Putting Borderlands 2 on the PlayStation Vita can only be called miraculous considering the size of the game and the world that your vault hunter lives within. When you see the game in action on Sony’s handheld, you’ll probably be taken back just a bit because everything is there. The world you know from the PC game is there. The guns, upgrades and enemies are all there. You’ve literally got Borderlands 2, plus DLC, with this release on a mobile system that is worth a damn.
That in itself is remarkable. Sadly, all is not well with the game.
The mechanics that you probably love and know from the PC, and its keyboard capabilities, are gone. Instead, you’re left with 10 actual buttons on the Vita with a touch pad in the back. The touch pad, which is fantastic for some games, fails Borderlands 2 on a few levels. Trying to get your player to run (simply touch the pad and hold it down) is fine initially, but if you move your finger the wrong way then you end up throwing a grenade. If you end up accidentally swiping to the right then you use your melee weapon. The fact that you have to think things through when using the touch pad doesn’t bode well for the gameplay, which is generally fast and furious (and unforgiving at times). That’s what you get when you play on a handheld, which is always going to be limited in some way. If you harken back to the days of Street Fighter II on handheld systems or heck even on the Sega Genesis, then you get the importance of having more than enough button options in front of you. The PS Vita simply cannot offer that type of comfort and flexibility when it comes to games like Borderlands 2. Thankfully, that is the biggest issue about this game.
For me, I did push past the control issues and found my way through the game. I did limit myself to certain actions and found ways to not have to use the grenade option. I did keep throwing grenades by accident, but it didn’t really bother me in the long run. Of course, I have to push through it, though because I’m reviewing it. For those gamers out there with little to no patience for a faulty control scheme, playing the game might be a chore. The controls aren’t a total loss, but if you struggle just a little bit with them then you’re not having a fully fun experience with the title. That’s this reviewers fear for the game, at least the main one.
If you can look beyond the controls then you ill find some good gameplay underneath. The addictiveness of this title is the story and side quests, which are gold — and even better if you have friends who want to play (I don’t have any, so I was solo the entire time). The added dialogue from Claptrap and the script that resides within the main story really make the game a joy to play. Of course, if you’ve played the PC version of this then you know what I’m talking about. There’s some solid gameplay here within a very defined and enormous world.
The upgrading, leveling and variety of weapons in Borderlands 2 makes this game a blast, despite the control issues. I had a great time with trading and upgrading weapons. The level tree provided, if you don’t know anything about the game, is nice and simple. It reminds me of Skyrim’s tree where you have to level up multiple times in specific categories to gain certain/better abilities. The inclusion of a token system where you can upgrade certain attributes of your character (like firing rate, reload time, etc.) is also quite nice. These were some of the nice aspects of the game, which were maintained in the translation. It certainly makes the world more fun to play in on the PS Vita version of Borderlands 2.
Speaking of the world, how do the visuals hold up? Well, 30 frames per second is your ceiling with this and much like a short kid trying to touch a ceiling, most of the time it doesn’t reach it. It certainly doesn’t get down into the single digits or below 15, at least not visually for me, but it doesn’t maintain a solid 30 frame rate. What does that mean for the gameplay? Well, it can get choppy sometimes because of that drop, but the majority of the visuals are decent. It’s certainly nothing unmanageable or less than decent. On a personal note, I do find it funny that people bitch about this category. I think frame rate in a game is mostly a non-factor, as the gameplay really carries the most weight for any game. Visuals should always be secondary when it comes to making a decision on whether to purchase a title or not.
Anyway, off my soapbox and back to the review, you won’t get a PC-like performance from the animation, but the size of the world and activity of its residents will make up for the lack of frame rate.
As for the actual visuals, you get the same cel-shaded visuals that you’re used to seeing in Borderlands titles. It’s a detailed world, when the rendering isn’t running behind, and a pretty one to behold on the Vita. It’s not quite Killzone: Mercenary pretty, but it’s solid, especially when it comes to the girth of the environments that you’re in. Seeing mountain ranges and cities/villages in the background is pretty visually expansive for a handheld system. In that sense, it’s a gorgeous title on the Vita. It feels big and it does draw you in just a bit.
The music and the audio of the game are certainly better than the visuals. You get some great dialogue from friends (especially Claptrap), enemies and locals.The dialogue is very well-written, which makes up for the gameplay just a bit. The music on the other hand stops and goes sometimes. While there probably wasn’t reasonable space to give up for the entire soundtrack, the music should be a bit more consistent. It’s not and can be just slightly annoying sometimes. For example. the second boss fight that I ran into had the music completely drop out in the middle of the fight. It wasn’t over, it didn’t fad out, it just simply dropped completely out in the middle of the score. It was awkward, but I was too concerned with the fight at hand to worry about it. In short, the music has some issues, but the dialogue is still gold.
What about the fun factor of the game? I think I’ll be playing this game for a little bit. I can look beyond some controls, frame rate and music issues. I can find a set of adventures in Borderlands 2 that I found with the PC counterpart that I consider to be a blast. There’s more pro than con about this game, as it shouldn’t be thrown to the side if you own a PS Vita.