Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Darkmere]

Blah. I've been avoiding buying borderlands 2 for years now. I can avoid it a while longer.

[Chaoswizkid]

Evil Genius is 75% off for a week on Steam, so $2.49 in the US. I've heard it's good, so I've just picked it up.

It's amazing. It's all sorts of comedic, theme-appropriate fun with some of the best base-building out there. 'sides DF o'course.

[Sinistar]

Torchlight 2

Yeah I played demo and was pleasantly surprised to the point of thinking of buying it somewhere in the future, despite being kinda disappointed with Torchlight 1 (it wasn't a bad game at all, just very "lite" ARPG). Some pretty damning reviews made me re-think my plan.

However, I've heard there is/are comprehensive overhaul mod(s) that make the actual experience a lot better, balance wise. Thoughts on that?

Borderlands 2

So as someone who has put 50+ hours in Borderlands 1, was initially very pleased by it but made it to the end of last dlc just because of sheer stubbornness because nothing else really motivated me to do that and right now I also have absolutely no motivation to play BL1 again in any foreseeable future... is there ANY reason for me to buy BL2 or is it just "more of the same but more"?
Because from some LPs I've watched I'm leaning towards the later.

[Sirus]

I guess you could probably call it "more of the same but more". There's a LOT more, though. I'm still just going through the story (haven't touched the DLC except for playing as one of the add-on characters) and there's just a ridiculous amount of stuff going on.

[i2amroy]

However, I've heard there is/are comprehensive overhaul mod(s) that make the actual experience a lot better, balance wise. Thoughts on that?

Definitely. Synergies Mod makes the game so much better, and it's definitely worth the $5. I've put in over 60 hours so far and have been greatly pleased with it.

Edit: And it's in the steam workshop too, so it's really easy to install/use.

[kcwong]

I guess you could probably call it "more of the same but more". There's a LOT more, though. I'm still just going through the story (haven't touched the DLC except for playing as one of the add-on characters) and there's just a ridiculous amount of stuff going on.

The new (including base and DLC) classes are great. The base game storyline has some great moments in there too.

The story DLCs are all great. I particularly like Tiny Tina for its DnD in-jokes.

[KoE]

Borderlands 2

So as someone who has put 50+ hours in Borderlands 1, was initially very pleased by it but made it to the end of last dlc just because of sheer stubbornness because nothing else really motivated me to do that and right now I also have absolutely no motivation to play BL1 again in any foreseeable future... is there ANY reason for me to buy BL2 or is it just "more of the same but more"?
Because from some LPs I've watched I'm leaning towards the later.

Having started with Borderlands 2 and playing 1 afterward, it's 'the same, but more' in the same way that, say, Super Mario World is Super Mario Bros. but more. You're still shooting guys to get randomly generated guns and skill points, but there's more meaningful variation in the guns and the skills matter more. While the action skills aren't perfect, nobody is stuck with 'I can throw a bird' while the other guy tears apart reality and kills everything. The storyline, while not amazing, mostly makes internal sense (unlike blah blah, bad atlas, blah blah, chozo??? or whatever happened in BL1) and has a well done 'love to hate him' villain.

The general opinion among my group (and I think it's somewhat reflect of general opinion) is that most of the BL1 DLCs were mixed at best; BL2 has two campaign DLCs I consider amazing (Torgue and Tiny Tina), one that's pretty OK all around (Scarlet's) and then the steaming ball of disappointment that is Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt (which isn't really bad so much as mediocre).

Basically the way I see it - admittedly looking in reverse - is that BL2 is the AAA sequel to a weird prototype of a game that had its own charms and several shortcomings. The only place BL2 falls short is that they fixed the hilariously, awesomely wonky car physics of the original (mostly).

[Levi]

I thought BL2 was ten times more fun than BL1.  Handsome Jack was one of the most memorable villains in gaming for me.

[Mech#4]

I think the biggest problem with "Borderlands 2" is the quite lengthy introduction sequence that takes about 40 minutes to do everything and reach the main area of the game.

[nenjin]

If you didn't like BL1, BL2 is more of the same, IMO. More weapons, more variety and trinkets, more lunacy. But it's still the same mowing guys down, the same sorting through 18 bazillion gun drops, the same vague feeling that you're playing an MMO when you're actually not.

I didn't buy it full price, and for what I paid I enjoyed it. But every time I feel like playing Borderlands, it feels like a slog. Especially 2nd+ playthroughs where you've done all the quests, and the voice acting goes from being funny/charming to just plain obnoxious.

Also I'll never understand why people think Handsome Jack is an amazing villain. He's a smartass. That's all. Being funny with a side of dickhead has never made a character a great villain to me. He's better than a lot of your average video game villains, but if that makes him "one of the best" it's more a testament to shit, throwaway writing in video games than it is the skill with which he was written.

[Levi]

I disagree, Handsome jack was an amazing villain.  The whole time he thought of himself as the "good guy" and the players as the bad guys.  The best bit for me is when he goes from talking about how he's the hero of the story in one sentence, and then tells a story of killing some kids dad in some horrific way.   I honestly can't think of another villain that had such a filled out and interesting personality.   

