A weekend with Borderlands 2

During the weekend (07/02/14-09/02/14), Steam lets its members try Borderlands 2 (by 2K Games) for free. I found out about it during late Saturday, and after waiting more than 8 hours to download and install the game I finally got a chance to try it out - even if I could only play it for 1-2 hours.

In short, Borderlands 2 can be described as a FPS (= first person shooter) game with RPG-elements (= role playing game). 4 players can play together online in the story campaign.

Borderlands 2 takes place on a planet called Pandora, where a Vault (with alien technology) has been opened and a valuable mineral has been spread all over the planet as a result. The Hyperion Corporation, lead by the antagonist Handsome Jack, tries to find this mineral and "civilise" the savage planet with an iron fist. Many people travel to the planet in order to find the mineral, and they're hence called "Vault Hunters".

The story starts with four Vault Hunters travel on a train which gets destroyed by the Handsome Jack. Left for dead, the protagonists are found by a robot named Claptrap who decides to lead them to the city of Sanctuary. In the city, an anti-Hyperion resistance group is gathering to revolt against the terror of Handsome Jack. The voyage to Sanctuary isn't easy since the route is filled with bandits and mercenaries working for Handsome Jack, and monstrous beasts.

The graphics are cell-shaded, so it feels like watching a cartoon. I don't know how to comment on the humour presented in the game, but the game - due to its violent content (among others) - is definitely not recommended for younger players (compared to Sanctum 2). The ESRB gave it an M-rating.

Similar to a MMORPG (= massive multiplayer online role playing game), the player can't really "die" during the missions. Once defeated, the player gets a chance to recover by defeating an opponent. If the player fails to do so, he/she will respawn at a spawn point spread across the level he/she is in.

Borderlands 2 offers the player a chance to explore Pandora, something which I appreciate a lot. But I'm not into games with M-ratings so I might not buy it for a while.

Here is the "Doomsday" trailer of the game:

A weekend with Sanctum 2

Sanctum 2 box art from Wikipedia

During the weekend (24/01/14-26/01/14), Steam let its users play Sanctum 2 free of charge. 

Sanctum 2 is a science fiction hybrid of tower defense/FPS game by Coffee Stain Studios released in 2013. In the game, four players may ally with each other online in order to stop aliens from destroying the player base's power core.

The four players can choose between four different characters with different abilities. Each player can arm him- or herself with 2 different firearms.

When not fighting aliens, the players must build walls and towers in order to defend the power core long enough before all of the attackers are annihilated.

The plot is narrated through comic book panels which are interesting to follow.

Sanctum 2 is fun to play, but I'm more of an explorer. Instead of guarding an area I would rather visit new environments like Black Mesa (Half-Life), City 17 (Half-Life 2), Nar Shadda (Star Wars: Dark Forces) and many other places.

So would I buy it? Perhaps in the future, but not today.

Here is a trailer showing the gameplay of Sanctum 2: