[Hands-On Preview] & # 39; Borderlands 3 & # 39; looks more like the same, but could be bigger and better than ever



[ad_1]

The sooner takes Borderlands 3The original trailer of The Occupation occupied the – to use an analogy with another series that spends a lot of time on a dangerous desert planet – Beggar's Canyon, between Borderlands. Yay! "And" It's more Borderlands. Yawning."

After watching for about an hour from the start of the game and playing an hour and a half with a mid-level character, I can confirm that Borderlands 3 indeed seems to be more Borderlands. It also seems that, above all, better Borderlands.

This has not really been highlighted in any of the trailers shown by Gearbox so far, but almost as soon as the game started during the revelation of the press in Hollywood on Tuesday (a dress rehearsal of the game revealed the rest of it was seen Wednesday worldwide) that significant changes had been made to bring the series into line with the standards set by modern first-person shooters. And if they were not immediately obvious, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford, and Borderlands 3 Creative Director Paul Sage was on stage to comment.

Graphically, Borderlands 3 is like the game as a whole: more, but better. Thick and black outlines; cel-shading; the colorful models of comic characters – they are all still there. But, give any object more than a glance and the details begin to appear. The rusty, lilac-like flowers that line Claptrap in the tutorial area flutter in the breeze. Traces of corrugated tires probably left by a Bandit technician printed in the sand of Pandora. The white masking tape holding the "General Claptrap" retractable antenna.

Appropriately, the (billion) firearms seem to have received so much attention. The textured metal firing pin of the three-gun rifle used by protesters at Tuesday's revelation shone with a complexity of detail that would probably have been impossible the last time. The Tediore logo's white paint on one of the mega-society's disposables (you literally throw it out when a clip is empty) realistically tracks the cracks and contours along the weapon's chamber. Even before the playable character, Amara, picks up a weapon, we take a look at her new detailed hands, painted with black nail polish and the purple body markings of a mermaid; crackled with bold brushstrokes at the joints and along the lifebuoys of his palms.

Changes in quality of life have also occurred in the usual combat loops of loot. Moving around in Pandora has never been so fluid. Your Vault Hunter can now cover surfaces (instead of needing a jumping rabbit over a high blanket), and squatting sprint produces a satisfying effect. Apex Legendsslide

We took care to make this world more responsive. Covering gets worse as it catches fire (although time will tell how much it really matters Borderlands 3, a game that is not a cover shooting game in any other way than the one you shoot and that it contains a cover). A point-blank shot reduced the enemy's head to a shower of red pieces. During the revelation of the party, the demo used a melee attack in the manner of a thrust into force to throw a barrel of fuel into the mini-boss Shiv, killing him instantly.

"It's the first time he's able to kill him that way," Pitchford marveled, wearing a black shirt and a huge number "3" of golden sequins on the back. "It's cool when the cool things happen when we do the live demo."

And the vault hunters will have more weapons in their arsenals this time, both literally and figuratively. Literally, many weapons have alternate fire modes. A pistol that fires bullets may also be able to fire mini-rockets. An elemental Maliwan can switch between fire and ice damage.

"Players who maximize this feature may have, for example, double the firearms before," Sage said. (I can not do the math, though … what's the double of a bajillion?)

In addition, each Vault Hunter now has three action abilities – one against one in previous games – each residing at the top of a separate skill tree. Currently in AAA, each game is an action RPG and each action RPG must have three skill trees that you will be able to maximize at the end of the game. Borderlands 3The approach advocates a greater degree of personalization and, therefore, more interesting choices.

"If two people want to team up and play the same character, they will probably have completely different abilities," said Pitchford.

Gearbox's Randy Varnell talks about the story of Borderlands 3, his characters, and the replacement of Handsome Jack.

In my free time, I was eager to take control of Zane, the Irish brogue mercenary who worked for all the sun businesses, and the only character who, by sacrificing the pomegranate button, can exercise multiple action capabilities at the same time. These abilities. At the beginning of the demo, I was on the outskirts of the Meridian Metroplex, a huge cyberpunk city on the planet Promethea, bathed in neon roses, greens and blues.

The city is controlled by Atlus, one of the mega-corporations that function effectively as nation-states in the world of Borderlands. This nation-state is besieged by the Maliwan society, known for (as mentioned above) creating weapons with powerful elemental effects. That's what a hostile takeover looks like in a world where companies control entire planets. We quickly learn that the CEO of Atlus is Rhys, former assistant to the concierge of Hyperion, former fan of Beautiful Jack Jack and protagonist of the Telltale group. Borderlands Tales, and that we respond to a distress call within the metroplex.

