be tested and upgraded just as it happened in the previous chapters: we will then make the acquaintance of the aforementioned Athena, equipped with a shield capable of absorbing the blows and returning them to the sender, the strong Willhelm, accompanied by two drones from battle that will take care of healing and increasing the combat performance of the character, the lethal gunslinger Nisha, expert in weapons equipped with automatic sights and finally there is a very unique hero, a real surprise for all fans of the series, the Claptrap, gifted with truly bizarre abilities that will cope with any kind of situation.
However, although the ideas offered are remarkable, the story is a continuous succession of ups and downs that loses the inevitable confrontation with the second chapter, of which the crazy and funny dialogues have also been lost that here remain flat and know of "already heard ". In fact, there are few characters who will really exalt you like the crazy Mister Torgue!
ONE STEP FORWARD FOR MAN, TWO BACK FOR CRYPT HUNTERS
The internal structure of the game remains totally unchanged from the past, this Pre-Sequel is a 100% Borderlands, a shooter with a ton of weapons, secrets, missions and submissions, a myriad of power-ups to make your mouth water and an infinite amount of new targets to riddle that will not fail to make fans of the series happy. 2K Australia also tries to insert a great novelty that will make more than a few FPS purists turn up their noses but refreshes the now tried-and-tested Borderlands gameplay. I'm talking about the total absence of gravity brought by the game location, La Luna di Elpis, one of the moons that orbit around Pandora, the universe of the first two chapters.
Most of the adventure will in fact be set on the lunar surface and for this reason both the protagonists, with the exception of the Claptrap, and the human enemies, will be equipped with the OZ Kit, an oxygen reserve that will be continuously recharged by collecting cylinders from the crates, by defeated opponents or by stopping above the special faults that intermittently release the OZ.
The collected gas can also be used for each character's Jetpack which will allow it to float in the air taking the mechanics of the traditional shooter to another level.
The modified gravity, in fact, will also allow you to take advantage of greater verticality in the clashes, with the possibility of double jumps, and other stunts in line with the irreverent vein of the series.
The OZ will also be essential for the enemies that we can easily eliminate by destroying their reserve of cylinders or their helmet and letting them flounder in the lethal atmosphere.
If on the one hand the gravitational mechanics can be exciting, on the other they take away the pleasure of exploration, which is fundamental within an RPG / FPS like Borderlands: The player will have to continually worry about keeping their OZ level high and it will be difficult for them to venture. towards unknown borders, preferring rapid traversal of locations rather than the exploratory phases dear to the saga.
Having underlined this aspect of the gameplay, it must however be added that, unfortunately, the title does not present any other big news and brings with it some problems of the second chapter such as the great lack of checkpoints and respawn points and the polygonal structure of the weapons present turns out to be a simple copy of those already seen in the past.
The strategy of the clashes with the enemies has been completely lost, a little because of the sparse locations often composed of km and km of wastelands, a bit because of an AI not up to the level of a human player, even at levels of more advanced difficulty, a problem that definitively transforms the title into a gravitational shot and run without further mechanics.
Even the sub-quests undergo a conspicuous downgrade, they lose fun and duration, presenting themselves as a long sequence of similar missions to the point of being almost a copy of the other.
WHEN THE MOON IS NOT ENOUGH
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was born as an old gen title, so with a graphics engine a generation behind the current one. The technical sector is another of the sore points of the title with problems that at the end of the life cycle of a console can no longer be forgiven: The version tested by us, the one for Xbox 360, is at times unstable and often tends to create annoying glitchy, with more than one buggy quest, several frame rate drops, and the usual problem of textures delaying loading all over the place.
Most likely the PC version of Pre-Sequel has a better technical sector, compared to the console, but certainly worse than the auspicious achieved by Borderlands 2.
Although the style is that cartoonish cel-shading typical of the series, the locations are much more anonymous, above all because of the dull palette of colors of the Elpis moon based on continuous and excessive tones of blue and gray that in the long run tire and annoy the 'eye.
The moon is empty, certainly we could not expect more from the moon but we could ask for more from the developers who instead preferred to build the main locations on boundless lands of nothing and which seem to come to life only next to some point of interest. In the more advanced stages of the game we will also visit "indoor" places such as the Space Station and underground bases, visually better than the lunar surface but far from the massive maps built for the previous chapters of the game.
Fortunately, the sound proves to live up to the series with an infinity of different sounds for the numerous weapons, with quality voiceovers also available in español, and with a variety of themes capable of keeping the pace for the duration of the adventure. .
FINAL COMMENT
The abandonment of the original developers is felt and this new chapter looks like an immense DLC from previous episodes. The mechanics related to gravity amuse but in the long run these too show the side of a series of problems that prevent the player from fully enjoying the experience offered.
The main story sheds light on some hitherto obscure events within the main cycle, but the fluctuating pace of the narrative doesn't help the plot offer moments to remember.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is an adventure that fans will not mind but fails to take the saga one step further, rather, it locks it in the past waiting for a better chapter.
