Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Case Study

John Greenwood - Rae

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!;Game World; Terrain.

The game world for Borderlands: TPS is quite extraordinary due to the fact the game is set on the moon. The terrain that you play/walk/drive around and explore on is ‘Elpis’, Pandora’s moon. There is the ‘Helios’ space station, a big ‘H’ in space which you start on at the beginning.

Elpis is a large game world which can be explored. Most of the gameplay consists of running on Elpis into different area/locations to progress through the game. Eventually, you head back up to the Helios space station, and to the Vault at the endgame, making both of these the terrain within the game as well.

Advantages of having such a vast area to walk around on is that you can explore most of the map and view the different areas which have been modified to suit the enemy lifestyle. Some disadvantages is that you could get bored of constantly seeing the same style of terrain when you walk/drive towards objectives.

The graphics of the game can actually impact a user’s thoughts and gameplay due to the different style from other games. The game uses cel – shading & exaggeration to express an appealing ‘cartoon’ style look.

Terrain available for the player to walk upon. (Elpis’ Surface)

Terrain available for the player to walk upon. (Within Crisis Scar.)

There are many things within the game world on Borderlands: TPS which fall into the Architecture category. Things like buildings, rocks, caves, enemy spawn locations and world edges are all architecture.

On Elpis, you have most of these already generated within the playable area, including things like lava which can kill the player (but acts as a borderline entry to prevent going out of bounds).

Advantages of doing this is to prevent a player glitching or even map exploiting in the game. It can also show some sort of disciplinary towards the players, showing they shouldn’t and can’t break the rules. Sometimes this can also be a disadvantage in some circumstances as there may be/have something in an area which is inaccessible to the player, preventing them progression with their task.

As there are many buildings within Borderlands: TPS, most of them have no entry. This may limit the player’s exploration and how it gives them freedom to explore anywhere. This also creates a boundary for the player as it has a purpose to not allow the player inside, but may allow other things to generate inside. (Enemies etc.)

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!;Game World; Architecture.

Lava creating a boundary for the player. (damage taken by standing in the lava is shown by the shield effect here).

Player looking at Helios.

Out of bounds area. (causing instant death if entered.)

In Borderlands, most of the game consists of objects. As the base of the game Is designed on a ‘shoot & loot’ style of gameplay, it means you have to interact with different items.

For starters you have Vendors, these allow the player to buy health, ammo, class modifications (class mods) , shields and even weapons. Then there are the original weapon looting crate system. These are positioned in specific spots to reward the player for beating a boss, getting through a tough part of the map area they are in, or in a tough area to reach (top of a building etc.) There are smaller objects such as loot crates which can hold ammo or money in, dumpsters, explosive barrels in 5 different elemental forms.

The advantages of having such a vast amount of objects is that it makes the play be able to interact with more things within the game, creating a virtual world where they are the character. This allows to have different loot spawn each time they loot the crates/area, meaning they will never get the same item twice, as of Borderlands’ ‘Bazillion’ gun effect. Some disadvantages of having certain things in the game world such as loot crates is that they may not be able to reach every single crate to loot, causing them stress and anger. The barrels which explode upon taking damage could also be a disadvantage within the game since they may explode and damage the player, or even give them a DOT, (damage over time) effect putting them down into the revival stance.

As the game features different things like barrels, they can help aid the player if they take a tactical approach on their level they are in. An example would be, fighting against the boss; Colonel Tungsteena Zarpedon. When assaulting the Helios space station to regain control, you fight the commander of the lost legion, Colonel T.Z. during the battle there are explosives which can be activated by the player, then shot to damage Zarpedon.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!;Game World; Objects.

Player is currently in ‘Fight for you life mode’. This is where the player is incapitated and requires either a kill or a revive from a team-mate to survive.

