Recent reviews by fred

This game is great!

The combat is weighty yet fluid with the ebb and flow of fights being challenging but not overwhelming. The bosses are all good with a lot of variety but i'd say few of them felt unfair to me at least. Graphics and Art Direction are top shelf to the point you can take a still shot of any point in the game and hang it in an art gallery and i'd be one of the best pieces. While pretty simple by souls like standards the Music is still great overall with many tracks doing a great job at setting the mood of an area or the pace of a fight. And finally the story presentation is simple and yet very very charming with the writing being at least engaging enough for me to be invested throughout my playthru.

Truly and Honestly i feel like Tails of Iron is a must play for those who enjoy a good challenge and love games with charm lovingly oozing out of every frame!

Who the fiddlesticks reads portal 2 reviews?

This has to be one of the worst games ive ever played

listen normally i write longer reviews on stuff but for Jazzpunk all im gonna say is if you have the money lying around just pick it up. Its worth it. I cant say more... their listening.

(tldr at the end) This is one of the very few games I can call a masterpiece. I was introduced to the game when I was around 7-8 at a friend's house back in the day(I'm 18 going on 19 btw) and while I was too scared to play it but Bioshock stayed in my mind as an unforgettable game. I also played Bioshock Infinite and funnily enough Bioshock 2 when I was young so that helped, But I wanted to both challenge myself by playing on the hardest difficulty and see how it all started. so let's start this review off right with the-

The story tackles interesting ideas and topics that still feel relevant today as it's a "what if" scenario on what would happen if a multi-millionaire built a city with no real government oversight and a totally free market "Where the artist doesn't fear the censor and the scientist does need to worry about petty morals". While I'm not going to say much about the story outside of this let's just say that the game does a great job of showing what the extreme of this scenario looks like in all its grim glory. The art direction is top-notch as the game oozes with a rich atmosphere of melancholic awe-struck wonder and sheer dread at what the city of Rapture has become, The sea trying to reclaim Rapture as rot and decay take hold, fires burn out stores and apartment homes, The enlightened citizens going insane and tearing each other apart like rabid dogs in a civil war which could have been going on for either years or weeks. While the bespoke music is sparse it carries the game's themes perfectly and the licensed tracks are some great hits the the 1950s which helps ground everything in the time period. The gameplay is quite good if not a little antiquated by today's standard, Each gun feels great to use and you will be using all of them every so often. The Wrench and Pistol being your starting weapons are great in a pinch with the Pistol working well long into the late game if you can hit headshots. The Tommygun and Shotgun are the general workhorses for most of the game as they both do consistent damage with the Tommygun being great for sustained damage on tougher targets and the Shotgun working great on common scrubs. The Grenade Launcher and Chemthrower are both great for clearing large crowds, but The Grenade Launcher can also set traps and do high damage to armored enemies, and the Chemthrower is good for burning said large groups, freezing mooks big or small, and electrocuting/stunning sacks of bolts and meat alike! With the final weapon you get being the crossbow which is overpowered as it can one-shot headshot most enemies with stronger guys getting brought down in just a few bolts, AND the bolts can be recovered with only a slight chance of breaking so you'll hardly run out of ammo. The crossbow becomes the MVP of the late game for this reason and while it can get a bit boring it's still fun as you only get it in the second half of the game. Plasmids and Tonics are the game's main stand-out from other shooters and both work well in this regard. There are so many Tonics in the game that I can't list them all but the jist of it is each Tonic gives a passive buff that goes from reducing damage taken to making hacking easier and taking the downside from drinking every bottle 'o' booze in Rapture away(outside of getting VERY drunk). Plasmids are sea genetic magic pretty much. You can shoot bees out of your hand, send enemies into a blind rage attacking anyone around them, light someone or something on fire with a snap of your fingers, and shoot lighting out the tips of your fingers like that one guy from that one thing (yeah that one). And while that is just dipping into the surface Plasmids and Tonics give so much variety to the gameplay i can see myself coming back one day just to try out different things... Or you know there IS a new game plus that gives you a good way to try new things and do challenge runs if you wish, though it doesn't make the game that much harder. Three last final notes about the remastered are, 1 they added a museum that shows developmental stuff about the making of Bioshock which is cool to look through, 2 There are director videos talking about the game which you can find in-game which I haven't watched and I'm sure you can find elsewhere, And 3 there are some challenges you can do which...I haven't done them so I'm not sure how good or bad they are just find out for yourself! (I just don't feel the need to do it I guess, but I do think is a neat addition)

