Borderlands 2

by 2K Games

• Dynamic Co-op online, split-screen and LAN: Share your adventures with friends both online and via LAN. Borderlands 2 features a seamless system enabling you to drop in and drop out of a campaign without ever having to restart the game.
• World Connected Story: You will find yourself left for dead in the frozen tundra of Pandora as you begin your quest of revenge and redemption.
• New Badass Gun System: An entirely new take on the groundbreaking procedural system means millions upon millions of possible weapons. The variety and style of guns in Borderlands 2 is staggering.
• 87 Bazillion Everything: In addition to the new gun system, you will lust after procedurally generated shields, grenades, Alien Artifacts, class mods and much, much more. And you thought the original Borderlands had a ton of loot!
• Brand new environments on Pandora: Hunt through entirely brand new areas of Pandora that are more alive than ever!

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0050SYK44
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches ; 4 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: September 18, 2012
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (613 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #96 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #6 in Video Games > Xbox 360 > Games > Adventure

Product Description

Platform: Xbox 360 | Edition: Standard

Amazon.com

Borderlands 2 is a hybrid First-Person Shooter, RPG game focused on over-the-top co-op play, and set in the open-world game environment of the planet Pandora. The second game in the game series, Borderlands 2 raises the 'loot and shoot' action of the original game with an even larger and more detailed world to explore, an updated gun system, a new cast of characters and character classes, and integration of storyline with action.

The over-the-top 'loot and shoot' action of the Borderlands game universe returns with a new characters and character classes.
View larger

Over-the-Top 'Shoot and Loot' Action Returns

Borderlands 2, sequel to the critically acclaimed and best selling role-playing-shooter hybrid, once again delivers its unique flavor, characters and addictive nonstop collaborative loot-shoot gameplay. As in the original game, Borderlands 2 features an openworld game environment, but this time around the world players experience is larger and packed with more depth at all levels. The game features an all-new cast of characters, skills, environments, enemies, weapons, and equipment that come together in a carefully crafted and connected story. Make new friends, arm them to the teeth and fight alongside them on a relentless quest for revenge and redemption through the undiscovered and unpredictable living world of Pandora.

Key Game Features

• All-New Characters and Classes - Choose from all new characters and classes including the Gunzerker, who can dual-wield any two weapons in the game. Dual machine guns? Cool. Dual rocket launchers? Of course. Dual sniper rifles? sure, if that’s your thing.
• Play Online with Friends - Share your adventures with friends both online and via LAN through a seamless system enabling you to drop in and drop out of a campaign without ever having to restart the game.
• World Connected Story - Left for dead in the frozen tundra of Pandora, begin your quest of revenge and redemption as the story drives you closer to the Hyperion Corporation and its evil founder, handsome Jack.
• New Badass Gun System - Millions upon millions of possible weapons means tons of new and innovative ways to engage foes on Pandora. Fire, electricity, corrosive acid, and more will all be at your disposal.
• 87 Bazillion...Everything - It's not just guns on Pandora, you will lust after procedurally generated shields, grenades, alien artifacts, class mods and much, much more.
• Brand-new Environments - From the arctic tundra, through the dangerous grasslands, past the mysterious corrosive caverns to beyond, discover more of the unpredictable world of Pandora at every turn.
• Brand-new Enemies - Hulking, gorilla-like Bullymongs, vicious predatory stalkers and the hyperion mechanical army, run by handsome Jack, are just some of the new enemies you will face.

Additional Screenshots

Continued focus on co-op play. View larger

Hybrid FPS and RPG gameplay. View larger

New badass gun system. View larger

More detailed open-world. View larger

Product Description

Borderlands 2 furthers the distinct blending of First Person Shooter and Role Playing genres to create the true evolution of the Role Playing Shooter. Team up with up to three other players for four-player online goodness or go old-school with two-player split-screen couch sharing mayhem as you spend hours leveling up your character and equipping them with one of the millions of badass weapons. Borderlands 2 features a new visually stunning array of procedurally generated guns, shields, grenades, artifacts, enemies and more. Choose one of the four new character classes to be taken through a carefully crafted and connected story to all new and surprising environments across the living planet of Pandora. Make new friends, arm them to the teeth and fight alongside them on your relentless quest for revenge and redemption.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

139 of 161 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars In Short, It's the Sequel You Truly Wanted 91% September 18, 2012

By Private Quentin Tarantino Fan

Platform for Display:Xbox 360|Edition:Standard

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

Visuals-90/100(Great art style make for a great looking game)
Story-87/100 (Smartly written, funny, and features a lot of personality)
Sound-88/100 (Great voice acting and moody music compliment the experience)
Game play-94/100(Borderlands 2's RPG elements jell together with a very playable game)
Replay Value-93/100 (A lengthy game, co-op, and much more make for a game you will play over and over again)

