E3: Borderlands 2 is Border-ier, Lands-ier

Fans of Borderlands, fear not. Well, maybe fear for your continued employment with whatever company you work for. You’re going to be missing a lot of work this fall.

Anyway, back to fearing not. The reason for this is because Borderlands 2 is everything you could possibly want it to be: better graphics, tightened control, more badass enemies, the same trademark humor, and more, more, more, guns, guns, guns. (I use repetition here to not only indicate enthusiasm, but quantity therein.)

Our demo was a mission in 2-player co-op, played at Level 25 to give demoers an idea of what mid-level play was like. I personally played the Siren, having enjoyed that class in the previous Borderlands, but it should be noted now that the new Siren plays almost nothing like the previous one. Instead of stealthing, Sirens now have a stunlock ability which freezes an enemy mid-air and gives various bonuses while the stunlock is in effect. It’s also more of a support class, inheriting various healing abilities from the previous Soldier class, such as the ability to heal allies by shooting them. It’s a little disheartening that they couldn’t just find a new label instead of reusing ‘Siren’ for something completely different, but the class still plays well.

My partner and I gunned our way through a ton of new enemies, many of which were based on giant mechs that really look like variations on the loader from Aliens. Support drones sailed through the air, granting boons like shields and health recharges to our enemies, and needing to be gunned down like a Team Fortress 2 Medic to proceed. Engineers dropped turrets and flanked the giant robot we were charged with protecting, drawing our attention from the other attackers.

Other little things have been refined, such as the ability to pick up ammo and money by walking over it instead of having to press a button for each item. A minimap rests in the top right corner, beneficently providing direction towards your friends and your next destination. These little touches make a huge difference, letting you take your mind off of more trivial pursuits and focus on the carnage at hand.

All in all, if you’re a Borderlands fan, Borderlands 2 will be exactly your cup of tea. If you were turned away from Borderlands because of some of complaints with the UI or graphics, now is the time to come back and try it again. Or at least, September 18^th will be the time, in the US at least. Just don’t forget that pre-orders get a slew of extra items and guns, as well as the Mechromancer DLC class when it’s finished!