Half the reason I'm excited about playing the upcoming pre-sequel is to see what made him that way.  I mean, everybody on Pandora is a psychopath, but I want to see what made his particular brand of psycho. 

[BurnedToast]

Also, while the TVHM/UVHM sounds like fun, since you get more levels to shoot things and play around with, I'll let you in on a sad secret.

It's not, particularly once you've maxed your level so as to forget the whole number chase.

Enemies have sixteen million health each and regenerate about 400,000 per second. SMGs? Forget it. You don't get to use slag as an option. You NEED slag. Variety? No no no! None for you! Elemental damage over time? Don't be silly. Want to be in FFYL forever? Great! Oh, you don't? Not a choice.

You need slag, and you need gimmicky builds and weapons. Your trusty purple sidearm won't do any longer, go gold or go home.

Borderlands 2 is absolutely fun for a few playthroughs, and the voice acting is great enough to encourage the player to play on. It's not particularly deep and doesn't much promise to be, but it's fun, it's funny, and everything feels pretty novel for a good chunk of time.

To be fair elemental damage over time is pretty terrible in general, it's not like it's unique to TVHM/UVHM

Anyway, TVHM is not that bad IMO. In fact, it's kind of needed because enemies stop scaling after a while - I went to do the DLCs after finishing the main quest and everything was 10+ levels below me so it was kind of dumb. Had to restart in TVHM and then skip right to the DLCs to make things level appropriate again.
 
But everything else is pretty accurate for UVHM.. I don't really understand the point of it.

Edit:

Torchlight 2

Yeah I played demo and was pleasantly surprised to the point of thinking of buying it somewhere in the future, despite being kinda disappointed with Torchlight 1 (it wasn't a bad game at all, just very "lite" ARPG). Some pretty damning reviews made me re-think my plan.

However, I've heard there is/are comprehensive overhaul mod(s) that make the actual experience a lot better, balance wise. Thoughts on that?

I never really messed with any mods, sorry. The base game is completely playable without them though, there's just a lot of not so good skills and a few skills that are WTF strong.

If you like diablo style ARPGs it's definitely worth the $5 despite that.

[nenjin]

I disagree, Handsome jack was an amazing villain.  The whole time he thought of himself as the "good guy" and the players as the bad guys.  The best bit for me is when he goes from talking about how he's the hero of the story in one sentence, and then tells a story of killing some kids dad in some horrific way.   I honestly can't think of another villain that had such a filled out and interesting personality.   

I don't find cheeky cognitive dissonance to be a great villain-defining trait. Some jackass bad guy says something in direct conflict with what he does? Quick, someone get him an Emmy. Add to the fact his smarmy voice acting made that "belief" sound like a joke as well, and it was a gimmick to me. Not characterization. It's sort of like saying "Oh, Torque is a great character because he screams ridiculous, meme-y things all day long."

[Darkmere]

Small side-note to Torchlight 2: It is pretty soulless, all the characters are flat, and the "plot" is WELL trodden by a huge chunk of fantasy. The combat is standard fare but clunky and feels awkward/stilted in a way that's hard to describe. Nothing "flows" well. The praise it received was a backlash to Diablo 3 not being Diablo 2 again.

That said, it copies most of the stuff Diablo 2 did, and executed them just as poorly. Random gambling mechanics are tedious, a large chunk of the skills are un(der)balanced and untenable for serious usage, and the difficulty is scaled up by playing the same content repeatedly with bigger numbers. Items are once again randomized and soulless, and fishing is still a thing that will never be engaging. They even directly copied the "hero from the last game goes bad and now you must kill him" thing.

If you like the hacknslash style, it's okay for a playthrough or two, but don't buy it looking for any kind of depth. It's formula through and through.

[Hawkfrost]

Small side-note to Torchlight 2: It is pretty soulless, all the characters are flat, and the "plot" is WELL trodden by a huge chunk of fantasy. The combat is standard fare but clunky and feels awkward/stilted in a way that's hard to describe. Nothing "flows" well. The praise it received was a backlash to Diablo 3 not being Diablo 2 again.

That said, it copies most of the stuff Diablo 2 did, and executed them just as poorly. Random gambling mechanics are tedious, a large chunk of the skills are un(der)balanced and untenable for serious usage, and the difficulty is scaled up by playing the same content repeatedly with bigger numbers. Items are once again randomized and soulless, and fishing is still a thing that will never be engaging. They even directly copied the "hero from the last game goes bad and now you must kill him" thing.

If you like the hacknslash style, it's okay for a playthrough or two, but don't buy it looking for any kind of depth. It's formula through and through.

I think people liked it because it was made by the folks who did Diablo 2, and thus it felt more like a Diablo game than Diablo 3 did.
In fact, I liked it quite a bit. Is it better than Diablo 2? No, not really. But it's still pretty solid and is a fair share better than almost any other diablo-like has been.

In fact, you can really just see the Torchlight games as remakes of the first two Diablo titles.