Recent reviews by jloost-gamer

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition is the definitive version of the first, slightly aged, entry in this classic series. Anyone who is a fan of computer RPGs, story-based fantasy games, darker stories and worlds, or The Witcher in general, will love this game.

First things first: the story and world of The Witcher. By now, most people will be quite familiar with “the continent” through either the books by Andrzej Sapkowski, the Netflix series, or the sequels The Witcher 2 (2011) and The Witcher 3 (2015). What the player is thrown into is a semi-traditional fantasy setting, with humans, elves, and dwarves; wizards, dragons, and vampires; cities, knights, and kings. Look underneath the veil of tradition, though, and you will find that Sapkowski and the Polish storywriters of CD Projekt do not shun darker themes, flawed—sometimes even horrible—characters, and violence for ideological reasons.

The story begins with our witcher Geralt waking up on a cart in a forest, after having been ostensibly murdered by an angry mob a while earlier. Conveniently, he has lost his memory, and so the story can unfold in a neat way without requiring any prior knowledge of the books, while still being able to insert funny references to them here and there for fans to enjoy. The basic premise is quite simple: a dark wizard has stolen plans and papers from the witchers’ castle, and Geralt must hunt him and his organization Salamandra down and bring the plans back. What follows is an almost epic quest around the capital city of the kingdom of Temeria, involving ancient water gods, more ancient magic, and the fate of the world. The story itself is divided into five chapters, which each take place in a certain area of the world. These have sufficiently different feels or flavours to them that you will be excited to start each new chapter. Conversation choices lead to some quests playing out differently, although the differences are quite minor in the grand scale of the game. If I have any criticism on the story, it is the last chapter and epilogue. The story resolves much too fast here, which takes away from the epic feeling you should get while trying to save the world from ultimate evil.

Then, graphics and sound. These were pretty okay for their time, and the Enhanced Edition holds up nicely even today. The graphics are a bit dated, but in a charming way, not ancient. There are a few classes of enemy, and they each have their own distinct look but differ a little in facial features or colours, making them different enough that you can recognise each of them without too much of a hassle. The world is beautifully rendered, with sufficient rendering distance, and areas change during different times of day, which gives each area the feeling that it is a real place (and in the case of some fields in chapter IV, makes them creepy enough that I dreaded walking through them at night). The English voice acting is done extremely well, and I have heard—and hope to experience for myself soon—that the Polish actors are as good. The only criticism in this regard is the repetition of voices for non-main characters. Many elves have the same voices, and this also goes for humans and dwarves. Of course, this was probably a budgetary issue at the time which may have been improved upon in the second and third game. The music is nice and changes enough between chapters, although the battle themes can get repetitive after a while.

The gameplay was, in my opinion, the weakest point of The Witcher. I had an absolute blast playing this game, but there are just so many ideas here that did not completely come to fruition. My main point of criticism is that the low level of difficulty (on normal, which I always use as the basis for reviews) is too low, which leads to a lack of necessity for experimentation. I could play through the entire game without once creating an oil or a bomb (on my first playthrough I also did not even use either of these at any time), and my usage of alchemy was restricted to creating swallow potions (health regeneration) and cat potions (to see in the dark). The blizzard potion (activates a slo-mo mode in which you are faster than your opponents) seemed useful at first, but turned out to only hinder the combat system and makes some battles and especially conversations last forever. By simply going through the chapters and playing almost all of the side quests (which the game actually incentivises in nice ways), I also seemed to be way overlevelled in chapter IV, V, and the epilogue, which led to the last parts of the game feeling extremely boring. The combat system is nice but a bit abstract at times. Requiring exact timing for strikes is a cool system, but it is extremely unclear when an enemy’s hit gets priority over yours or vice versa. This issue did not, however, come up during brawls, all of which I easily won simply by pushing the punch button in succession… It seems like some parts of the game are a little broken from time to time. That said, the general feel of controlling Geralt and making him slice through hordes of monsters and other enemies is amazing, and the inventory, UI, and conversations are all a breeze to navigate.