So the most boring and repetitive part of the whole game is hacking. You can hack robots to turn them friendly and vending machines to lower their prices, and it's without a doubt the worst thing about the game, if you want to get the most out of vending machines and not waste ammo on scrap metal then you'll be doing it ALOT. Hacking is just moving pipes around, you've surely seen something like it in other games before, and sometimes it's just impossible to complete the hack unless you make an immediate change to the flow of the power goo in the pipes. Which you are not GOING to know that unless you can react quickly or fail which costs health, this makes the system ultimately frustrating because this happens all the time. The next thing that I will bring up is that dying has no consequence as you just respawn at a checkpoint with everything you did post-checkpoint saved. This makes every encounter in the game just a resource drain and takes the stakes out of playing the game for a challenge. You can turn this feature off but I left it on for the playthru and I do think that it's better for casual players but if you like some bite in your games and don't mind an overly long death animation then it's best to turn it off as you can just manually save. The biggest casualty of death meaning nothing are Big Daddy mini-bosses because when you die whatever health they were at they stay at when you die so it's just a matter of ammo and time before they go down which takes the risk-reward out of it and just turns it into reward. Also, Big Daddies are just bland in terms of their fights as there are only two types in the game and both are basic. One is ranged and the other is melee so it's just kite the melee one around a hallway and the ranged one is the same but you trade damage as the game rolls dice to see if it hits you or not. The final things are that the games a little buggy, it's not too bad but I had to replay a part of the game. I've seen online that similar soft locks to the one I had so just save often and it won't be a problem. Also way back when first got the Remastered version I remember it not running on my PC at the time no clue why but the normal version worked, and as you get both versions of Bioshock it's not that much of a problem but just keep that in mind.

Bioshock is a great game. The story is engaging and explores interesting concepts. The art direction and world-building are top-notch and immersive. Though some of it is repetitive and a bit dated by today's standard the gameplay is still great as every weapon is punchy and the DNA-changing sea magic is great for adding variety, just make sure to turn off Vita-chambers in the settings if you want a real challenge.

Shadow Over Loathing is an absolute treat! The writing is witty and entertaining, each zone is jam-packed with quests, clever puzzles, and fantastic music. They even kicked the art up a notch or two! The only snag in is otherwise silky smooth blanket is the combat. The combat (for what it is) is still good, but its a little less involved than in the West of Loathing as instead of picking a class you just pick and choose skill books throughout the game which makes the already simple combat feel even simpler which i suppose for some is a boon. Overall Shadow Over Loathing is delightful game and is worth picking up if you're in the mood for a bit of Eldritch fun.

(tldr at the end)
Alright small story to start us off I got Into the Radius in December of 2020, i played it for about an hour before giving up on the game for the arbitrary reason of there not being any hand animation for picking up some objects. That was More than unfair and honestly, it was childish. Now, however, as I was looking at my backlog of games Into the Radius stood out to me as I felt like I never gave it a chance so after installing it I was ready to go back Into the Radius (see what i did there, i am so cool)

