"It is not as good as Borderlands 2, but almost no games are." that's one of the most valid statements I've heard about tps. It's a good game, but people just expected it to be as good as or better than bl2. That's the reason it did less than great. We expected a lot. Which is also a reason more of the veterans didn't like it as much as say, randoms who didn't play bl2 for thousands of hours.

The map design is probably the thing I find most annoying in this game, they are great when you are going for the first time, but most are tedious to go through when doing side missions. I absolutely hate having to go through the whole subconscious every time I want to go to the arena.

For me,there is one very nice thing that Pre Sequel better than BL2 - balance.Balance of weapons,difficulty and skills of certain characters. That is enough for me to call it success as a fan of the franchise.

At 1st time I didn't like TPS. Its probably because I was looking on it from BL2 perspective. But later I've discovered how many cool new features this game have. Air boost, slam attack and low gravity are all really playstyle changing things, plus they make gameplay more relaxing imo. And of course all this also helps for Rocket Jumping. Luneshine and Glitched weapons makes sentence BAZZILION OF GUNS real now. Because even nonunique weapons with those effects can be as strong as Legendary or Unique weapons.This allows to not restrict only to red text weapons. Skill trees are also very well desingned. Allowing to create multiple builds and again BAZZILION OF GUNS sentence is having real meaning with it. Moxxxtails are huge improvement to shrines from Tina DLC. And of course lasers. It always good to have more weapon types for more BAZZILION OF GUNS. Imo BL3 should be like mix of TPS(features) and BL2(maps and long good story).

For me, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel has less content overall, but better quality, in my opinion. I feel that Pre-sequel is over hated honestly. It's not a bad game, it's just different.

Honestly, I love TPS. The skill trees are a lot better thab BL2, cryo is so much more fun to use than slag, lasers were a great addition, and I actually preffered the softer scaling of the game. But like you said, mob diversity and density could have been improved. And as much as I liked the softer scaling, I also liked the OP levels in BL2. The thing that kept me playing was the player character interaction with the story, and the outside interruptions from Athena and the BL2 characters. This actually made me want to play as every single character just to hear what they'll say. And who doesn't love Brick and Tina's dialogue in TVHM and UVHM? I really hope GB brings this feature back in BL3.

Agree with this 100%, I have put many hours in the pre sequel and miss my gaming days with it. Definately didnt get the same post launch love as 2 did. 2 was so good because of all the endgame content you got with the dlcs. If the pre sequel had 3 more full sized dlcs and some raid bosses... I think it would've beat out bl2 with how fun the game and vault hunters were.

The characters and combat mechanics are so much better in the Pre-Sequel, I loved it when it first came out for sure. Playing a 3 capstone Athena, I have nine different stacking-mechanisms/buffs/cooldowns to track. In the first two borderlands, it feels like most of the combat revolves around only your action skill (aside from a few cases). Athena is definitely my favourite character to play as in any BL game.

WHO DISLIKED?! IT CAME OUT 7 MINUTES AGO!!!!! I'm so sorry Derch, you are an amazing youtuber, I just don't understand why the youtube community is like this. Maybe they feel good after this? Who knows?!

The best thing about the tps to me was Aurelia and the claptrap dlc

I agree. TPS is great, and i would love to see BL2 remake with lots of improvements from TPS, especially talk active characters and more eridium use. Its sad TPS was more like expansion than full game, and it gets boring on higher levels pretty quickly. Cmon, how many times you can visit triton flats? ALso i think you forgot(or you dont find it much of a deal) the problem with side quests. A lot of side quests in BL2 were available before you enter a certain area, while in TPS you do story mission, then you are forced to comeback in order to finish side quests.

I definitely get tired of the pre-sequel environments more quickly than even the wastelands of the original. It's hard to define what it is exactly that makes it so. I'd say perhaps it is more oppressive? The eternal night, Helios looming ominously overheard, all the lava, barren rock, and heavy industry. The constant reminder of a lack of oxygen isn't exactly helpful either. Borderlands 1 was still an inhospitable wasteland but it had daylight and blue skies, there was sparse vegetation, the sand and dust were a little more organic and softer than straight rock, and the background music was actually very calming when you weren't being shot at by bandits.