When Borderlands was released back in 2009, it surprised everyone with it's unique hybrid of shooting and role playing. Borderlands was definitely unique, and personally, I thought it was the first true RPG/FPS hybrid. Sure, there were games like System Shock 2 beforehand, but SS2 isn't so much a shooter as it is an action role playing survival horror hybrid, and from a FPS standpoint, it's actually horribly repetitive and clunky. But Borderlands combined Diablo-style looting and frantic FPS combat, all the while providing for some of the most intense and satisfying gun play in a shooter. Borderlands was definitely a breath of fresh air in the FPS market, and it's a darn shame we don't have more games in the genre like it. Now, Borderlands is back with this top notch sequel, and the series is better than ever.

I won't say too much about the single player experience, but given the amount of missions available, it seems Borderlands 2 will provide a lengthy, satisfying experience. I'm not finished with the game yet, but I can tell that it isn't going to end any time soon. People who have beaten it already have said the game will take around 30 hours to complete, so single player fans will be satisfied. From what I gather, numerous reviewers are saying that you will want to play through the entire game more than once (!...) as well, thanks in part to it's diverse skill classes. Even better, Borderlands 2 now let's you play the entire game with all of your stats in tow, so expect some heady replay value for single player.

As we all know, the story for Borderlands was extremely forgettable. That's not to say the single player campaign didn't have merit, it most certainly did. The art design was nice, Pandora was occasionally a vivid location, and some of the encounters you faced made for some memorable gaming moments. That said, the characters were extremely forgettable (aside from the awesome Claptrap), and the plot line was about as memorable as watching a modern artist craft a generic sculpture out of toilet roll tubes. Borderlands 2, on the other hand, actually had me invested with it's sharp writing and quirky sense of humor, and some of the people you meet in the game will have you reeling with startling surprise. It's mission structure is so far interesting, and the encounters so far have all been memorable. I won't spoil too much, but let me just say that the creatures here will provide you with a sense of being; you will see them as creatures of fiction, not cannon fodder.

Perhaps the biggest part of the game's success as a story is the vivid recreation of Pandora. Video Game developers know that building a world is one of the best ways to tell a story, especially in a First Person Game (just look at Half-Life). It's easily one of the video game medium's biggest strengths, and Borderlands 2 knows this. Borderlands 2 is a great space western experience, with a mood that recalls a comic book if it were hijacked by space western writers. Of course, the famous Borderlands 2 art style is back, and it provides for an awesome artistic foundation for Borderlands 2's vivid recreation of Pandora. And Pandora is beautiful! Borderlands 2 won me over with it's cell shaded, mood setting skies (Yes. Skies), glistening tundras, jagged mountains, colorful vivid industrial areas, and other locations. It's better looking than anything such garbage as "photo-realism" ever will be able to achieve. You see, folks (*cough* as well as certain 2K executive *cough*)? This is what happens when you get away from "realism"! An antidote to the lifeless drudgery of puke browns and vapid grays; the overall dreary, narcolepsy inducing experience. Thanks for this, Borderlands 2 is more of a beaut than Battlefield 3 will ever be.

The Sound track is also very beautiful. The soundtrack truly makes the space western mood they were going for. Great sound effects and voice acting follow suit.

Now, to game play. The basic game play concepts remain the same. Choose a skill class, start building your character and then loot n' gain (experience points, that is)! With loot and experience points, you have the potential to help yourself to a seemingly endless number of play styles, equipment and, of course, guns. Loads upon loads of guns. If you are familiar with the original (and you should be), you will know that the basic core intents of the game play remain the same. However, what Borderlands 2 offers new is what we all want to know. Does it offer something new? Is this Borderlands 2 or Borderlands 1.5? This is Borderlands 2. And aside from it's vastly superior story and setting, Borderlands 2 adds great game play additions that pushes the series forward, and leaves the first game in the dust.

The biggest addition to Borderlands 2 is the revamped skill classes. Character builds are deeper than ever, and much more rewarding than before. Since this is one of the biggest pros of Borderlands 2, it's nice to say that the is better than ever. The biggest change here is that each skill tree feels way more diverse, something the original was lacking. As you pick from four different skill classes, you can use each class to your advantage. Each class has it's own unique abilities, such as Zero's invisible stealth, the Salvador's ability to dual-wield anything, the Axion's ability to use turrets, and Maya's ability to freeze. Beyond the leveling up of your special abilities, the skill trees you build are diverse and the skills you invest in add a much better sense of personal, much more satisfying combat that suits you well. You can add all sorts of abilities, from more helpful defensive skills to offensive based powers like a Borderlands 2 has some real depth to your play style, and it's combination of great combat and true RPG elements makes for a truly great RPG and shooting hyrbid. All of this is aided by a much improved interface that makes the game more playable than before.

