Borderlands 2 – 7 things we want to see

4. New locations

We loved the sci-fi Western vibe of Borderlands, and we definitely want it to return in the sequel, but we don’t need the whole thing looking like the Mojave. Borderlands took way too long to spice up the locations — and most of the new, interesting places came as DLC — and even when it started sending the player to new areas, they still felt far from “alive.”

Let’s see a jungle! Let’s blow up a tropical paradise! Pandora is a big, fierce place, and we feel like we’ve only seen a small part of it. The Game Informer cover shows what looks like a wide variety of environments, but we still worry that Gearbox might tread the same old ground with this sequel. Don’t. Let’s go exploring.

3. More comedy

When Borderlands was funny, it was absolutely freaking hysterical. When it wasn’t, it felt like something was missing. Gearbox’s writers are wonderful, twisted, dark comedians, and we’d love to see what they can really do.

Some of the characters in the original were given proper introductions, with funny catch-phrases and quotes about their personality displayed under their name. Do that for every single character we meet, and make sure they all have a fun story to tell. If their tales are anything like the few we heard in the first game, we’ll hang on every word.

2. Better vehicles

Borderlands’ vehicular sections weren’t what we’d call its highlights, but we’d still like to see them return. This time, though, we’d want this element expanded significantly, with more vehicle types and more customization. Let us outfit them with new weapons we find—let us pick the bones of the burnt, destroyed vehicles we encounter to outfit our own, fully decked-out car! Imagine encountering some awesome vehicle with a sweet rocket, and knowing that blowing it up means getting to strap that puppy onto your hood.

Oh, and while the car and tank were cool, we’d also appreciate hovercrafts, motorcycles, helicopters, and mechs, too. We want us a garage full of awesome vehicles to drive and modify.

1. Personal Claptrap BFF

Remember earlier when we said we love dancing robots? Yeah. We do. In fact, we want to bring one with us everywhere. We want a personal Claptrap companion to customize and help us out, even if it doesn’t get involved too heavily in the combat. Just have it wander around and give us a passive boost, and maybe distract enemies from time to time. How about the ability to load his robotic arms with guns and send him back to town to sell them for us, a la Torchlight?

Oh, and we’ll gladly pay for DLC alternate voices. Gearbox owns Duke Nukem now, remember? We’d drop a few dollars to hear “Hail to the king, baby” while blasting apart Skags.

Well, that’s all we have! We’re sure if Borderlands 2 has literally every single thing we’ve asked for, it will be awesome. Or, you know, it might have none of it and still be awesome. That’s a possibility, too.

Aug 5, 2011

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