When it comes to fun and replay value, or the “enchantment factor” as I sometimes call it, I am a bit torn. I loved this game a lot, but that seemed to be more because of the interesting worldbuilding and side quests than because of the main questline or the gameplay itself. I would totally recommend this game to anyone who loves PC role-playing games or story-based fantasy RPGs, but I’d hesitate to recommend it to some modern gamers with more specific wishes. I could see myself playing this again in ten years, maybe, but in general you have seen almost everything after one thorough playthrough of the game.

Oxenfree is an amazing atmospheric adventure game which will leave you harrowed and emotional.

I'll start with the story and world. Oxenfree's story is both a coming-of-age-teenage-romance-and-drama, and a horror tale. One summer, a group of teens go by boat to an island, where most of them have spent each summer since they were little. You play as one of these teenagers, Alex, a young girl who is still figuring out how to deal with annoying bully girls and attractive boy. Also, she has never quite gotten over the death of her older brother at a much too young age, and sometimes blames herself for it. A few minutes after arriving on the island, the kids find something strange in a cave, and it all goes downhill from there. You can use your radio to tune in to local channels, but some of them will reveal eery voices and dark noises. It unwinds into an absolute rollercoaster ride, around 4 hours of horror and drama, and I have seldom been so engaged by a video game's story. I just wanted to keep going and going because I was dying (no pun intended) to find out what was coming next. There are several different possible endings, most of which are harrowing and creepy, but there are also positive ones.

Graphics and sound are next. The graphics are a charming blend of 2D and 3D, as we have seen in similar games before. It gives a 2.5D effect to the entire game, which is very nice. The use of colours in the game is on par: happy moments and locations are brightly coloured, as an island during summer should be, whereas dark locations, nighttime moments, and the darker situations in the game all use dark and foreboding colour palettes. The sound is equally appropriate: happy tunes and birds during daytime, dark music during nighttime. The voice acting is very well executed, and the sound effects are amazing and creepy.

The gameplay of Oxenfree is nice, but can become repetitive at times. You use your mouse or arrow keys to walk around, usually along set paths that you have to follow, but which branch out into different routes from area to area. The teens will speak to each other, and when it's Alex's turn to say something, three speech bubbles will appear over her head, and you can decide what to say. Wait too long, however, and they will disappear, leaving Alex the silent one in the conversation. Of course, your choices have an influence on the further story and its outcome, and they always feel consequential. On more than one occassion have I been torn between two or even three choices, and I ended up regretting some of them. Then again, that is the fun of a story-based video game. At any time, Alex can fire up her radio and try to tune in to different channels. At the beginning this is merely to listen to the radio and to local tourist channels, but later you will have to use it to topen radio-controlled doors, or to tune in to ghostly voices... This aspect was also very enjoyable, so what is the repetitive part? It's the walking. When you have to hurry back to an area where you just came from and there is not much dialogue, it can be a little tedious, especially since the teens don't walk very fast. Then again, when there is interesting dialogue going on at the same time, it makes the trip so much more memorable and bearable.

My last point is always the fun and replay value, or the "enchantment factor". I was thoroughly enchanted by Oxenfree and had a couple of hours of fun with it. Its duration and style make it one of those games that you secretly want to see a friend or your significant other play for the first time, just to see what choices they make (and how they react to the horror scenes). There are several different endings, which makes me think I might play Oxenfree once or twice again in the future, although I did need some time to calm myself down after finishing my ending...

Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast is a refreshment in the series, and a very satisfying game in its own right.

