Practical experience: Borderlands 3 is a bigger and smarter Borderlands 2

Borderlands 3 plays like Borderlands 2 after taking a few years to eat healthy, to exercise daily and to read a book. It's bigger and smarter, but deep inside me, it's still the same juvenile and violent game I've fallen in love with. I am so relieved.

With Borderlands 3, what you see is what you get. No seasonal passes, no operating microtransactions, and oblique suction systems masked under the name Content ™. It's just a good stats-based FPS that you can play with friends. And after spending three hours with two new Vault hunters and chatting with creative and artistic directors, Borderlands 3 is clearly another great excuse to shoot monsters and men while completing quests in search of weapons on even more strange fire. Watch our three hours of play continuously to see what I mean.

If you have not completed Borderlands 2 yesterday, changes and upgrades will not appear at a glance. There is no major novelty, but its weapons are more surprising and refined than ever, the fight is more mobile and chaotic and, what is better, it is not another game living in the vein of Destiny 2 or The Division 2. There is a lot to look for deeply. Here is a bird's eye view of all the important changes from Borderlands 2 to Borderlands 3.

The weapons look and feel so much better

In Borderlands 3, having three guns is like having six guns.

Borderlands 2 had a lot of interesting weapons but their best attributes were usually relegated to statistics. All weapon models, regardless of their manufacturer, share parts of the same universal pool. They looked unique, but not really were unique. Challenging enemies, stiff recoil and weapon animations, and hollow sound effects make the biggest cannons feel like aggressive dealer numbers. As an RPG-infused RPG, Borderlands was ahead of its time, but behind the ballistic department.

I did not think maths and meat could actually work together in an FPS with a gachapon gun system, but Borderlands 3 feels like a real shooter. The firearms are strong and heavy this time, with custom firing mechanisms for each manufacturer and type of weapon, and a much more obvious feedback built into the weapon 's recoil and reaction to it. l & # 39; enemy.

Since there are many variants of firearms, they will not have the fidelity and details of each unique Destiny 2 exotic, but they look, feel and sound remarkable. Scott Kester, Artistic Director, told me this because Gearbox basically designed Borderlands-sized weapon generation systems for every fictional firearms manufacturer in Borderlands 3. "In the past, all the parts shared between all firearms, and this time, we've built whole suites of randomized weapons in each manufacturer to make them a little more consistent, "said Kester.

And how is it expressed? Junky Tediores not only explodes when launched, they may turn into an explosive holographic explosive balloon or turn into a small brain with eyeballs and spider legs that harass enemies with corrosive damage. . A basic Hyperion pistol swallows my arm, as Tim Cook designed a Mega Man blaster and fired tracking grenades that allow me to score targets and fold the balls around the blanket.

A Maliwan shotgun casts a shield that could absorb the bullets and turn them into life ammunition or send them back to the enemy. And it may require charging gunshots before firing, or maybe everything is spat out in my magazine as quickly as possible. This does not even take into account the particular aesthetic of each manufacturer or the unique line of sight that expresses the discharge mechanisms of this weapon, or, more importantly, the fact that many weapons also have an alternative fire mode. .

The change of firing rate is an expected thing, but most of the alternate firing modes of Borderlands 3 are truly alternative. A simple gun could trigger a barrage of rockets by pressing a button. An LMG becomes a grenade launcher. A shotgun swaps between types of elemental damage. An SMG turns into a sniper rifle. In Borderlands 3, having three guns is like having six guns.

The fight is faster and more fluid

The novelty of Borderlands 3 is the ability to hit or grab edges to reach a higher ground if my jump height does not cut it. Coupled with another new capability and a newly popular FPS staple, the squat slide, and Borderlands 3 becomes a mobile and shaker hell. Enemies love to run too, and as they breed in larger numbers, there is no time to lose in Borderlands 3.

Even though I try to hide myself, most of the time, the blanket is destructible. But I like the added urgency. This reap the gratuitous violence – sometimes the enemies will literally have their eyes wide open when they see someone with a squatting shotgun sliding towards their face – and encourage the use of everything in my arsenal. Most arenas make good use of my ability to climb, providing convenient bypass routes. It means that I am viable at all distances. From a high point of view, I can get some elite shooter shots before throwing a grenade or skipping a skill, then jumping up a notch, reducing the distance to the # 1 shot. 39; Assist an assault rifle or assault rifle, then clean the brothel with a cannon shot, jump and slide to the shelter.

In Borderlands 2, my tactics were: get out of my hiding place, shoot until my shield falls, put me under cover, repeat. In Borderlands 3, my tactics are rash and manic. It is designed to push me in the middle of the scrum, dodge, weave and juggle a stupid and varied arsenal to minimize the time spent hiding. The basic act of shooting guys is ultimately fun enough to fend for themselves.

