Current Events > Borderlands 1 feels like a totally different franchise

(+) Yeah! (+)

Really wild disconnect between 1 and 2. The almost budget game jank of the first was part of its charm for me, but 2 absolutely introduced some needed polish.

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BL2 introduced a lot of cringe, too, so even with the gameplay/loot improvements, I tend to like BL1 the most of the lot. BL2 had better DLC on the whole, though (maybe not any one thing on Gen. Knoxx's caliber).

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I got so burned out from getting the plat on borderlands 1 that i still havent had a desire to play 2 even though i own the complete edition

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I never beat 2, the game play was still fun but the "humor" in it was so fucking cringe

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Different styles for sure. 1 was quirky but 2 and 3 borrowed from pop culture too much.

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I absolutely agree that 2 is unbearable. I absolutely hate the screaming sugar rush garbage that is BL2s writing. Also not a fan of how they changed loot. The level design and general attention to detail, as well as weapon variety/what is possible with weapon mechanics, are really all it has over the first imo.

1 has a much better loop, since its not built around farming near-invincible bosses; it makes it much more palatable for solo play, and lets you focus more on trying everything you could possibly want to instead of only the most optimal shit.

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butthole666 posted...

1 has a much better loop, since its not built around farming near-invincible bosses; it makes it much more palatable for solo play, and lets you focus more on trying everything you could possibly want to instead of only the most optimal s***.

i only played 1, but my biggest complaint was i found a weapon so good halfway through the game that i actually just stopped looking at the loot drops after a while because it outclassed everything so badly. I literally used that same weapon for the entire second half of the game

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TPS is probably my favorite mechanically, but it is absolutely bereft of content, and its level design is often upsettingly bland. 3 feels like wasted potential and burned me out real fast.

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butthole666 posted...

its level design is often upsettingly bland.

This so much. For me this is TPS' biggest turnoff that is not mentioned much (relative to the other flaws it has).
Choose between three types of levels: space rock, space station, or space station on top of space rock.

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solosnake posted...

i only played 1, but my biggest complaint was i found a weapon so good halfway through the game that i actually just stopped looking at the loot drops after a while because it outclassed everything so badly. I literally used that same weapon for the entire second half of the game

Its a definite downside to the way it works, but at the end of the day I gotta say I prefer everything being at least viable, even if it is disproportionate to the items level, to the way 2 does it where almost everything you see will be garbage.

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That's because 2 was written by cringelord Anthony Burch, you ever seen Hey ash watchu playin? His sister is just as cringe.

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2 and 3 were also built to be played more co-op than 1. You could atleast have fun solo in 1 but the mechanics didnt feel right in 2 and 3 to me

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ToadallyAwesome posted...

2 and 3 were also built to be played more co-op than 1. You could atleast have fun solo in 1 but the mechanics didnt feel right in 2 and 3 to me

Definitely. The raid bosses imo kill them for solo play, as well as the tanked value of chests

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its been so long, why does it feel like a different franchise? I read the topic but the only thing that stuck out was that it isnt much of a coop game

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Balrog0 posted...

its been so long, why does it feel like a different franchise? I read the topic but the only thing that stuck out was that it isnt much of a coop game

Originally, the game was supposed to look much more of its time, with all the washed put grey and brown grimdark trappings that entails; it was fairly late in development when the cel shaded look was adopted iirc. Because of this, the art style is pretty jarringly different despite its superficial similarity. Mechanically, its a lot more pure, for better and worse. Youll spend more time grinding chest routes than bosses, because chests will usually have really great shit. This makes it better to play through, but also kills the post game a bit. The quests feel a lot more classically RPG in execution and presentation, specifically the way their various text intros/endings are written. The guns feel samier but in general far better than future titles, until 3.

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solosnake posted...

i only played 1, but my biggest complaint was i found a weapon so good halfway through the game that i actually just stopped looking at the loot drops after a while because it outclassed everything so badly. I literally used that same weapon for the entire second half of the game

Yup I played BL1 again when the remaster came out and once my siren got a hellfire SMG I basically didnt use anything else until I got a higher level one

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I have gotten everything BUT a hellfire on run im pissed

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borderlands 1 was boring as fuck

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Wow an actual TPS fan out in the wild. I've only gotten Nisha to 70, but I preferred playing that over BL2 last year. UVHM felt better, weapons didn't scale as bad, no slag, and I miss lasers.

