10 New Reasons From E3 to Return to "Borderlands 2"

Borderlands 2 may not be a revolution compared to its predecessor, but what it is is more of the same. Imagine: a world in which sequels build upon what came before them without forgetting what made something great in the first place.

That's the world of 2K and Gearbox's latest, the sequel to 2009's Borderlands and one of our most anticipated games of the year. We were lucky enough to check the game out again at E3, and just like last time, we were not disappointed.

Unlike last time, though, all four character classes were available, so naturally we chose one we hadn't played as before: the Assassin. We played a new mission on a new level, and had more interactions with the notorious Handsome Jack. Which brings us to our first slide.

Read on and let us know what you're looking forward to in Borderlands 2 in the comments or on Twitter.

One thing that was arguably lacking in the first Borderlands was a real concrete villain. You know, the kind you can sink your teeth into, and really enjoy killing when it finally comes down to it.

There's no confirmation (and likely won't be, until the game ships) that Handsome Jack is that villain, but 2K did rather shoddily dodge the question by commenting that he's "important".

And so far he's popped up to be a jerk every time we've sat down with the game. In another game, that might get annoying, but in Borderlands 2, it's awesome. And that's because…

…okay, so that transition didn't completely work, but our point is that the writing is good. If you played the first game, you'll already know this, but you should be glad to know that from everything we've seen so far, that hasn't changed a bit.

In the mission we played at E3, our heroes are tasked with knocking down some monuments that Handsome Jack has built to himself, specifically several statues of his likeness standing up around a futuristic city. Because "a war is fought in the minds of the people" (or so a claptrap told us).

At every turn, HJ was there to heckle, harass and harangue us, and his taunts (which quickly turned desperate, indicating that our vandalism was getting on his nerves) were a welcome voice-over as we protected the maintenance bot that was knocking down the statues.

The first game was either too focused on the Vault or not focused enough on anything at all, but either way, Borderlands 2 is likely going to have a much more interesting plot.

The last time we played the game, there were only two character classes available: Maya, the Siren, whose Phaselock ability traps enemies in floating stasis bubbles, and Salvador, the Gunzerker, who can dual-wield any two weapons and double up on firepower.

There were two new classes available to try out at E3, though, one of which was the Commando, Axton. The Commando is most like the Soldier from Borderlands the first, in that his special ability allows him to drop a Sabre Turret to help out in intense fights.

The turret is upgradeable in a huge variety of ways, including a nuclear attachment. Unfortunately, we didn't get to try it out, since we were too busy with the character on the next slide.

We weren't too mad about not getting to play with the nuke turret, though, since the Assassin, Zer0, was such a unique character to mess around with.

This "mysterious being"'s special ability, Deception, causes him to create a holographic double to distract enemies while he turns invisible and gains extra melee power and speed. Deception also allows him to spot enemy weak points, making it easy to score critical hits with good aim and the right timing.

Depending what branch of Zer0's skill tree you decide to go down, the Assassin's abilities can even be focused on melee attacks, a unique skill set in such a gun-heavy game.

From what we've seen of the game so far, its environments will be a hell of a lot more varied and interesting than those in the first Borderlands, which was mostly desert, rocks and caves, not counting the DLC. And even the Zombie Island was just a swamp.

But 2K's boasted that in Borderlands 2, if you can see it, you can get there. Already we've played through caustic acid caverns, lush, forested wildlife preserves, and at E3, a dense, futuristic city.

The world is shaping up to be even larger than before, and if the different levels prove as interesting as they seem right now, Borderlands 2 could have even better replay value than its predecessor.

One of the best parts of the original was the ever-escalating set of enemies, which were denoted using colorful adjectives. The further through the game you progressed, the more difficult the enemies became, and the more interesting their names.

Some enemies, like the pervasive Skags, will be making a return, while others, like the loaders that we fought at E3, are brand new.

The loader bots come in a buttload of varieties, including those with massive guns, those with bulldozer-like shields that they use to ram you, and those with massive spinning helicopter blades in place of arms.

And the adjectives that are used to describe them—such as "Badass Hot Loader"—denote both their rank (badass) and their weaknesses and resistances (in this case, resistance to fire). Good thing we had that corrosive, acid-spewing sniper rifle.

Speaking of corrosive, acid-spewing sniper rifles, that wasn't even our favorite gun that we got to use at E3.

Besides that sniper, the Assassin favored portable and quick weapons (or maybe that's just what the game happened to give us for this demo). In any case, we were also equipped with an electric assault rifle, a flaming, scoped revolver, and—our personal favorite—an electric SMG with a special property that we'll describe on the next slide.

Due to the way Borderlands 2 randomly generates weapons from dozens, if not hundreds, of variables (elemental damage, bullet type, manufacturer, etc.), there are unfathomable numbers of combinations possible. But so far, there's one trait that we like best out of them all…

Like the grenade-spewing shotguns that fired volleys of exploding projectiles with every shot in the first Borderlands, there's one type of weapon that's jumped out at us every time we've played Borderlands 2 so far: Tediore guns.

They possess the very special property of exploding when you empty their clips, at which point a new one suddenly materializes in your hands. It even works when you reload, essentially granting you a plentiful supply of powerful, accurate grenade-type projectiles.

On our lightning-equipped Tediore SMG, this function was so powerful that we found ourselves firing off single shots and then reloading at high speeds, chucking fast volleys of exploding weapons at particularly Badass enemies. It drained ammo quickly, but by that time our target was usually dead.

Overpowered? That remains to be seen. Awesome, though? Definitely.

If Diablo 3 has taught us anything, it's that we NEEDZ MOAR LOO000O0O00O0T1111!!!!!!11

Ahem.

There's just something about that tasty grind, plowing through wave after wave of enemies and penetrating further and further into hostile territory, all in the name of finding better loot, that really speaks to us. We're sure you know what we mean.

And it's made even better in Borderlands 2, where the loot you'll find isn't some lame Necklace of Flower-Picking. It'll be a Rocket Launcher that fires eight propelled grenades per shot with 4x fire damage and a bayonet for added melee.

The best part is, because of the way Borderlands 2 generates weapons, there will literally always be something better to find. Oh god, we can't wait.

Perhaps more than anything else, it's the little things that will put a permanent grin on experienced Borderlands players' faces when they return to Pandora in number two.

When so much of the first game's winning formula is remaining unchanged, it's important for there to be small improvements that increase your overall enjoyment of the game, and Borderlands 2 will have no shortage of those.

For example, the rather-unhelpful compass from the first game has been replaced by a full-on mini-map. And re-speccing your stats has been made much easier and more accessible, so you can play around easily with different configurations and loadouts to find out what works best for you.

Even the fact that you'll now pick up money and health automatically—rather than having to scrape through every battlefield post-carnage like before—makes the game just that much better. That's something that new players will likely take for granted, though Borderlands vets will likely notice immediately.

If Gearbox can deliver on all the promises that Borderlands 2 has made so far, it's going to be one of the top games of the year.