From my point of view, outside the city, these huge problems are invisible. Record a few flashing "SEEK SHELTER" video displays flashing red and a distorted radio transmission that occasionally flashes on my HUD. Lilith instructing me, I slide under an overpass and start heading towards the city, chasing skag-like animals that occupy the tunnels beneath the main arteries leading to the city. I empty a Tediore gun into one of those beasts, which Zane automatically launches when the clip is finished. He sits for a moment on the ground and targets an opponent with a laser. Then he starts shooting, sprouts a pair of tiny metal legs and chases the monster to the ground, exploding on contact.

As I continue to move along the hollow, GrandpaAs an enemy, a "Pyrotech Heavy" appears by spitting fire on me with a massive flamethrower. My shields and my health quickly reached zero and for the first time, I knelt. As in previous games, I have the opportunity to redeem myself and revive myself by getting another kill. The speed of movement during these sections has increased with each game – in the first Borderlands you were rooted in the place where you descended – and in Borderlands 3 your pace is roughly equivalent to your speed when you are crouching. I kill one of the monsters and I get up, but I'm quickly on the verge of being submerged again. This seems to be for story purposes, since Lorelei, a badass woman with a cockney accent and a crimson purple paint is quickly introduced, appearing by my side to help fight the remaining villains. We learn that she was the voice in these distorted radio messages and the source of the distress distress call.

She offers to take me to Rhys and we head to a Catch-a-Ride station to drive a car. The customization options have been greatly expanded in Borderlands 3, offering variations on armor, wheels, guns, color, construction material and modifications. More importantly, you can totally avoid cars for the benefit of a hovercraft or a big ass wheel. In the demo I played, the hovercrafts were not yet unlocked. So I chose to fly the steering wheel (the steering seems particularly suited to the unstable control of the latest generation, driving commands Gearbox holds. 3).

After fighting Psychos aboard vehicles (which will now jump on the hood of your car if you are not careful), we go to Lorelei's hiding place, where Rhys appears as a hologram. Rhys is desperate for help in his fight against Maliwan. He is whiny and disappointed when he discovers that, no, it's just me, not the army he imagined. After making him sweat, I agree to help despite his attitude. I am a waypoint that leads me to – and it was a great moment of applause that has appeared both in the live revelations and in the playable demo – Zer0, the fan favorite, Vault Hunter, featured for the first time in Borderlands 2.

We join together to find Gigamind, a mysterious object that, according to Zer0, is a Maliwan AI with most of the important information in the society. Zer0 wants some help to find an update of his signature sword.

To get to Gigamind, we have to fight many enemies. The Heavies are back, shooting and distributing burn damage with a powerful zone effect attack. I take this opportunity to try out Zane's double-acting abilities, equipping his double energy shield and body capacity, which allows me to create a doppelganger and then exchange positions with him. I install the shield and shoot a heavy from behind. Then, once his attention is drawn to the shield, I switch with my double and teleport behind my reckless opponent. I shoot him until he notices my new position, then I come back to safety.

I move from this tactic to the race-to-face until I finally shoot down the heavies. Zer0 and I go forward, attacking Maliwan bots as we go, lowering an energy barrier and opening the way to improving his katana. Zer0 uses his newly upgraded katana to cut an energy shield and we head to the crossing point where Gigamind is installed.

How can we install an artificial intelligence store? Simple, Zer0 was wrong and Gigamind is not an artificial intelligence at all. They are a very material intelligence: a slimy pink brain in a glass helmet resting on a tiny green and purple frame. When I approach, Gigamind sits on a throne, but goes down quickly using saucer-shaped flying drones. In the ensuing fight, Gigamind uses these drones as weapons, sending them as a discus in my direction, guiding them on the battlefield like a hoverboard and forming big emoticons over their heads. I dodge, roll and weave, and the smart little boy is quickly dispatched, exploding in a rain of loot.

"Vault Hunter, you're worthy of that name," Zer0 tells me after the battle. "Happy hunting with you."

I go back to Rhys to make the mission and the demo finish soon after.

If you have already played Borderlands games, you've seen a good deal of what Gearbox is doing here. But the world they created this time is bigger, more varied – I can not wait to see more of Meridian and the jungle planet they showed in caravans – and more responsive. The story they tell, the purpose of the streamer culture, the sects and, as always, the mega-companies, interests me more than ever. In addition, improvements in the quality of life make the game more enjoyable and enjoyable.

However, it's an open game, and so far we've only seen the intro and played a single mission. Given that Gearbox promises 30 hours of main story (and a lot more out of the critical path), I'm curious to see how tight kernel loops stand up in a huge game. But, for the moment, there seems to be a lot of things that arouse enthusiasm.

Borderlands 3 will be released on September 13 on PS4, Xbox One and PC.

[ad_2]

Source link