Which Borderlands is your favorite and why?

[Deleted member 17402]

I haven't played 3 yet but 1 is on sale and I'm in the mood to replay it - it's been years and I'm unsure whether it still holds up. I do remember enjoying it quite a bit. I love 2 and I've played that multiple times. I'm curious how I'll feel about 3 once I try that one out.

 

[Proven]

1 by far. The writing got progressively worse as the series went on and the characters never got better then the ones in the first.

 

[Cocolina]

3 is the best one. The improvements to shooting and movement, like climbing and sliding, put it above the others.

 

[Hella]

This probably isn't the answer you're looking for, but: Tales From the Borderlands. The Telltale adventure game.

I never thought I'd care about the story, characters, or world of Borderlands, but that game did it. It's what actually got me to try the shlooters. It's also one of the most genuinely funny games out there, which is a triumph in itself.

 

[Starlatine]

1st one. I like the barely present plot and how weapons feel, sequels proved that adding more writing and characterization to borderlands wasnt exactly a good thing. I like revolvers. Revolvers are great in BL1. Thats basically it.

 

[Adder7806]

Playing 3 right now and really enjoying it. Loved 2. Handsome Jack is such a great villain.

 

[Deleted member 7148]

3 > 1 > 2 > Pre-sequel

I know most people like the second one the most, but it's the only one I couldn't finish. I thought a lot of the areas were really bland and not very fun to play through. Plus, the fact that you don't automatically pick up ammo makes opening loot/ammo boxes super tedious. I could tolerate it in the original, but not in the sequels. Thankfully BL3 fixed this.

 

[castaction]

Borderlands 3 i like to slide,slam, im gettinh legendary faster, the new abilities are cool

 

[ClivePwned]

I've enjoyed them all but have to say BL3 is my favourite.

I replayed BL1 and BL2 last year and liked them both agai, but BL2 just became such a slogfest towards the end I gave up trying to finish it. same with Pre Sequel, which i liked but some weird checkpoint issues when I was facing the final boss just kicked me back so far it wasn't worth trying to finish. I've only replayed a bit of that when it his PS+.

BL3 has a few small issues (small glitches where scripting doesn't work and I just need to reload) but nothing major that's prevented me from enjoying it.

 

[Marvie]

1 by far. Havent played enough of 3 yet. 2 was fun but the writing was fucking awful. Plus there was a fuckload of backtracking that just gets tiring. Pre-sequel was meh all around.

 

[Deleted member 21003]

First one. The writing after the first game makes me want to die.

 

[KOfLegend]

I legitimately consider Tales from the Borderlands one of the best games of all time. It's absolutely stellar and criminally underrated.

 

[maouvin]

Gameplay wise, 3 no doubt. The improvements on gunplay and QoL are significant and they got gear scaling on a nice spot.
But on the writing for the main story (and considering only the shooters), it's BL2. BL3 has some great sidequests and echo recordings, but could do better on the main plot and how some characters from previous games were presented.

 

[KeRaSh]

1 by far. Loved the NPCs and their stories. The Zombie DLC was one of the best DLCs I've ever played.

 

[Oeufcoque]

Tales from the Borderlands, without a doubt. The pacing and writing are fantastic and is the reason I haven't even touched BL3.

 

[Acorn]

I think after the dlc is all out BL3 will be my favourite. As it stands 2 is my favourite because of things like dragon keep.

 

[Excuse me]

I'm gonna go with the first one as well. Missions and weapons were fun and the game actually was challenging. I even played all the DLCs through given that this was the point where I started to get exhausted of Borderland... But the Zombie Island dlc was still lot of fun.

Second and third games are not bad games but they are just more of the same. And the skill trees are fairly boring.

 

[Kaswa101]

I legitimately consider Tales from the Borderlands one of the best games of all time. It's absolutely stellar and criminally underrated.

Click to shrink...

This.

But if we're talking about pure BL games, then probably 3. The gameplay was fantastic, and it was great bring back in that world after so long. Great level design too.

 

[jml]

This is tough for me to answer because the best Borderlands for me would be if they added a pure gameplay mode to Borderlands 3 where they remove all of the story stuff and I can just run around shooting things. Get the weird FMVs out of my face, make it so I don't have to listen to Tyreen ever again, let me skip every cutscene, etc. I've done pretty much everything there is to do with my first character and I want to start a playthrough with another class but the thought of doing all of the story stuff again makes me never want to play it again.

 

[Slayven]

The Presequel, My favorite group of hunters and the moon bounce added so much to the gameplay.

 

[BakedTanooki]

I haven't even finished 3 yet, but it's already the best to me. Can't go back to the old gameplay, gunplay, movement, feel, physics etc. after experiencing the improvements in Borderlands 3.