The Ambiance, World Design, and Art Direction are great. starting with the art direction, everything feels very down-to-earth in terms of the buildings, items, and random props while also feeling alien and otherworldly when it comes to artifacts, enemies, and anomalous hazards which builds this sense of dread as you see normal-looking buildings getting torn apart and infested with horrors beyond our comprehension which never fully goes away even as you get used to the oddities of the Radius. The World Design helps to add to the feeling of danger, loneliness, and dread by setting arenas in things like small villages, factories, and train yards. Nothing larger than life but all feel corrupted by whatever is going on in the Radius around the large ominous black orb that hovers in the sky as a constant reminder that nothing is okay. While builds are reused from area to area I found that it never really detracted from the game and if anything it helped create this sense of cohesion in the game world for me, I do need to clarify quickly that the inside of the buildings are not copy-pasted however just the room layouts of them, the loot inside and the furnisher are hand played with care so no need to worry about that. The Ambiance is great. While not reinventing the wheel by any means Into the Radius's Ambiance is a damn great wheel. The sounds of footsteps, the cracking, scuttering, and chattering of enemies, the sounds of typewriters typing when walking around office areas, hearing trains chugging up behind you as if you're about to be hit, or hearing a car drive by as you walk a battered old road, screams in the distance and shadowy figures standing far away enough to make one second guess themselves on if its an enemy or not. Really it's all great, all of what I just wrote has to do is get you once, to spook you once, to have an impact as something you may remember from your time play through it all. And now onto some more mechanical things. The Gunplay, sense of progression, weight management, and stamina are all great things in this game as well, with some minor exceptions. Stamina, which is used for running, depletes at a generous rate but the total will be capped by hunger/exhaustion. Hunger is simple, you don't eat for a while and your Stamina gets capped eating will reset this debuff. Exhaustion is affected by your carry weight as the heavier you are the more your character will need to put in more work to run thus capping your Stamina, however, if you stop running Exhaustion will slowly reset meaning it will take double the time for your Stamina to regenerate. Speaking of carry weight, and also running. the carry weight in this game is rather good and it's simple. The heavier you are the slower you walk and this also affects running speed as far as I'm aware. Your backpack and your pouch can hold infinite items in them so the only real factor in how much you can carry is the Carry Weight system and even with everything I had by around mid game I couldn't get it that far above 40kg which still allows for running to be quick enough to work well. but as you put items into your bag physically a cluttered bag can be a pain in the ass which is the other reason you do not want to grab everything you find and keep an entire armory on you at all times. Moving on every gun in the game feels great, from Pistols to SMGs, Assault Rifles to Battle Rifles, and even Shotguns and Sniper/Marksman Rifles everything has a decent and/or appropriate amount of weight and heft behind every shot which means it's hard to go wrong when picking up a new gun in terms of raw feeling alone. The progression is the main thing that sticks out to me the most about this game which is why I wanted to save it for last in this section as it is extremely good. Starting from a basic Makarov Pistolet and working your way up to things like an AS "Val" or a FN "Scar" 17 as a main weapon with a Desert Eagle(357) as a sidearm feels great. You almost feel like you're in a constant arms race with the enemies as every time you complete a "Top Priority" Mission you get access to new guns and most likely get taken to a new zone where the enemies have gotten stronger as well. This feeling makes getting any new gun exciting but something to bear in mind is that every weapon is an investment. You do not just buy a weapon, you also need to buy that weapon's ammo, mags, and any upgrades you want to put on it such as attachments and stat upgrades.

