but not as good as Borderlands 2
580934
More of borderlands :-), but not as good as Borderlands 2.
4832423
I played the first Ultimate Alliance on the PS2 and it was a better game graphically and in storyline than #2 here.  Ultimate Alliance for some reason follows the so-called sophomore slump and I don't know why.  The Marvel superhero "Civil War" storyline that this game somewhat follows is probably one of the best mega events comicdom has ever seen but the tweaks that they made play out in the video game version here unfortunately takes some of the bite out of the story.  Also, while character models are okay even for a system like the Wii the overall attention to detail, especially in the lack of extras as compared to the first UA, is very evident and it hurts the quality of this game and the desire to replay through it.

I have played through on the anti-registration path and have seen that there's only a few characters that I'm not allowed to play until much later in the game.  That's too bad as having a core of 5-8 players that you simply could not play with at all throughout the entire game would have warranted another "must" play through.  As it is, I will play through the game again on the pro-registration path but I have seen that the game will hardly be different and that's too too bad.

For Marvel superhero fans there's still a good deal to like but I'd wipe the drool off if you haven't played this yet and tell you to play it sometime, but don't get overly excited for it.
1664657
Unless your father happens to be an old-school animator with alcohol-fueled fantasies of Mad Max set in Forbidden Planet, you probably haven't played a first person shooter like this before. If he does, you've probably got issues that would fit in well with this game.

The premise of the game is that you are a mercenary looking for the lost legendary treasure of the Vault on the former mining planet Pandora that's been abandoned by the powerful corporations that stripped everything worth having out of it and then left the bandits, psychos and shotgun bearing midgets there for you to play with. You get to play as one of four character classes--Soldier, Barbarian, Hunter, and (the only female role) Phase Shifter. There are several different types of non-human monsters and a few interesting bosses, but the major appeal of Borderlands is the animation. It doesn't even pretend to be lifelike, choosing instead for the feel of hand-drawn cel animation which makes the game feel somewhat like jumping into a comic book. A vulgar and violent comic book. The kind that Mom wouldn't approve of.

There are a few things that could be improved:

* There are maps to each quest waypoint, but for some of the salvage quests the map is less accurate than approximate. Like off by 10 meters or so approximate (look in the cockpit of the crashed out car instead of around the awning or the tower).

* Why the hell are there so many jumping puzzles? I don't mind looking for things, but having to make exactly the right 4 jumps absolutely accurately each time or having to start over gets old.

* There are numerous glitches in the geometry that can either trap your character until they are killed or give you an unfair advantage.

* Some of the bosses respawn after you've killed them once and then come back to visit later. I'm looking at *you* Scragzilla.

Overall, Borderlands is an entertaining, addicting escape from the everyday world. There are enough explosions and puzzles to satisfy almost any gamer and enough creativity to intrigue even non-gamers.
4444179
It isn't often that the sequel to a game does everything right. Borderlands 2 takes everything that was good about Borderlands (RPG-elements, humor, cartoon-esque graphics, etc.) and improves upon it. They also added a storyline. Note: for best experience, play co-op with a friend. Having another character there makes the game significantly easier. And you get better loot. Who doesn't want better loot?
253353
This game is simply ok. It's not a great follow up and I do not recommend it.

Pros (improvements over Bioshock 1):
1. You are armed with a plasmid and weapon simultaneously instead of having to switch back and forth between them.
2. New weapon and plasmid options.
3. Simplified gene tonics from three categories (combat, physical, engineering) down to just one.

Cons (diminishments from Bioshock 1):
1. The atmosphere lacks the regular injection of 1960's music to set the mood and draw you in to the time period.
2. The levels are very repetitive in look and layout. Bioshock 1 had a wharf, ice caves, forest, theatre, factory, housing area, train station, bars, and probably some more area's that I'm forgetting. Bioshock 2 had a few cool area's, the history museum comes to mind, but for the most part I felt like I was wondering through the same corridors over and over.
3. Lack of a sympathetic or meaningful characters. Bioshock 1 had characters whose motivations you could sympathize with or despise. Bioshock 2 has no likable characters.
4. This game fails to achieve the creepy suspense that it's predecessor did so well.
5. Stealth was a useful strategy in Bioshock 1 but nigh impossible to utilize in this game.
143331
I really wanted to like it, as I loved the first game (back on the XBox360) but it got pretty repetitive early on in the game... Graphics are nice. Missions are kinda go get item x and bring it to location y... story pretty thin.
42613
I really enjoyed the first game. The depth of play was ridiculous. This one just didn't deliver as fun of an experience for me. They would have been better off rebranding it as a non- Disgaea game.

