I tend to find FPS games a bit too realistic and serious for my tastes, which is why I’ve always been drawn to the Borderlands games. From the comic book artstyle to the sense of humor (I appreciate Claptrap even if Conan O’Brien doesn’t), it just feels like my natural home.
Another thing I particularly enjoy is how distinct the Vault Hunters are from each other. Not only aesthetically and personality-wise, but how they play.
Really, this is nothing more than the series’ take on the class system, but it means that there’s scope to make a build around different types of weapons, elemental damage, action skills, close-quarters to long-ranged damage, or whatever you’d like to do. From the dual-wielding Salvador the Gunzerker to the minion-wielding FL4K the Beastmaster, the series’ playable characters are so distinct that playthroughs can all feel totally different.
The most rewarding thing, though, is finding a Vault Hunter who clicks with the way you like to play and leaning into their unique strengths. Personally, I’ve never found a character, in any game, who fitted me as well as the Baroness herself, Lady Aurelia Hammerlock.
I’m not sure what it is about ice-based characters and weapons in games, but I have a real affinity for them. I’d absolutely be an Ice-type Gym Leader in the Pokemon world, even though Game Freak has lumbered the typing with the most appalling slew of weaknesses and I’d probably actually win a match about once every eight years.
That isn’t far from my actual win record from the time I attempted a competitive monotype Ice team, but that’s not what we’re here to discuss.
When I learned that Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel would add Cryo elemental damage, I immediately knew I’d be all over it. I then discovered that DLC character the Baroness, who was designed to make use of it, would also revolve around sniping. I was double-thrilled.
Generally, I’m not really a sniper rifle user in shooters, but it felt completely natural in the Borderlands series when I picked up Mordecai in the original game. For the Pre-Sequel, a couple of factors made the Baroness feel even better and more satisfying to play than the Hunter or the Assassin, Zer0.
The first of these is, and I can’t stress this enough, space helmets. The game is set on Pandora’s moon, and this means that, when human enemies are fought outside, you and they need to breathe. The helmets everyone dons means that their heads are far larger than they would otherwise be.
By head, I mean their critical hit headshot hitbox. And by critical hit headshot hitbox, I mean absolute field day when you’re holding a sniper rifle.
“Allow Me To Break The Ice” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
Secondly, as we’ll discuss in just a moment, Aurelia (my beloved) likes to be holding a Cryo weapon a lot of the time. The Cryo element slows a foe and has a chance to freeze them solid temporarily. When the latter happens, of course, they’re an immobile target. Combine both of these things, and you have a critical hit party that only Aurelia is invited to. This is just fine, though, because she and I don’t need anybody else.
Having said that, though, I’ve always seen Borderlands as a series best played in co-op (there are some great Vault Hunter combos to experiment with in Borderlands 4). I take a healing or supportive role in games wherever I can, and the Baroness also has a unique mechanic that plays into this.
Aurelia is able to establish a Contract with the other player, which they can sign by melee attacking her while she’s holding it out. The other is then Aurelia’s servant until she or they have to respawn, and proceeding down the Contractual Aristocracy skill tree offers all sorts of bonuses associated with either Aurelia or her servant damaging or killing enemies.
Aurelia’s other two skill trees focus on sniper rifle effectiveness and Cryo weapons, with bonuses from increasing the chance to freeze to HP regeneration on scoring a crit on offer.
Players have mixed feelings about the Pre-Sequel, of course, being something of a series anomaly. Still, it certainly gave us a creative crop of Vault Hunters. A melee build with Athena, the Gladiator, is also a lot of fun, as are all the series’ playable characters in their own ways.
Next year, the Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned DLC for Borderlands 4 will bring us C4SH, the casino-bot, whose whole theme is relying on good luck to get the best from his abilities. I don’t like leaning into RNG very much, but I’ll certainly give C4SH a whirl, as I have everybody from Krieg to Moze over the years.
The obnoxious, aristocratic Aurelia was a Vault Hunter who seemed tailor-made for me, though, and I miss her. It was nice to see her return in Borderlands 3 (though as a villain), even if I did have to, regretfully, kill her.
- Released
-
October 14, 2014
- ESRB
-
m
- Engine
-
Unreal Engine 3
