Sunday, March 31All That Matters

In my opinion, Borderlands 1 is the best in the series and everything that came after was too meta for its own good.

by TheUndeadGunslinger


In my opinion, Borderlands 1 is the best in the series and everything that came after was too meta for its own good.



View Reddit by TheUndeadGunslinger – View Source

49 Comments

  • da_muffin_man_12

    Nah, the second one was the best. The first one jogged so the second one could sprint. Everything after that was a mediocre shit show.

    Reply
  • DankSpanking

    Borderlands 1 definitely laid the ground work but 2 I think the majority of fans will agree on as the best. It improved on everything imo

    Reply
  • ballsballsohballs

    I’ve been trying to put my finger on it and I think you nailed it. Too meta for its own good is exactly how I would describe it. The first game just hit so many sweet spots for me, not to mention how satisfying the revolvers are

    Reply
  • The_Re3v3r3ND

    2 ruined 1.
    There are too many improvements across the board to honestly suggest 1 was a better game. 2 topped it on every aspect.

    Reply
  • SkrallTheRoamer

    BL1 has the best atmosphere imo, but the gameplay got improved with every game. what got worse was the humor tho. bl1 was dry and fitting, references to pop culture were not in your face as in the other ones. now its outdated memes, childish humor and obnoxious jokes.

    Reply
  • dotNomedia

    I like the guns in the first one more. I feel like the first one had much wider variety of gun stats within any given class.

    The second game made all the gun classess much less random. Some guns have some kewl scripted effects, but things like firerate, magazine sizes, etc. seem to be nearly the same from one gun to another (whit some minor scaling with the level).

    I also absolutely dig the more grounded atmosphere.

    Reply
  • AttyFireWood

    I just bought the Pre-sequel a couple days ago because it was so cheap on steam, so I figured Id go for some nostalgia since I really liked 1 and 2. The first couple hours are kinda bad – the low level guns are terrible, and it feels like a never ending tutorial (here’s ANOTHER game play mechanic we need to pause the game so you can read a message, and then we’ll give you a fetch quest to explain it). It definitely feels dated it quite a few aspects, and most of the side quests are “go here, grab this item, and come back” which feels super repetitive when having to backtrack so much, and not being able to fast travel to every area. Not being able to ledge grab is super annoying after playing the modern Doom games. The controls felt so unintuitive I actually switched to a controller (weird for a PC shooter…). When it clicks, it’s a blast to play.

    Reply
  • Bigcheese0451

    Based take. I loved the first game and it’s a top 10 for me. Replayed it like 6 or 7 times with the different characters and the new playthroughs for them. Still the best gunplay and ttk for the enemies and the atmosphere hasn’t been topped in the sequels. I can’t stand the series nowadays, tho. Too much cringe dialogue across-the-board.

    Reply
  • hidden_secret

    I have the same opinion.

    Though the ending to the first one was anticlimactic as fuck, everything was there already, the graphics, the gameplay, etc…

    So when the second one came, to me it wasn’t *that* special, and I actually didn’t like the atmosphere and characters as much.

    Reply
  • UglyKidEnzoo

    I absolutely hated 1 after coming from 2, its slow and clunky and while I dont care about graphics, something about 1st looked so bad it turned me off entirely

    Reply
  • Extension-Ad-1581

    My partner and I played BL1 together but by the time we got to the last boss we were able to kill it in like 6 seconds.

    Not really what I’d call good game design.

    BL2 was challenging and funny throughout. Much, much better IMO.

    Reply
  • MOON13VAN

    No one ever really agrees with me on that, but Borderlands 1 is 100% the best in the series. Maybe it’s nostalgia, but still

    Reply
  • ithinkitsnotworking

    Played through both BL1 and BL2 don’t know how many times. Pre Sequel was ‘Meh” and I couldn’t get through BL3 even once with those annoying characters.

    Reply
  • CareerCoachKyle

    The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned was peak Borderlands. Just the right amount of humor, some QoL improvements with the pacing, and fun gameplay mechanics.

    Reply
  • KingDisastrous

    Enemies dropping their weapons they used against you as loot was a cool detail. Too bad they don’t do that anymore.