In Jedi Outcast, you once again play as New Republic mercenary Kyle Katarn. After his fall to (and return from) the dark side during the events of Mysteries of the Sith, Kyle has decided to sever his ties to the living force and give his lightsaber to Luke Skywalker at his temple on Yavin IV for safekeeping. While running missions for the New Republic, Kyle and his partner Jan Ors find out that the Imperial Remnant is working with a dark Jedi named Desann to infuse their captives with artificial force powers, thereby creating an army of force- and lightsaber-wielding warriors who will help bring down the New Republic. Kyle and Jan gather intelligence from a few locations, but then it becomes painfully apparent that Jedi will be needed to solve this problem. Thus, Kyle recovers his lightsaber and refreshes his memory of using force powers, in order to defeat Desann and his army of 'Reborn' force soldiers. This story is quite okay, and adequate for an action game like this one. It is better than the stories of the previous games, and certainly not too bad compared to some of the lesser Expanded Universe (now Legends) stories. There are, as can be expected of a video game, some sidequests during the game that distract Kyle from the main story. For Star Wars fans, this story is very enjoyable indeed, and other players will at least not hate it.

As far as the production of this game is concerned: it is stunning for its time. The music consists of mainly John Williams scores, supplemented with some new tunes during the levels. The voice acting is terrific (Billy Dee Williams even reprises his role as Lando Calrissian) and really adds to the cutscenes, which are mostly rendered in-engine. The engine in question is a modified version of id Tech 3, also known as the Quake III Arena engine. Especially for 2002, this engine looks very good, and of course it lends itself very well to an FPS/action game. The only downside is the way people's faces look during cutscenes, their lips and jaws moving in strange and unsupple ways. However, if this is my only complaint, even now in 2018, that means the game holds its own even today.

The gameplay is probably as important as the story, if not more so, and Jedi Outcast has done a fine job at keeping the player entertained and on his toes. The level design is very good, often offering more than one way to reach the next part, or offering branching routes that need to be searched one by one to find the right one. There were a couple occasions where the path to the next area was so obfuscatingly hidden away that it frustrated me a little, but generally the paths to take are fun and well-designed, including the bits where platforming skills come in. Of course, there are also puzzles to solve, one of the staples of this series. Jedi Outcast actually does much better than its two predecessors in this, and is most like the original Dark Forces, the first game in the series. The puzzles are challenging yet manageable, and are often spread out throughout the level (finding a key, or three codes, or some switches, and then backtracking to the right location, etc.). Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith featured hard and sometimes frustratingly impossible puzzles, but Jedi Outcast got it right. Enemies are spread out nicely in the levels, it never feels like you are left alone for very long, and there have been some instances where I was surprised by a disruptor rifle sniper shot to the head. This only makes these bits a bit more realistic, though, as do the weapons in enemies' hands: No longer does every Gran have thermal detonators or does every Trandoshan hold a concussion rifle. As far as dealing with enemies goes, I was a bit disappointed in this game. I expected that I would only (or at least mainly) use the lightsaber after I'd acquire it, but it turned out that using guns was actually still the quickest and most powerful way of dealing with enemies, except for the force-and-saber-wielders of course. One change from the previous games is the progression of force powers: You no longer have to painstakingly find all of the secret areas in order to get more force points to spend on your powers, leaving you powerful or weak at the end of the game depending on your level exploration. No, in Jedi Outcast, Kyle's powers progress automatically along a set line. It takes away the player's agency in choosing their force powers, but this also eliminates the fear of being too weak to defeat the final bosses of the game. The boss battles are, in any case, quite random. I defeated dark Jedi Desann in two saber hits in the last area, yet I spent an hour of gameplay trying to defeat his apprentice halfway through the game, and dying to her saber more times than I would like to admit. All of this was on the normal difficulty level, and I have heard that higher difficulties prove quite a challenge, although the incentive for replaying this game immediately is not very high, as there are no choices to be made throughout the game.

In all, Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast is a good game, and it is quite a lot of fun to play. FPS and action fans will like it, Star Wars fans like me will probably love it. It is not the most glamorous thing you'll ever lay eyes on, but then again, neither is Kyle Katarn...

This is a fair game, but I hesitate to recommend it to anyone. Star Wars: Dark Forces and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II are two of the best Star Wars-licensed games I have ever played, period. However, this expansion to the second game manages to take the base game formula, and garble it until there is only a very, very mediocre game left.

