The game tells the story of four vault hunters who aid Handsome Jack in regaining control of the Helios space station. The Pre-Sequel features the same “shoot’n’loot” mechanics of the previous games while adding some new feature of its own. Continuing the tradition of the series, Borderlands The Pre-Sequel received glowing reviews, with critics praising the off-the-rails gameplay mechanics and memorable characters.

Gameplay

The Pre-Sequel follows the gameplay scheme laid out by the previous installment of Borderlands. The game is a first-person shooter RPG, with focus on looting chests and bodies of your enemies to find even more powerful guns and carrying out quests for the NPCs living on Elpis. The player gets to choose from four playable characters: Athena, Nisha, Wilhelm and Claptrap. Each of them specializes in a different type of combat and possesses different sets of skills.

The Pre-Sequel adds several new features to make the gameplay even wackier. These features include the cryo-element added to the guns, which allow freezing and smashing frozen enemies to pieces. Another addition are the laser guns, appearing for the first time in the series, which come equipped with the incendiary element. Then there’s the Grinder, which lets player exchange the combinations of the guns they have into one of higher rarity.

Aside from that the player can now mount vehicles such as Stingray hoverbike and Moon Buggy. The game features low-gravity environments. In low-G areas, the player will jump higher but slower. Then there’s the thing with oxygen running out and loot floating away, but I’m sure you can handle this!

Story premise

Hey, there! I’m Handsome Jack and you’ve probably heard about me. It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard, all that matters is that you did. Well, here’s the thing. I wasn’t always the psychopathic asshole you’ve met in Borderlands 2. Once I used to be a mellow fellow, that is until Colonel Zarpedon decided that “Hey, why don’t I try and take over Helios from Handsome Jack?” She kicked me off the station to Elpis, that piece-of-crap moon of Pandora. And if you think that I’m gonna sit on my ass and do nothing while Zarpedon plays with my toys, then you don’t know me. I got me a crew of Vault hunters, who will do anything to help poor old Jack on his quest. Hold on to your butts kids, it’s gonna be one hell of a ride.  

Reception

Borderlands The Pre-Sequel for PC was met with a warm reception from critics and players. Both groups enjoyed the new features, which nicely complemented the wacky gameplay. Well-written characters and funny quests were other elements highly lauded by the press. Altogether, The Pre-Sequel, while not a full sequel, was nevertheless considered a great installment of the series.

Key features:

• Return to the crazy world of Borderlands and take it on once again as one of the Vault Hunters.
• Join Handsome Jack on his quest for revenge and see him become the man we love to hate in Borderlands 2.
• New features including cryo element guns, vehicles and low-gravity areas.
• Shoot’n’loot across the completely new map of Elpis
• Carry out quests for NPCs and become the ultimate Vault Hunter.