4 things Borderlands 1 does better than 2

Borderlands General Discussion
#1

I’m not saying BL1 is a better game, but there are things from BL1 that worked and would be good for BL3.

1 - An element of exploration. Areas were a bit more open ended, less linear. And you were exposed to things you couldn’t reach yet, but it felt rewarding once you did. For example, going off the ramp with the vehicle to explore the new area was liberating in BL1 but was tacked on for BL2 just for nostalgia.

2 - Challenge. I don’t think games need to be extremely difficult, but there should be times when the player is scared for their dear life. In BL2, you didn’t need to do side quests and I avoided them because it made the game too easy. In BL1, you’ll have to do at least some of them or you’ll get your ass kicked.

3 - Money mattered. In BL2, you get so much money and didn’t really need to buy much ; also ammo was very common. In BL1, you still were able to be extravagant at times, but you had to be resourceful. Money is about scarcity. It’s meaningless if you can get whatever you want.

4 - Seriousness. I like the color BL2 and Prequel added, but the series shouldn’t continually try to go as far as possible in the camp direction. Even though more variety was necessary, I liked some of the bleakness and a little bit of the gritty realism in 1. I like the cartooniness, but you still need some realisticness to make the fantasy believable.

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#2

Really have to disagree with you there. The humour is what drew me to the series, and playing the first Borderlands felt like a slog sometimes because the story just wasn’t as interesting, entertaining, or funny as 2, PS, or Tales. I feel like the original Borderlands was something that showed potential, and didn’t really hit its true stride until the DLC (excluding the boring-ass Underdome).

Borderlands being funny is what sets it apart from every other bland space shooter to me.

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#3

The best bits of the story are in the echo logs and mission notes. Fortunately, you can review every single echo recording in BL1 - something they left out of BL2 that I really miss, given how easy it is to override dialogue.

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#4

I do like that part a lot. There were times where my game glitched out and I missed an audio log, but I could go back and review it.

I enjoyed playing 1, but story wise I just found everything about 2 and on way more engaging.

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#5

You forgot to mention that BL Classic’s loot system is 10x better than BL2’s loot system. Don’t get me wrong I love both games, but BL Classic had a far better loot system in place.

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#6

Am I the one person who doesn’t get all the hype for the first game’s loot system?

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#7

Nope nope nope nope nope. It was a mess. Let the designer of the Borderlands 1 and 2 loot systems tell you why:

It’s worth reading the whole article The short version is: I personally prefer having the same chance at a legendary regardless of what level I am or which play-through I’m in. In Borderlands 1 that could appear to be true, but wasn’t (and bummed a few people out in the process). In Borderlands 2 it IS true (although the adjusted drop rates make that more apparent compared to how the game launched.)

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#8

I have to admit, I prefer BL2’s loot system. I like dedicated loot drops! When I want a specific weapon or item, I know where to get it. That allows me to experiment with gear, weapons, and builds, in a way that wasn’t possible in BL1, because the drops were so random.

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#9

I don’t feel strongly one way or another about either looting system, but #5, I forgot to add, I like that BL1’s weapons didn’t become obsolete as fast. Higher level didn’t always mean better weapon and your main criteria of keeping/dumping the weapons was trying them out for yourself.

On the seriousness, I’m not saying serious is always better than silly. You need a balance. I love all the humor that BL2 added, and the pre-sequel also, but if they keep going too far in that direction, the jokes are going to get old.

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#10

I like skill trees and mods more in 1.

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#11

I actually like the skill trees in TPS better than either BL1 or BL2. As for class mods, I think the biggest issue I have is them not showing their effects when viewing the skill tree, like they do in BL2. Not exactlly a deal-breaker.

I am wondering though what specifically you prefer about BL1 COMs over BL2 ones?

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#12

The problem with BL2’s loot system, at least for me, is that it doesn’t just encourage farming - it enforces it at later difficulty levels. Many enjoy it, in fact I’m certain that I’m in the minority, but I find that it just bogs down the pace and forces you do kill the same bugger over and over again so you can stand a chance. BL1’s loot system was much simpler. There are no dedicated drops, which is a shame - I have yet to see a Reaper, for example, in 500-something hours total. But the trade-off is much better gear viability - I could count the bad uniques and legendarys on the fingers of one hand, and the unviable ones are even fewer in numbers. The stock items were much better, too - if you found a kick-ass gun early on, you didn’t have to replace it because of ■■■■■■■■ resistance roulette that renders NE near useless without a specific build, and everything except maybe whites can work well enough. Because weapons and characters are so universal, you can roll with whatever RNGesus blesses you with, but it’s diverse enough to offer variety in different playthroughs - sometimes you’ll get this, sometimes that and you have to adapt. But the game was balanced to allow you to adapt that way. Of course, I realize this is partly a matter of opinion, but my point stands.

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#13

This is not something that was lacking in BL2. For one thing, you couldn’t simply rush through the game bypassing enemies to complete the mission ASAP, with the damage resistance mechanic being underleveled was very dangerous in BL2. Then there was UVHM, you’d never be underleveled but your weapons could easily become useless and farming is so heavily encouraged that it’s almost a necessity, and if you farmed TVHM for too long or did too many side quests you’d be grossly underpowered from the start. Finally, slag is mandatory, forcing you to carry a weapon or item that you may not otherwise want simply for slag application. BL2 was not at all lacking in challenge, now TPS on the other hand…

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#14

I get what you’re saying here and I agree to a certain point. It’s like the difference between a dark, gritty apocalyptic graphic novel and, say, Deadpool. But I enjoy both! There are times I really like vanilla BL1’s darker, grittier feel… that feeling it’s just you and your buds against a dirty, lonely, hostile planet… though signs of what to come pops through sometimes, like the intro cards for NIne Toes, Sledge, and Baron Flynt for example. And certainly in the BL1 DLC the humor and the BL2/TPS ‘feel’ starts becoming more prevalent (the whole “Ice Cream Day” thing in Knoxx still cracks me up).

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#15

Ice Cream Day is still my favorite ECHO in the entire series. Sorry, Jack’s rant about the guy with the spoon. Sorry, Torgue’s mean guitar solos. Ice Cream Day is the best.

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#16

1 - I don’t think BL2 is linear, I think rather the problem is that in many locations exploration gets discouraged by having enemies everywhere forcing to fight your way through.
2- I don’t think difficulty is the problem, but having just too many sidequests. BL2 to me is the first and only game which made me give up on doing every single quest available. I guess part of reason is also because BL2 have more engaging story, hence doing side quests also feels more distracting.
3- I don’t mind that money eventually becomes trivial.

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#17

Rocky road!

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#18

A la mode!

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#19

I’m in the mode for some ice cream day!

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#20

Oh yeah, I agree with this too. In BL1 and TPS money seems much more ‘valuable’ to me simply because the vending machines have better loot. Hell in BL1 I once actually had a double legendary in a gun machine (as the Item of the Day plus one listed with the other guns.) In BL2 what’s the usual IotD? Some green bandit AR, heh. Gee thanks Marcus, that’s a must-buy!

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