Players who wanted a little more substance out of their missions in the original Borderlands will be overjoyed to hear that Gearbox Software will be creating substantially larger missions for the follow-up, Borderlands 2. As many players who have had the opportunity to give the original game a shot, they may have found some of the pertinent story missions lacking a little something – In this case, length.
Borderlands delivered unto gamers a great and not to be missed first-person shooter and role playing game hybrid, and it was only natural that Borderlands 2 would be in the works after that. While the gameplay of the original was spot on and very rewarding, the mission structure, story or otherwise, wasn’t as compelling. Designer on Borderlands 2, Paul Hellquist, says this issue will be refined and fixed for the sequel, where missions will span longer times and be more involved, changing as players progress.
The plot of Borderlands had players assume the role of a Vault Hunter, an individual who was searching for a mythical trove of treasure, and they were guided along by a mysterious female figure. There was a lot more to it of course, regarding the actual corporations that had a presence on the planet Pandora, but unfortunately, it wasn’t very impressive. So what will Gearbox Software be doing to fix that for the sequel? Paul Hellquist says:
“The story missions in Borderlands 2 are about three times the scope of a single story mission in the first game. And they twist and turn throughout; your gameplay is changing, your goals are changing… it will be a much more dynamic experience compared to last time.”
“Lots of fans and critics gave us the business on the story. When we took a look at what we had done last time, we said, ‘we can do way better than that’… So [the] story has been, from the very first day, one of the most important things that we wanted to improve in Borderlands 2.”
Some missions weren’t entirely lacking in Borderlands; The missions that put the player up against the Crimson Enclave or the ones where you learned more about the planet had some great value. However, when it came to progressing the actual story, the game sort of felt like it came off track and couldn’t manage to make it back on.
Along with a revamped story for the sequel, Borderlands 2 will also be featuring brand new playable characters and customizable weapons. The official announcement for Borderlands 2 puts the game at a 2012-2013 launch window, leaving Gearbox more than adequate time to get the kinks out of the story and gameplay.
In addition to the company releasing a sequel to Borderlands, Gearbox is also working on Aliens: Colonial Marines, slated for a 2012 release so it looks like the Texas-based developer will be a pretty busy company next year.
Borderlands 2 likely releases in 2013 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
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Source: Game Informer (via CVG)
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yep that is something that Borderlands is substantially missing which is the reason I didnt like Borderlands but Borderlands 2 looks promising already, I might pre order it soon ><
you didn’t like a RPG for the missions… you clearly don’t know the mentality behind RPG’s, especially one like borderlands.
I would like to control a Claptrap.
@jwalka no its not about borderlands being a rpg but elements like quests being repetitive but shows the backstory of pandora which is kinda interesting despite the fact that the main plot is so linear (discover the vault). Borderlands doesnt really suck me in to its world besides the millions of guns and the refreshing new worlds in the form of DLC (Ned’s Zombie Island, Moxxies Underdome).
yeah, looking back at the scenery of BL i sorta understand your point, the levels where all boring and dull, with no substantial highlight in any of them, all it showcased was the industrial side of things (giant ore mining machine, the area of the world shown being a giant dump yard).
by the looks of things, BL 2 will feature more then just piles of trash and flat/dull colours, the idea of missions lasting longer could hint at areas being larger in scale and in turn, they could add more into areas to further the world of pandora.
I hope they introduce some type of MP arena against randoms. Like you and your buddy go down to the arenas, put your names on a list and it matches you with two others and duke it out with cash rewards. That would be fun.
Very excited for this, Borderlands was the best co-op game i have played on PS3 and possibly ever. Still have a blast to this day playing it with buddies. Yeah the story isnt the greatest but its by no means distracting from the fun of the game which is find an awesome weapon and shoot everything! the DLC has all been extremely good also. They are all really fun and worth playing. Borderlands 2 is definitely on my “must-have” list!
They need to make the game open world like it was originally planned. Before they scrapped many, many ideas, the game had really good graphics in an open world setting without the cartoon style textures.
I prefer the cartoon style, hand drawn textures. It gave the game a very unique feel over other shooters as far as what you were looking at. Instead of some dark seedy world with copy and paste graphics that have been basically the same idea slightly re-hashed since Shooters became mainstream.
Borderlands is completely unique in both feel and play style. A few people have pointed out that the story is linear, but there are quite a few little bonus’s to find if you explore every inch of the game. The DLC also really felt good. My only Balk was the new Vehicles that couldn’t be brought back into the main game. Hopefully they change that.
A more open world would be fantastic, though I do like the MMO Zone feel to it as well.
But as with all things, one mans joy is another mans pain.
They determined length is what the missions were missing? Oh thank god they didn’t decide that it was story line. Because the missions in the original were perfect as far as story line goes, with random individuals telling you to do useless and unrelated tasks in order to advance an already flat plot line.