In terms of graphics and sound, the game is almost identical to its predecessor, which is not a bad thing. Mysteries of the Sith was released five months after the base game, and uses the same engine, so it looks and sounds pretty much the same. Polygonal 3D models, a bit dated today but not horrible, constitute the bulk of the graphics you'll see, and an orchestral combination of familiar, straight-from-the-films scores and newer musical compositions serves as the backdrop in your speakers or headphones. There are two points that have improved in my opinion. Firstly, the lightsabers look better than in the base game: more like lightsabers and less like long, thin, coloured sticks. Secondly, and most importantly, the horribly acted cutscenes are gone, in favour of in-engine 3D cutscenes, which fit much better into the game and don't suffer from the horrible D-rate acting that was present in Jedi Knight.

The gameplay is basically the same as in the last game, or at least the game makes you think so from the start. Some weapons and their hotkeys are different, but the controls are still the same (and, luckily, adaptable to your own preference). After a few levels with Kyle, however, it becomes clear that this game has changed a lot of the gameplay of its predecessor. Many of these changes are in level design. Levels are much less linear, which can be either a good or a bad thing depending on where you stand, but it is very easy to get lost in the later levels (which is not remedied by the fact that levels often contain symmetrical or identical areas), and I personally dislike large, open, winding levels in shooter/action games where the point is to get to the end of a level. The puzzles are also very different from the previous games: they are weirdly located and sometimes impossible to solve without a guide. As far as difficulty goes, this game is actually very well-balanced and posed more of a challenge to me than Dark Forces or Jedi Knight. In the later levels, however, there are some enemies that are very powerful and extremely random in their mechanics (here's looking at you, Vornskr). Sometimes I would circle around an enemy and kill them with three lightsaber strokes, whereas the next identical enemy might kill me within half a second by leaping at me twice for 50% damage per hit. In all, the level design is just no fun, the enemies vary from fine to annoying, the puzzles are obfuscated and too random, and the overall gameplay experience is not very good.

There is something weird about the story of Mysteries of the Sith. On the one hand, it is a very one-sided story that lends itself well for an expansion: As Mara Jade, you run several errands for the New Republic before realising that your master Kyle Katarn has been missing for a while, after he went to investigate ruins on the planet of Dromund Kaas. While this sounds like a very good and basic storyline for an expansion, Mysteries of the Sith actually contains more levels than the base game. Thus, the game is longer but feels like less of a whole story. Three or four levels playing Kyle are followed by a lot of levels going on boring missions for the New Republic as Mara Jade. The last three levels are actually the only ones that have anything to do with the main story of this expansion, and it is not really fleshed out, but feels a bit rushed. That said, I do really like the way in which the creators have incorporated bits and pieces from the Expanded Universe (now Legends) into the game. Mara Jade, vornskr, noghri, ysalamiri, a new Hutt relative, etc. In all, Mysteries of the Sith has a great Star Wars vibe, but the story is really incoherent and not enough to keep anyone but the most die-hard Star Wars fans playing.

This is, I think, what can be said about the game in its entirety, as well. The gameplay and the story add up to a game that is very mediocre in terms of gameplay. I would press anyone who is not a huge Star Wars fan to stay away from this game, and even Star Wars fans who have a lot of fun rummaging through the extended universe (or Legends) and learning about new places, characters, and creatures (like myself) will find it hard to finish this game due to its terrible pacing, obfuscated level design, and some strange and frustrating gameplay quirks. Mysteries of the Sith is a fair game, but not noteworthy for anyone, and that says something.

This game is everything its predecessor was, and more!

I decided that I wanted to play through the Jedi Knight series in order, so after Dark Forces, I moved on to this second part, which also happens to be the first game to actually bear the Jedi Knight title. After having really enjoyed the first game, I didn't have high expectations for the sequel, but I was actually quite impressed with the results.

