TLDR: I loved Borderlands two and I’m going to start a replay with a different character, which is almost unheard of me.
I had fun with Borderlands 1, but was basically pushing through by the end trying not to fall asleep.
B2, on the other hand, I was very engaged in the entire ride through, although it seemed well balanced and the game ended when it should, even including the side quests.
Improvements -
The writing! I think I heard a reference to Anthony Burch writing in Borderlands 2 from hey ass. Whatcha playing episode, and he got some award?
In any case, the writing that I did like in Borderlands 1, was perfect in 2. Not too long, always funny, always engaging, every character very well defined, which brings me to my next point:
The voice acting was hilarious and perfect, again, very well defined and idiosyncratic for every character, just so much fun to listen to. Every time handsome Jack pops up. It’s fun to listen to him be an a******.
The quests were so much more satisfying. At the end of the first game, I was basically just following marker to marker without caring what anybody said or what was written down just tapping through to the next wavepoint until the quest was finished.
In Borderlands 2, Even if I accidentally clicked through the introduction to the quest, I would go back and make sure to read because I know that the paragraph introducing and explaining the quest is funny and that the quest is going to be rescuing lab experiments and I have to find a particular valve or putting together a treasure map with a weird lure, rather than just find the bigger bad guy punch him to death.
Driving was huge - I was not into driving in Borderlands 1 and got really bored and irritated every time I had to drive. I felt like the aiming system was complete dog s***, and it was just not very fun to drive around in general, like the handling was terrible.
I loved driving around the Borderlands too and was actively bummed out whenever. I didn’t get a car, but it made perfect sense and they used the car just enough so that the game wasn’t too easy. But you could still boost and race around however you wanted, or chase down a beer van. So much fun driving, such a huge improvement from the first game.
Larger levels with more interesting landscapes in them, each level felt much more unique than the entire The first game to me, like each area had its own style to a degree I hadn’t seen before.
I can’t remember a single place from the first game, but I’m going to remember the different style of the underground bug. Bunker and the dust and all these other places that had an impact on the personality of the game.
Lastly, art is more efficient, not as many bold lines emphasizing the comic book quality, which is carried through more by the personality of the game instead of by the specific art.
I didn’t notice much difference in drop rate, I regularly picked up slightly improved weapons as I went through both games.
I much prefer the story-based experience of 2 to the static farming of 1 and most other games, but I was very confused and frustrated by the scaled low experience received from weaker enemies until halfway through the game because it’s a relatively innovative mechanic that is never introduced or explained.
If the experience leveling was explained organically in game, which I think they could have done easily with a couple of lines, I would have enjpyed it from the jump, knowing that I didn’t have to worry about waiting around in any one area to farm exp.
I had the opposite experience with the gameplay itself, two seems technically on its game to me where I felt 1 was very bare-bones.
I’ll have to go back after some time passes to look at 1 again.
I tried a second playthrough of one but got bored almost immediately, whereas I’m going through 2 with gusto right after completing the first playthrough.
In 1 any random enemy could drop purple or orange weapons, I don’t think I ever saw that in 2. In 2 you had to level up enemies or farm bosses to get any decent loot (or slot machines).