Hooray, the game came out 10 years ago, and i've finally sit down & played it.

It's a pretty decent game, 7 or an 8 out of 10, but there's quite a few reasons as to why I enjoyed it, and some gripes I have with it. Nonetheless though, the TLDR is that if you're willing to wade through it's weak bits, the strong bits are absolutely stellar. Although, like the rest of the borderlands games, they have aged a bit, the UI is a bit odd at times, the controls can be a bit stiff. If you are coming from Borderlands 3, most of the Quality of life that the game had to sharpen the experience is just not here. And that's okay, just go into the game knowing that it'll be a bit finicky at first, and it'll soon subside.

So in the timeline of games, this is just after Borderlands 1 and it's DLCs, but just before Borderlands 2, the Pre-Sequel is a bit misleading in it's title, but it is essentially the pre sequel for the second game, of which it is the sequel of the first. Got it? Good. It's imperative you understand this little confusion for people who are new to borderlands & want to give it a go, or a returning fan of the series playing the games in the leadup to Borderlands 4.

This review beyond this point is spoiler free, but I will talk a little about the secondary protagonist, Jack. So if you reach this point. Just know I recommend you give the game the go.

While not as stellar as Borderlands 2, which is a *very* good game, it does stand on it's own two legs as being a very fun experience that sets up the story jump between the first & second game very well. Showing the rise of John Borderlands (Handsome Jack). The main story is honestly excellent, and combined with the lore is where this game really does shine it's best. You really start to feel for a tragic unredeemable character, and that's something that is tremendously hard to pull off. And I absolutely enjoyed the slow burn from which you started to see the cracks form in who Jack shows himself to be, and into the eventual fall into madness. I chose to play as Athena, whom as far as I can tell is the most fleshed out of all the characters in terms of connection with the world. As she is a returning character from one of Borderlands 1's DLCs, and unfortunately her playstyle ended up being one of my only real gripes with the game. Not the playstyle itself, but rather that the game absolutely expects you to make full use of her skills, which is primarily melee & her shield, A thing I kept forgetting was there as melee in this game is not fun, and her shield is a bit unwieldy at times. And since I was not using them to their strongest, the end game got *rough*. But that's more of a thing that can be avoided if you choose a character that actually works with your playstyle.

The Character cast was all really good, enjoyed the lovelust of janey, the idiocy of the meriff, zarpe-whos-it's almost feral desire to commit a genocide just because she was pious, and of course, the man of the hour, John Borderlands (Jack). And the humor that you come for in borderlands games is all there. And it often catches you a bit off guard. As for the vault hunters' their past is supremely fleshed out, and just as insane as you want them to be, just don't talk about that yellow box shaped character. He's not in this game unless you want him to be. Some even return, with Wilhelm in 2, and Timothy & Aurelia in 3.

As for the lore, strap yourselves in, as this may well be story & lore that sets up the **4th** game, as some of it sets up events in the 2nd & 3rd games, there's also hints at potential events in the 4th game. We'll have to wait and see for that one however. This is genuinely a gold mine for Borderlands lore as you learn about your favourite characters, learn that a beloved character in borderlands 2 created an ecological disaster, and a man named Toby van Adobe stole some Soap. Not only do you learn more about Pandora, but you also learn more about it's weirdly linked moon Elpis, and despite the usually gray tones on the moon, there are some parts of this game that are just unbelievably stunning in ways that nothing else in the series compares to.

But this game isn't perfect, and there's some reasons as to that. Some of the sidequests are in odd positions where you feel like the stakes could not be higher but oh boy some clap trap needs some help but they just happen to be in one part of the game where the tensions ramped up so high that taking that detour ruins the momentum. There's a lot of parts in this game where the platforming is tight, and since you cannot climb things you end up barely missing & falling to your death. Mechanics like the "Oz" meter (will make more sense when you play the game), are kinda just there? They're not exactly annoying & perilous, but not really engaging, tbh I barely felt any reason to pretend that the oz meter existed. And that may just be a blessing with how often you go without oxygenated environments. There's some mechanics that seem like they'd be absolutely amazing if they implemented them more, only to find out they did it only once (like using cryo to shrink glass to break it), I can yearn for a borderlands game with an intense level of elemental interactivity, but unfortunately not today. This game does often feel like more of a melting pot of ideas at times, and while some of them were left behind in 3 for good reasons, I do feel like they left some seriously good ideas behind like the laser weapons, and the elemental interactivity. The only other complaint was that the difficulty felt a little out of control, like at times it felt as if my shield didn't exist with how fast it got destroyed, or the amount of enemies being far too much for 1 person to handle.

Overall, while I had some things I did not enjoy about the game, there was plenty to make up for it, and as a borderlands nerd, this was still a very fun game, and I genuinely recommend it for everyone who enjoys this series. It's lore, characters & story are well and beyond more to make up for it's weird ideas, even if it isn't the masterpiece that is Borderlands 2. Also good luck to anyone else doing the marathon of BL1 - BL-PS - BL2 - BL3 in hype for the 4th game.

Also I find it absolutely hilarious how Australian the moon is, did everyone from Australia go there or something.

Not Recommended

Waste of money. Doesn't run on modern rigs