this game shows how important a good story and replayability is to keeping players engaged for multiple playthroughs, and to provide a memorable experience that will stick with them 15 years down the road.
the main pillars of this game are the story, the gameplay, and the artstyle. they all culminate into a extremely memorable package that players, me included, will not let go of.
the story is a masterclass in writing an effective villain in a video game setting. handsome jack is notorious, infamous, ridiculous, and a real threat to the characters in this game. this game feels like there are real stakes, i care about these characters, i am still surprised by how much this game sets up and follows through on the important emotional beats of the story. by the end of the game, you both hate handsome jack but also are beginning to understand him, if only for a moment, he's broken in ways that are not fully revealed, but instead of taking on that responsiblity for himself he takes it out on other people, on the world that hurt him. it's a shockingly human story for a world filled with hypergore, over the top characters, psychopaths, monsters, etc.
and the supporting characters also have their nuance, all affected, changed, hurt, or given power by the world of pandora and the good ones are doing their best to come to terms with that, allbeit many with murderous tendancies. if you were playing by the rules of our world, all of these characters would be insane sick monsters that should be locked up in a maximum security prison for the rest of their lives, but on pandora, death and murder are the norm. every character understands this, loathes it, but takes part it in. some out of survival, a greater cause, some out of enjoyment, most are somewhere in between. and this is where it comes back to jack. out of all these insane morally disgusting characters, somehow jack feels even more diabolical, like he is so twisted, so ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up, that he does these things purely for the enjoyment of them, but even he has his reasons, that sometimes he can't even remember himself.
this game really shows to me how important a story can be in a game like this. this is not a movie game, this is not naughty dog or the witcher, its borderlands. its kinda dumb, its funny, its stupid, but this game has more than that, and thats something that cannot be said for the later entries in the series. i owe a majority of this game's success to the story.
the gameplay is really fun, its snappy, there are a variety of enemies that engage you in different ways, its punchy, quick, immediate, and it feels effortless to play. I played a little bit of B3 in the midst of finishing this games story and that game feels weighty and slow in comparison to this. It feels more modern, sure, but i prefer the immediacy of these animations, the sound design, the way the enemies engage with you. its all much more engaging. i end up getting bored very quickly playing b3 and that never happens in this game. i just wanna boot up another character as i'm writing this.
the artstyle is the last thing ill praise, its classic, identifiable, it totally suits this world and these characters, this gameplay, it allows the story to feel like it makes sense, like its some adult comic book that is pushing the boundaries of whats "ok". it reminds of me of Kick Ass, a comic book from this era. But the gore, the insanity of it all never feels out of place because of this comic book artstyle. later entries have lost that edge as the rendering became more detailed, the lighting more realistic. everything got more of a shine and a finish to it, i end up missing that gritty inked style that b1 and b2 so perfectly delivered. I don't think b3 or b4 look bad its just that the first two really feel "drawn." a lot of the shading and lighting is done on textures, the character's details are mostly drawn on, not modeled. it gives it this very distinct feel that i love.
and that is all i think ill say, this game means a lot to me, it captured me as a teen and to be honest i didn't expect to come back and play through the entire main story, most of the dlcs, i didnt expect to love it as much as i did, i thought nostalgia was doing the heavy lifting but in reality it was only contributing maybe 5% to my enjoyment. the reason i kept playing is because this ♥♥♥♥ is a hit man, it was a hit, it still is a hit, it just hits. if its not your thing i get it, but for me it still works, it still tickles my brain in the same way it did when i first played it. andddd i think i play it some more.
