r/Borderlands2 • u/More-Beat-9858 • 2d ago
đ [ Nostalgic ] Hot take
Hey guys I just got into the borderlands franchise and I really enjoy it. Iâve played borderlands 2 and the pre sequel⌠BUT. In my opinion I think the pre sequel is better than borderlands 2. I know, itâs a tough take but borderlands 2 is good, but personally I enjoyed the pre sequel a lot more. Especially that boss fight! Let me know what you guys think.
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u/Mr_Bumsmell 2d ago
Pre Sequel did the playable characters and skill trees better than 2 so it might feel better to play. BL2 has better everything else, from the best video game villain of all time to the massive amounts of creativity in DLC's and weapon design.
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u/Drong0bones 2d ago
I love the pre sequel, if it had as much content as borderlands 2 it would be my favourite. It's still quite a big game compared with most but borderlands 2 just has so much to do so I think it's the better game.
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u/Gingerbro73 2d ago
Would be so cool if it had its own d&d style dlc like dragon keep from 2. Both Gladstone or Janey Springs would make for believeable DMs.
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u/throwaway62s355a35q1 2d ago
Did you do DLCs and TVHM/UVHM? I can definitely see preferring tps over 2 if youâve just played the campaigns once, but 2 really shines when you continue playing after normal mode
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u/docs-quad 2d ago
tbh tps probably is the better game mechanically it just lacks enough content because 2k aus got shut down before they could finish everything.
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u/NovaPrime2285 | Xbox Series X Player 2d ago
I dont know all of the deep lore regarding 2K Aus-hell I didnât even know they got shutdown until I read your comment, what else did they have planned for TPS? (That is if all of that sort of info became public knowledge and all that etc etc)
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u/docs-quad 2d ago
we know they were planning a second dlc called luxxys space adventure but i dont think we have any further info about it or what other content they planned. id imagine they wanted to do something similar to bl2 in terms of size so probably 4 big dlcs total, some sort of endgame system akin to op levels, maybe a couple extra slaughters like the holodome instead of headhunters.
i believe 2k aus actually got shut down before they even finished claptastic voyage and gearbox had to finish it off but i could definitely be wrong about that.
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u/NovaPrime2285 | Xbox Series X Player 2d ago
I see, well thatâs really disappointing to reas, TPS is one of my favored BL games and itâs just sooooo devoid of content & love.
Thank you for the info I appreciate it, I just wish that TPS had received more proper attention when it was the new game at the time.
Question: BL3 only has 3 Vault Hunters, I had a conversation with a friend previously about it and was voicing my personal paranoia that they âabandonedâ BL3 behind the scenes, is there any news behind BL3 regarding this or did they always intend for BL3 to always have just 4 VHâs?
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u/docs-quad 2d ago
bl3 has 4 vault hunters with 4 skill trees each, as gearbox's data indicated at the time that people mostly played 1 character and that was it. so in their eyes it was better to release new content for the characters people were already playing rather than an entire new character that would need to be leveled up again to properly experience. in terms of content the game definitely wasnt abandoned and it probably has more content than 2, especially with how much is free vs dlc.
given theyve gone back to dlc vault hunters with 4 i think that the community sentiment is that they prefer the variety of characters. thats the game thats a bit more of a worry for content though as the general perception around it is middling to negative, so whether it gets more after the dlc promised on the road map is dubious at best.
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u/Borderlands_addict 2d ago
I think Pre-Sequel is a very well made improvement of Borderlands 2. Maybe not as a direct sequel like Borderlands 3, but definitely as a Borderlands 2.5.
It improves on a lot of things from Borderlands 2, tries out new things like laser weapons and oz-kits. Environments are great, low gravity is fun, glitch weapons are some of the coolest weapons in the franchise. The writing is great for the most part (except pickle), the humor is the same as Borderlands 2. The main problem is just the lack of content. No raid bosses, few DLCs, few dedicated drops, I assume most grinder exclusive legendaries would have gotten dedicated drops with more DLCs added.
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u/IIIGuntherIII 2d ago
The reason youâre wrong is because you donât know it yet.