As you defeat enemies, you can upgrade the powers of the class, which is rewarded through looting and the gaining of experience points. Bad *cool* points make for some great bonuses, as they augment most other powers rather well. Most importantly, Borderlands 2 rewards you with guns and the ability to use an endless number of weapons, and it's addictive and rewarding as ever. You all know the drill, and it's even better than the first game. The ability to customize EVERYTHING (yes, all caps for a reason), from common features like re-load, to giving your own gun acid, makes sure that you can get creative with whatever gun you want to make. I'm not quite there making the ultimate gun that puts the BFG to shame, but according to what I've heard, anything is possible, including such crazy weapons as a pistol with ammo that doubles as a grenade dispenser, and I'm pretty sure that's not as crazy as it gets. Borderlands 2 proves that you can never have enough weapons, and they ensure that you will never feel empty-handed. Superior AI and a diverse range of enemies round out the experience.

All of this translates to the multi-player extremely well. Borderlands 2 offers four-player co-op, and it succeeds thanks in part to the great game mechanics. Using each character class, you can truly uses each one to their strengths to help out each team mate, in a way that sort of reminds me of Team Fortress 2. One can really get creative if you mix things up and assign certain levels, and since enemies get tougher as you play the game, it becomes vital and more challenging as you go along. Aided by it's diverse abilities, each skill class truly can add something unique to every play through, making for some rewarding and challenging combat that has the potential to be unique for every band of four. Like a good RPG should do, you can actually join in anytime, which makes the game even better so you don't have to commit to a whole game together. It makes game play extremely flexible, and it makes for some of the most accessible and playable multi-player experiences I've played in quite a while.

I do have a few, eh, issues, however. There are some minor graphics hitches here and there, but as long as you don't give all bent out of shape over some pop in textures or the occasional weird visual hiccup, you shouldn't have much trouble over looking this, uh, issue? You still can't really change the appearance of your character as much, which isn't that big a loss but definitely can be a tad disappointing if you really enjoy customizing your character. Oh, and car combat is mostly underused, as you won't find either a glut of vehicle based missions, or some fun car combat a la Rage. Thankfully, most of these niggling issues are minor.

Other than that, this game is just terrific. I don't know much else to say here, but if you are a fan of Borderlands, this is not just a mere revision, it's a whole new great game. Personally, I really don't find myself every playing the original Borderlands ever again, and it's definitely a stand out in the cluttered FPS genre that exists today. It's got humor, it's got replay value, it's got role-playing, it's got terrific gun play, and it's got enough things to do to keep you hooked for days. Needless to say, if you like Borderlands, you want this one. Easily. Go get it. Read more ›

44 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than the first game in most regards (4.5 / 5) September 19, 2012

By ICUH8N

Platform for Display:Xbox 360|Edition:Standard

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

The first question people will likely ask is, "Does this game live up to the high water mark hit by BL1 and DLC?" and that answer is a resounding "Yes!"

The second question asked, "Is it better than BL1?" and the answer is "Yes...for the most part."

So what's improved?

Better gun mechanics (sound, feel and diversity), more humor, more frequent boss and sub-boss battles, easier to get a co-op game going and see who's online playing, character skill trees are improved (more focused on your play style than there being clearly better skills to pursue), friends can select quests in co-op games rather than having to tell the "party leader" to do it, grenades are much more useful with some nice variety, the new enemies are well designed (not only are there more, but a few can do things like level up or heal other bad guys), you can now dismember baddies, you can now tag items in your inventory as "trash" or "favorite" so you remember what to sell next time at the vending machine, you can now directly trade with people, you automatically pick up money and ammo (but thankfully not loot), combat is more organic (enemies take cover, flank you, dodge attacks), there are tons of missions (took me 40+ hours to finish the game having completed all but a couple side quests) and perhaps my favorite improvement, you can now move around while in "Fight For Your Life" mode meaning you'll no longer die while stuck behind cover. Also of note, single player is much more enjoyable this time around. There's less down time, more dialogue and the enemies/environments allow for better individual strategy.

So what are the negatives?...