Fair review, and one that benefits from having had time to take all the patches & DLC into account. I think the billing as an expansion would have softened the blow, but titling it the Pre-Sequel almost implies that. it would have played better w/ long term fans of the actual weapons system & play mechanics lived up to the title and added a little more of that original Borderlands feel. It reminded me a little of General Knoxx except with Dahl Soldiers. The Eridian powered Lost Legion Soldiers were the evolving bad guys of this game from what I can tell and Kraggons devolve, from toughest form to weakest. Personally I like TPS fine, but I didn't start playing Borderlands until spring of 2014, when I got 1 & 2 via a friend's recommendation. I mostly played solo because I was never very good at FPS games and quit gaming during the PS2’s life cycle. Playing games on an Ipad (rage HD in window view mode where you have to literally turn around to turn around and hold it up to look up, so much awkward fun) is what slowly brought me back. Sucking at Borderlands in coop play from inexperience means getting lesser gear and not really experiencing the narrative in favor of other players approaching the play through from an endgame perspective. By the time you complete the story you're leveled up but really don't have a great understanding of the game play mechanics. I picked up TPS in April of 2015 I think maybe? It had already been patched and I also got the Claptrap DLC, which made for a better experience compared to had I got it at launch. The fact that the season pass only had one story DLC compared to BL2 having 2 characters and 4 story DLCs feels like a real bait and switch. No headhunter packs is also a major downer. If there had been more game content I think people would have given TPS more time to evaluate it. Most who disliked the base game agreed that the Claptastic Voyage was redemptive, and well done. When they pulled up stakes after its release they killed the games chances to build back fan trust. by scapegoating 2k Australia they shifted blame and cut their losses, penalizing anyone who paid full price sight unseen in the preorder. The game deserved better, and was capable of being much more than what they settled for by ending it mid-stream. Had they done a Claptastic style Campaign DLC advancing the narrative of each character to their place in BL2 (of that quality) that would have possibly won back a lot of youtubers and their followers, which would have improved brand loyalty towards Battleborn. Que sera sera. it's got a good beat and I can dance to it, I give it a 82/100

I feel like this games playable characters are infinitely better then borderland 2's characters, I've had much fun with my self heal claptrap.

I'll say, the biggest shame of The Pre-Sequel is how the community rejected it like that. Because of it, more content that was being made was cancelled (Such as Luxy's Space Adventure) and it even included a Raid Boss from the concept art. It's clear to me this game could've been way bigger. Big shame honestly. Hell, the studio got shut down too, which is a big damn shame because they did a great job here. My favourite Borderlands to date.

This is an older video but I wanted to say thanks! I recently got into borderlands and have put an unhealthy amount of time into both 1 and 2, 220 hours total in just under 2 months, and was debating on whether or not to get this one during the steam winter sale coming up. I love the writing and some of those negatives you mentioned are actually positives to me. Like the shorter game length mixed with better skill trees and earlier skill point gain sound awesome. I think bl2 gets a lot better after Sanctuary leaves the ground so getting to what I consider the good stuff sooner is perfect. Especially for replays. You got another sub!

I never got into the Pre-Sequel the way I did with Borderlands 2. Honestly I think it was because of the mobs. I just never felt like the game was throwing enough action my way.

Personally I don't even think I can finish it, it bores me for some reason and I just can't find a reason to invest time in it while I could just play bl2

I loved Borderlands TPS. It was a good switch up and a new feel for the water. Yeah, BL 2 was better, but it doesn't mean TPS sucks.

I loved The Pre-Sequel and wish the fanbase had treated it better at launch. 2K Australia put in so much effort into the little things that largely went unnoticed or ignored until recently when people started giving it another chance. I also loved all the Aussie references and humour in the game. It just added that extra level of enjoyment to see nods to my country. To this day, RedBelly is one of my favourite bosses.

It's a shorter game with better difficulty scaling where you level up faster with better skill trees. This equals more fun. Also the dlcs are awesome. I find the vanilla version of borderlands 2 frustrating as well as the process of leveling up less satisfying because I don't feel like I'm getting that much stronger compared to characters in the pre sequel.

The mission where you are building the constructor kills the game in uvhm xD

I liked it somethings they did really well like making your character feel involved in the story the dialogue was a nice touch. I liked the the oxygen not at first but it grew on me, having oz kits with stats and bonuses got fun. Grinder I liked especially when you learn how to optimize it. Item of the day was much better but they need to have the machines offer better tier items. Doesn't need to be littered with legendries but more blue and purples, frustrating especially on higher difficulties and you check machines it's a white tier items. Wish they didn't abandon it so fast the game really needed atleast one more dlc preferably 2. I know the ending of the clapststic voyage would limit them, but still since it's a flashback story could easily add more stuff. Since playing 3 I prefer the 1,2 and the pre sequel, with mayhem and the gameplay of 3 is where that game beats it's predecessors but it's not really that high of a benchmark. I would love to see the the previous games under the engine of Borderlands 3 and feel that they would all easily out class 3. I regret getting into the franchise late I didn't get into the franchise until the fight for Sanctuary came out. One other thing I like about 3 is the vending machines selling better stuff and most quests giving better rewards. The scaling finally got better but 3 was way to generous with legendary drops that it just diminishes them. I prefer the predecessors in the series I could playthrough the story and still enjoy it while 3 replaying the story just makes it get worse each time you do it. I enjoy videos you really go in depth sorry for the long post.