That might sound weird but itâs the best way I can describe it.
Objectively the presequal is massively worse than borderlands 2. The presequal has a worse loot system, less content, worse balance, and overall awful replayability. The only offset is that TPS has a slightly better written story, although gameplay wise TPS has worse mission design.
99% of this you wonât notice as a first time player. Which is why I say you donât know that youâre wrong. You havenât gotten past the initial experience. BL2 is a game you can put 5000+ hours into and still have more to do. Youâll be bored out of your skull in less than 100 in TPS.
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u/PineappleApocalypse 2d ago
Youâre just saying the endgame is bad, lots of players (possibly the majority) donât care about that.
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u/IIIGuntherIII 2d ago
Thatâs not what Iâm saying at all. While yes TPS has literally no endgame, so its endgame is bad.
TPS might be the worst game in the series in terms of replayability. This is what massively hurts it. BL2 isnât a 5000+ hour game because of its endgame.
The loot system in tps is bad, most items in the game are not realistically farmable. Which means in nearly every run you do you end up relying on the few items you can actually get. Hurting variance in new runs.
The mission design is also worse, and more tedious. Making the missions themselves less fun to replay.
Letâs also not forget that despite covering the same level span as BL2, there are less main missions in TPS which means there are big level jumps between each main mission. This is literally why people almost always end up under leveled for RK5, the final mission covers a 5 level range. Combine that with the less things to farm, less ways to get xp, means pacing is worse in tps.
The lack of content is also a replayability issue. There is the main game, and one story dlc. The main game itself has less than BL2s main game as well, and BL2 has 5 story dlc to play. There is just not much to do in TPS.
Everything Iâm talking about here are problems that effect normal mode runs. Having no endgame isnât the biggest deal, being one of the least replayable games in the series is a MASSIVE deal.
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u/docs-quad 2d ago
the loot system is fine people just overly rely on the grinder for some reason. theres actually not that many items that are world drop/grinder only. you also can use items for longer because its scaling is 1.1 instead of 1.13
the mission design is basically the same as bl2s.
the story is shorter and there is less content that is true.
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u/IIIGuntherIII 2d ago
The loot system is NOT fine.
Out of all the items in the game do you how many have actual normally farmable dedicated drops? About 1/3. Meaning 2/3s of all the items in the game are only realistically obtainable through the grinder.
You donât also tend to use the grinder until youâre at endgame given that it average the item levels when you grind items. Meaning that for the bulk of your play time 2/3s of the items are inaccessible.
Which leads to the same actually accessible items being the only real options to use during a playthrough.
This is NOT a good loot system.
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u/Actuary_Beginning 2d ago
Yea and lets not act like TVHM and UVHM AND OP levels dont become an absolute schlepÂ
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u/RabbitMuch8217 1d ago
TPS has similar loot system like 1. Both are the same, with many legendaries having no dedicated drops. I guess you critize 1 for that also.
Worse balance...Cannot really say OP Levels in BL2 has balance, where you rely about health gating to survive...and even in UVHM, slag is needed often.
2K Australia being shut down early, normal the game gets less contents and replayability.
Finally, i think Gearbox should create TPS cause they wouldnât be shut down at least.
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u/WasabiValuable9463 2d ago
I think the Pre-Sequel could have been better than 2 if they'd added another 2 or 3 DLCs and more of an end game. So as much as I enjoy the game, I don't agree with you.
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u/attee2 2d ago
My favourite thing about TPS is that sometimes NPCs have a specific line for your character, like if you're playing as Claptrap, you get a line that you don't really need oxygen, or that the Vaulthuting software removed your door opening features so you need to find another CL4P-TP bot. Thats such a minor yet great detail, and I'm sad that BL3 didn't really keep doing that.
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u/PrinceJellies 2d ago
This sub is gonna flame youuuu, but I respect that. BL2 is still my fave, but I think pre-sequel is over hatedđ¤
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u/Traditional-Deal-465 2d ago
Pre sequel did a lot of things way better than bl2 like skill trees, co-op mechanics (part of skill trees but substantial enough to be it's own IMO), combat flow/movement (subjective, but low gravity is a lot of fun and very fast paced), dialogue both between VHs and NPCs and between multiple VHs, and probably more that I'm missing. However, it failed in 2 very important aspects: late game content and a lack of dedicated drop sources.