Sadly this game isn't perfect and does have some flaws. I'm going to start with what I see as one of the bigger ones and that is Shotguns just don't feel that strong. Early on they seem fine if not a little inconsistent at times but around late mid-game to late game they just fall off a cliff, Buckshot becomes nearly useless as stronger and better-armored enemies will just laugh it off, while Buckshot can still kill weaker enemies, shotguns are long guns meaning they'll take up your main weapon slot and in said latter half of the game you can't afford to have your main weapon only useful some of the time. However, you can get Shotgun Slugs at any point in the game, the only problem is that shotguns still don't feel stronger than most other weapons for the primary downsides of either needing to load in shells one by one with the Spas-12 and under or with the mag capacity of 5 with the Saiga 12 and overall shotguns have lower accuracy than most other weapons meaning even when using Slugs you will have a harder time hitting most things in the medium to long range. First off I think adding something like flechette shells would greatly help give Shotguns that distinct feeling that Shotguns lose in the later parts of the game, also maybe a small accuracy buff when using Slugs would be nice. Accuracy is a strange thing, for the most part, it's fine as bullets mostly go where you point the gun with some minor deviation but then you try and run while shooting a weapon and see a bullet go flying off to the far left or right. Running and Gunning will often waste bullets as the gun Accuracy stat tanks when trying to do so, while I understand why this is the case, this often results in planting your butt in a spot of cover and taking a potshot every now and again if you get pinned down. You can't run to a new spot and try to kill an enemy while you run meaning you just stay in one spot, kill one enemy, move, and repeat, to be fair it's not that it doesn't work most of the time it's just that this game isn't a fast-paced shooter and if you play like it is one you aren't going to get very far. I few more minor things:
1 grabbing attachments off of guns can be a bit finicky
2 using ammo boxes can be a pain sometimes
3 some props and buildings have collision boxes that are a smidge too big leading to some
shots hitting invis walls if you aren't careful

Into the Radius is a great VR game with some small problems. From its Art Direction to its Sense of Progression, it's a quality experience through and through. While grabbing things may be a bit jank and shotguns feel kinda underpowered I can say that I had a great time and if you're looking for a new VR game to play this is a damn good choice.

Wasteland 3 is a game that I'm kicking myself for not playing sooner as I got it as a gift from a friend around early 2021, we play it a bit but never really got into it for whatever reason. However, now that we HAVE gotten around to finally playing through the whole game I have to say if you are looking for a modern post-apocalyptic turn-based RPG that is similar to games like Divinity: Original Sin 2 or the OG Fallout games then you have come to the right place. TLDR at the end.



The Story: 8/10
Pretty much all of the dialogue is well written, well at least to my monkey brain it is. The plot is intriguing as you get strung along from job to job in your quest to get supplies for Arizona, you meet many interesting characters and you have to decide who you can trust and who you cant. Throughout the game, you can make a few story-changing decisions that will alter how things play out. However, your overall action will have an effect on how people treat you, and how well you are known can have its upsides and downsides. The voice acting is great too as every character is voiced and everyone does a great job at playing their role and breathing life into the setting. There is seemingly a good chunk of replayability in the story has multiple endings, different ending slides depicting some of the people you meet along your adventure, And many factions to break bread with or go to war with some of my favorites being the killer Mexican clowns, the Ragen A.I worshiping cultists. You can also grow the Colorado Rangers to be whatever kind of faction you would like it to be if you wanna be feared or renowned the choice is for you to make. One thing to note is that I think me and my friend got one of the worse endings in the game so whoopsie.



The Gameplay: 6/10
Wasteland 3 gameplay is great but buggy. The game's combat is an Xcom-style system of a combat grid and action points and the RPG mechanics are great! You can have up to six party members, four-player made and two-story NPCs, with a full party you can have a very diverse party makeup that covers most of the gameplay styles, and playing in co-op the party is split to each person having three party members each. Out of every gameplay style we played with I'd say that snipers are broken in every sense of the word as not only did we get 2000-3000 damage shots as opening attacks which meant that in any fight we started the enemies were always down one person before the fight even started. Snipers also soft-locked the game several times as if my friend ran out of ammo in the mag and needed to reload the game would freak out and not know how to handle it so we would need to reload a save, and the final perk in the sniper tree Chain Ambush would break the game as if you went into Ambush which normally you would just shoot any enemy once that moves within your guns range. Instead, it does all of that and if you kill an enemy in Ambush you re-enter which means you shoot another enemy, and if you keep killing enemies that means you just keep going into Ambush which is cool but if you kill the last enemy of combat with Chain Ambush you still re-enter Ambush, which breaks the game as now it doesn't know if you are in or out of combat and the only fix is to reload a save. Another part of gameplay is world exploration. You have walking around in an area with your party and you have driving around in the car in the over world. There sadly isn't much to talk about here as it's all the standard kinda stuff you'd expect out of a game like this. Exploration isn't bad it's just not notable.