That 2001: a space odyssey referance.. Wow

I enjoyed the game and the laser weapons are a very fun addition... The rail guns are good for bosses like EOS and other big targets. Some wish for more accessories and I think they are good as is The story is enjoyable and the descent into madness of handsome Jack makes you wanna kill him more in borderlands 2

The only real complaint I have about the grinder is that now a number of guns just don't have guaranteed drops. And while I like the grinder as an extra opportunity, I don't want it to be the only opportunity

The exclusion of slag was a healthy thing for the game I thought... cool idea on paper but the reliance on it in late game felt overwhelming at times when I just want to see an enemy and shoot them with whatever element makes sense and not have to worry that I might be doing more dmg had I slagged them. Also I like how they made fire dmg less important (like how you can't use in vacuums) because 90% of enemies you fight BL2 were flesh so I enjoyed having to switch it up. If PS had more end game content/or just content in general like you said... I'd say it's the superior game. Though I could do without the areas where their design is based around you driving your moon buggy off a cliff😐 Great review man^^

It's a hell of a game...it took some time for me to see that, but it's a solid game you could easily put a 100 hours or more into. Nowadays I prefer TPS over any other game because of how unique it is.

This is hands down the most accurate review of this game. I just got it for me and my friend on steam sale and we put 10 hours in it by now. There was no sudden difficulty spikes that really bothered us in b2, skill trees and characters are solid and the new low gravity mechanics are fun. One thing that we both noticed, was no real good drops of bosses/chests so far, we only got like 1 purple gun drop and 3 grenades by the level 15. But vendors constantly sell decent rare guns and equipment though, i grabbed one legendary off it already.

The problem with boss farming that I still can't get over is that you can't farm _every_ boss, and a in a lot of cases they just combined loot pools, like adding Zarpedon's loot pool to the Sentinel, and then you essentially have two loot pools that, while farmable now, are really stupidly overcrowded. That, and the writing, are basically my only complaints for the game, though. I loved just about everything else.

TPS needs a way to level faster. it felt so much longer than on BL1 or 2. never saw the need to level all the characters like on 1&2. maybe I should revisit the game with something other than my Enforcer

Played through Axton BL2, couldn't stand the enemy scaling, made me quit the game several times, getting my ass handed to me, especially around whatever that town Nisha ends up being a sheriff of Played through Jack TPS!, found it significantly more enjoyable, im playing my first 'second playthrough' with any character

I hated moving in this game. I've heard some people say the maps were more dynamic, but the gravity gimmick made this game so fucking sluggish for me. Rather than the butt-stomping and double jumping making the combat better, for me it made the game slower and clunky. I personally really, really hope they drop this gimmick outside of one novelty map or DLC I can avoid like the plague. I won't hate on people who liked it, but the movement of the entire game was the main reason I hated the game. The guns were just as fun, the characters were great, but I've never been able to develop a reasonable opinion on the game for this reason alone. I do hope they keep OZ kits, though, since they were an amazing improvement, and there are plenty of ways to use them. Areas that are too hot, too cold, too atmospherically toxic, areas with insane thunderstorms that you need to protect yourself against; there are so many ways to use the OZ kits to protect yourself against various environmental things outside of oxygen. Really hope they keep them.

I have 3 young children and very rarely do I get to play my games. When, I do have time to play a game it's either borderlands 2 or the pre sequel. It took me over a year to get my bl2 character to 50. The main problem I have with the pre sequel is enemy density, I feel like I have to run from one area to the next. That's really my only complaint. otherwise they are awesome games.

Liked the review. I agree that it's a good game. I do think BL2 is better but there are plenty of things i like in TPS. Funny enough i really didn't like the arena's and was kinda glad to see them gone but that's just me.

I can agree with almost everything you said, but some legendaries just dont have a specific loot source, which is annoying, and THE PRE SEQUEL DOES NOT HAVE THE BETTER SNIPING CHARACTER! Zero is leaps and bounds above Aurelia. In general both games have good chars, like Zero, Krieg, Maya, Athena, Wilhelm, Jack and Claptrap, decent ones like Gaige, Axton and Aurelia and just bad ones like Nisha and Salvador. I also woudlnt put the tps bosses over the bl2 bosses. theyre on par. And I really missed OP8 in this game. It makes sense lore-wise, as the Tps chars are supposed to be stronger than the bl1 chars (like how Wilhelm alone defeated all of the original 4 in new Haven), but weaker than the Bl2 chars (as you have to kill some of them), but the game is just super easy on lvl 70 whereas bl2 is a very pleasant challenge if you know what you´re doing. Oh, and please dont come with "you need moxxi guns" or "nothing but sal and anarchy gaige does any damage" or "everything kills me in one hit". Like, get good and it´s not that hard.

i think there should be 2 uvhms hardcore and regular not op levels but just different difficulty setting for people who prefer tougher enemies i mean as an arena fps player bl2 uvhm is a joke, a lot of the people do this game 1life myself included and that is hardly from difficult category

