Borderlands 2 Preview
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In everything from UI to dialogue to death animations to even the skies above, it's cranked up, unreal a sort of contained madness, the result of an anything-goes design philosophy butting up against mechanical limitations. I got the sense it's essentially providing a framework for play, a tombola of chaotic vignettes rather than any sort of logical series of events. We'll have to see, of course, but I think from afar that this is absolutely the right thing to do. With even Blizzard admitting that Diablo III struggles for purpose in the end-game department, the key to replay value is providing a packed toybox to rummage around in rather than simply seeing the same situations with escalating difficulty.
The new Badass Ranks system is intended to make tackling the game again with new characters feel like a reward rather than repetition, unlocking permanent, carried-over buffs and effects that are applied to your profile rather than just the one character. You'll be able to accrue any number of these by completing in-game mini-tasks, such as x number of sniper rifle headshots or electrocuting so many enemies, which in turn reward you with a token that will permanently improve stuff like reload speed or recoil for any and all characters you play as. While individual characters have a traditional level cap of 50, there's talk of players potentially getting thousands of Badass ranks if they put the hours in.
On top of that, there's a bunch of visual customisation unlocks to be had, with assorted hats and suits that go way beyond the minor colour-tweaking of BL1. Let's hope all this stuff stays contained within the game rather than being the herald of an army of paid add-ons, eh?