Most the fun ,for me, with the original was the cartoon sociopath cast. This new main charcter was too nice. Laharl was a fun character to play and I didn't have the same attachment to Adell.

If you like the tactics style gameplay from the first game then you will still enjoy this one just don't get your hopes up about revisting old characters. Good game just not a great sequel.
4937997
This a game that should had been an expansion for the Borderlands 2. Instead, it is sold as a standalone game - that also comes with an entire forest of overpriced DLCs. The engine is exactly the same, the game mechanics remain unchanged (with the addition of longer jumps and the ability to but-thrust as a new melee move) and the same weapons (with the useless addition of laser rifles) - and almost every singly one of the bugs of the previous installment are still there! Talk about copy/pasting!

Gliding over steps yet your lunar rover stumbling on a minor protrusion? Check.
Ridiculously restricted stash slots? Check.
Selling items other than the ones intended because the inventory glitches? Check.
You get the picture.

The only thing they did "fix" was the bug that allowed you to overstuff your inventory by using a vending machine. THAT they made sure to fix...

Yes, the game is as addictive as the other two episodes, requiring you to gamble your time for digital loot with extremely low drop rates. Nevertheless, this a choice one has to make. However, I do not suffer preachy entertainment gladly and games with a Social Justice Warrior agenda even less. Because this is a game that wants to rub your face into the opinions of its creators every chance it can squeeze in.

For that alone I think it should have an 18+ rating.
3474504
I got Borderlands one on a sale off of PSN and didn't know what I was getting into, but soon fell in love with the killing, the looting, the driving, and the killing. When I saw they were coming out with a second one I didn't get too excited, but I saw this was half-off and got it and I'm still playing it. They give you what seems to be an infinite amount of stuff to do. Not only in missions, but Badass Rank; all these different achievements to complete to upgrade your character making them more powerful and they transfer between the classes you use. It's awesome. I would however suggest getting this when it's around half-price or $30 so you can get the Season Pass right away. But if you have the money for both then don't wait and get it right away.
3423635
So this spring break I finished Torchlight, a Diablo clone that I had high hopes for.  It is close to the diablo games, really close.  The first thing you'll notice in town is that the music sounds as close to the Tristam theme as possible without an immediate lawsuit.  It's kind of creepy hearing something so close to something so familiar.  All the aspects you'd expect in a diablo game are there together with a few more mechanics (like a fishing minigame.) A version of the Horadic cube, gems, gambling, socketing, the familiar stat system, it's all there.

There is a lot I like about it but ultimately it does not work.

Pros:
1.  Socketing items is no longer permanent.  You can now retrieve either the gem or the item (but not both.)  This makes it much easier for me to deal with socketing which I never used in Diablo 2.
2.  The graphics are pretty nice compared to D2.
3.  There's new system for enchanting items.  It is costly, doesn't always work and has a chance of destroying the item but that's what keeps it from being overpowered.  I think it's very nicely balanced.
4.  It's cheap.  At $20, it's easy to grab.