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borderlands 1 is still my favorite, played thru it a ton of times. never finished 2 and never tried any of the others.

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1 had lilith though

She was so broken it made the game a blast. Every game after felt neutered

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I love the humor in 2.

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MJOLNRVII posted...

Wow an actual TPS fan out in the wild. I've only gotten Nisha to 70, but I preferred playing that over BL2 last year. UVHM felt better, weapons didn't scale as bad, no slag, and I miss lasers.

If TPS had another 6-12 months to develop, I think it would have been really great. I personally find UVHM grinding to be ridiculously boring and annoying, so I just save edit past those levels. I did it once with Axton and Wilhelm, but never again lol.

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IMO Borderlands 1 had the most fun classes followed by 3 then TPS.

All the borderlands 2 builds just felt... bad.

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MJOLNRVII posted...

Wow an actual TPS fan out in the wild. I've only gotten Nisha to 70, but I preferred playing that over BL2 last year. UVHM felt better, weapons didn't scale as bad, no slag, and I miss lasers.

There are threes of us!
Playing through with Jack, I definitely enjoyed my time with TPS more than 2 (played as Gaige). There was just something comforting with being rewarded for my bunny-hop style of playing, constantly raining death down from above. Not to mention Jack's skilltree lead to some pretty nice explosion synergy
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Jack's capstone on the right tree is so fun with Cryo Maliwan+Torgue weapons. Cryo isn't bad in 3, but it was so damn powerful in TPS.

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s0nicfan posted...

All the borderlands 2 builds just felt... bad.

Really? I had fun with speedy gunzerker and fastball grenade spam psycho
My favorite is probably 3 tbh, it has the most variety and uniqueness to the guns without being too cripplingly gimmicky. The humor isn't quite as awful as 2, either, which is nice

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s0nicfan posted...

IMO Borderlands 1 had the most fun classes followed by 3 then TPS.

All the borderlands 2 builds just felt... bad.

3 was most fun classes before the nerfs hit

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Also til 3 already has dlc out

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Doctor Ned was really fun. General Knox was amazing, and Claptrap was a solid Dlc. Moxxis was trash

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Knoxx is sikk but the exclusion of fast travel is fucked

first time im playing it since release

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cage the elephant was my jam and im p sure that was part of what got me stoked on the game

seeing them do an acoustic set in a newbury comics was sick as fuck

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I liked TPS better than 2

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BL1 > 3 = TPS >>>2

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MrKapowski posted...

BL1 > 3 = TPS >>>2

i can kinda get behind this. TPS had so much potential, but there just isnt a ton of game there.

also gunzerker and launch GITM fl4k are the most fun classes the series has ever had. Anarchy Gaige is insane also.

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I miss pre-nerf BL3. Flakker was fantastic and now it's niche. GITM felt way more useable at 8 seconds rather than 5, and although it definitely deserved it the Pipe Bomb was powerful. The fact that there's DLC out for a new Borderlands that I don't give a shit about makes me sad. At least 2019 had plenty of other good games for me.

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It makes me miss the days of BL1 where they outright ignored exploits because the ways players were breaking the game were more fun than the intended ways of playing. Knoxx runs 4 lyfe.

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I can't even look up build help for BL3. Almost no one posts updated builds with adjustments in mind.

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The problem with 1 and 2 was most of the characters action abilities were useless in higher difficulty levels

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kuwab0 posted...

The problem with 1 and 2 was most of the characters action abilities were useless in higher difficulty levels

I suppose Lilith and Brick were only viable at 69

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kuwab0 posted...

The problem with 1 and 2 was most of the characters action abilities were useless in higher difficulty levels

Roland - turret sucked for dps, but had other applications that it did really well with

Lilith - completely broken and OP

Mordecai - could stunlock entire groups of enemies, force mass ammo/health drops

Brick - ok, his AS sucked, but he was still the highest dps in BL1 iirc

Axton - turret again kinda sucked for dps, but the slagging nuke shit made up for it

Maya - did not suck, period

Zer0 - I never liked it, but it didn't suck

Sal - even more broken than Lilith

Krieg - I dunno, I didn't spend much time with him because I didn't like him, but I'm pretty sure he had multiple viable endgame builds.