The story is, in my opinion, the weakest aspect of this game. While the first game was a straight up, no-nonsense espionage and shooter story, this second game tries to be much more than that. A dark jedi named Jerec has killed Kyle Katarn's father and many other jedi, and is now looking for the Valley of the Jedi, where he can find enormous power. You play as Kyle once again, and you hurry through levels trying to prevent Jerec's plan from unfolding. I have two main problems with this story. Firstly, the writing is pretty bad, of fan-fiction level, and the acting in the cutscenes is even worse. Secondly, the story has some major plotholes: I thought all of the jedi were already gone? When was Kyle's dad killed? Why does a jedi unknown to Kyle project his voice into Kyle's head? Why are there so many dark jedi? Why do the stormtroopers follow a group of dark jedi instead of the emperor? It's all highly illogical and strange, the story feels more like an incentive to keep playing (and you will, I'll get to that) than a fleshed out whole.

The graphics in this game are what you would expect from 1997: early 3D models with limited building blocks. The characters in this game actually look a bit stranger and less convincing to me than the sprites in the previous game. That said, the environments are much more beautiful, and also very varied. The constant change of environment is one of the things that will keep you playing to see where the next level will take place.

When it comes to sound, the game has taken it up a notch from its predecessor. The MIDI files have been replaced with actual orchestral music, incorporating some of John Williams's original scores from the films, and some newer arrangements. In all, the music always feels appropriate and adds to the excitement of certain parts and levels. The voices of enemies are pretty good, although their limited repertoire of sentences gets dull after a while.

But the gameplay, oh, the gameplay. This is what will keep you playing through this game until you see the very end. The controls have been improved majorly (although I did fiddle about with them a little bit to my liking), and the game can be made to feel like a modern FPS, playing like most people are used to without any trouble like the looking up and down in the first game. All of the guns feel amazing and distinct, and all are fun to use, although you will probably stick to the two or three that are most useful throughout the campaign. When, later in the game, you acquire a lightsaber and force powers, the game becomes much more fun (although I rarely used the lightsaber, it simply takes too long to get close when surrounded by enemies). The force powers are nice to play around with, and there is a selection of helpful light side and destructive dark side powers. The levels in the game are more logically structured, longer, and more adventurous than those in Dark Forces, and the puzzles have been tuned down to a less prominent role, while still providing the occasional challenge. Figuring out where to go in a level, how to kill enemies in efficient ways, and how to use your force powers provide fun and challenges. The game is a bit harder than the first one in terms of combat and enemy numbers, and I died several times per level, but the option of quicksaving makes it less of a hassle now. After you've beaten this game, you'll want to go back and see how the other side (light/dark side of the force) plays out. Moreover, the game lends itself to alternative routes or replaying levels with other weapons, adding to the replay value.

In all, this game is just (I know I've used the word a lot above) a lot of fun. If you love FPS games or action-adventures, or if you love Star Wars, you will absolutely love this game for its levels and gameplay, and will probably be able to put up with the worse than mediocre story. If you are just looking for a quick game to try out and sink a couple of hours in, I'm sure this game might be the thing for you.

While I have been a Star Wars fan for over fifteen years, I have only picked this series up recently. As a kid I played Jedi Outcast, so now I wanted to play the entire story of Kyle Katarn, since I picked up a Star Wars bundle in the Steam sales.

Graphically, the game is what you would expect from 1995: DOOM-style 2D which is stylized to amazingly look like 3D. I actually think this style of early 3D has aged much better than the early days of polygonal sprites, but hey, it's all opinion. There is a certain charm to this style, and the enemy animations are not bad. The MIDI sound files contribute to a nice and coherent, stay-in-with-hot-coco-while-it's-snowing-outside, feel, which is the feeling many good old games give me.