The new menus are clunky and difficult to parse (everything is on a slight angle making it tough to read and navigate), while missions have more dialogue and humor they still consist of mostly "shoot that" or "find this" objectives, driving mechanics are about the same (though thankfully you don't take damage from hitting enemies as much), while you can set a waypoint on the map your co-op buddies can't see the same waypoint and sometimes there's simply too much dialogue happening simultaneously. For example if you're playing co-op the first big town you get to is a total cluster as multiple characters are introducing themselves at the same time, or enemy dialog and gunfine easily drowns out character/story related dialogue. This is sometimes incredibly frustrating since you feel like you're missing out on a crucial plot detail or funny quip. Also, for about the first 12-15 hours the environments are a little too similar, but that changes as you continue to progress through the game. That said, these are only minor complaints and the additions far outweigh the handful of small issues.

Recommendation?

If you loved the first BL you'll love this one! The game does start a little slow, but once you get going its clear this game is superior to BL1 in most regards. If you flat out didn't enjoy the first game I'm not sure you'd enjoy the sequel, but if you've been on the fence there's enough improvement in details, mechanics, humor, enemy diversity and feel to both single & multiplayer modes to warrant a second look. Read more ›

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars If Tarantino made a video game... September 30, 2012

By B. Cravens

Platform for Display:Xbox 360|Edition:Standard

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

If Quentin Tarantino made a Spaguetti Western, post-apocalyptic-esque video game, this would be it. I can't believe how much fun this game actually is. Even if you're like me and didn't play the first Borderlands, don't pass this one up so quickly. Where do I start?

GAMEPLAY: if you aren't familiar with BL, the best way to explain this is to take the addicting looting system of Diablo and combine it with the basic elements of an FPS, throwing in some RPG via an inventory and skill tree. That's essentially the mechanics of the game, and it all slams together so well here. You have four basic classes to choose to play from, and each class has three paths to focus on in a skill tree -- this means there's plenty of variation to play. In addition to these basic mechanics, the game is open-world, though it may feel semi-linear as you can only explore on an area-by-area basis (think the opposite of an Elder Scrolls game, where you can walk around the entire map without hitting a loading screen until accessing a dungeon). I have to say, with combining so many of our favorite gaming formulas, this game has so many highlights. Sometimes I felt like I was playing something akin to Skyrim. Other times, the ambiance of a specific area or the design of a specific feature reminded me of BioShock. And sometimes certain things brought me back to my Fallout 3 days. However, I never forgot I was playing a completely new adventure that easily whisked me away for hours in the unique and captivating world of Pandora. Lastly, I can't forget the guns. No joke, there are millions of guns you can find. It is so satisfying to find a ridiculous weapon and destroy enemies for the next three hours with it, only to find another weapon that is even better....

SETTING: Speaking of Pandora, it really is a fascinating world. Having a post-apocalyptic feeling yet retaining a notes of being futuristic, there are so many different areas to access. Sometimes you'll be exploring an underground cave full of chemicals. At other times, you'll be questing in a town that feels like it belongs in the Wild West after a nuclear fallout. It's crazy, and I doubt you'll be bored quickly.

STORY: one thing many BL veterans mentioned is the lack of a good narrative beyond funny one-liners in the original game. Like I said I never played Borderlands 1, but I can tell you that in BL 2 the characters are memorable, the writing is well-thought out and downright hilarious, and the story moves at a great pace with scenes of great emotion and other scenes of great sarcasm. This is all coming from a guy who is used to epic stories from Final Fantasy or Mass Effect. Also, be sure to keep your ears peeled while you fight the various enemies. They say and do some hilarious things themselves. But seriously, the writing is just super clever. I mean, what other game has a quest called, "Rocko's Modern Strife"? Classic!

REPLAYABILITY: with the various classes and varying skill trees, there is already plenty of incentive to reboot a new game or two... Or three. However, in addition to these, once you beat the game you open up more challenging modes that guarantee both tougher enemies and significantly better loot. Also, there are a healthy amount of side quests in here to help you clock in the hours that make AAA games a great bang for your buck. If you're a completionist like me, you'll probably spend 50+ hours on your first playthrough. No joke. Or, you can try a different character, pump through the story to get to the better game modes, then spend all your hours doing the side quests and finding the best loot. There are so many possibilities!

One note -- definitely not a game for kids. The gratuitous gore would scar small children, and the extremely crass sense of humor means it's not a good idea to give this to a kid/teen who probably wouldn't understand half the jokes anyway. Just saying, parents, be smart and know what your kids are playing!

In conclusion, this is one heck of a game. I feel that it combines the best of so many game genres into a single FPS while adding in a memorable story that motivates you to find out what happens next. Of course, you'll be laughing your face off the entire way. Read more ›