The Graphics: 7/10
They're good...that's it.

The Musi- ok ok no really the Graphics are great I'm just not great at explaining why the pretty moving pixels are good but here goes nothing.

The Graphics of the game aren't anything to write home but are still good-looking and work well enough to help sell the post-apocalyptic look and feel that the older fallout games have. The art direction is great too as there was always something cool or weird just around the corner just waiting for us to find it. The different gangs all have their own looks and feels which makes them feel distinct from just your stock fallout 3 and 4 styled raiders as they also all have their own goals, ambitions, and ways of doing things that they wear on their sleeves or in their skin. The environments are well crafted and look great, as a colorado native it does a great job at invoking feelings of home for me. All of the different locations are fun to travel and fight through as most of them look great. However, I do think that at some points it can get dull after a while as looking at snow and trees does get boring. But then the game has a new and charming local to show you so it all works out in the end.



The Music: 10/10
I'm not even sure where to begin with this segment. The music is outstanding in every regard, the instrumental tracks are fantastic as they all help to sell feelings of danger and uncertainty in both combat and exploration, it feels like danger is around every corner. Filled with both hunting acoustics and electric synths every fight is filled with this sense of this urgency and exploration is given a sense of unease that wouldn't be there if the music wasn't nearly as good. And finally Wasteland 3: Hymns & Ballads, which is an album of songs made for the game by various artists that both sound great and are theming appropriate, the songs on this beautiful dark country album will also play in-game at specific battles which adds more weight to said fights. There are also some Beautifully sung choir songs that sadly just aren't my thing.

TLDR and Overall Score: 7.5/10
The Story is well told and executed fairly well, the graphics are good, and the music is great. The combat is fun but buggy at times, the world is full of fun factions and you have some varied options to deal with them that will change how the story plays out.

So I think it's safe to say that most people who play Borderlands games now 'n days got into the franchise with Borderlands 2 and never really think about Borderlands 1. I found it strange that people never really talked about it as Borderlands 2 was so popular that one would think that the game that came before it would live so completely in its shadow to the point of complete irrelevance. This curiosity has led me to play through Borderlands 1 and this review on my general opinions on the game. However, before we get into the review I want to state that whatever my opinions are if you love the Borderlands games you will like this one, even if it is a bit watered down, as it has all the elements that the future games have but maybe get it at a discount. (Full TLDR at the end)

Gameplay:
So let's start with the most important part. The gunplay varies from passable to bad depending on what gun you are using. Most guns feel fine, shotguns, assault rifles, pistols, and revolvers(which are a different gun type but use pistol ammo), all feel fine as they all have weight to them and the animations aren't bad but launchers and snipers feel awful. The AOE on launchers is inconsistent and they don't feel as heavy and devastating that a good rocket launcher should, and snipers are barely accurate as they don't shoot where you point them really, though all guns have this problem snipers just feel it the hardest. However, the best gun two gun types have to be shotguns and assault rifles as they both do pretty good damage all around and feel great to use.

Weapon Manufacturers are in the game but are far less specialized. For example, Jakobs guns in Borderlands 1 have very high damage but low fire rate and reload speed, they also never manufacture elemental weapons. In Borderlands 2 they still do high damage but also fire as fast as you can pull the trigger. While the Weapon Manufacturers' differences still feel noticeable they come into their own in the later games with more pronounced quirks.

The Vault Hunters are fine but basic, Lilith can walk thru enemies, Brick can punch stuff, Roland has his trusty turret and Mordecai can Bird! While the Action Skills are fine the skill trees for the vault hunters are a bit basic, though it does work fine for the game, it can make leveling up a bit boring as most of the time it's just a minor stat increase, though I did have fun still so it's not all bad.

Healing is quite different than in the other games, you have healing packs that you can buy and take with you in your inventory. This is an interesting concept for a Borderlands game but these health packs get outclassed by skills that heal you can shields that heal you. While cool in their own right inventory health packs aren't useful for most of the game and they did get fazed out in later games.

