As Neal Stephenson once wrote, swords need no demonstrations. Borderlands 2 character Zer0 wields a sword, but a few demonstrations probably wouldn't hurt - Gearbox's assassin is one complex customer.
IGN has gone live with a full breakdown, exploring Zer0's gear, abilities and backstory. A mysterious killer who makes his feelings known via goofy visor emoticons, the man works equally well at long range and up-close - but he's most comfortable with a blade, which serves as his basic melee attack. Couple this toy with some sneaky tricks, and you'll be the terror of Pandora.
Attacking from stealth blows your cover, as with assassin classes in other RPGs, but unlike the latter, the longer Zer0 spends in stealth the more damage he'll inflict. Go for the kill just as your stealth mode expires, and you'll hit so hard the Borderlands 2 scoring system refuses to calculate the effect on your target, dropping a trademark "0" at your feet instead.
Break out of cover sooner, and you'll have a shorter cooldown on Deploy Decoy. Zer0 can also detonate his trap for a mighty electrical blast, stripping nearby foes of their shields.
The character's passive abilities include Be Like Water, a "really interesting dichotomy of guns with melee" to quote creative director Paul Hellquist.
"What it does is every time you shoot an enemy it increases your melee damage for a few seconds and then every time you melee someone it increases your shoot damage for a few seconds, so it encourages people to switch back and forth and do this ninja dance of gun to sword to gun to sword. It's a really neat and fun skill."
Check out the site for more.
7 comments so far...
CunningSmile on 27 Feb '12 said:
Dibs.
Clanger67 on 27 Feb '12 said:
I still don't think this is going to tempt me in.I don't like the first one really,though might be swayed as time gets nearer to release.
Bezza89 on 27 Feb '12 said:
I have already shotgunned him in the other thread, though because Borderlands co-op was pretty good you can have two zer0s at once!
golliwoza on 27 Feb '12 said:
Can you have 3 I like ninjas.
Bezza89 on 27 Feb '12 said:
We could have 5 ninjas if they would increase the co-op limit.
CunningSmile on 27 Feb '12 said:
The Inverse Ninja Law dictates that 5 ninja's would be pants. We would probably be pushing it with 2, so 5 would be right out (unless they were 4 turtles and a giant Rat, then I might work)
desdicado on 27 Feb '12 said:
Looks brilliant
I loved the first game so this is a definite, soundtrack is good too 