The story is okay, better than fan fiction but definitely worse than most of the expanded universe, but then again this was only the first game in the series. It's a very basic FPS story, especially for its time: Badass guy goes on mission, uncovers big and sinister plot, spends rest of game trying to uncover and sabotage said plot. A great variety of worlds and weapons make sure the game feels fresh in each new level. Some levels are quite short and straightforward, while others are large and elaborate, and feature difficult puzzles that will have most players scrawling to the webz for a strategy guide or video walkthrough. The game could have done a bit more hand-holding at times, while other puzzles are almost insultingly easy. I am not one for puzzles, though, so that may be my personal issue with the game.

The game holds its own in controls even today. One thing players nowadays will really have to get used to is the lack of vertical aiming with the mouse; looking up and down has to be done by buttons. That said, the game plays a lot like doom, so most enemies will be at your level and there is rarely ever any true need to look up or down. The guns all feel very different and have varying efficiency. Sadly, this also means you will mainly use two or three good weapons throughout the game, largely ignoring the rest.

In all, this is still a very enjoyable game. Fans of old school games, fans of FPS games, fans of action-adventure games, and of course Star Wars fans will really be able to enjoy this game. For the rest of you: approach with caution, but you might just find it to be a lot of fun!

Although Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a fairly enjoyable game, with a mediocre storyline and acceptable gameplay, the PC version contains many fatal technical flaws that sometimes even make it unplayable. Try this game on another platform if you really want to play it, just for fun and not for the story or great gameplay...

GAMEPLAY: Basic hack-and-slash action game, very little tactics. The skills you acquire throughout the game are handy in later levels, but offer very little variety and leveling, this game can therefore hardly be called an RPG. Enemies are often copy-pasted from earlier-chapter variations and offer little in terms of tactical variety. The bosses are sometimes tough, but more often than not easy. The most unfortunate thing was the last boss in the game, who was extremely easy to beat. The stores and interfaces are clunky, and often do not work as you would want them to, even crashing or having to re-open sometimes.

STORY: From a video game/fantasy perspective, the story is average. From a Tolkien-reader perspective, the story is horrible. Orcs and humans who use dark magic, goblins who blow themselves up with bombs, an entire never-heard-of timeline? J.R.R. Tolkien would turn in his grave if he had ever seen this game, and I can imagine heir Christopher isn't too happy with this either. A typical example of licensing gone wrong. Had this been a generic fantasy game in another setting, I would have judged the story as average but fun, but since this is misuse of the "Lord of the Rings" name, I have to be angry with it.

BUGS AND FLAWS: I played through this game via online multiplayer with my younger brother (we live in different cities). He has a medium gaming PC that plays most of the newest games at good settings, yet during a few levels, notably chapters 2 and 8, he experienced severe lag. At first we thought it was our online connection, but it turned out this is a well-known flaw that many players experience during this game, especially with ATI/AMD graphics cards. Secondly, if you join the game of a player that is farther ahead than you, you cannot save or gain achievements. One time, my brothers game crashed at an inopportune moment (chapter 2, right during the cutscene before the boss), while mine saved when the boss battle started. I quit, but alas, we had to retry everything. When he tried to get to the same point in a solo game, it turned out his save was corrupted and the game wouldn't load the boss into his arena. Therefore, we started the ENTIRE game again from the beginning. This time, when we got to the final boss battle in chapter 8, the boss wouldn't load into the arena. After the second time rebooting the game and reloading this save, he finally loaded and we could finish the game. By this time, my heart was already pounding, fearing we would have played through the entire game and not be able to finish the last battle.

In all, if you don't care about the most beautiful of worlds that J.R.R. Tolkien has created, if you don't care about variety in gameplay, and if you don't care about repetitiveness and some easy bosses, you can play this game for a bit of fun. But please, PLEASE play it on another platform. Unless you also don't care about major crashes, corrupted saves and restarting from scratch halfway through a game, of course... ;)

After a couple of hours I can say this:

PROS:
- nice shooting action
- great physics
- fun gameplay
- haunting enemies
- amazing fun in multiplayer

CONS
- unclear and not-fleshed-out story
- less fun in singleplayer
- character choice doesn't really make a difference

In all, if you want some good old Valve multiplayer fun, buy this game. If you are looking for a solo shooter with a fleshed out story, keep searching.

