03Aug 2011

Borderlands 2 confirmed - first artwork

new characters and areas, better mission system, "ambitious" story

Gearbox has confirmed the existence of Borderlands 2, rumoured to be in development only yesterday. The game's down for release sometime in publisher 2K Games' fiscal year 2013, which begins April 2012, and you can expect the first round of hands-ons at Gamescom this month.

Visiting unexplored areas of bounty-hunter's favourite planet Pandora, the new game will "combine invention and evolution" with all new characters, skills, environments, enemies, weapons and equipment. You can expect "an ambitiously crafted story" and an improved mission system, plus the expected avalanche of randomly generated death-dealing oddities.

Environments will be more diverse, and enemies will be smarter. The original cell-shaded art style has been carried over as is. Here's an image of what appears to be the new cover star. We can't work out which scares us more, the beard or the guns.

Click to view larger image
Discussing unannounced Gearbox projects at large, studio president Randy Pitchford promised "wild new things" when we spoke to him earlier this year. Wild enough for you, readers?

Give our glowing Borderlands review a look if you've somehow missed out on the whole "surprise hit of this console generation" thing.

Comments

10 comments so far...

  1. That guy used to be in the blue world order in ecw.

  2. I hope the Siren returns, I forget her name, but all I know is she was my favourite character, with melee attacks that resulted in a nuclear blast. And I hope they bring in some greenery.

  3. I hope the Siren returns, I forget her name, but all I know is she was my favourite character, with melee attacks that resulted in a nuclear blast. And I hope they bring in some greenery.

    Lilith, I only know that because my girlfriends first question when I told her was if she was returning. The first was amongst her favorite games and I think the unusual ability to play as a female was a big part of that so I hope she does return (I'll never hear the end of the complaints if she doesn't)

  4. My girlfriends favourite game ever. Of course she has only played about 10, but its the one she keeps putting on. Good to see theyre keeping the visual style.

  5. The visual style was great, and was part of what made Borderlands unique.

    It's strange that they're setting it on Pandora again because, not wanting to spoil the "plot" of Borderlands 1 too much, it was strongly hinted that there were Vaults on other planets. Gearbox even trademarked the name Borderworlds, so staying on Pandora doesn't make much sense.

    I never played Lilith in Borderlands, I picked Mordecai first and then Roland. Phasewalk does sound fun, but I prefer to snipe rather than get in close.


  6. I never played Lilith in Borderlands, I picked Mordecai first and then Roland. Phasewalk does sound fun, but I prefer to snipe rather than get in close.

    Stick with your smelly, useless bird then! Haha, I was a sniper as lilith, with an extra bit of smg close quarters along with the 'if-things-escalate-way-out-of-control' nuclear melee blast.

    Brick was just for laughs, roland seemed good to have on your team (replenishes ammo), mordecai - his bird was just useless.

  7. I picked Mordecai first because he specialises in Sniper rifles, but then I switched to Roland because of the useless bird, although the Turret never seemed to do much damage either. I'll try Lilith next time, as Brick seems pretty useless.

    All this talk of Borderlands has me itching to play it again. Good thing we're in the summer games drought! :D

  8. I'm not sensing a lot of love for Mordacai - I actually really enjoyed my playthrough with him particularly when you'd spent a few points on the bloodhawks skills so basically after every time you used it you were knee deep in money, items and health.
    (Equipped with a maximum level corrosive attack coupled and the multiple strike skill maxed out as well - crowds of screaming melting midgets always brings a smile to my face.)

    To be honest though all the characters had their merits, I had a blast taking every one of them up to level 69.

  9. The visual style was great, and was part of what made Borderlands unique.

    It's strange that they're setting it on Pandora again because, not wanting to spoil the "plot" of Borderlands 1 too much, it was strongly hinted that there were Vaults on other planets. Gearbox even trademarked the name Borderworlds, so staying on Pandora doesn't make much sense.

    I never played Lilith in Borderlands, I picked Mordecai first and then Roland. Phasewalk does sound fun, but I prefer to snipe rather than get in close.

    I agree totally. I would of thought a new area to explore on Borderlands2 would of been the way forward.
    Infact i was hoping for a kind of Batman AC expansion where we get 10x bigger areas but hey im pleased it is definately in the making. Heres hoping that we can go back to some of our favourite places from the original

  10. the possible guy on the box art, looks like a dwarf, but bigger, and with two big guns.

    The game already looks awsem, and theres only one screen shot and a short trailer thing.
    Looking forward to the end of next year, or begging of 2013, my guess for when its out