The last thing I want to talk about in this segment is just the boring quests and the amount of them. Ok, so one thing Borderlands 1 does a few too many times is that it does this side quest dump, it just drops a butch of quests on you, and while you don't need to do them all the pure flood of quests is overwhelming. Most of these side quests are either fetch quests, kill quests, or both and outside of xp, the payouts are usually not great. And I mean flood like when you first get to new haven you can get three side quests from the bounty board, but the first quest you do in new haven is so simple you are going to do it immediately but doing so gives you three to four MORE side quest, it's just not fun to feel like I have to wade thru waist high water every time I do a main story quest.

The key thing here is that even though most of the gameplay is just ok it set the stage for Borderlands 2 to refine it all into a better game that drew people in. But what about some of the other aspects of the game well let's see.

Music and Sound Design:
The gun sound effects and gun animations are nostalgic, While I didn't play this game as a kid it reminds me of some old shooters I used to play, and to extend on what I said prior while the gun animations and gun sounds aren't bad but they have dated to a point, though I do have a fondness for games of this age I can see most modern players being put off by this.

The overall sound effects are done well and are well-detailed. from the big and noticeable sounds to the small details it shows just how much passion was put into the sound design, as whenever I started to pay attention I could always find little things that I liked.

The music has a wasteland kind of grit to it, but its uniqueness of it tapers off toward the end of the game but it does retain some uniqueness thru and thru

The Voice acting is great, full of character and the script isn't half bad. You don't hear a lot of the voice acting outside of enemy and vault hunter quips but not only are both done well but whenever the game gives you some other NPC dialog it's up to the same standard as the rest of it.


Art Style and Story

The area design is somewhat boring but has some fantastic standouts that make it hard for me to write about it, on one hand, I'd say most of the game has a lot of boring areas that are just bland. They work as combat arenas but that's about it. But then you get to some areas that are so well crafted and lively that I was put into a sort of awe at how well it felt to look at things in the environment. Overall while the later games get better at keeping things lively it did take them a while to get the formula down.

The overall Art Style has aged well but is still a little boring to look at. Not that is bad per se but compared to the more vibrant colors of the later games it's more muted, Plus the colour pallet doesn't help with the muted tone but I think its part of the general style of Borderlands 1

The humor is something I call "us southern dad" funny, it never really got a laugh out of me but I did say audibly say "That was funny" a few times. It's amusing but not to the laugh-out-loud extent, really it's just ok.

The story feels like a background element instead of the driving force. Most of the story is told through mission info text boxes and this is fine but if you don't read the info boxes you don't know what's happening
(which is fine, if you want to know the story then read it) but if you do read them then the story mostly boils down to "Go kill this guy cause I say so" or "Go get this stuff cause I say so". The story is really not a focus and if you go into the game knowing that then I don't think it's that much of a problem.

DLC:

This segment is going to be quick as the DLC for the most part is more of the same as the base game, however, something of note is that the DLC does try and build upon what the base game was doing, making improvements and the like. While playing the DLC something of particular interest caught my eye. The DLC feels more in the style of Borderlands 2 than Borderlands 1. This is done by having more dialog and character cutscenes that help tell the story but id say that the dialog in radio calls don't aren't as wordy in, say Borderlands 3, and aren't nearly as annoying but the DNA is still there.

Conclusion / TLDR:

Borderlands 1 was, at the time, a great game I'd reckon and still is great fun today. But it's not for everyone and is still pretty dated by today's standards. The gunplay is pretty rough even for 2009 but the art style, music, sound design, and alright gameplay, it set the foundation for Borderlands 2, and everything after that is history. Whether you're a new fan of the Borderlands games or an old fan I think there still is value to be found here as even if it's muted to some extent Borderlands 1 is still a fine Borderlands game. However, If you are looking to get into the Borderlands games I will say that you should start with either 2 or 3, and if you are unsure if you should give Borderland 1 a chance I'd say buy it on sale.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is one special kind of Fuster Kluck, So I think at this point most people who are looking into buying this game knows what the Borderlands games are, so I'm not going to explain all the little details about the game as a whole if you are looking to get into the Borderlands game series I'd say start with Borderlands 2 or 3 but if you are already a fan of the games and are wondering if this one is worth it then I think I can help with that!