Explosives which the player can interact with.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Main Characters; Playable Characters.In Borderlands, there are 4 characters of the game. This allows variation and choice for the player to choose who they want to play as. The characters on Borderlands: TPS are;• Athena – The Gladiator• Wilhem – The Enforcer• Nisha – The Lawbringer• Claptrap – The Fragtrap

Each playable character has a specific skill set, so as you progress you level, you can enhance your capabilities to do things. Each character has 3 skill tree’s which can create a massive amount of choice for the player. This is an advantage as this allows the player to view what sort of skills they can obtain, and allow them to persue which skills they want to get.

Each character is different and unique not only from their skill trees, but from their action skill. The action skill is what defines them as that type of character (Gladiator, Enforcer, Lawbringer & Fragtrap.) These actions skill do not always allow the player to complete the game solo, as the skills do not always provide enough to help defeat the enemies. That is why for multiplayer it is best recommended that you try have 1 of each of class within your session.

There has been a 5th character released as DLC for the game recently, which is;Handsome Jack – The DoppelGanger

As ‘Handsome Jack’ was seen in the previous Borderlands game, (Borderlands 2), most of his skills on his 3 skill tree’s as well as his action skill, have been seen within Borderlands 2 at some point. This was an easy character to make as DLC and with the high popularity for Jack in BL2, this made 2K games and Gearbox create another great character to play as.

There are many non playable characters within Borderlands: TPS, which consist of 3 main groups;

• Friendly NPCs – Help, and may fight alongside the player. Does not attack the player.

• Enemy NPCs – Hostile enemies which spawn within an area in the game world. Will always attack the player on sight if they get too close.

• Enemy Bosses – Bosses are challenges which the player must overcome to progress. These will always fight back, and are much more difficult to beat than ordinary enemies.

NPCs usually are the key for the game to run properly, as they provide the player with the main story line and help them progress through certain areas after requirements are met. They can also offer additional side missions within the game, which rewards the player upon completion.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Main Characters; Non - Playable Characters. (NPCs)

There are a few friendly NPCs within Borderlands: TPS. As you are working for Jack, you’re first ally is automatically any Hyperion personnel. There are also other friendly NPCs located in the game world which help the player who are;• B4R-BOT • Handsome Jack • Janey Springs • Lilith • Moxxi • Nurse Nina • Roland • SC4V-TP • CU5TM-TP • Gladstone • Nakayama • Pickle • Skipper

All of the NPCs help the character when progressing through the main storyline. They may also offer additional side quests which can give the player specific and unique rewards upon completition.

Roland & Lilith are both NPCs which aid the player in the game. They are 2 of the few NPCs who actually fight alongside the player.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Main Characters; Non - Playable Characters. (NPCs)

Friendly NPCs

Roland & Lilith, both Playable characters in Borderlands 1 and NPCs in Borderlands 2.

Hostile NPCs are the characters within the game who try to stop and kill the player. These are the enemies which you have to fight through the game, gaining experience to level up off them from each kill. These enemies are;

• Kraggons • Lost Legion • Rathyds • Scavs • Scavenger Beasts • Shugguraths • Stalkers • Threshers • Torks • "Borrowed" Laser Turrets • Jet Fighters

These are all of the hostile enemies within the game. They all are hostile towards each other (scavs will kill torks, etc) which means the player could encounter a battle which already consists of 2 or more enemies. Killing these enemies allows the player to either receive a weapon drop, ammo drop or health drop from the enemies.

Enemies tend to come in packs, and they can be lethal when in a group. Sometimes, if there are more than 1 player in a session together with others, the enemies may spawn in as a ‘Badass’ enemy. Badasses deal out more damage to the player, as well as absorb more damage dealt by the player. They can have a high drop chance of good loot, and give more experience than killing other enemies.

Sometimes enemies may have elemental powers, shields, grenade mods or weapons. These can be damaging to the player and can also help resist the player's attacks, due to have immunity to that element.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Main Characters; Non - Playable Characters. (NPCs)

Hostile NPCs

Kraggons; Elpis’ natural enemies created from the crackening.

Pandora; after Borderlands 1 events, showing an eridium deposit.

