Borderlands 2 VR Review

By Steven Petite

At face value, Borderlands 2 doesn’t sound like the kind of game that would translate to VR with success – but it only took a few hours with Borderlands 2 VR to prove my preconceived notions wrong. While it’s clearly not a ground-up, made-for-VR version of the shoot-and-loot bonanza, it’s yet another reminder that large, traditional console/PC games can work reasonably well when retrofitted for virtual reality. Certain concessions, namely the lack of co-op, make Borderlands 2 VR a significantly easier, lonelier, and less replayable game than the original version, but Pandora has never been this close to your fingertips.

After spending 20 hours inside Pandora from a closer vantage point, it’s clear that Borderlands 2 has aged well. Borderlands 2 VR ports over the entire, massive map from the base game (though, notably, it’s strictly only the base game). The illustrative art style, in particular, works in its favor, and it probably doesn’t hurt that Pandora is mostly a sparse wasteland. Unlike some other ambitious PSVR games, the world and characters don’t have that slightly washed-out look. Everything looks about the same as it did in the PS3/Xbox360 original. It didn’t blow me away like Wipeout and Moss did, but it’s perhaps unreasonable to expect a VR port to look and feel as if it was designed with VR in mind.

Unfortunately, glaring reminders that it’s not native to VR literally pop up regularly. Menu systems, from inventory management to vending machines, are rendered in holographic-style 2D panels that float in the air, and these screens frequently suffer from clipping with the environment. When that happens they’re either hard to read or even completely obscured and force you to exit the menu, reposition, and pull the menu back up with a centered and clear field of vision. This is largely a minor annoyance that’s easily remedied, but it happens far too often – and for a game based on managing tons of loot, it’s definitely a bummer. The flat, non-VR screens are also the means for displaying cutscenes – par for the course for several flat-to-VR game ports – but I’m not a fan of the way the change in perspective temporarily lifts you from the immersive experience back to reality.

I had played through Borderlands 2 on two different platforms before this, but the off-the-wall dialogue and comedic flourishes still provoked plenty of hearty chuckles. That said, if you’ve played it before you’re not going to find anything substantially new here. The story arc, missions, and piles upon piles of loot have been ported as-is to PSVR. It’s unfortunate that none of the numerous DLC packs are included here, considering some of Borderlands 2’s best missions hail from its expansions and it would’ve given people who played the base game but not the expansions some “new” adventures to experience first in VR.

Sadly, due to the change in perspective and the lack of co-op, Pandora feels emptier this time around than during my previous two playthroughs. Borderlands 2 VR is single-player only, which feels somewhat like a direct contradiction of what made the franchise so great. Shooting your way through hordes of Skags, Spiderants, and pale humans by yourself just isn’t as much fun as doing it with friends. That’s mostly due to the lack of camaraderie but also because you don’t get to use the diverse class skills to support each other. It felt all the worse when I happened upon reminders that this world was meant to be traveled with friends, such as vehicle spawn points made for two cars.

To make up for the absence of multiplayer, it appears that Gearbox has significantly nerfed enemies. On top of that, a new mechanic dubbed Bad Ass Mega Fun Time, or BAMF for short, slows time to a crawl,can be activated pretty frequently, and makes combat significantly easier. I have to admit it’s really cool to blast an enemy up close with a shotgun and watch the cartoon blood billow into a cloud in slow motion.

But wait, there’s more: Character skill trees for each of the four Vault Hunters have been updated to make them stronger for solo players. Axton’s Steady ability, for example, is twice as powerful with BAMF activated, which let me blow large groups of enemies to bits, and his Able skill let me further the carnage by adding a few more seconds to my next BAMF Time. While I still died here and there in boss fights, if you’re even somewhat accurate, you’re unlikely to struggle much throughout the campaign.

Gearbox may have gone too far in terms of lessening the difficulty, but it’s better than the alternative of being completely overwhelmed. After you beat the campaign the first time you can replay it in True Vault Hunter Mode, which does ramp up the difficulty, but it’s absurd that we don’t have the option to turn it up at will. And since you can’t play with friends, it’s hard to imagine many will want to go through the 20-hour story more than once.

Fortunately Gearbox has included multiple, customizable control schemes, which is good because playing with a standard PS4 DualShock 4 controller, as was originally intended, is far better than fumbling around with the Move controllers. However, doing so robs you of the ability to interact with the environment and aim your weapons as you would in reality, virtual or otherwise.

With the DualShock 4, you can play it like a typical FPS by tinkering with the controls – and you really should tinker, because the default controls basically make you crawl at frustratingly slow speeds. The only difference here is that you aim with PSVR’s head tracking instead of naturally by pointing your arms. It only took me about an hour to get the aiming down, and now I think I’m just about as good at aiming with my head as I am with a joystick.

Both options can be further customized for comfort and your own preferred play style, allowing you to set movement to either teleport, teleport and walk, or walk and jump depending on how steady your VR legs are. Teleport and walk with the DualShock 4 became my preferred method, and I mainly used free movement. Jumping made me queasy, though I was surprised to find how playable Borderlands 2 VR is without jumping at all. To mitigate VR motion sickness you can use snap turns — both instant and smooth — set to various degrees and change movement speed. I was able to play for hours at a time with movement speed set to “Fast” and turn mode set to “Gradual” (standard right joystick camera controls).

Move motion controls, on the other hand, turn Borderlands 2 VR into more of a chore than a game. Here’s the thing: Frankly, the Move controllers suck in general. They feel cheap, the layout is poor, the buttons are tiny, and they don’t have joysticks because they were never designed for VR in the first place, much less a traditional first-person shooter. Movement is controlled by pointing with the left Move controller and holding down the Move button, while the right Move aims your weapon. Problems arise with turning, as you have to use the face buttons. It’s cumbersome and annoying to manage in a fast-paced first-person shooter, even an easy one with slow-motion powers. I played with the Move controllers for a few hours and, while I still found success, it wasn’t nearly as fun. Even if you get the hang of the motion controls for combat, sorting through your inventory is a constant pain.

It’s disappointing that we can’t have the best of both worlds, namely the AIM controller, which enables other first-person shooters on the PSVR to both aim by pointing and move using a stick. Sadly, Borderlands 2 VR doesn’t support it.