Starting off with the story, while the Borderlands games aren't really known for good writing I think Pre-Sequel can stand on its own pretty well and does get a few laughs out of me every now and again but it's not a cinematic masterpiece by any means. It's great to hear more from Jack as Dameon Clarke did a great job voicing him, as he did in 2, and the banter from the vault hunters and other NPCs' is fairly charming and quite funny at times, The motive and descent into madness are fine but not overly focused on with is a bit of a shame as the whole point of this game is to be a Pre-Sequel to Borderlands 2, with Jacks descent into insanity feeling somewhat forced at times, but overall I can still say I somewhat like the story, though I guess as long as it's somewhat amusing I don't really mind the holes in it.


The gameplay is fairly good, Heck I even think it's a step above 2 at times! The Vault Hunters have more to their skill trees and more interesting abilities to boot with the DLC Characters in mind you have a diverse cast of characters to choose from, Athena the Gladiator a tanky and melee focused Character, Nisha the Lawbringer a high damage gunslinger, Wilhelm the Enforcer an allrounder Summoner type, and...Fragtrap, And the two DLC Characters are, Jack the Doppelganger a different flavor of Summoner that's made to look and sound like Jack And Aurelia the Baroness a cold-hearted hunter that does high damage at far ranges, with an ensemble like this it makes replaying the game a lot of fun and its even more fun with friends. the quest design however can be a bit lacking as most side quests lack diversity and while the main quests are fun the bosses leave something to be desired. The biggest disappointment was with legendary weapons, legendary weapons make up a huge part of what makes the Borderlands games so fun, and in this game, there is just a lack of spawn locations which makes the whole game feel a bit hollow as instead of killing a boss and getting some sweet loot you mostly just get Moonstone and some nothing weapons. The late game as a whole is lacking for the former reason and there's just not any real endgame content outside of New Game Plus which I'm not counting here while it's a big part of the Borderlands games it would be nice to have something else to do post ending besides killing one raid boss and finishing up all the side quests you missed.


The Graphics are pretty good, and a lot of the areas are well-lit with funky colors which makes them pop out more, everything has that signature cell-shaded look which helps it still look good 9 years later, and the general art direction is fairly decent, the weapons look great, even though the iron sights suck, the environment is often times gorgeous with some of my favorite areas being the nice reds and light blues of the early game, the fake industrial lighting of the Hyperion space station and the deep purple of the later game areas, really I think they knocked it out of the park on the visual design!


The music is kind of forgettable...that is all, hell as I was writing this I had to go back and write that the music exists I guess, nothing groundbreaking.


And Finally the DLC, ill keep it short. I've already talked about the DLC characters and I do really like them, it is just the other three that I think are...subpar. I won't add to the negative reviews on The Holodome Onslaught as I think it's fineish just a waste of money to buy it really as it doesn't add much and the 10 extra levels are incidental at best, I haven't and won't get the Shock Drop Slaughter Pit...I just won't. Finally, the Claptastic Voyage is fine, not great, and not terrible, if you can get it on sale then I'd say do so as the environments are still really cool, the ending is cathartic and the glitched weapons are pretty neat but that's about it really as the story is pretty bland overall the Claptrap is well... Claptrap so I guess buy at your own risk.


My closing thoughts even though my review isn't the most positive in the world is still one of my favorites Borderlands games as I think what it brings to the table is fairly unique looking at the franchise as a whole however I do understand why some people do not like or even hate this game as its nothing outstanding and it came after that titan that is Borderlands 2. Overall I can recommend this game but if you are still a bit iffy about it then I'd say if you want to play it wait on a sale first and get some friends together, just make sure to bully whoever plays Claptrap.