Is Borderlands One Worth It?

Borderlands General Discussion
#1

I’ve just got a £25 gift card for Xbox live and while browsing the Store, I notice that Borderlands Remastered is £24.99. But I’m not sure if the game is worth it. Now, I know people are probably going to say that’s it’s my opinion but I want to know what you think.

Knowing that it comes with all the DLC, like the Handsome collection, is tempting and all, but what ruins the game for me is the ending. You’re told that the Vault is full of treasure, then right at the end of the game, you find out that it was all just a trick.

I’m also an avid fan of BL2 and the Pre-Sequel, and I feel that its going to take away from some of the games positives after playing the more superior BL2 before it.

I’ve also heard that Bl1 is a lot more ‘grittier’ and ‘emptier’ than BL2.

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#2

It’s worth it.

It’s the genesis of so many great things.

It’s an OCD gear hoarder’s wet dream.

There are aspects of Borerlands 1 I still prefer over how things were done in future installments.

You owe this to yourself.

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#3

It’s worth it, but it does play a bit slower/differently than 2 and TPS.

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#4

I never play bl2 and tps anymore, ever. Don’t care if I ever do again. I still play bl1 all the time. It’s a gritty, flawed, buggy accidental masterpiece. And that Burch guy didn’t work on it thank god. The writing is better actually. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it’s not jumping up and down for attention with the lame humor bl2 has. Be warned tho, compared to the loot/ parts mechanics of bl2, bl1 can be overwhelming. There is alot to learn. But it’s addicting as all hell

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#5

Totally worth the price of admission. Can’t go wrong with hundred’s of gameplay hours for $25.00. If you like the franchise and don’t mind playing older games. It’s as safe a bet you can get.

Now is it the best choice in the world for you? You’re the only one to judge that. But it’s a safe bet for sure.

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#6

I think, you should be asking yourself what to you want from playing Borderlands? There are a lot of positives and compared to the other games some negatives.

I prefer the original over the latter installments but that is biased. If your not going to spend a bunch of time in it before BL3 then you should probably just wait till September.

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#7

I enjoy all the (first person) Borderlanda games. I have returned to BL1 many times over the years and I’m playing GOTY Enhanced at the moment. This is just my personal view.

Yes, it’s “cruder” than BL2 & TPS. GBX had no idea it was going to be such a hit. The story is simplistic, to say the least. NPCs are fewer and static. The enhanced version goes some way to bringing the graphics and mechanics in line with modern games. But it IS simpler and emptier than its successors. The ending has been improved in Enhanced. It makes it clearer what has happened and gives a better reward. But that’s not hard :smile:

That said, I would say its loot drops were more generous with Legendaries and higher quality items. I’ve just finished Playthrough 2 and the DLC 3 campaign and I’ve accrued around 45 Legendaries.

But what makes BL1, for me, are the playable characters. They genuinely feel like they’re something special to be called “Vaulthunters”. Some may say “over-powered” but I say “fun”. Of course BL2 characters can be built to be very powerful but I find that BL1 characters are like that “out of the box”, so to speak. Only Krieg compares, in my book. Even then, a L5 Brick can do much that Krieg can only do when he gets RtB at L30(ish).

The DLC’s vary from the excellent to the average.

  • DLC1 (Dr. Ned) really established Borderlands humour and the zombie fights are surprisingly good.
  • DLC2 (Moxxi) gives you three arenas to take on, if you like BL combat but you don’t get XP or much in the way of loot. Personally, I love them.
  • DLC3 (Knoxx) was considered an exceptional expansion in its day. The equivalent of the Tina or Clappie DLCs. It also established the notion of a Borderlands end-game, introducing post-campaign missions and its first raid boss.
  • DLC4 (Robot Revolution) was the weakest entry but it does introduce Hyperion and sets up BL2. It does have a good reward if you complete the campaign.