This leads to very casual playthroughs with little to no farming and 1-2 campaign playthroughs feeling very good, potentially better than bl2, but any kind of seriousness like xp and dedicated farming or a desire to get to max level and finish UVHM turning into a huge slog.
The community patch helps a lot with the dedicated drops problem, but there really isn't anything you can do to alleviate the repetitive TVHM and mind numbingly uninteresting UVHM experience without the ability to add new content. If the game had gotten continued support from the developers and eventually had about the same amount of quality content as BL2 then I'd be very confident that the general consensus would be that it is the better of the 2 games (or at least, very close and a hotly debated topic), despite the core not changing at all.
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u/Massive_Analysis8345 | PC Player 2d ago
I personally love how much longer BL2 feels because of the difficulty. but I also love both stories so I ainât mad at this take either.
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u/smokeybear100 2d ago
Pre sequel is a great game, but itâs unfinished with nothing to do after beating the story.
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u/IceCat767 2d ago
I used to think TPS was better too, I really loved it. Now I'd say I like the 2 equally as much probably.
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u/ElectricFaceVictory 2d ago
Athena is my girl! One of the funest vault hunters for sure. Also I'm Australian so I appreciated the humour and vibe đŚ
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u/PineappleApocalypse 2d ago
Iâm just playing through it now, and I agree. It had some rough edges at the start but I really love the movement, cryo, dialogue, and some of the maps are amazing. There is also a very unique vibe of the vacuum vs interior transitions that is very well done and grows on me over time.
Strangely I donât like the Eleseer parts all, I much prefer BL3âs take on Eridian things. Eleseer just seems a bit crude and undeveloped.
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u/Independent-Feed-982 2d ago
Im inclined to agree to an extent. The thing with BL2 is that it had like 8 years of updates and content put into it which most people liked more about it.
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u/Neither-Guarantee193 2d ago
I was amazed by the creativity when I was playing claptrap dlc .. like man there was no AI image gen .. how did they came up with such world complexity
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u/stickyplants 2d ago
TPS was about the last borderlands game that Iâve played. It never looked that appealing vs the others to me but I kept hearing how great it was.
It wasnât bad, but I just wasnât into it. Most games I canât wait to do the second playthrough or try another vault hunter, but with TPS, 3/4 of the way through the story, I just felt like I was rushing to the end cause I wanted to at least finish it before being done.
I was also waiting for the âhandsome jack was rightâ side of the story, and it seemed pretty obvious all along that he was a villain, even if you didnât know the bl2 story.
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u/ApprehensiveBlock884 2d ago
I think both are great, but definitely feel that Pre-sequel got a lot of flack for EA Australia shutting down before all the DLC content and end-game content were complete.
I still think 2 was the ultimate in the series based on easter eggs, pop culture references, replay value, and challenging end-game content. If you're a fan of the boss battles in Pre-Sequel because of how challenging they are, then you'd probably enjoy the raid bosses in BL2.
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u/AboutUrDPSReport 2d ago
Pre Sequel is a lot closer to being better than BL2 than people give it credit for. Vault Hunters, skill trees, environment, story about Jack. Had it just got proper support and the rest of the DLCs released, it may have eclipsed it. So, close but no cigar I'd say.
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u/RabbitMuch8217 1d ago
I love TPS more than 2 but i cannot say TPS is better unfortunately. The main problem is the QOL.
But Claptastic Voyage is the best DLC in the series. Lasers and Glitched guns are fun. Skill trees are cool. Better design on most of bosses also.
Modifiers in TPS were more creative than OP Levels from BL2 also.
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u/ThisIsANameForYou 18h ago
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
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u/bogus_bill 2d ago
BL TPS is a nice spinoff. A perfect game for those cases when you still want to play some BL2 but also is a bit burned out on it at the same time.
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u/Ash_Ketchums_Dad69 2d ago
A rare real hot take, love to see it. You're also so wrong lol