Physics

The animation is tied into the AI and the physics are tied into that, especially now that enemies can take damage that knocks them over, causes them to panic or hurts them in an explosion. So there’s a fairly decent level of physics going on. Vehicle physics are tuned from the first game and we’ve found the Runners easier to drive, similar in control to Halo’s Warthog.

Sound

With all those procedural weapons and things going on, Borderlands had a pretty sweet sound library. The good news is Borderlands 2 has even better audio with some great atmospheric effects and weapon fire.

Music

Cris Velasco and Jesper Kydd are two really well known names and they come together for Borderlands 2 to create a really kick-ass soundtrack. Once again the music is inspired by a Western feel for much of the game; the main menu has an especially awesome track. Then there’s lots of dubstep interleaved with the rest of the game against more traditional ambient pieces that work really well in the context of the levels they’re used in.

Dialogue

The voice acting for Borderlands 2 is excellent with some truly great work from the various VA’s. Handsome Jack is irritating and charming all at once, he’s a loveable yet truly villainous character and the voice actor brings this across perfectly. Then you have Claptrap and he is awesome and annoying as ever, big kudos to the VA on that too.

Script

There’s far more story in Borderlands 2, it’s told in a better way and the writing is much sharper. Lead writer, Anthony Burch has done a spot-on job here.

Mulltiplayer

Borderlands 2 is fun solo and it’s even more fun with friends, or a friend via split screen. It can handle Xbox Live, System Link and you can even play split screen with friends online as long as the other player has a working XBL account. Cooperative play has been reworked significantly and rewards also, along with a new trading system and a way to duel for items if you want. Winner takes all baby!

4 players can explore Pandora and level up together; it is so much fun too. We have had some network issues, a bit of lag and some disconnects from the game as we played though, hopefully this will be fine tuned and fixed in a later patch.

Is it worth it?

YES! Go buy the game now and prepare to loot and shoot your way across a whole new Pandora. There’s also a veteran reward for players who have an original Borderlands save game, how about that for loyalty?

Gearbox is also a top quality developer and Games Xtreme would like to take a moment to say how touched we are that they put a memorial character to Michael Mamaril into Borderlands 2. Class act!

Michael Mamaril