Many people love the BL2 end-game. In fact, when TPS turned out to be more like BL1, toys were thrown out of prams and repeatable bosses and the like were patched in. In BL1, you can fam gear, if you like but it was meant to be about campaign play. If your enjoyment comes from developing one character to be very strong and then farming gear, BL1 will disappoint you. If you like campaign play with a selection of good characters, then you should give it a go, to fill in before BL3.

That said, if you have limited funds, you may want to save your gift card to put towards BL3 :slightly_smiling_face:

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#8

I find farming gear to be a huge part of what I and other people do in Borderlands 1, the only reason people even defeat Crawmerax, really, is for the gear…

#9

Please don’t get me wrong. I don’t say that farming in BL1 is wrong or impossible. Just that it wasn’t originally designed for it in the way that BL2 subsequently was. So, if you’re expecting loads of end-game stuff like raid bosses, additional currencies, new weapon types etc, you’re going to be disappointed.

What would be interesting is to know what percentage of those who have played BL1 actually used it for end-game activities. Here’s some purely anecdotal evidence. I have five friends with whom I have played BL1 over the years. Of the six of us, only one bothers with farming and raiding. The rest of us have played through the game many times but just going through the campaign with different characters and different builds.

Of course, my friend, who does farm, did this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESYnQMrRwLQ :smiley: Interestingly, he used some of the campaign mods (mainly The Crow’s Nest) to farm a legit gun because the game proper isn’t really designed for this kind of intense farming.

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#10

Very interesting indeed, thank you!

#11

We had a long thread on this when the remaster first came out, might want to browse it. I think it’s worth it.
–RoA

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#12

Yup, I’m in the same boat. Still doing occasional ‘single gun type’ or "allegiance’ play throughs. There are certain COMs I have not tried yet. Plenty of gameplay variation in here.

On top of all that, I just LOVE BL1 atmosphere. You actually feel like you are this lone mercenary or bounty/treasure hunter. Story is there but mush less “in your face” and your imagination can fill in the blanks. Music is better too, IMHO.

One other huge plus for me is that it does not force farming on you and does not hide specific guns behind specific bosses. I like randomness and not a big fan of min-maxing etc. - I enjoy killing baddies with whatever RNG decided to give me. It’s much more manageable in BL1 compared to BL2.

In the end it’s a matter of taste, I suspect. TPS somehow never grabbed me, giving it another shot right now (Baroness is quite hilarious so far…).

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#13

BL1 is awesome because of the gun system which imo is more advanced, parts and accessories wise. Also it’s more realistic bullet velocity and rof wise. That and the game itself has some great settings, funny bosses with a nice twist of sarcastic humour and violence.

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#14

I would argue that end game farming has more replay value than the other 2 games actually. In bl1 it’s not so much about finding …an anaconda at level…it’s about finding that anaconda at level…that perfect ax300 urban incindiary with sight 3…or whatever…and the chances of you finding that are very…very low. You’re not looking for legendary guns. You’re looking for perfect parted weapons that just happen to have that legendary part on them. Or not even legendary at all. …purples outperform them in many cases.

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#15

I am absolutely not being combative here. I’m actually interested in what appeals to different types of players.

I’ll put my hand up to start with. Without the objective of a campaign to finish, I can’t be bothered to play. Even if I’m completing a campaign for the umpteenth time, I need a target to aim for, after which I can say it’s completed.

Next, let’s define end-game. Nowadays, I think of end-game as all activities offered by a game after the campaign is completed. People have come to expect the range of activities offered by Destiny or The Division, say. The Knoxx DLC has an end-game, by that definition. You get missions that will give you another crack at the Arsenal. There’s an excellent arena. And, of course, there’s Crawmerax.

Finally, there’s the special instance of end-game - collecting guns. Here, some activity is repeated over and over to find, as you say, a “perfect” example. It is often the case that you repeat, specifically, an end-game activity to find that weapon, e.g. Crawmerax.

If we look at BL2, it was designed to support an end game with missions, raid bosses, additional currencies, additional weapons etc. Since shuxley004416 is a fan of BL2 & TPS, to say that BL1 has an end-game might be misleading. Except for the few missions in Knoxx, the only end game it offers is gun collecting.

