Boast: This is a game that’s more than just an expansion to the first or second. More guns, more wacky characters, more Borderlands. Hell of a lot of loot, and a hell of a lot of fun!

Narrative: Borderlands comes from a story telling perspective. Athena, who has been captured, is explaining to a group of misfits why you were vault hunting. And that’s as much as I’ll go into the story. While there’s nothing really ‘big’ that happens in Borderlands, where they excel is the execution in their comedy. You meet all sorts of quirky people along the way and Dameon Clarke (Handsome Jack), once again, delivers some of the most hilarious dialogue in any video game. I actually found him to be the highlight of the game because, in this character, I believe he’s up there with Michael Mondo (Vaas Montenegro).

Eyecandy: The visuals look exactly like Borderlands 2. Which isn’t a bad thing, but isn’t a good thing either. It didn’t even seem like there was any upgrade to the textures, or the engine, and the only change in artwork came from the characters you would eventually run into in Borderlands 2. The HeadsUpDisplay is a copy/paste and there was nothing impressive about the particle effects. I’m a little disappointed that at least here they didn’t apply their professional skill or creativity to make this installment at least visually stand out from the other two. But it’s whatever I guess…

SoundDesign: The sound engineering was done very nicely. There’s no preset mixes in the options menu, so, if you’re using headphones or running through a home theatre system, you’re out of luck there. All you have to work with is your basic mix of voice, SFX, etc. Never did the sound of action ever become over bearing though. Nor did the background ambiance become a ‘blah’ when there was a lot going on. The music is pretty much all digital-techno-eighties kind of synths for mostly everything. It was produced very nicely and it cut through very smartly from all of the sound filler that was going on. As far as the soundtrack itself, I didn’t like it. I’m not big on the eighties synthesizer sound and it kind of annoyed me. To somewhat give it a perspective, if you liked Blood Dragon’s soundtrack, you’ll like this one.

Gameplay: Now, obviously, you got your four characters to choose from. Skip down to the next paragraph if you don’t care about the characters
-There’s Athena, The Gladiator, whose Kinetic Aspis is a shield that can absorb incoming damage and be thrown to inflict damage (cough…CaptainAmerica, cough). Her skills primarily revolve around defense, healing, and melee.
-Next is Wilhelm, The Enforcer. He’s a cyborg that summons two flying robots named Wolf and Saint that will attack enemies, and defend you at the same time.
-After that is Nisha, The Lawbringer. Her special skill is called “Showdown.” It makes you act like a Call of Duty aim bot and you’ll automatically snap to the heads of your foes getting critical hits out the ass.
-And last there’s Claptrap, The Fragtrap. His ability runs a program called “VaultHunter.exe” which will give him different abilities “that asseses your current situation” and gives you the best ability. Basically it’s a random mix of skills from the other games, i.e. Gunzerker and Mechromancer.

The formula is still the same here. If it moves, you shoot it, and you collect loot along the way. I ended up going with Nisha. She seemed like the closest pick to Salvador, because in all honesty there is not much strategy to this game. At its core it’s an FPS. Each class has their customizations, and there’s a little uniqueness from SOME of the skills; but, they always just end up being increased gun damage, reload speed, etc., until you become invincible using your special skill. The guns are the same from Borderlands 2. There’s only one new addition, which is laser. And that’s self explanatory. The biggest twist is the need for O2 or “Oz” because you’re fighting on the moon’s surface. So as you’re traveling and fighting outdoors, enemies will drop canisters and the surface has these air crater pocket-thingies so you can refill and not suffocate. It’s an added feature to the game but it never becomes a problem because you’ll collect it automatically from the enemies you kill and there’s always somewhere indoors to run into close by. Other than that, there is nothing else.

Conclusion: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is a game for the fans. Not much has changed, no risks were taken, and there isn’t anything in the game that makes it original. The moonstone currency is your Eridium, and you meet the same ‘type’ of characters from the other games, just in different skins. I’m honestly a little disappointed in 2K Australia because I know they have the skill and creativity that could’ve made this game much more and unlocked a potential that I know it has. More than likely the aimed demographic was for the fans of the series and that’s the only people I would recommend it too.

Reason: One word to describe the Borderlands series would be vapid. The Pre-Sequel is good. Easy to play, and a hilarious experience. All it is though is more Borderlands. It’s a money-maker, an over-glorified DLC.