Cons:
1.  The three classes in the game are too similar.  This is really frustrating as it limits the replayability of the game.  When I first won D2, I had to go and beat it with each of the other classes as soon as possible.  Then there were enough skills for me for me to try each of the classes another time, sometimes more than once.  This is all unrelated to multiplayer, which is it's own thing.  In my first playthrough I only picked one skill unique to my class (not knowing which skills were shared.)  I could basically be playing any one of the three character classes without things being different.
2.  It's claustraphobic.  The passages are all tiny and it's all indoors.  In Diablo 1, everything was indoors but many of the areas were still large.  Everything in Torchlight is a tight hallway and the strategy becomes all blast straight ahead and try to kill everything before you can see it.  It really makes things repetitive.
3.  Every part of the game feels the same.  There's no next exciting encounter.  No Duriel or Meph to build your character up for.  Not even a butcher.  There are bosses, but they all go down fast except for the last one and don't feel like anything special (and this is on hard difficulty.)
4.  The characters don't handle as well.  The movement is a little bit choppy, the locations of the enemies a bit fuzzy.  Things just don't seem so exact.

Overall, if you have played Diablo before, I definitely thing you should try Torchlight.  If anything it will remind you how incredible Diablo 2 really was.  I broke out D2 after Torchlight and created 2 characters in single player mode with concepts I hadn't tried before.  It really is a remarkable game and with the new patch (yes, Blizzard is still releasing patches for it) you can now get a skill respec so you can move things around in your skill tree.  (It's just not easy to get a second one.)  I won't be playing Torchlight again, but I'm very glad I finished it.
3113112
Not as scary as the first 2, and it feels more like Lost Planet.  I still had fun playing this game though.
2795326
This is a decent game but does get repetitive after a while. The world is massive and it's fun hunting down the "hidden" items, solving the puzzles that go along with getting to them.

Soundtrack is fantastic. Driving still isn't much fun, but you can fast travel easy enough all over the city. For me, the characters got a bit annoying after a while. The hipster stuff gets old, but that's a personal thing, and wouldn't bother everyone.

It's a better game in almost every way than Watch Dogs 1, yet I enjoyed the first for much longer. The first game was somewhat new and exciting, whereas this just feels like a marginally better, more polished game. Just doesn't have the same draw to it. Again, all personal opinion.
3800271
Its the borderlands you remember, only bigger and better the way sequels should be. Just sad that the game is still easy to mod, possibly even easier than the first lots of people running around on xbox with level 555 characters and cheated items, kinda kills the fun factor unless you want to sit around and make your own items and cheats all day just to kill people who are cheating.
3254041
Good deal. Borderlands not that good for me, Bioshock was great and haven't played XCOM yet. Great deal, good games.
2748353
Its a great game, but not as good as the Vegas2 ... so go get the vegas2 as well if you don't have it yet
2211121
Graphics do not seem to look much better than D2 and game play does not not feel like it has advanced much.  I was hoping for some improvements. I will say that the video/cut scenes, although fewer than I would have liked were excellently done.
2211404
I plated Dead Space 1 and 2 and enjoyed them greatly.  I managed to beat them both at the most difficult setting after learning where to stand, etc. at normal.  The game concept and features are still as good as anything going. However, I really had trouble with 3.  The extreme darkness makes it very difficult to see (especially when the darker, stronger necromorphs arevattacking) and I also have trouble hearing/reading subtitles while fighting for my life.  So my first fights are usually to find out how to kill the bad guys.  The Drill, for instance is easy once you know the yellow fuse is its weak spot.  I started playing at normal and had to go to "casual" soon.  I really had a problem with the original creature you had to stimulate nerve endings on.  The dark NMs are easy to see at a distance, but when they sneak in the cage with you they really gum up your fight strategy.  If you fight in a dead end tunnel, they seem to come up from behind.  My final straw was the snow beast/spider.  For a change, it was clear what to do, but when I tried to apply torque, the game jerked my vision to the monster prematurely, so I watched him break free instead of his death throes.  Because there are inexhaustible I was able to repeatedly get him secured, but he would break free every time.  I repeated action at least twelve times, getting to the torque wheels as soon as when the harpoons flew but the sequence was crank, be jerked away, crank again be jerked away, crank, watch the beast free himself.  He should have died from the 20+ harpoons, much less being pulled apart.  I know that there are 10 year olds who eat this game up, but I would suggest that older Retirees wait to spend their money until the price goes down.  Certainly don't buy the premium version like I did.  Meanwhile, I will replay Borderlands 2 ( a 5 star game) and wait for Bioshock Infinite to come out.