In Borderlands, as most things in the game tend to be hostile to the player, at some point they will encounter a boss. A boss is defined from regular enemies with a specific cutscene and quote to suit that boss. A list of the bosses are as follows;• The Bosun • Deadlift • The Empyrean Sentinel • Felicity Rampant • Flame Knuckle • Raum-Kampfjet Mark V • RedBelly • Colonel Zarpedon • Iwajira • Nel

Bosses are what makes the player work for their levels and loot. As the bosses are stronger than all enemies, they also deal more damage, and have help from fellow friends. Bosses are usually based higher level than the player, to make them test their witts to beat the boss, and if the succeed, there is usually a reward for the player which is either a weapon crate to loot, or the boss can drop a rare/unique item only obtainable from that boss.

This does make a massive advantage for the players as it means if they wish to obtain specific loot they have to ‘farm’ for it. The term farm in borderlands: TPS means to constantly kill the boss in a rapid succession. E.G load up your save, kill the boss, check loot, save and quit, repeat. Farming allows the player to have more things to do once they have completed the game, or maxed their level, as they get to constantly try aim for something unique.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Main Characters; Non - Playable Characters. (NPCs)

Hostile NPCs - Bosses

Quote which relates to the boss.

Name of the boss.

Actual image of the boss.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!FMVs (Full Motion Videos) – Cut Scenes

Each of the Borderlands installments contain cut-scenes. Mainly known for the same approach at the start of the game, they have cut scenes which occur not only at the beginning, the end, but also while playing through the game.

Borderlands: TPS contains multiple cut scenes in the game. At the start, the game has a cut scene showing playable character Athena, captured by Lilith. Before she is ordered to be executed, Lilith asks her why she helped Jack. This is where the players play the game and it tells out Athena’s story.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkB1UMC6eeY) (Opening cut scene for the game)

There is also an ending cut scene, which also reflects back to the start where Athena is captured, hence the game being her story she told to Lilith. After she has told her, Lilith orders Athena to be executed. Once she is fired upon, a large eridian warrior (seen in a cut scene during the game near the start) appears and stops the bullets from killing Athena. It then tells Lilith ‘war is coming, and you will need all the vault hunters you can get’.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urkgk70pERY) (Ending cut scene for the game)

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Avatar

The avatar you play is in the borderlands entirely depends on which character you picked at the start. You may save your character’s data and progress and create a new one which can be a different character. When spawning in a vehicle in the Moon Zoomy stations, once you jump into that vehicle, that becomes your new avatar as you are controlling it. There also can be gun turrets you can jump in and use, making them your avatar for a short period of time.

The advantage of creating vehicles for the player to be able to drive its to let them have different limitations in the game. It allows them to have their own fun and freedom, while exploring ad choosing their own pathway to the current goal. There are no real disadvantages as vehicles speed up travelling, and allow the player to have more fun and cause more mayhem with them.

Menu when in the Moon Zoomy. Used to pick and spawn vehicle.

Vehicle chosen to spawn.

A Stingray, another vehicle to spawn from the Moon Zoomy.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Game Setting

The franchise as a whole set’s the time and where. Borderlands 1 & 2 are both set on Pandora, a planet which is corrupt from bandits, mercenaries of interstellar corporations, dangerous wildlife and, eventually, eldritch alien abominations.

Both of these games take place here, and Borderlands 2 takes place after Borderlands 1. However, Borderlands: TPS is a prequel to Borderlands 2, set before the events that happened then, showing how Jack came to power in the Hyperion Corporation & his idea to cleanse Pandora.

Borderlands: TPS is set on Pandora’s moon, Elpis. The reason for this being is that an alien vault which can contain either loot or cash, is hidden upon the moon. Jack hires 4 vault hunters (you) to come seek for the vault, and loot the contents.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Goals/Challenge

There are different goals & challenges to overcome while playing Borderlands: TPS. A main example for these would be a boss fight, but there is more than that for the player to go for. The main obvious goal/challenge is to complete the game, by opening the vault, but that happens later on and it is not the only challenge/goal to do.