I'll be honest, my only issue with the Pre-Sequel is that the huge improvements with character skill trees actually made the characters a little bit too powerful when built optimally. I played horribly in UVHM and still had no issues, unlike in Borderlands 2 where I spent hours learning strategies for taking on various areas that were extremely difficult. On the one hand, the Pre-Sequel offers more options to the player, and that's fantastic game design since it gets rid of the issues with not being able to use any guns we want, but it also felt less satisfying to beat the game when I didn't have to put nearly as much effort into it. Because of this, I usually play the Pre-Sequel as a vacation from BL2 when I'm sick of getting my ass handed to me. It's still a great game, but it doesn't offer me the same sense of accomplishment when I manage to break it.

My only point about map design would be elseer and tycho's ribs. The eridian structures looked so cool in the other games as these ruins with a little toch of magic (but just some floating stones when the vault opens mostly). In BL TPS it just looked a lot overdesigned in terms of "this is modern alien technology". In Elseer this was even more extreme with these rings floating around the map and everything is surrounded by galaxies, INSIDE A MOON! I know BL isn't supposed to be realistic but this just seem like "let's just add a bunch of stuff"

I dont know about you but completing the side missions does not feel satisfying and rewarding considering most of the mission rewards only give out green and blue world items

To tell you the truth i actually did prefer The Pre-sequel over Borderlands 2 when i got the Handsome collection because I've played Borderlands 2 on my Ps3 and my first Class i picked was Axton thinking that it would've felt like playing as Roland from Borderlands 1. And i was very disappointed when i picked and played Axton, so i just stopped playing it on Ps3 until The Handsome Collection came along and i just started off playing the Pre-sequel over Borderlands 2 like mostly alot. My first character that i was very pleased with in the Pre-sequel was definitely Athena because her style reminded me so much of a warrior type class because of both her Shield and Sword. But i did get back into Borderlands 2 after i was done with my playthrough with Athena in the Pre-sequel. I still had my Issues with Axton because i hated playing him, so i just went a started with Gaige and heck I was not disappointed with Gaige at all, mostly became my Main for Borderlands 2. But after playing both Borderlands 2 and the Pre-sequel for the past year or so, i still prefer the pre-sequel mostly because of UVHM and the Class builds. Because Slag is just a annoying feature to be implement in Borderlands 2 especially when you have to constantly use it every corner from mobbing enemies to Main / Side bosses and Raiding Bosses.

I think the presequel skills are generally better than bl2, more diverse. However i prefer the simplicity of borderlands 2 skill trees in the vanilla game. Eg zero the assassin has the most non cluttered and refined skill tree.

Hi Derch. Hope you return for Wonderlands. You know it makes sense. 🤞

I’m just sad the infinity pistol wasn’t in the game. But then I realized Nisha exists and instantly realized why they didn’t include it.

I think your point about the better synergies with characters/skills/gear is important in how many think about the difficulty of the game. You can get a much more cohesive build that truly works for and even dominates a wide variety of situations, instead of the very specific builds in BL2. The OP levels really weed out some of the builds and gear in the characters. So I think that's one reason you really feel the lack of OP levels and some of the other aspects, like sparser mobs. Having great, well-designed characters and skill trees actually highlighted the scaling issues even more. So basically the game feels incomplete and less replayable after awhile compared to BL2, but what you can get out of it is actually pretty great.

It's really sad about the cancelled DLC(s?). Found the game enjoyable, and the Claptrap DLC showed there was still more room for new and interesting gear, enemies, and areas. The music too, it may sound weird but I'm sad we missed out on more soundtrack music, some of it was pretty wicked. Lastly, the DLCs would have made UVHM and arguably endgame so much more vast. I seem to finish UVHM/3rd playthrough around level 55, then it's like Now What? Killing Odjurimir (or however it's spelt) takes 15 or 20 kills (never counted exactly but it's something like that) to go up one level. Getting to lvl 70 is something therefore I don't know how to approach, would like to do in a fun way, but haven't bothered with for a year or some such. Lots of potential. Wish they hadn't 'abandoned' this game's DLCs god damn it.

Pre sequel was so underrated i think the intro first few hours dragged on WAY too long and deadlift was a menace for many people i never struggled too much with him but he can be a bitch first run thtrough

Haven't played presequel after all this time. Think you convinced me.

Very late comment to very late review. If you have problem with too few enemies just put this line into console: set GD_Globals.General.Globals RespawnDelayInSeconds 300.000000 Sets spawn timer to 5 mins, so between clearing like 2 waves and story blabbing usually mobs start to spawn behind me. Became somewhat interesting on Bosun ship and lvl 70 playtrough. But on Aurelia it doesn't really matter I guess, because when I press action key everything kinda dies, except few frozen bada**es to finish off. Also I agree that different gravity values make better gameplay.

