Borderlands 3 impressions

Kenadian

Staff member
Site Admin
Currently I'm Level 18 or so and have some impressions for those of you who've been asking.
Is it any good? get well soon d00key
Personally I think mechanically Borderlands 3 is just the natural progression between 2 and 3. Shooting feels better, movement is way better, you can now vault up to levels not possible before and driving is awesome.

I'm less enamored with how the story is being delivered. It feels a bit disjointed to me as compared to BL2 and I'm not as invested in it as I was previously.

...but, that could be down to the simple fact that Handsome Jack is my favorite villain of all time. I just think he was written so well that most anything would pale in comparison by that standard.
 

Deb

Moderator
Personally I think mechanically it's just the natural progression between 2 and 3. Shooting feels better, movement is way better, you can now vault up to levels not possible before and driving is awesome.

I'm less enamored with how the story is being delivered. It feels a bit disjointed to me as compared to BL2 and I'm not as invested in it as I was previously.

...but, that could be down to the simple fact that Handsome Jack is my favorite villain of all time. I just think he was written so well that most anything would pale in comparison by that standard.
I agree, the story line is not as strong and spending all that time running around the ship finding stuff was a little aggravating. And there are soooooo many guns. Should be cheaper to expand your backpack! But I am having a lot of fun with it, well except when I keep getting killed by the bosses :rolleyes:
 

Kenadian

Staff member
Site Admin
You might want to consider this, Vault hunters.
Honestly, after the plethora of issues I experienced yesterday it would be easy to jump on this bandwagon but for now this is strictly disinformation and based off the musings of someone trying to hack BL3.

He makes this assumption due to BL3's implementation of Denuvo DRM requiring constant upload to verify whether your copy of the game is legitimate. At no time does he say there's a keylogger, he speculates and goes on to say "how juicy it would be if true".

There's even speculation about how the game requires dedicated 2 MB upload to spy on you which has also been disproven, here's just a few examples:


https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/d45ph6
Right now there's so much hate around this game that its really easy to jump to conclusions which pretty much everyone is doing.

I wonder if we'd see even half this hate if the game actually launched on Steam?
 
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Kenadian

Staff member
Site Admin
@little P, this is the video I was trying to find the other day and it pretty much echos what I have to say.


I love this guys videos because he really thinks them through.

In this video I think he does a good job of addressing the game and your potential enjoyment of from both camps, those wanting more Borderlands 2 and those looking for innovation in BL3.

One of the points he brings up is the biggest mechanical issue I've run into to date and that is ammo economy. The ammo economy in this game is simply horrible, at least in early stages.

It only gets worse if you're under-leveled and hitting a boss or particularly busy area. There have been numerous times where I'm forced to watch each bullet while relying on balanced melee and skill cool down.

The only way to combat it really is to carry all weapon types as you'll have three more weapon classes to pick from which you'll have passively stored some ammo for along the way.

This means pausing the action and going into your inventory regularly to swap out weapons.

It pulls you out of the experience and, I think, detracts from the flow of the game. You commonly go from fast paced, balls to the wall action only to instantly stop everything so you can weapon juggle.

It's jarring and in my opinion poor game design.

This isn't Metro. You're not fighting through a post apocalyptic landscape looking for shreds of anything since humanity's been all but wiped from the planet.

This is a looter shooter than doesn't seem to want you shooting all the time.

Granted it gets better once you start putting money into SDU's (Storage Deck Upgrades) but you don't have the option until Sanctuary at Level 10 or so (I think).

@Brainling hasn't suffered this but my guess is due largely to him having a dedicated pet.

Even with that said, I'm still enjoying the game.

It isn't perfect, not even close, but it's enjoyable. It's improved on BL2 in most regards and the gameplay is fun enough to mindlessly dump time into with your buds.

Although there is something else, the game is darker than BL2 in my opinion. I thought BL2 put a lot of emphasis on dark humor, bu tit was funny.

BL3 seems to put more emphasis on dark overall and isn't as comical by any means. The biggest laughs I get is when I kill a horde enemy only to hear his dying words be "I'll take my chili recipe with me", references to a book club or something to that effect.

That shit is just pure comic gold!!!

Speaking toward the darkness, at one point I watched in horror when I thought the Calypso Twins were going to snap the neck of a main character in cut scene.

I don't know why that was so shocking for me, I guess maybe because of how in your face it was, don't know?

I just found it a bit cringe.

Funnily enough those three words pretty much describe my experience overall, at least up to level 15 or so.
 

little P

Super Mod
Interesting thoughts Ken, I absolutely agree the game is generating hate off the back of the Epic timed exclusivity deal. Which is a shame but I understand both points of view.

I'm more interested in the game itself though and your thoughts seem to echo a lot of what I've been reading, thanks for taking the time to post them. I'll likely pick this up somewhere down the road (probably in a steam sale lol).
 

Deb

Moderator
@Kenadian, great write up!!!! I agree the ammo has been a problem for me throughout. It seems like there are stretches where you just cannot get enough ammo before the next battle, so you do have to carry around guns, like shotguns, that you don't ever use except when you run out of everything else, and it just wastes slots in your inventory as well. I don't know if it is the lack of ammo or the lack of vending machines where you can buy the ammo you want to use and sell the loot you don't want.

There are some issues, the story seems to drag, and I preferred Maya as a character to Amara, but oh well. Fast travel is difficult and trying to figure out the various weapons has you standing around testing stuff for long periods of time. You also need to carry weapons that deal different types of elemental damage, so inventory management is challenging.

That all said, at the beginning, I was a little disappointed, now, not at all, as I move to new areas, the enemies are getting better and the battles are very challenging. Solo you are forced to use a lot of cover strategy because some of the enemies can take you out with one or two shots of whatever damage they are dealing. What I am really looking forward to is the DLC. The DLC in Borderlands 2 was really some of my favorite parts, so let's see what they come up with now ;)
 

little P

Super Mod
I'll likely pick this up somewhere down the road (probably in a steam sale lol).
And I did, today. Wapwap is picking this up and we're giving a go from the beginning together tonight. I played an hour of it earlier and it was enough to convince me this is going to be fun :)

If anyone wants to join in once we've levelled up a bit then feel free to join us in teamspeak if you see us in the general gaming channel :cool:
 
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