Borderlands 2 Preview

The latest preview for Borderlands 2 comes from The Play Vault, though it’s not really clear whether they attended to a demo of the title or simply are basing themselves over information that is already available. Either way, a refresher is never a bad thing:

The next area of innovation in my eyes are the new enemies that Gearbox have thrown in and also how much detail they have gone into when creating these new beings (or giving old ones a bit of a reworking). The main focus as far is the enemies and how they work together or with the environment. The AI has taken a huge leap with enemies actually using cover this time and using it to supress fire and flank which the last game was severely lacking. This also poses a greater challenge to the gamer and the devs have emphasized that co-op has never been so necessary to stay alive in the wild of Pandora. A new enemy that I’d like to point out is quite an interesting one. At first sight you’d think he’s a bandit with a shield and you’d be right, it is. If your eye sight is in check though you will probably spot a certain dwarfed character strapped onto the front of the shield. The point of this (besides being ridiculously funny to watch in motion) is that once you manage to kill the guy behind the shield, an enraged midget will appropriately try to bash your head in while you are pissing your pants. It is nice to see the developer have still kept that light hearted funny style that they embraced so fondly in the first game.

The bandits in general have received an overhaul actually with the promise of the rather mysterious enemy receiving a lot more attention in Borderlands 2. First off, they will still be dotted around the environment is makeshift housing as they were in the first game but as well as this, they will be getting their own city and back story. How they ended up in Pandora, how they survived and all that jazz that was missing from the first game is set to be revealed with Gearbox’s dedication to fill in the blanks that it left back in 2009. The bandits also have their own source of weaponry now instead of random selections from some of the famous in-game manufacturers. These homemade guns are cobbled together with whatever the bandits can get their hands on and will this will show in the way the guns look and handle when playing the game.