Off Topic > Games
Borderlands 3 Badass-thread [Gameplay reveal live now] [September 13th]
PhantOS:
it really just mystifies me. you aren't actually improving at all because when you find a new gun in borderlands with 1+ more damage than your last gun it feels like you're improving but as soon as you use it for 5 minutes all the enemies now gain 10+ more health so it becomes just as useless as your last gun. borderlands is structured in such a way that you never actually get better at the game. if you stripped away all the leveling and you and all the enemies stayed level 1 for the entire game it would literally be no different than if you had levels in it in the first place. the only difference is that instead of dealing 20 damage you'd be dealing like 214712 damage or some insanely arbitrary and completely meaningless number.
if you look at a game like half life or zelda you actually progress in the game. you unlock new meaningful abilities that give you room to explore the game's world in new ways and solve challenges in different ways than before. you never deal more damage or the enemies don't gain more health; they just have new unique patterns that you have to learn and that test how you use the game's mechanics. there are so many games like this that employ good game design and looter shooters basically try to avoid any form of unique gameplay mechanisms in favor of artificial numbers and grinding.
borderlands has skill trees which offer some slightly unique mechanics and that's as far as they touch in the entire game. and sadly you can only use these new mechanics once every 2 minutes or whatever bullstuff cooldown they give you
sleep:
that's a big misinformed paragraph there, it shows clear signs of you not having played through UVHM or beyond a first playthrough at all, which really makes me not want to continue this argument because there would be no point when all you have is bare bones experience.
PhantOS:
i mean if you honestly enjoy that type of game who am i to stop you from playing it
sleep:
i didnt ask for your approval and I actually think you don't know enough about this game to make three posts in a row dissing it.
PhantOS:
--- Quote from: sleep on March 29, 2019, 05:38:46 AM ---that's a big misinformed paragraph there, it shows clear signs of you not having played through UVHM or beyond a first playthrough at all, which really makes me not want to continue this argument because there would be no point when all you have is bare bones experience.
--- End quote ---
but i did? i beat borderlands 2 twice so far once solo and once with a friend. the new game+ is a good addition but its really just subtle changes to gameplay. like the only thing i actually liked was how i could switch weapons faster which was great on gunzerker.
what i dont think you understand is that borderland's problem is deeper than all the superficial number tweaks and subtle legendary enemy chances and other stuff like that. its the sacrifice of meaningful solid mechanics in exchange for massive content variety. you already said that you enjoy grinding for items so it's not like the mind numbingly boring game loop is ever going to phase you at all. as long as there's a new type of item that you can pick up thats slightly different from the last in any way then the game is fun or something because its being changed or your progressing
what stays true throughout the game is that you don't mechanically progress. you're never actually given a challenge that requires you to use your understanding of the game to solve. the dominant strategy is to spend x minutes leveling up goliaths so you can farm xp so you can beat that boss that's 3 levels above you and that's it for the entire game. the steps you take to defeat the first boss and the last boss and that bigass loving terriblemorphus worm or whatever are exactly the same: level up. the key to victory in borderlands isn't your understanding of the game or some cool unique mechanic they threw in, its just time. you input time into the game and it outputs progression and that's actually the only requirement to beat the game
i dont know what i said that led you to believe that i didn't 'get the full borderlands experience' but i can assure you that i definitely did. i have like 60 hours on pc and on my xbox account i have like 82% achievement completion. ive definitely had my fair share of repetitive loot n shoot games