Borderlands 2

Game mechanics

Fight for your life!-

http://guides.gamepressure.com/borderlands2/guide.asp?ID=16263

Fight for your life is a state the player goes into upon losing all health, it gives them a limited

time to kill one enemy, and if they succeed in killing one, they will be instantly revived with a

portion of their full health being restored. When in this state however, the character is knocked

down, and has limited mobility; they are also prevented from aiming down the sights of

whatever weapon they are using, but all weapons can be used as normal, such as rocket

launchers.

Drop in/out co-op -

Drop in/out co-op is basically a way of describing the ways which the game can be played with

other people. Other people can join the game whenever they wish, as well as leaving the game.

This allows people who are struggling to invite their friends in the game to help defeat bosses,

though more common enemies spawn.

Weapon mechanics-

Weapons in the game are highly varied and the game boats a "bazillion" weapons in its trailers.

It spawns weapons with various damage, accuracy and other specs such as these, as well as

granting different variations of the same weapons elemental bonuses such as fire or corrosive

damage. Some weapons spawn with fore-grips or weapons on them to grant bonus melee

damage or accuracy.

'Unique' weapons throughout the game can be found from significant loot sources such as

defeating certain bosses, and often have special characteristics, such as ricocheting bullets,

health regeneration and homing bullets.

http://www.lazygamer.net/general-news/the-manymany-badass-weapons-of-

borderlands-2/

Loot-

Loot is found in every crevice of the Borderlands 2 world, containers scattered almost

everywhere allow the player to find and replenish ammo, as well as find money.

Better loot such as weapons and grenade modifiers can be found in chests, crates and boxes

found in all areas, however they are less common, and the biggest and most rewarding ones are

often heavily defended.

Loot has several ranks:

Level 1 = White = Common

Level 2 = Green = Uncommon

Level 3 = Blue = Rare

Level 4 = Purple = Epic

Level 5 = Orange = Legendary

Level 6 = Magenta = E-tech

Level 7 = Pink = Seraph

Level 8 = Cyan = Pearlescent

Play modes-

There are a few play modes that are available to the player, these being:

-Normal Mode

-True Vault Hunter Mode

-Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode

Normal Mode guides the player through the game the first time they play it, from level 1, to

around 30, and can not be skipped.

True Vault Hunter Mode ranges from level 30 to level 50 and most enemies have had their

health increased massively, as well as more unique enemies appearing; this isn't a bad thing

however, as enemies and chests give up far better loot and missions reward much more

experience to allow the player to level up.

Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode ranges from level 50 to 72 and is even harder as enemies have had

their health doubled from True Mode, and all enemies are scaled to the highest level player in

the lobby, meaning nobody can be too strong for any enemy they encounter. However, all

enemies have had their loot drops improved as bosses will drop some of their rarest loot far

easier, and new pearlescent weapons are available to players.

The only thing that surpasses this game mode is Overpower Level.

Controls-

Controls in the game are relatively basic for a first person shooter on a console, these are the

xbox controls.

LT- Aim down sights

LB- Use character ability

RT- Fire weapon

RB- Throw grenade

A- Jump

B- Crouch

X- Reload

Y- Swap/cycle through weapons

D-PAD UP- Up in menu navigation

D-PAD DOWN- Down in menu navigation

D-PAD LEFT- Left in menu navigation

D-PAD RIGHT- Right in menu navigation

SELECT- Open ECHO device

START- Pause game

LEFT THUMB-STICK- Player movement

RIGHT THUMB-STICK- Player aiming

LEFT THUMB-STICK PRESSED- Sprint

RIGHT THUMB-STICK PRESSED- Melee

Over-world

1

Borderlands 2's over-world features massively varying settings varying in style, it has almost

everything from glacial and snowy settings to volcanic and desert-like areas; all of this is set on

the planet of Pandora, which was also the setting of the first Borderlands game, however some of

the areas featured in the first game have been changed, mostly because of the presence of

Hyperion (one of the largest faction of enemies in the game) on the planet.

1

2

[1] http://www.oneclickmac.com/borderlands-2-for-mac-review/

[2] http://www.vgfaq.com/borderlands-2-a-real-boy-face-time-walkthrough/

Art-Style

http://venturebeat.com/2012/10/02/im-not-here-to-save-the-planet/

Borderlands 2's art style adapts a very specific art-style that not many games use, as well as

using cel-shading to truly bring out the ever-so-slightly-realistic cartoony art-style. Although the

game uses an art style that drifts from the photorealism AAA games typical art-styles, it still

utilizes post-processing visual effects to bring out the beauty of some of the games scenery.

Music

Trailer Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW7qO_wpfvk

Borderlands 2's 'Doomsday' trailer utilizes Nero's song Doomsday. The genre of the son and

Nero's high energy style compliment the intense gameplay that Borderlands 2 provides.

In-game music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y4emYPQj5Y&list=PLXRGuymGKOa2RF_O3w7G-UYB3R-0wciMT

http://www.se7ensins.com/forums/threads/vermivorous-the-invincible.791261/

Boss AI

Bloodwing is a boss in Borderlands 2 that adapts as its health is lowered and it forces the player

to change weapons in order to cope with the change in gameplay, it cycles through electricity,fire

and corrosive elements while you are fighting it, giving it different boosts and attacks that will

affect you in different ways, for example, electricity lowers your shields easily, whereas fire will

ignite you and take massive health from you if your shields are down.