    Reply
  • Axle_65

    I might agree with you if it had the QOL upgrades. It’s a fun game for sure and I’ve logged a looooot of hours into it but all the little things missing make a tough one to go back to. Did they add QOL stuff to any of the remastered versions?

    Reply
  • MrHYG

    BL1 is my favorite game in the series, the atmosphere and tone are perfect imo. Hybrids are also fun to farm for, really wished they were in the later games

    Reply
  • xTBx_12

    Having played the franchise for thousands of hours each (excluding TPS) so I’ve a fair opinion. BL1 is amazing, but Bl2 just did everything better, not to say 1 was bad just 2 was and is still the best in the series and the majority will agree

    Reply
  • Kapuman

    I’m glad to see someone hold my same hot take opinion. Everyone holds up BL2 as the pinnacle of the series, but I found it to be a slog that was a step back in a lot of ways (writing, level design, “bullet-sponge” difficulty, filler content).

    Reply
  • DrParallax

    I loved how powerful the revolvers felt in BL1, to the point that I didn’t really use any other weapons, except as backups. I have never really felt the same about any of their weapons in later games.

    I agree, the games more and more had story stuff get in the way of just running through and fighting guys. Some story is great, but it hurts replayability if there is too much monologue to hear or dialogue/cut scenes to wait for.

    Reply
  • SaintBlubberBeard

    2 had a lot of good gameplay improvements, but it felt like an obnoxious house guest who doesn’t know when it’s time to leave. Just nonstop jokes out of every little thing, to the point that so little of what’s happening actually feels important because everyone just has another one liner about it. I finished the main game and most of the DLCs, but ultimately just got to the point where I’d had my fill.

    1 absolutely had better atmosphere and a much better balance on the jokes. The soundtrack in 1 is also so refreshing after 2’s overbearing tracks. I enjoy both, but the sequel only needed to dial up the humor by 2 or 3 notches. It dialed it up by 10 and it grates. Anthony Burch really is way too into memes and it winds up just making me wish the characters would shut up for 10 minutes.

    Reply
  • aFlyingTaco420

    Everything after BL1 is the game studio just shouting “LOOK AT US, WE ARE HIP, WE NOW WHATS UP, WE ARE THE BEES KNEES”

    Reply
  • SplendidPunkinButter

    This series has fantastic gameplay and unbelievably annoying writing. Seriously, the writing is so juvenile and awful. Its awfulness is paralleled only by how fun these games are to play.

    Reply
  • dharkan

    Finally someone called borderlands too meta. I get soo much shit when I say that. It doesn’t mean I don’t like the serie, it’s just it gets really stale sometimes.

    Reply
  • ecktt

    I don’t hate the other borderlands games, but I do love the first one. I really don’t understand the hate it gets. BL1 got me back into gaming after a 7 year lull.

    Reply
  • blacksd

    Never liked this franchise. From the start it felt so forced – the main plot was pretty dumb “nobody found this in years, it’s more of a legend”, then “oh, here it is”.
    Finished the first, never attempted another.

    Reply
  • Retrbunny

    That’s so true, B1 was the best in the series to show how cruel and harsh was pandora, and coupled with the best humor quotes from different characters, not like the dumb jokes from the next iterations, a truly masterpiece of its time.

    Reply
  • RuggedTheDragon

    Borderlands was a great game, but I have to disagree. Borderlands 2 was the best in the series considering it had a great story and the best villain we’ve ever seen.

    Reply
  • bobface222

    I tend to agree.

    BL2 has a lot of improvements but the writing combined with the introduction of slag ruin it for me.

    Reply
  • AlphaDag13

    I remember when this game came out. I got it from gamefly at 10am on a Saturday. I played it until 3am Sunday morning. I slept until 10am and got up and played it until 1am Monday morning. I then called in sick that morning and played it until 3pm. It was to this day my best moment in gaming.

    Reply
  • jongscx

    BL1 was very, very good, but BL2 felt like the game they really wanted to make but were ‘limited by the technology of their time.’

    Then BL3 was their Just Cause 4.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Like Us
Follow Us
Subscribe Us
Follow Us