Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 59 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 423 Ratings

  • Summary: Play as one of 4 new vault hunters facing off against a new world of creatures, psychos and the evil mastermind, Handsome Jack. Make new friends, arm them with a gazillion weapons and fight alongside them in four-player co-op or split-screen on a relentless quest for revenge and redemption across the undiscovered and unpredictable living planet. Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 58 out of 59
  2. Negative: 0 out of 59
  1. Oct 15, 2012
    100
    I'm not terribly surprised that the studio that made the first Borderlands has created such a wildly good gunplay-based action RPG. But I'm surprised that the studio that stitched together Duke Nukem Forever and all those Brothers in Arms games has also made it such a joy to discover for reasons other than the awesome guns and gunplay. Bravo, Gearbox.
  2. Sep 19, 2012
    100
    Bigger, crazier and more diverse than original. A role-playing shooter that raises the bar for both RPGs and shooters. Wonderful.
  3. Nov 10, 2012
    70
    It may be a lot more of the same, but it's prettier, smoother, longer, and filled with more stuff.

See all 59 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 14 out of 131
  1. Finally a game this year actually worth spending the time to play. This year has been struggling so far. If you remotely liked the first BL, you will LOVE this one. SO FUNNY and addicting.... even my wife is laughing because of the dialogue and she hates watching me play. Expand
  2. As a fan of the original Borderlands, this was the game I was looking forward to ever since it was announced, I had high expectations, but at the same time knew certain key features would remain the same, because why fix what is broken? After finishing the game twice 100+ hours played, I can honestly say, the thing that people need to understand is that they did NOT improve on everything from the original. In some cases they straight up downgraded the game. I mean sure, in the aspects you expect it to, they improved the game slightly, multiplayer is better intigrated, graphics are slightly (very slightly) improved, menus, etc. But not the stuff that was truly important. Let me ask you this: When you say Borderlands, what are the 3 things that come to mind? Graphics, Popculture refrences and Story? No? Right the correct answer is Co-Op, Guns, Fun, and they failed all 3 of those aspects of the game. Lets start with with what I think is the most important thing about Borderlands is finding new and exciting new guns that are better then the one you were using previously, same as games like Diablo, but they failed big time in that aspect, where in the original Borderlands Loot chests were common, and finding epic and legendary weapons were relatively common, they are definitely not this time around, Weapon chests are usually filled with junk this time around, and I can honestly say I found maybe 10 epic/orange guns in total, totally lacking, but that isnt even the worst part of it, the weapons themselfs never quite feel right, they always have a negative feel to it, either the recoil is too high, small clip, consumes too many bullets at once, no scope, etc. You will never, EVER find that perfect gun in this game (again unlike Borderlands 1, where that was easily possible), there are severe limitations to weapons now. The weapon manufactures always dictate the weapon stats and thereby the 87 billion gun argument is gone down the drain. The second argument is co-op, it doesnt work well this time around because again the most important thing is gone. In the first Borderlands the character talent trees were made specifically for certain weapon types, modecai was a sniper/handgun guy, roland was assault rifles/shotguns, lilith was SMGs, etc, It was further encouraged in the first game to stick to certain weapon types by giving experience to weapon types. When you leveled up, say, assault rifles, you'd get more weapon damage, faster reload speed and less recoil. they threw that all out of the window so that everyone can be good at each weapon type, which is good in theory but it means sharing is impossible, who wants that sniper rifle? Everyone. Who wants that shotgun? Everyone, who wants that SMG? Everyone. Not a good design decision. The last thing I found severely lacking was the writing, especially the main story missions. The humor just wasnt there for me. Poorly done internet memes and pop culture refrences constantly. Every once in a while you get a good laugh in a side quest, perhaps, but the jokes, generally arent as fun this time around. I feel they focuses too much on aspects of the game that didnt make the original great, and limited the ones that did matter. 6/10, not a trainwreck, but not exciting either. Definitely not GOTY material. Expand
  3. This game was highly over rated compared to Borderlands. The leveling does not map to solo player game play and neither do the weapons. The side quests are the same way especially if you do the ones in "The Fridge". Animation was poor at best as were what little interaction you had with Roland, Lilith or Modecai. The fast travel network was terrible especially if you were in the middle of a specific area and had to make your way back. You could only quit the game and save it in hopes you would get back to the start. Enemies re-spawned over and over and way to quickly. As a solo player reached a level of 38 and the weapons were terrible. Almost impossible to reach Level 50 to battle Thresher and skill trees were cumbersome and not leveled correctly to achieve needed attributes for fighting. Played Vault Leve difficultyl after first playthrough as a Solo player and it was almost impossible because of leveling and poor weapons. Did all side quests and explored all areas in detail. Chests were very mediocre at best for what you had to do to get to them. Scenery was a makeover especially going back to Fyrestone for those who played Borderlands. It was like playing in a poorly illustrated comic book. Will not purchase the DLC's when it comes out. Was not worth the money. Again, feel as it is another game in the marketplace where cost cutting was the norm to maximize profits. Feel the consumer looses again. Expand

See all 131 User Reviews

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