Borderlands 2 is a blast, and an absolute must-play for anyone who likes shooters, dungeon crawlers, humour, and/or epic stories!

Graphically, the game holds up better than most of its contemporaries. Why? Cel-shaded art style, that's why! Just like the first game, this game uses cel-shading to give everything an almost cartoony look, which really helps the game in having its own distinct look and feel. I have little to no criticism on the graphical prowess of this game, although I have to note I particularly dislikle it when games give you 'new' enemies which are really old enemies with a new paintjob. Sound-wise, the game is actually kind of the same: beautiful, with a cartoony edge. The voice acting is wonderfully close to that of an animated series, and all important characters have great lines and great actors. A lot of other NPCs share voices and lines, which is a shame, but you'll be spending most of your gameplay far away from them anyway. The guns sound brilliant, and each type of gun or barrel has its own distinct sound, which contributes to the distinct feeling they all have. The music is epic and apt for the levels, although I have had some instances where battle music would not end after a battle, or start too soon, when there were no enemies yet in sight.

Gameplay-wise, Borderlands 2 is amazing. It plays just like the first game, which means guns blazing, run-and-gun action, extremely responsive controls, great aiming, and special skills and powers that are fun to play with. There is really nothing wrong with the controls (although the car controls are a little clunky), the combat mechanics, or the game mechanics. The randomization of loot will have you opening all the chests in the hope of finding an even better gun than the one you already have, and the feeling you get when striking gold every once in a while is oh so satisfying. The sheer amount of customization will also keep you at the game, going through your inventory, switching up your weapon type, grenade type, and even your looks once in a while. In all, you just feel immensely powerful when wielding guns in Borderlands 2, even when if an end-level baddy is stomping you into the ground time and again with infinite ease. What makes all of the gameplay even better is co-op. I have had no problems whatsoever with saving/loading/drop-in/drop-out, and this is one of the very few games that plays out amazingly both in single-player and in co-op. It's just a load of fun to share this adventure, exploration, and combat with a friend! If you have never played co-op, this is the place to start! If you're looking for a new co-op game, look no further!

When it comes to the story and world, the game is splendid. The world is much larger and more diverse than that of the first Borderlands, and this, I believe, is the main novelty this second game brings with it. The story is in principle very basic: bad guy wants to destroy stuff using bad weapon, and you need to stop him. The motivations and backstory of big baddy Jack, however, will have you wondering all game long, which is a good thing in this case. The four main characters you get to choose from in this game (two more if you've got the DLC) are new ones, not the main good guys from the previous game although you will encounter all of the heroes from the first game along the way in this story. For players who love a good story, though, there are many side quests that flesh out the world and provide you with more intricacies regarding the main plot, and the writing in most of these is superb, while in some of them it is simply okay.

The story actually varies a little depending on which character you play, which, combined with the diversity of their skills, the difference in weapon types, and the sheer amount of quests in the game, give Borderlands 2 and extremely high replay value. I am already looking forward to my second playthrough, and hope I can do several more afterwards. This replay value is further enhanced by the extra content that the DLC adds, and oh man, is there a lot! I have played two of the DLC packs so far, and they were both a load of fun, although the writing is a bit less great than in the main game.

In all, Borderlands 2 is just great fun, whether you are used to this type of game or not. I think every gamer will find pleasure in the streamlined gameplay that it provides, and laugh at the funny yet amazing story. The game captured my dreams for a while, and will be a favourite of mine forever!

Yes, the game is short. Yes, it will become boring after a couple of hours. Yes, it's actually only fun in multiplayer. What does this mean? It means you get great value for your money. I mean, a couple of hours of multiplayer fun for €1,99? (Even cheaper now that it's on sale...) That is great value right there. Yes, it has its flaws, yes, the English is garbled, and yes, there is little variation after you have played all of the game modes ten times. Nevertheless, this is short but sweet fun for only two bucks. Who can complain?