Jetpacks, ice bullets, and playable Claptrap!
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequelis official. The latest entry in Gearbox’s shooter looter takes place between the originalBorderlandsandBorderlands 2, hence thePre-Sequelmoniker. The new game is based on theBorderlands 2engine as well, and will be sticking to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.
You’ll be able to play as one of four new — yet familiar — characters as you work for Handsome Jack during his rise to power. Oh, and a majority of the game takes place on Pandora’s moon. And you get jet packs. And laser guns. And ice weapons. Oh my.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel(PC [previewed], PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)Developers: 2K Games Australia, Gearbox SoftwarePublisher: 2K GamesRelease: TBA 2014
So what’s going on this time in theBorderlandsuniverse? Story-wise,The Pre-Sequelfocuses on four new playable hunters working for Handsome Jack as he rises to his role you eventually see him inBorderlands 2. Every playable character is someoneBorderlandsfans should be pretty familiar with too. Here’s the breakdown:
Athena, a crimson lance assassin from theGeneral Knoxxexpansion. Sheriff Nisha, an NPC fromBorderlands 2. Wilhelm, the first big boss character inBorderlands 2— but before he became a giant robot.The Pre-Sequeldoes see Wilhelm evolving over the course of the game as he slowly becomes more and more cybernetic with his upgrades and such. And last but not least, Claptrap! Yup, Claptrap is finally playable. The camera is even positioned much lower than normal to reflect the murderous robot’s height too.
For the demo, 2K was using Athena and one of her main abilities was this shield she can pull up to absorb enemy fire. You’re still able to shoot while it’s up, and once the shield has absorbed enough damage you’re able to fling it out at an enemy for incredible damage. An upgrade to the shield will later allow you to hurl the shield to hit multiple enemies, Captain America style.
The biggest change to come toBorderlandswith the latest entry is the place all the action is happening on: the freaking moon! Yes, you’re finally able to explore the moon and it offers a few major new mechanics that may make playing the olderBorderlandsgames challenging once you experience all the new features.
The major change is that you have an oxygen meter now. You need oxygen to breathe on the surface of the moon, but oxygen also doubles as the fuel for your jet pack. Yup, jet packs are a thing now. Jet packs allow you to double jump, soar even longer through the air on top of the lower gravity provided by the moon, and whenever you’re high enough you may even do a ground pound to either get down to the surface faster, or hurt some enemies.
Using your jet pack’s abilities does drain oxygen, and it’s definitely something you need to monitor as you play now. Oxygen is lootable, and the live demo we were shown had multiple points from which the player was able to refill oxygen so it doesn’t look like it will be too tedious of a thing to manage. Note that it’s only when you’re outside of a base or interior location that you have to worry about your oxygen intake. Otherwise the action inside a base is more akin to pastBorderlandsgames — except, you know, there’s still lower gravity and you have a freaking jet pack.
Borderlands‘ biggest claim to fame is its billions and billions of guns, andThe Pre-Sequelintroduces two new weapon types. The first are laser weapons, from guns that shoot out little laser blasts like inStar Wars, to guns that fire out a steady stream of fire power like the Proton packs fromGhostsbusters.
Then there’s the Cryo guns, which have the new ice elemental effect. The Cryo guns can slow enemies down, eventually completely freezing them solid at which point you’re able to then shatter them into hundreds of pieces — an effect made even cooler on the moon as the ice pieces float off.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequelis a collaborative project between 2K Games Australia and Gearbox Software. While Gearbox has a hand inThe Pre-Sequel‘s development, the Australian team has been afforded the creative freedom to add its own spin on the series. “They almost approached it like fans did,” Randy Pitchford, head of Gearbox Software, stated when describing the Australian’s team take on the franchise.
The Cryo guns are a good example of what 2K Australia brought to the table when creating this latestBorderlands. “I’ve always wanted ice bullets inBorderlandsand it finally happened,” Randy told us. “Internally we used to argue about this at Gearbox. The Australian team did not care about our argument. They were like ‘Fuck it. We want ice bullets, we’re going to make damn ice bullets.'”
Those of you attending PAX East this weekend will want to stop by the 2K booth as they’ll be showing offBorderlands: The Pre-Sequeldemos of what Destructoid got to see recently. We’ll have more to tell you about the latestBorderlandsearly Friday morning, including why there won’t be an Xbox One or PlayStation 4 version ofThe Pre-Sequel.