Replaying recently, and enjoying it a lot more than I did at the time. Biggest pro for me is that you don't have to use specific weapons and slag. This alone makes it better - for me personally - in raw gameplay terms. Saying that, I agree with pretty much every negative you mention. Hell, this whole review is on point. Even where our opinions differ, you argue your case informatively and explain your reasoning. Very well done video. Much better than many pro journos. Props.

I found the borderlands collection for $5 at walmart!!

I love TPS, but after getting one character to level 70, the ridiculous grind from level 60ish to 70 really put me off ever doing it again. That's one of the biggest flaws in the game that should really be fixed - enemies give pitiful amounts of XP in late UVHM. I had to reset UVHM after doing almost ALL side missions just to reach level 70 without boring XP farming.

I gotta disagree on the environment thing. TPS has both terrible environments and map design for them. It's either Hyperion hub of heroism, grey with blue ice with rakk clones, or grey with red with kraggons. It's very generic looking for the majority of the game. At the very least BL1 had color in its environments, and a greater variety. And BL2 did excellent with green pastures, arctic and arid deserts, bandis camps that were't just grey and blended in with the grey moon, and the thematic environments of each of its DLCS, which isn't completely fair to compare to because TPS did do that with its one DLC, they just got shut down before they could make more. You say people expected the same kind of jump from BL1 to BL2, but other than character design and some other smaller things they mostly took a jump backwards. I do find the "it's buggy" a weird complaint considering the state of BL1 and BL2... There are far fewer game breakers in TPS than BL2.

Like you said, TPS does a lot of things well. It's a bit unfortunate that those improvements get overshadowed by the drawbacks. The biggest drawbacks, IMO, are the pacing and lack of a real endgame. The pacing hits people up front because there is so much wasted, empty space on Elpis and even the weapon slots take a long time to unlock. So by the time people actually return to Helios, where the gameplay speeds up, they feel drained. The lack of an endgame was addressed to a degree by the patch that allows bosses to be farmed and the inclusion of the Claptrap DLC, but most of the zones lack a reason to revisit them at high levels. There's a general lack of gauntlet zones like Bloodshot Stronghold where you feel challenged to make your way through with a fully specced character. Helios station has a few spots, and Overlook from the Claptrap DLC is decent, but that's it.

I like how theres some variety in the late game but in borderlands 2 there isnt much creativoty just set builds and a few gund you use

Hyperion lasers of all types are a go to when I'm leveling up and even at endgame in tps. I REALLY love hyperion blasters, despite how weak they can be at times. Hyperion beams (Or jack + rosie) were also very fun.

you did this review just in time

The Pre Sequel is very much a great game and I think what BL2 did much better was the story and humor. I really think the mechanics in TPS kept the charm of BL2 but also ramped it up in all the right places. Like mobility and slams which in my opinion is a massive step up in maneuverability. Oz kits are also cool but I think the constant drainage although it makes sense, just overall took some of that free for all experience away from the combat. The game frees up the leash big time but than tugs you back periodically. I dont quite think that was a necessary consequence that needed to be added since most of your enemies have the same increased mobility as well. I love the addition of laser weapons and the skill trees were very cleverly designed. I can go on and on but I think TPS deserves way more credit than it had received. It did a great job at keeping that true BL feel while also making it feel like a completely different experience. I loved TPS and I hope BL3 strikes that balance between all 3 games with more innovation on a better engine. Big Fan of this series of games!!

Congratulations on 8000 subscribers

..yea, totally agree on improvements side - TPS is more than few big steps in the right direction ... worst thing in TPS for me is bad map level design. They need more teleports, jump-pads, shortcut paths etc. to improve traveling .... i didn't like music in TPS that much as in BL2 though ...

Maybe I'm alone but I find the mobility of mobs so aggravating in the pre-sequel. I find grenades with anything longer than a second fuse to be useless as enemies will fly across the map to safety. Not to mention actual flying enemies being total assholes when trying to get out of fight for your life. I think the badass outlaws are the epitome of my frustration. They're tanky, can fly, and with rocket launchers they can two-shot you and while that's the worst of it, the whole experience leads to frustration and a desire to play 2 instead, in my opinion. Especially with the bl2reborn modpack. Also I need to try the ucp for the pre-sequel, maybe it'll help.

I'm curious about which maps you think are the best. Personally, I love Vorago Solitude, it's just a shame they obviously ran out of time to do something amazing with it (there's a whole 1/4 of the map with no oxygen geysers and one of the oxygenated buildings has no oxygen barrier in front of it, at the very least), the Veins of Helios, Tycho's Ribs and the Motherlessboard. In some ways I even like the Holodome, unlike so many others.

