Topic: Borderlands -OT-

@JohnnyShoulder @Gremio108 Yeah, each major BL2 DLC looks to be average 6-7 hours to complete, according to howlongtobeat. There are 5 major packs including the new one. So, by my calculations 5 x 7 = uhhh.... a lot.
And then 25-30 hours if I’m to play the Pre-Sequel.... Ballpark it’ll be a solid 60+ hours to do all of it.
Maybe I’ll just play the new DLC (Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary) and call it good.
Anyone know which of the other DLC are the best? Tina Tina, Mr. Torque, Capt. Scarlett, and Sir Hammerlock. I think I must have actually played the Capt Scarlett one, since I have the trophies, but remember nothing about it.

@Th3solution I've only done Captain Scarlett so far. It was pretty cool. The soundtrack was a highlight. I've heard good things about the Tiny Tina one.

@Tasuki It's definitely the weakest of the three. I remember it improving in the final third, although that might just have been because I took a break from it for a while and came back after the fatigue had worn off.

@Th3solution Captain Scarlett is a must do just for some of the weapons you get as quest rewards. Ones like the Sandhawk, Pimpernella, and the Jolly Rodger are ideal for certain builds Torques, though I would just skip. I am not a big fan of it myself it just seemed like it was longer then it should have been and the only appeal to me at least is the ability to farm Torque Token which you can use to buy legendaries. I have yet to do Tina Tiny but that one has some good weapon drops too, the magic missle being one of the best gernade more in the game.

With that said it's all a matter of taste storywise I did enjoy Captain Scarlett and again Tiny Tina's is good from what I heard. Some people like Torques some don't.

But there's my thoughts on it

@Tasuki Good stuff. Thanks!
Have you tried the new Commander Lilith one yet?

@Th3solution I actually have not. I have been on vacation this last week so I haven't been gaming much.

Well, I have caught some of the Borderlands 2 bug. It’s great mindless fun. After loading my cross-save Siren character I decided to just play around in some of the main side quests to get myself reacquainted with the mechanics and now I can’t stop! It’s fun just running around and opening chests and fighting random baddies and completing side quests that I hadn’t done. I haven’t even tried the DLC yet, but I think I’ll go for Tiny Tina first and see how that goes.

It is really weird how the trophies work. The PS4 game is a separate list from the PS3/Vita list. Well... let me rephrase that — it’s the same list as far as it appears to be the same trophies and same requirements but it creates a new entry into your PSN trophy list with the ability re-earn all the trophies again. This is in opposition to PS3 and Vita who share the same list. I guess it’s called being “stackable” or not, - the PS4 trophies stack on top of the PS3/Vita ones. However, since I brought in my save from cross-save, some trophies popped fairly quickly in my first few minutes, but some did not. For example, none of the story completion trophies popped. But trophies for “Discover all the locations in such-and-such region” did pop when I went there. Also “unlock 10 customization items” popped right away. But strangely, the trophy “phaselock 100 enemies” popped but I’m pretty certain I haven’t phaselocked more than 20 or 30 enemies at the most since starting the PS4 game. Also “complete 20
Side missions” popped but I’ve only done about 3.

For reference, I had a 64% trophy list completion on the last gen list which includes completing the main strory. After playing for 2 hours I have a 5% completion on the new list.
It’s strange. I don’t care that much, but I’m wondering why some things carry over trophy-wise and some things don’t.

@Th3solution I’m finding replaying the game strange as I seem to be constantly overlevelled for all the side missions. I’m just on the laboriously long set of side missions for the gang warfare which I remember being annoying as it involves so much to-ing and fro-ing between maps.

I am enjoying the commando character as the turret is great, especially with the rocket upgrade.

@Th3solution Yeah same here, the Bordrlands bug has defo bitten me to! A similar thing happened to me when I played Batman Arkham Asylum and then the GOTY edition, there were two separate trophy lists.

What are your thoughts on how the gunplay feels? I mentioned I the B3 thread thst it feels a bit flat to me.

@Thrillho I'm level 21 in the Pre-sequel and all the side missions popping up are around level 12 but story missions are around my level.

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, main story ones are fine but after I’ve mopped up all the side missions, the story mission I had is then a level or two beneath me. I just did the Caustic Caverns which is a level I remember hating first time around. Thankfully, it was quite easy on normal difficulty.

I’m intrigued to see what they do with the gunplay in the new game. It never struck me as a problem playing before and, honestly, it feels okay to me now but it does seem a bit behind the times. It’s not exactly a realistic shooter in anyway though!

@JohnnyShoulder @Thrillho I feel like the gunplay is pretty good. Like you say, it’s a bit ‘cartoony’ so that makes it a little less accurate as a pure FPS, and a lot of the gunplay feels different depending on what gun you use. I tend to pick up guns based on their stats, focusing more on the damage and fire rate, but sometimes you’ll get a gun and feel excited at how awesome it’s stats are and then when you use it to shoot, it just doesn’t ‘feel’ good to shoot with. I have my favorites that I use most because they have a combination of good stats, good gunplay feel, and cool looking aesthetics. But yeah, as a shooter, it is more reminiscent of Ratchet & Clank with the animated feel and the crazy weapons. But I like it. I will welcome more refinement in BL3 though.