You can emote

Flossing has not been confirmed yet.

The port of attachment is a spaceship that will take you away from Pandora

Your adventures in Borderlands 3 are anchored in a ship orbiting one of the many planets to explore that are not Pandora (but also Pandora). Sanctuary 3 is your hub and most of your old friends also frequent it. Here's who and what we know to be on board.

• A new vending machine spitting loot lost on the ground
• Personal neighborhoods, you can decorate with firearms
• Marcus's Muntions is back as a supplier of weapons and upgrades, with an included shooting range
• Moxxi's bar comes back, and yes, that means the slot machines are back too
• There is an infirmary supervised by Dr. Tannis, although I am not sure of his purpose
• The bridge is the place where you will choose a planetary destination (Promethea was the only new one available during the demonstration).
• Hammerlock's room is where you'll climb corpses stuffed with special monsters as you kill
• The launch bay is where you go, uh, throw? Ellie says hello
• Even Crazy Earl, the mysterious salesman with hesitant eyes is back, but he still only takes Eridium.

The exploration really counts

Borderlands 3 is full of things to find and do.

I spent the entirety of my second 90 minutes of play wandering around Promethea and I came across a handful of side missions and fun collectibles. Borderlands 2 sometimes hides a joke or villain in its different corners, but Borderlands 3 is full of things to discover and do. Here is a short list of what I found:

• Collectable voice messages: left behind by the "first safe hunter", these lost messages promise you an OG safe fighter equipment reward if you find enough of it.
• Hidden vehicles: After climbing a few bends under a viaduct, I discovered a concealed vehicle chassis delivered with a tacky mining launcher. More on this subject in a minute.
• Worship radio tours: Moxxi wants to dominate the airwaves and she will pay you special dollars to find and sabotage hidden cult broadcast machines.
• The combat challenges of zero: What I thought was a stalemate in the sewers under Promethea was actually a test. Zero (an old Vault Hunter) appeared and asked me to empty the room to get a reward. Special high-level enemies happened and I quickly disappeared with guns.
• Components of Claptrap's girlfriend: Claptrap is alone, so he builds his lover. Find coins throughout the galaxy and put them back in the wind, sad and delightful, and he will reward you by spending more time in his room. Maybe a booty or something too.

Vehicle customization is one thing, and you can find or steal new parts

Oh yes, Borderlands 3 is also GTA now. In addition to finding hidden vehicles and bringing them back to Catch-aA-Drive to retrieve their parts, you can also hijack enemy vehicles if they are driving with a turret or a strange chassis that you do not have .

Simply kill the driver or hijack his vehicle and collect these shiny objects during a catch-a-ride. From there, it is possible to trap each frame with the armor, weapons, rims, skins and color schemes of your choice. In the demo, I found a buggy for two people, a buggy for three people with a turret mounted and a ferris wheel that works as a solo vehicle.

The booty is instantiated (unless you like to share)

Strangers have taken too many of my weapons in Borderlands 2. But in Borderlands 3, the booty is instantiated, which means that all members of your group receive their own loot. No more monopolis unless you like it. A classic mode will allow you to share (and steal) loot. This means that the leveling of power is always possible. Step into a late play area with a level 50 friend and let them all kill while hiding behind rocks, leveling up with each breath.

It's more memorable and full of references than what I expected from me

The main villains are, as Randy Pitchford says, "… as the most talented type of live streamers of the future that you can possibly imagine". They are inherently punchable faces that joke about tastes and subscriptions and call the player their favorite disciple.

Borderlands 3 is more self-conscious and online than I thought.

Going to get coffee for a friend is a pretty long question, a joke that stretches out on several goals and big fights where the joke is: Coffee is good! I would say that this is a task that the older community of Facebook is waiting for, but you have to steal a battery from a guy called Cell Daddy.

Claptrap screams again and shouts and oscillates between gratuitous pride, stupidity and shame. He is building a girlfriend now. A Windows 95 user license agreement with the appearance of Windows 95 appears on the screen during the installation of ECHO 3. I killed a king who claimed the restaurant burger from my boyfriend. A burger king, could we say. Hold on laughing.

Borderlands 3 is more self-conscious and online than I would have thought, and although the stream of jokes and passing references falls flat for me, the physical comedy is better than ever. My favorite piece: I am asked to install a bag of blood on an NPC (who makes bad rap that are not funny, even ironically) using a button prompt that also happens to be the prompt melee.

Driven by all the video games of history to obey it, I press the button … and I mix the guy. As a Zane, my wrists cut off the guy's arm. I sat there stunned for a few seconds. More of that stuff, Gearbox.