The player can do different challenges within the game. There are the story missions to progress through the game, boss fights, side quests and something called ‘Badass Rank’. These all allow the player to have interaction within the game, allowing them to choose a specific goal/challenge to attempt.

The story missions & side quests consist of the same style things to do, go here, complete this objective, turn in mission. Boss fights are self explanatory. Each player has their own Badass Rank. The Badass Rank carries over through different characters, and can gives the player permanent in-game bonuses.

Badass Rank for each player is determined by a number of challenges. Complete the challenge, and you get some Badass Rank, fill the bar fully, you get a Badass token. These tokens can be used to purchase certain upgrades which stack up and make your character more specialized. An example would be using the token on your max health stat, increasing it by 0.8% for the first token. You could stack this up to be 100% eventually, doubling your max health while in-game.

Badass Rank stats. Allows player to choose which stat they want.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Rewards

• Borderlands reward system has been consistent through the whole franchise. Depending on what challenge you manage to over come, it depends on if you get a reward. For basic missions, story or side missions, there is an initial reward.

• There is also a loot crate reward system. These can be found in the game world in certain area’s which are complex to overcome. This can vary between boss battles, large groups of enemies (waves of enemies come) or at exceptionally hard to reach areas. These loot crates can have different items which can vary from weapons, shields, grenade mods, class mods or O2 kits.

Some missions have additional rewards such as weapons, shields, class mods, grenade mods or even O2 kits.

Each mission also has money rewards, which can vary the amount on the difficulty of the mission.

Each mission completed has an exp yield reward. The amount given is based on how difficult the mission is.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Difficulty

• Borderlands has a different difficulty setting than any other game. Compared to a game like Call Of Duty which features 4 difficulties from the player to choose from, Borderlands has a different way of making this.

• You start the game in ‘Normal mode’ where the enemies at the start are level 1 (like yourself) and as you progress through the game, their level changes to suit that area. Once the game has been completed, you can now access ‘True Vault Hunter’ mode which is where all of the enemies are tougher. So the start enemies are now around level 27-30 and at the end 48-52.

• In Borderlands 2, the level cap was 50, but soon followed by 2 DLC’s to allow you to go to 61 and then 72. This also introduced ‘Ultimate Vault Hunter’ mode, where the enemies levels were the same level as the highest leveled player in the current session. I think this feature will be added into Borderlands: TPS as the level cap is currently 50, and the audience will want to exceed that level.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Inventory

• Borderlands inventory system is completely different from any other game. The inventory system consists of 5 different things;

- Map of the current area you are in (Concordia map shows all of Concordia, travelling to a new place like Outlands Canyon, the map will show Outlands Canyon).- Mission/Quest log- Badass Rank log & Badass Rank Challenges- Player equipment inventory (weapons etc)- Player skill tree.

• This has been like such since the first installment of Borderlands. Over time, they have changed the style of how the inventory looks, how it is all layed out and easier usage. Also, while in the inventory status, to other players in multi-player it shows a barrier which shows you are in your inventory, but also allows the current player to see their character in 3rd person while in the inventory.

Character’s skill tree’s. 3 tree’s so player has variation of skills to pick.

Remaining skill points (1 gained per level)

Player inventory, includes all weapons, shields, class mods, grenade mods and O2 kits.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Win Condition

• Borderlands’ win condition for the initial player is to open the vault. As we see at the start, the story pushes that objective away, making the player/players achieve this objective first so they can open the vault.

• The players’ win condition is to help Jack open the vault on Elpis, get the loot from the vault and get paid by Hyperion. Unfortunately as this objective is pushed aside, the new temporary win condition for the player is to create a robot army with Jack and help from others, and re-take over the Helios space station.

• The player could set their own winning conditions by setting goals to complete all of the side missions, or gain all achievements/trophies for the game, or even complete all of the badass rank challenges.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Balance

• In Borderlands, like many games when released, they are glitches/exploits within the game. Some players use these to their advantage to cheat the game and get more from exploiting it.