I just got it recently. I didn't like it at first , but it's growing on me. My biggest issue is that the pacing seems very slow. The opening area is huuuge and you have to walk everywhere for a few missions until you get a vehicle. Side quests involve so much back tracking. It's been a while, but I don't recall BL2 being so tedious. The leveling is quite slow and I think it's due to the level design and mob density as you've said. I'm not even lvl 50 on my first and only character and I'm not sure I'm willing to start from scratch on another one. It's just so sloooooowwwww...

Well, I still have my hands full with BL2, haven't even started playing OP levels and farming raid bosses yet.

I agree with nearly everything you said on here, it took me a couple of years to actually enjoy TPS but I pick it up now and again and playthrough the story, the only thing I'm not struck on is lasers, I just couldn't get away with them

Thanks! You convinced me it's worth my 42. Sorry? God NO! Not dollars! Heh heh....gigs bro. Memory's precious on these early adapter streets yo'. I'm not paying *money* for some see-spot-run digi power fantasy that just *barely* qualifies for RE2 *demo* practice. We's' a *long* stretch from the Mad Moxxi DLC level of challenge sway.

Sometimes Borderlands The Presequel seems like DLC for Borderlands 2 cause of how much smaller it is.

Just started playing, on level 15 now. So far; I like the lasers and air boost/low gravity, dislike the map design for the most part because falling to death/getting confused much more often than in BL2. Ambivalent about that body slam feature, diversity in attacks is good but at this point at least it's way overpowered as I rarely have to shoot mob type enemies at all if I don't want to.

Borderlands The Pre-Sequel is way better in every aspect then Borderlands 3. Just saying. Also TPS has the best designed characters in the whole franchise.

I like the PS .....A very fair review..

I actually enjoyed the pre sequel and borderlands 1 more than 2. Borderlands 2 to me was just really repetitive because the only real option to get good loot most of the time was boss farming (and technically the preserve midgets but it takes five minutes or so to get there from spawn each time), which was boring as fuck. The farmory was more fun than that shit because at least it was satisfying when i got what i wanted because it was chests instead of a mediocre boss battle or sucky miniboss. The worst offender in borderlands two to me for this is letting us not only get the most powerful gear from bosses instead of world drops, but letting us get legendaries before we reach level twenty.... and lets not forget how much easier it is to get perfect gear in borderlands two due to the limited variety of the parts system. Overall, borderlands 2 i feel i better to some because of to many mob maps, more clusterfuck action, and more content? Imo the pre sequel and borderlands 1 are mechanically better and more fun games. From a loot shooter aspect in my opinion borderlands 2 is the weakest entry of the series since it fails in the most important areas. Especially since it focuses more on hyperbalancing than game fun unlike bl1 and tps. Not to mention its ridiculously inconsistent tone and terrible humor that was not funny to me. It was just bad potty humor written by an adult. And dont get me started on that ruined blowjob joke at opportunity when jack says hes talking about dicks. The joke was not funny but clever, until he said that. Poor writing at its finest. If i were to recommend a first borderlands experience, borderlands 2 would probably be my last recommendation.

Love this video, wish more people could see it. I personally prefer the Pre-Sequel because I love the characters, specifically Claptrap and, most of all, ATHENA. I love Athena

Borderlands 1 was the most beautiful shade of brown

Just started pre-sequel a week ago, been really enjoying it. I think it does a lot right compared to borderlands 2. I agree with most of your points but I'd add that textures seem to be really messed up in this game. I've had enemies walk and shoot through walls while remaining undamageable at the same time, making it frustrating at times. Also in terms of humor I would say I prefer BL2, but maybe its just because I didn't really get the australian style of the game. They also really messed up the character of moxxi in the game which I really don't like as she was one of the more interesting NPCs in BL2. Claptastic Voyage was also a really good story DLC and goes to show maybe if 2K Australia had more time or money they would've been able to produce more high quality DLC. Great video as usual Derch and I'll be looking out for that Wilhelm video soon.

The only thing I still don't like about this game is that too many of the legendaries (granted they are the copy and pasted ones from BL2) are world drops such as the Maggie, badaboom, storm front, etc

Nice video alot of good points. I personally like Borderlands The Pre-Sequel it's a fun game with a great Sci-Fi atmosphere and the same good quality gameplay & humor. Very very underrated.