For me, I tend to only do end-game missions once, for completeness. I find farming guns to be like stamp collecting. It’s doing something for the sake of owning “stuff”, not to do something with it.

But there’s no right or wrong here. It’s great that the game gives us options but I do think we need to be careful about saying BL1 has an end-game, without being specific about what that end-game is.

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#16

I like your stamp analogy. You’re absolutely right, it is somewhat like that. 50/50 anyway. There’s some like…that jackal that was my last pearl and I had to have it. Seriously could not go on with life until I did. I knew it was a crap gun, like all carnages, but I needed to have one. On the other hand…a lot of what Ive looked for is because I want to use it. I want to make …a build using only anacondas for example…and it took me forever to find a good shock anaconda. The way I see it is this…it’s like every other comparison between 1 and 2. The end game in 2 is very calculated…obvious and in your face. Much like the humor. Bl1 is more like a happy accident. Did they even know you could get a nemesis invader when they shipped this game? (I understand the nemesis came later with the dlc but you know what I mean) I often wonder how much the developers had even realized about the part generation system at launch…if it was intended or was just the program taking a life of its own.

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#17

That’s also what makes the game so cool. Parts can mix in ways that create some insane combos. And yes, farming is about finding not just the type of gun but the right type of gun with the right parts. Scope 5 urban punishing raven with barrel 4? Invader nemesis? Red caustic invader? Some combos are so crazy they they create their own league of legendaries and pearls that are more rare than rare.

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#18

Knowing next to nothing about weapon parts (just knowing what I like and when I find a gun that is a better version than one I currently have) what are some examples of these ultra crazy gun part guns?

And not just their names and parts, but WHY exactly those part combos make them so crazy / powerful?

Thank you!

I am soooo curious…

#19

Yes. Very much so.

I liked Borderlands 1 as much as…and maybe even more than Borderlands 2. It isn’t as polished as B2, but I always enjoyed playing it.

If you are looking for something to occupy your time till B3, this would more than supply you multiple months of play.

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#20

Why these guns are so powerful and sought after?..well let’s see. First of all let me say I am talking about og borderlands when I speak. I’ve already noticed that some of what I’m going to talk about has been changed in this remaster. Also a few examples have already been noted above. The nemesis invader is perhaps the most famous example. If you don’t know what a nemesis invader is …well it’s a hybrid. 2 guns in one. Sorta like if 2 mutants from X-men had a baby and the baby had both mutant’s powers. The invader is a legendary hyperion repeater pistol. The nemesis is a pearlescent hyperion repeater pistol. The part that makes an invader an invader is the scope. It’s a variation of sight5, the longest range repeater scope. The part that makes a nemesis is the accessory, giving it both shock and corrosive and multiple pellets upon proccing. Since both guns are hyperion and the special parts are not the same part…whenever you find a hyperion repeater from somewhere that has both those parts in its drop pool (craw…armory) it is possible…however extremely unlikely that the weapon generator will put both of those parts on the same weapon. The result is a freak of nature weapon that is capable of unleashing dozens of rounds of high powered elemental chaos within seconds, obliterating most anything. There are other hybrid guns as well, the others being unique/legendary hybrids. The nemesis is the only one that involves a pearl. Hybrids aside, some other gun combos are all about the material and prefix. The example I’ll give you is the firehawk. Say you have a tk5 mat3 firehawk. Maliwan mat3 is cobalt. On firehawks, cobalt will always be the prefix if the gun has mat3. However, if the gun has mat2 “blue”…it’s possible for the gun to spawn with the ‘nasty’ prefix…and in borderlands, the prefix itself gives bonuses to the overall stats of the gun. Think of the prefix as being just another part…another piece of the puzzle…anyway. .so now you have a tk5 b nasty firehawk, which is superior to that cobalt in almost every way, a truly merciless bandit charring demon of a repeater. Anyways…I ramble. But I hope that at least gives you some insight into the weird, wonderful world of bl.

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