• Sometimes the bosses can be too easy to kill, like in Borderlands 2, you could kill the boss ‘Terramorphous The Invincible’ which was supposed to be the most difficult boss in the game (before any DLC’s or patches were out). If you had a Bee shield, and a Conference call shotgun, you could kill him in less than 15seconds, allowing the player to check his loot, walk in and out of his area, summon him again and repeat.

• Patches get released to balance out the game to make it more fair for the player. Although some people may not like the patches and what they do, it is to make the game more challenging and keep it fair for everyone. Currently, Borderlands: TPS has not had any patch changes to balance out the game as It is already balanced enough. I think there will be one soon to patch the secret boss Iwajira so it is more difficult to beat.

Compatibility packs; Borderlands release these so all patches are within this pack. Released with new DLCs to balance the game for everyone on co – op play.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Graphic Style

• Borderlands: TPS’ graphics are a lot different from other First person shooters/role playing games. As it has been released lately, the graphics are really good. The game uses cel – shading and exaggeration techniques to portray the visuals to the player.

• Since Borderlands uses these type of graphic styles, it changes on how people think of the game. Some people may enjoy these graphics and love to play them, but others may hate them as it is too cartoony for them.

• Using exaggeration for the games graphic style really brings an impact on the audience. Since the game is an FPSRPG, the graphics allows the player to see a world they can relate to, as the graphics can easily be drawn if doing some sort of art about the game. This allows the players to using the same style techniques to draw/create art about the game. Some people may say the graphics could ruin the game as they are not as realistic as Call Of Duty. This may upset some people and cause them not to like the game, due to the fact that the graphics are not what they expected them to be.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Box Art

Game developing and publishing companies are always on the box art for the game to show who created the game.

Title of the game clearly stated. Tends to be bold to stand out.

Showing the 4 playable characters on the front, allows the player to see what they are in for.

Age rating, pending before release, states the age group it is suitable and targeted for.

‘Psycho’. Been portrayed on each instalment of Borderlands. This NPC is the trademark of the game and can define the game from something else by just looking at it.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Game Type: Single Player & Multi - Player

• Borderlands: TPS has its own different styles on single player and multi player. In single player, you can play through the game by yourself, doing so, allows you to focus on training and taking time to pay attention to the campaign. In multi player, you also do the storyline with team mates, so the story line does not change except certain dialogue. There is also local split screen which is multi player but only focuses on 2 players working together on the same console.

• Single player makes your story a challenging one as you will have to do side missions to gain exp to level up. As for multi player, 2 players can easily take down a foe which is 2-4 levels higher than themselves. Single player does actually decrease the chances of getting a rare loot drop or better items from loot crates, and also maintains the enemies to be a lower level than with a full team of 4. Multi player does have the benefits of being able to revive team mates if incapped, a higher chance of getting rarer loot to spawn, and more exp from enemies as they are tougher.

Single player, more difficult for the player to progress.

Co – op, although it is split screen, allows the players to help others to progress.

Borderlands: The Pre Sequel!Narrative

Borderlands: TPS’ narrative is different as it is set before the previous installment, Borderlands 2. In TPS, the game focuses on Athena’s story of why she teamed up with Jack. As you carry out the actions through gameplay, this is what she is telling Lilith in the cut scene you see at the start. As shown in the prologue, Athena states that the got an offer from a low level Hyperion engineer saying ‘be a vault hunter, come to the moon.’ She was hungry not to pass up a paying job. Doing so, her and 3 other potential vault hunters go to the moon. Jack is helping them hunt the vault down, but, the lost legion are trying to prevent anyone finding the moon, by attacking and claiming ‘Helios’ to use its laser and destroy Elpis (Pandora’s Moon).

Jack then gets the vault hunters to find the jamming signal jamming Helios’ defense systems, build a robot army, and retake Helios. Once the player has done this, Jack discovers that the vault is open, as Zarpedon tells him (before she dies). The vault hunters then proceed into the vault, defeating all of the vault guardian protectors, and lost legion employees. Once done, the Epilogue starts, and shows how Jack ‘becomes’ the tyrant he is in Borderlands 2.