I feel like TPS starts rather poorly, but gets better the more you play. The levels start out fairly bland until you reach the Hub of Heroism and Research and Development. And I like those maps better than most in BL2. I think the research labs are designed better than the wildlife preserve. I really love Varago Solitude and how it makes the most of the more open level design. The sidequests with the rats were interesting and the rewards are strong enough to give you a reason to do them. The Swagman is an awesome optional boss in a really cool area that should have harsher scaling so I can make that run more often while leveling. I like how Cryo, compared to Slag, is resisted by shields. It's still kind of OP because you can stunlock enemies and they can't hurt you, but at least enemies with high shields (many enemies in TPS) have a decent chance to resist your debuffs unless you spec for Cryo. Kraggons are cool enemies and I hope we get more of them. The Grinder and better items of the day give you a reason to keep your crappy weapon drops and spend your money on something other than slots. Lasers are really awesome and expand the weapon selection. The character skill trees are, on the whole, better designed. I find the actual designs, dialogue, art and animations for the character less interesting, with the exceptions of Nisha and Claptrap. Athena is kind of a generic troubled heroine. Wilhelm is the same grunting asshole he was in BL2. Aurelia, rich snob, yawn. Timothy fits the theme of TPS being more about Jack. But I don't really get into playing these characters (with the exception of Clappy) as much as Zero, Axton, Krieg or Maya. And there are some negatives to gameplay and design. Torks are more annoying than Varkids. Enemy variety is greatly inferior to BL2. Corrosion and Fire were massively nerfed in usefulness. I would have rather they buffed lightning to where it is without nerfing fire and corrosion so much. Even indoors, enemies are primarily shields and that limits the use of fire. The Dahl fighter craft are more obnoxious than Buzzards. The Bosun's ship and Titan Factory take forever. Lots of little nitpicks like that. Level design on the whole, with the exception of the standout levels, aren't quite as good as BL2. Weapon balance is also a bit screwed. For a first playthrough, the Vibra-Pulse and Fridgia are quest rewards and they're beyond broken OP. You can't miss the Vibra-Pulse and you get it right before a series of levels where it's far and away one of the best ways to destroy enemies.

I played TPS solo with Nisha (I liked her a lot) and Coop with a friend of mine (splitscreen on console) I was Athena and he was Wilhelm. I loved my first PTs with both but I started TVHM with Nisha and it didn't get me again. I don't know really why. I think it was, because I didnt felt done with BL2. I had a lvl 72 Zero and lvl 72 Maya at this point and I prefered to go back to BL2 instead of keep playing TPS. But now I have all characters played to lvl 72 in BL2 and also another Maya on OP8 and done a lot of farming so I am pretty much done with BL2 for the moment. But there are also great games coming out like Skyrim remastered and Dishonored 2 that I want to play and I still have to finish Red Dead Redemption. That are a lot of big games for a man that have to work full time :-P. But I will come back to TPS and give it another try. It is a long way to BL3 and I think I will play a lot of TPS in the future. Great review and video like always.

I almost never see this point brought up but I think that Borderlands 2 had better characters. I don't like how complicated all the characters are, I hate how many paragraph long ability explanations there are. I start with a character by reading the skill trees and deciding which one I want to go into first, but in TPS it takes so long to just read through the skill, and then understanding how they all work and how they interact takes even longer. I just end up getting overwhelmed. Characters in BL2 had the perfect amount of character complexity, so they seem simple but have more to them when you dig deeper.

I'd like to add one little fact. So I was arguing with somebody about TPS feels short for small maps. Actualy it's not true. TPS has not enought maps to play. But they feel small just, becouse how fast you can move around, jumpads, low gravity, airboosting etc. I just can't figure out if it's good or bad thing. What do you think?

The gameplay in this game just feels so much more satisfying and the characters are just so much better and balanced, borderlands 2 was just weird, most characters were so far apart in power levels, I didn't enjoy that at all. This game however makes me want to play with all the different skills with all the characters (even though I hate Jack). Borderlands 2 didn't have synergy especially with gaige as you elaborated so well in your worst character design vid. I completely agree with that. There were so many wasted skills. Athena is how you do a character like gaige properly (granted her melee tree needs work). I find myself enjoying this game so much more and my favorite mission of all time was the snickit ball one with the Don which is a really cool easter egg for those familiar with the game of cricket. I was literally laughing my ass off while listening to that guy explain the rules.

What do you think about game modification that you can enable to make things harder for those who want to have a challenge? Example: level 1 you can enable 4 player health and enemy health regen. The benefit will be to increase your drop rates or do or something else to boost the experience of the game without breaking it

So : TPS has better weapons, better character balance, better environnement, better story line, better music (by far imo) and HANDS DOWN the best DLC content (Claptastic Voyage DLC is the best DLC ever made for a BL game). But is it better than TPS ? No, simply because BL2 is older and has more content, so people stick to it. TPS is a great game, play it. Also : BL2 has Krieg.

