Badass. That is the word I would use to describe the Borderlands game franchise. The original game came out ten years ago and has been a staple to this day. Now in 2019 we have finally been given a trailer to describe the madness behind the newest installment in this franchise. This article will be covering the four major Borderlands games. So strap in and prepare to collect some loot.
Humble Beginnings: Borderlands (2009) 7/10
The original Borderlands released in 2009 was an interesting take on the gaming industry. In a sense you had four classes of characters to choose from each with their own specific abilities called action skills. They will be listed down below for you to view. The same can be said about the games that will follow in this article. It took a long time for me to appreciate this game at first, but starters need time for you to get that feeling of joy sometimes. Borderlands brought to life a presence of satisfaction being a gun wielding pirate looking for loot and the biggest treasure of all: The Vault Key. In this game, you had to gather three pieces to assemble with hoards of bandit, creature and corporate enemies looking to stop your every move. You have help though from an unknown computerized woman known as “Guardian Angel”, a man named Dr. Zed and an annoying yet meaningful robot named Claptrap. The guns are what makes this game though with wacky names and many different elemental damages. Those are corrosion, explosive, incendiary and shock. A decent game that got a little lackluster after a while but it still holds up today
Name: Roland
Skill Class: The Soldier
Action Skill: Scorpio Turret
Name: Lilith
Skill Class: The Siren
Action Skill: Phasewalk
Name: Mordecai
Skill Class: The Hunter
Action Skill: Bloodwing
Name: Brick
Skill Class: Berserker
Action Skill: Berserk
Handsome Fella Aren’t Ya?: Borderlands 2 (2012) 9/10
The second Borderlands released into 2012 fixed so many of the problems that the original game had. For one thing, we had an amazing villain to go up against named Handsome Jack. We don’t know that at first though. As the opening credits go on we find four new vault hunters robbing a train. It turns out that Jack was the one who hired these four just to try to kill them off. When you awaken you are on a snowy tundra greeted to by the same Claptrap in the first game as well as the same computer program now going by simply Angel. You fight your way through bandit forces to get to a location called Sanctuary where you meet up with a force looking to take the fight to Jack that are led by Roland. From then on you start to meet old friends like Lilith, Roland and Zed to new friends like Moxxi, Sir Hammerlock and Scooter. You have plenty of new enemies like Hyperion Robots, bandits galore and new creatures as well. You also have a new element that can be added to your guns known as slag as well as a new currency known as Eridium. Now let us meet the four Vault Hunters you play as in this adventure because with the DLC we don’t have four we have six.
Name: Axton
Skill Class: The Commando
Action Skill: Sabre Turret
Name: Maya
Skill Class: The Siren
Action Skill: Phaselock
Name: Salvador
Skill Class: The Gunzerker
Action Skill: Gunzerking
Name: Zer0
Skill Class: The Assassin
Action Skill: Decepti0n
Name: Gaige
Skill Class: The Mechromancer
Action Skill: Deathtrap
Name: Krieg
Skill Class: The Psycho
Action Skill: Buzz Axe Rampage
Somewhere in the Middle?: Borderlands The Pre-Sequel (2014) 8.5/10
Now we go into the third game which strangely enough takes place in the middle. That’s right the Pre-Sequel is exactly as it sounds. It is between the first and second game of the series. In this game you once again are playing as four original Vault Hunters (two more if you count the DLC). Athena, one of the new Vault Hunters is captured and brought to Sanctuary by former Vault Hunters Lilith, Brick and Mordecai sometime during the end of Borderlands 2. She starts telling them the story of they got to where they are now. She and five others were summoned by a distress call at the Hyperion space station asking for assistance to find a Vault. Sure enough it was from none other than Jack himself. Don’t get it twisted though. At this point he was just a simple programmer looking to be a hero. He wasn’t “Handsome” yet let me put it that way. Jack’s station is being ambushed by a force called the Lost Legion led by villain Colonel Zarpedon. You escape and find out that Zarpedon is using the station’s main laser weapon “The Eye of Helios” to try to destroy wherever the Vault is located blasting every fragment of the moon’s surface. Your mission: help Jack stop Zarpedon and open the Vault. You are introduced to new characters like Janey Springs, Pickle and a scientist known as Gladstone and old ones like Moxxi. You also are introduced to a new weapon known as lasers, you could now jump in the air and slam opponents, a new elemental weapon type called “cryo” and a new currency called moonstones. Overall, it was a very good game, but just didn’t bring that spark to me like Borderlands 2 did. Now let’s meet our Vault Hunters.
Name: Athena
Skill Class: The Gladiator
Action Skill: Kinetic Aspis
Name: Wilhelm
Skill Class: The Enforcer
Action Skill: Wolf and Saint
Name: Nisha
Skill Class: The Lawbringer
Action Skill: Showdown
Name: Claptrap
Skill Class: Fragtrap
Action Skill: VaultHunter.EXE
Name: Timothy (Jack’s Doppelgänger)
Skill Class: The Doppelgänger
Action Skill: Expendable Assets
Name: Aurelia Hammerlock
Skill Class: The Baroness
Action Skill: Cold As Ice
It Has Finally Come: Borderlands 3 (2019) ?/10
We don’t know much about the new game since it was just announced last week so I am going to do my best here. However, I believe this game is going to be badass! My guess is that this takes place in the future after the ending scene in Borderlands The Pre-Sequel. We are introduced to four new Vault Hunters although I believe there will be two more on the way if we are following a pattern. From what I know so far is this. The story takes place on Pandora like all the other games have (excluding the Pre-Sequel). There are four new Vault Hunters looking for the Vault when they come across our villains; Troy and Tyreen, The Calypso Twins. They both have Siren powers even though Sirens are known to be female which is an odd add for Troy, but I am sure the game will make good sense of that. They are leaders of “The Children of the Vault” and will look to pose a giant threat against our hunters. The game also shows you looking to go brand new worlds and fight new enemies and new creatures which always is fun to see. I will now leave you with our Vault Hunters and I will be going off of the website mentalmars.com to try to figure this out.
Name: Moze
Skill Class: The Gunner
Action Skill: Iron Bear Mech
Name: FL4K
Skill Class: The Beast Master
Action Skill: Pets
Name: Amara
Skill Class: The Siren
Action Skill: Siren Powers
Name: Zane
Skill Class: The Operative
Action Skill: Gadgets
Well sorry that was a little long boys and girls, but like I said I could talk about this game for days. So please do yourself a favor give the trailers below a view and pre-order your copy today because there are only so many vaults, but never enough Vault Hunters. Happy hunting everyone!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9Gu1PspA3Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiEu23G4onM
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