As for the difficulty, since I’m out of practice I appreciate that most of the side missions are a little under leveled. It seems a good balance though, as I have run into some mini bosses and hordes that were really tough, even though I’m a few levels over. There is a wide gap though with a few of the missions being higher leveled and I don’t even want to try those.

I will say, this was genius for them to release this on PS Plus at this time. I’m really having fun and getting more convinced that I need to pre-order BL3. I wish more developers utilized PS Plus to promote their upcoming products.

I still haven’t started Pre-Sequel. Will I like it coming straight from BL2?

@Th3solution If you are expecting something better with the Pre-Sequel then you will be disappointed. The biggest problem is that it just felt like more of the same that and there just a wasnt any variety in the landscape. For example in Borderlands 2 you had deserts and Arctic areas, caverns and such where Pre-Sequel is just the moon.

With that said though Pre-Sequel isn't bad it just feels like it should be DLC for Borderlands 2

@Th3solution I'm having fun with it, but I haven't played a Borderlands game in 3 years. I probably wouldn't enjoy so much if I played it sooner after playing BL2.

Apart from a few legacy niggles, such as the aforementioned backtracking and loose driving, it doesn't do much wrong but it doesn't do much to change up the formula either.

The biggest changes is that because there is no gravity in some places you can jump great distances and have butt stomp attack, which you fit with different elemental buffs much like the weapons, grenades and shields.

If you are playing with a human character you also have to manage your O2 levels when in zero atmosphere. Enemies will drop O2 canisters and you can also fill it up by using air pockets and O2 stations, the latter you have to turn on. I'm not how much of a pain this is (if at all) as I'm playing as Claptrap.

@Th3solution The big thing I hope they’ve changed is checkpointing. I don’t mind a bit of backtracking if I die (at least the area is clear) but if you close the game down midway through a map, more often than not it will throw you right back to the start of the map with all the enemies respawned.

I’m sure most people can’t clear an entire map of objectives and side missions in one sitting and it’s a bit annoying having to struggle back through levels just to get back to where you were.

@Th3solution Oh, and as others have said, the Pre-Sequel is fine. It’s more of the same as BL2 with the couple of new mechanics mentioned. The oxygen levels mechanic is a bit of a pain but rarely a big problem.

The playable characters are all interesting as they’re all related to other games/DLC. I played as Athena which was good fun. The story is also quite neat as it explains Jack’s story a bit more. I do wonder how BL3 will cope without him.

The humour is more of the same but I quite liked the Australian-ness of it all too.

@Tasuki @Thrillho @JohnnyShoulder Thanks for the replies.

I was looking at the pre-sequel characters. Besides Claptrap, which some have mentioned his pros and cons, what is a good character to select as a solo player? I’m thinking Athena or Timothy, maybe Nisha but I’m worried about Nisha’s survivability and Athena’s reliance on melee. I’m more of a mid-range player. I don’t mind a little melee and a little sniping, but I like to be able to play with SMG and assault rifles probably the most. I also like having skills and builds that either increase defense or regenerate health and make it easy to survive. I’ll take survivability over power, but prefer both of course. 😄
Any thoughts or recommendations?

@Th3solution I only played with Athena and her ability is to use her shield which absorbs damage from the front while active and is then thrown for damage at the end.

The first skill tree focuses a lot on that but the third is heavily on elemental damage with maelstrom being quite powerful.

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Athena/Skill_tree

I play completely solo and thought she was really good fun to play as and more than capable as a solo vault hunter.

My own question though; do you unlock the next level in a skill tree by putting points into the level above or any level in that tree?

On BL2, I’ve almost got to the final skill on the first tree but the level above only increases your grenade capacity. I don’t really need that but the top tier ability is pretty powerful. I’d rather put the points into “lower” lever skills instead.

@Thrillho If memory serves, I think that you have to put at least one point into the level above to unlock the next level. I could be wrong though.

@Th3solution I am not the guy to ask about The Pre-Sequel. The very little I played I was Nisha which I heard can be a beast for solo play but I never play solo so I wouldn't know. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

@Thrillho You can put points into any skill in that tree I think. As long as it's in the correct tree. Maybe make a note of where you'd allocated your points just in case. You can always re-spec at a change station if it doesn't work.

@Th3solution The platinum for BL2 seems to be a little easier on PS4. Last time I didn't bother with the character-specific trophies as it involved levelling them up a fair bit to ensure you can keep their skill activated long enough. But now you can create lvl 30 characters from scratch. I think I might go for the BL2 plat this time.

I've got the bug too, as everyone else seems to have.