This tests various players skill, as well as requiring them to be equipped to deal with a variety of

elements, as well as deal damage to an enemy that can resist various elements.

http://orcz.com/Borderlands_2:_Slagged_Bloodwing

This is an image of every enemy in the game of Borderlands 2, it shows the immense scale of

some of them, as well as the variety, showing how much content there is in the game when it

comes to finding things to shoot once you complete the game.

http://www.lazygamer.net/xbox-360/every-single-borderlands-2-enemy-in-one-picture/

Playable Characters

Zer0 the Assassin

Zer0 is the assassin in Borderlands 2 and the play-style for this class can take three routes, one

being sniper usage, the second being melee usage, and the other focuses on speed and stealth.

When used well, Zer0 can exploit enemies with multiple places to fire upon and do

inconceivable amounts of damage in one shot.

Salvador the Gunzerker

Salvador the gunzerker has a very gun-oriented play-style as his ability allows the use of two

guns as he blasts his way though enemies, other skills boost things like health and others

enhance the things he can do with grenades and explosives, making him the true juggernaut

class of the game.

Maya the Siren

Maya the siren is one of the 7 sirens that can exist in the universe at an given time, being one of

these she has access to a variety of mystical powers, her ability being her Phaselock, where she

can lock an enemy in an alternate dimension for a period of time, allowing team mates to fire

upon that enemy or focus on the rest of the enemies while the more powerful is temporarily out

of the fight. Her upgrades improve her Phaselock ability, as well as allowing her to heal herself

and her teammates in a myriad of ways, making her the team medic of the game.

Axton the Commando

Axton is the games commando class and his class focuses on setting up defensive turrets that

can shield and heal team-mates while dealing damage, taking fire for him while he dishes out

damage to enemies from behind cover.

Gaige the Mechromancer

Gaige is one of the downloadable content characters of the game and she is known as a

mechromancer as her ability is to summon a large and very powerful robot companion of hers,

Deathtrap. Her skills focus on anarchy on the battlefield, given that is the name of what one of

her skills is, Anarchy. She provides an element of chaos in the game when in a firefight.

Krieg the Psycho

Kreig is the other downloadable content character of the game and is an extremely powerful

psychopath, and is known for his uncontrollable outbursts of gruesome language, and tendency

to set things on fire. He is difficult to put completely down, however will spend most of his time

being on the brink of death, as that is where he is most powerful, players should be careful when

using him and use skill.

How did it feel?

From personal experience, I would have to say Borderlands 2 is a modern game that performs

well in a majority of areas, and its success shows for that. I has enough content, especially with

the added content (both DLC and patches) to keep you playing for hours and hours on end.

It has incredible amounts of content to explore and most players wont ever run out of content to

explore in their time playing it.

The story

Setting/Environment

The planet that Borderlands 2 is set on, Pandora, has a massive amount of different

environments that home their own respective types of creatures, such as stalkers in the

Highlands and icy caves, spiderants in the mountains and desert-areas and threshers in low-

level water areas and shores.Plot

Borderlands 2's story is a modern game with an incredibly well done story that constantly

refreshes to keep he player interested in whats going on, and on top of this, side-missions and

exploration is crucial when on your journey through the game, as the level curve is difficult and

you will not be able to match some of the enemies in the story-line missions if you do not level

up by doing side quests.

There are plenty of characters within the game for the player to become attached to, all offering

something new, from side quests to weapons or equipment for the player.

Lore and secrets

Borderlands 2 is praised as a modern game with incredible amounts of secrets to be found,

ranging from small references to entire areas dedicated to a game, such as the Minecraft areas,

where the player has to melee blocks to enter a cave and fight 'Creepers' like in Minecraft.

There are also a hundreds of weapons to be discovered and many can only be obtained through

defeating a boss many times for him to have a chance at dropping the rare weapon for the player

to pick up.

Sales and reviews

Units sold

Borderlands 2 has sold over 8.5 million copies making it 2K's highest selling game ever.

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/02/03/borderlands-2-now-highest-selling-2k-game-ever

Scores and reviews

89 - for PC on metacritic http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/borderlands-2

91 - for PS3 on metacritic http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/borderlands-2

89 - for Xbox 360 on metacritic http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/borderlands-2

Quantitative research

My research was to investigate how popular Borderlands games were, by making a survey for

anyone to answer.

My results for question one showed that three quarters of people who took the survey had heard of the

Borderlands series of games. This shows it is a game that has had enough advertising and a big enough

buzz for it to become popular enough so that the majority of people know about it.

A slightly lower amount of people have actually played one of the Borderlands games, however this still

shows that people know of the franchise without actually playing it.

This image shows the majority of those who have played a Borderlands game, played Borderlands 2, this

may mean they played both, however it only shows that they played number 2, and it shows one person

only played the original Borderlands.

This final image shows that everyone who played Borderlands 2 enjoyed the game as nobody said that

they disliked the game. This should provide decent evidence to Borderlands 2 being a successful game

and a successful RPG of the modern era.