Gaige - probably the worst, or 2nd worst to Brick

...so that's 2 of 10 that legitimately sucked, you sure you played BL1 and 2?

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MrKapowski posted...

Krieg - I dunno, I didn't spend much time with him because I didn't like him, but I'm pretty sure he had multiple viable endgame builds.

He was SO MUCH FUCKING FUN

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BL2 was MEME the game, it was annoying as fuck. Also I never got into the repeatability of the games since they handled it like shit.

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DrizztLink posted...

He was SO MUCH FUCKING FUN

Ehhhh even after turning off callouts I still couldn't bring myself to enjoy anything about him.

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FF_Redux posted...

BL2 was MEME the game, it was annoying as fuck. Also I never got into the repeatability of the games since they handled it like shit.

Ya I dont get the end game farming to get better gear to... farm with...

I farm during a pt to get better gear to play through, but once every quest is done theres not a ton of longevity in the halfass bullet sponge raid bosses, and I think its hilarious that people go so hard for this mechanically barren endgame.

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MrKapowski posted...

Roland - turret sucked for dps, but had other applications that it did really well with

Lilith - completely broken and OP

Mordecai - could stunlock entire groups of enemies, force mass ammo/health drops

Brick - ok, his AS sucked, but he was still the highest dps in BL1 iirc

Axton - turret again kinda sucked for dps, but the slagging nuke shit made up for it

Maya - did not suck, period

Zer0 - I never liked it, but it didn't suck

Sal - even more broken than Lilith

Krieg - I dunno, I didn't spend much time with him because I didn't like him, but I'm pretty sure he had multiple viable endgame builds.

Gaige - probably the worst, or 2nd worst to Brick

...so that's 2 of 10 that legitimately sucked, you sure you played BL1 and 2?

Axton turret is super great for slag and aggro utility (nuke is his worst end game capstone haha). It's fundamental for his end game. And Gaige has OP10 builds based around DeathTrap doing ridiculous damage. However, that's highly gear dependent, and requires a Hide of Terra with Make It Sparkle, but it is 100% end game viable as a main damage tool. Especially since you can use Anarchy for damage while he's on cooldown. As for Krieg, there are his action skill end game builds and hellborn end game builds. They both struggle in that they are weaker to armored enemies, but I think hellborn does a little better since it's based around survival and corrosive/slag can be used to proc self immolation.Edit: I should note that melee is helped by the explosive axe throw that is buffed upon a melee kill help deal with armor.

Brick is probably the only one that does not have a viable end game build that focuses on melee. Melee Brick is actually fairly viable end game for everything outside of General Knoxx, but basically all "end game" content is focused around that DLC. Melee is basically useless against the powersuit enemies, and you really need your relic to be putting in work to get kills. That's fine in most places, but Knoxx introduces Corrosive Atlas enemies, and the explosive relic sucks in comparison. And you can't go for shock due to shock resistant Atlas guys.

That, and his explosive focused builds absolutely shit damage. This, coupled with the lack of any ranged attack for faraway turrets and whatnot, makes it extremely discouraging to bother with melee Brick. I've used hybrid builds where I switch COMs between explosive and melee (since I really prefer builds that utilize the action skill), and eventually I just had to give it up.

Krieg is just Brick 2.0. They fixed it by greatly upping the damage, the health refill on kill mechanic, and the ranged attack, and made solo melee investment more viable with Release the Beast and more fun with Bloodsplosion.

Edit: The conclusion being that, imo, only one skill was truly bad at end game. And the skills are only bad if you do not invest in the skills that buff them and use gear that compliments their utility.

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MrKapowski posted...

so that's 2 of 10 that legitimately sucked, you sure you played BL1 and 2?

I should have said a lot instead of most
Rolands turret hits like a wet booger

Brick has styrofoam fists

On PC Axton and Gaiges dont scale correctly

Mayas phaselock is great for mobbing but doesnt work on most main Bosses and all Raid Bosses. Deathtrap has the same problem where it will use a puny electric attack instead of melee.

Its just annoying compared to TPS where everyones action skill was great

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