It's so interesting to see how much our opinions are similar, but you're just more favorable to the game. It's honestly surprising to someone who is so much more comfortable in uvhm and op levels in bl2 (and rightly so, you kick ass there) be as generous to a game that...is kind of a joke by comparison in terms of difficulty. Nonetheless, there were several steps this game took...mostly in the right direction. I like the way lasers work, but they could be expanded. (Did anyone else think they were overpowered a bit? I had a vibra-pulse for over ten levels on my claptrap in the first playthrough, and it still wrecked.) Skill trees were more forgiving, but I wouldn't call them better necessarily. So many skills were more complex than they needed to be: in one of your vids with Jack gameplay, you had like 11 things on your exp bar for almost the whole gameplay. Did it change the way you played? Barely. So many skills could have been slightly rebalanced, and not been about stacking, and would have had the same effect. This is quite a bit different then say, Krieg's conditional kill skills, where Spunky for instance gets into a real rhythm and micro-manages, maximizing his rewards. Most of Aurelias stackable skills just happen eventually. No real micro-managing needed, just patience. If it doesn't affect how you play, stacking is unnecessary. Cryo was a cool concept, and had overall good execution, but no one really resisted it enough, and you should entirely remove the freeze over feature. Way too rewarding. Now THAT is a good way to introduce a rewarding mechanic that changes how you play the game! An element that makes certain other attack types more viable, without being flat like slag? Awesome. But I think there should be other similar combinations. Maybe tone down the element bonus damage, and make all the elements have an effect, similar to borderlands 1. Corrosive is a flat defensive debuff, shock can stun (which could also be a bit more rewarding than the more deadly elemental effects) and fire can maybe do something similar to daze? Explosive could have a higher chance for knockback. In general, adding mechanics and changing the way you play the game is almost always better then pure stat changes (which is why bl2 felt better to play than bl1). When TPS added those sorts of changes, it shined. I just wish the game was...better.

It's just a long DLC guys, they put it out as a separate game to sell more copies. That's it. I see it completely as a DLC - The same graphics and mechanics as the original game with a few new things. A really good experience, really like it !

TPS is by no means a bad game. It's just not nearly as good as BL2. The biggest mistake that was made here was Gearbox outsourcing this game to 2K Australia.

Speaking of farming the armoury, did you quit the BL1 playthrough or are you going to finish it?

I think that if the game, as it stands right now, was bigger than it currently is and had more distinct gear, it'd be a better game than BL2. In fact, I kind of feel like it is already for some of the reasons you laid out. I think that the fact that it's almost more like a stand alone expansion for BL2 rather than its own thing soured a lot of people on it, plus the fact that Gearbox isn't exactly a popular dev right now thanks to all the Aliens and Duke Nukem stuff made people more hostile to this game, you can see the same effect only emphasised with Battleborn.

love this game but I don't play it as much cuz bruteforce/gibbed keep giving me the save HASH error. can't go back to farming once you go gibbed you can't go back.

I think that Holodome is much better arena than any other one from BL2, some bosses, a lot of badasses and it's very good looking. And music in TPS so good (just go to the Jack's Office and sit there for a while).

About the skill and gear guides will we see claptrap or wilhelm next? asking because I look forward to pre sequel content

A very late comment to a very late review. Only thing I didn't like is knowing that 4 our of the six characters are killed in Borderlands 2. I know there's theories that some of them are still alive but I don't see anything canon saying that they lived. Why make me love characters that are gonna die in the future and won't be in Borderlands 3? Why!? Great review tho.

Obligatory comment for TPS reviews: "It's not a bad game, it just doesn't have as much content as the previous. Also it needs more fun mobbing areas

My problem with the game is that it feels incredibly padded. Since the only thing you can do in the game is to play through the story(another big problem), it loses momentum more and more every time you play it. And for the claptrap DLC, sure it had a good story but it felt too gimmicky for my taste. Also each skill tree has a billion stacking skills to pay attention (looking at you Aurelia) which just distracts you from the combat. And of course the classic "no OP levels" issue... It wouldn't be too bad if the characters weren't all super overpowered and you didn't one shot every non-badass enemy.

Which is your favorite borderlands game

can we expect the willhelm character breakdown anytime soon?

For me this is the worst of the Borderlands game but it is still a fun romp, it is still worth the time to play, and if your new to the Borderlands franchise tho again the lesser of all the game fun is here to be had and they even do 3 things better then Borderlands 1 and 2 to me. #1 The characters have more dialog as you play co op then the other games an it can be darn funny some times. #2 The story is nice and getting the back story in Jack who was behind the scenes on Borderlands 1 and THE villian of Borderlands 2 was nice to get Jack's story. An #3 I like them adding the freeze Cryo weapons and the Lasers was damn fun. As for the worse, the levels are mostly meh, only a few of the side quests stand out as fun to me (Where as both Borderlands and even more so Borderlands 2 has quite a few fun side quests), and this was not done by the main studio but by 2k Australia which sadly was shut down after this as sales were just average an below Borderlands and Far below Borderlands 2.

Derch, thanks for this...much good information, well thought out and articulated as usual. I will most likely pick up TPS in the future, but right now it's still up at the $40 mark on Steam, so, being quite busy with BL2, I can wait a while. Btw, you mention having a full time job...I'm curious as to what you do, if you're of a mind to share?

I think you missed backpack and bank space. This was my biggest issue with all the games.

Is there actually a difference between the old material Hyperion Guns and the new ones?