 

[hydruxo]

BL2 is my favorite in everything but gameplay. BL3 takes the cake when it comes to that. BL3 could potentially dethrone 2 after all the DLC is out though, just depends what they add. Tiny Tina DLC will be hard to top.

So I'd probably go BL2 > BL3 > BL >>>>>>>>>>>> TPS

 

[Moist_Owlet]

1 because the writing wasnt fuck awful yet

 

[Mazzo]

I think Pre-Sequel, because you can double jump and the story is a bit less annoying.

 

[Deleted member 31817]

3 is easily the best

2 is the best if we take into account the 7 year difference and when it was released if that makes any sense

Like 3 is the better game but 2 was better for its time.

Story: 2>>>>3>1>>>>TPS

Gameplay: 3>>>> TPS> 2> 1

 

[Pancho]

3rd one. Its gonna be hard to go back to the other ones when the 3rd one feels so great to play

 

[zashga]

Borderlands 1 is the only one I ever actually finished. Borderlands 2 became such a slog that I never beat it or came back for any DLC or subsequent games. It was a combination of repetition, insufferable writing, and a sense that I'd seen all the interesting things the loot system was capable of generating (which is to say, lots of elemental variants and not much else).

Haven't played BL3, and don't know if I ever will.

 

[Dougieflesh]

2 > 3 > TPS > 1

 

[Kasai]

Its tied right now between Tales and 3.

Tales is quite possibly my favorite game of all time, due to the writing and the delivery of the lines. The characters arent just 2D quip-spitters.

I wish Fiona and Sasha were in 3, and Troy Rhys was too.

But that aside, 3 just has the best shooting and vehicles. I love the monowheel so damn much, and sliding and jumping never gets old for me.

 

[Continental 0p]

3's the best from a gameplay perspective with lots of qol improvements. It also started out as the most balanced game, and they're actually patching this one to improve that even further. Mayhem mode and allowing for endgame before TVHM are fantastic additions, and they've already discussed improving the modifiers on Mayhem 3. My only gameplay-related problem with 3 is that almost everything is only a world drop with very few assigned drops, and once again, they plan to work something out with patches.

 

[Kernspalt-Kartoffel]

2 is by far the best Borderlands game. I like the gunplay in 3 better but the story and the characters are a big disappointment.

 

[Phil's Empty Chair]

1 and Tales. Havent played 3 yet tho.

 

[DevilMayGuy]

3 fucking rules. The writing sucks so bad that I turned dialogue volume down to 25%, but the game is easily the most fun of the 3 with the best loot. Now if they'd just stop with the weekly "we completely fucked your build" hotfixes we'd be in the money

 

[Lukemia SL]

3, 2, Tales from, getting rejected by a woman, getting punched in the face, forgetting my card at home when I need to pay, some other horrible things and then The Pre Sequel. Never played 1 and don't intend to.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

I really like BL3 from a gameplay and "fun" perspective so it wins out on that front for me mostly but for atmosphere, story and the feeling of adventure I have to go with BL2. I know Pandora is a crazy hellhole but somehow BL2 managed to make it feel like a cozy, fun to explore home and I enjoyed every minute on it. The more varied environments in BL3 are great but the more I played the more I wished I would be back on Pandora.

 

[cb1115]

haven't finished 3 yet but it definitely plays the best and has the best weapon selection. prefer the writing and setting of 1 though. can't say I look back on 2 all that fondly.

 

[Adree]

Tales has the best story but 1 has the best guns since you can get smgs that fire 4x bullets per shot with fast regenerating ammo. Also the end of General Knoxx is fantastic.

 

[Masterspeed]

2 had the best length, locations and DLC. I'm hoping 3s DLC is good.

Also, I have nostalgia for being up at 3am in 4 player coop on True Vault hunter mode.

 

[Deleted member 46948]

Borderlands 1, because it was a breath of fresh air. Sadly, every that followed was a weak rehash and failed to capture me the way Borderlands 1 did.

 

[MetalGearZed]

Gameplay is the most important thing to me in these games so BL3 is my favorite. Writing is of course ass except for a few brief moments but at least I don't have the urge to play the old games instead

 

[Falchion]

I haven't finished Borderlands 3 yet so I won't rank that but Borderlands 2 was my game of the generation when it came out.

 

[RockmanBN]

3 for gameplay and 2 for story and Handsome Jack.

Ava sucks

 

[Normal]

2. Never played 1,and haven't tried 3 out yet. Wasn't a fan of the game with the oxygen meter and floaty jumps.

 

[KDR_11k]

Pre Sequel, the writing seemed better than the others and the classes are way more interesting to play.

 

[YourFriendLevi]

Borderlands 1 started it all but was relatively tame in comparison both characterization wise and gameplay wise. Truly don't understand how it can be anyone's fave of the bunch.

Borderlands 2 has the best villain and was a huge step up in scale, gameplay, and presentation.

Pre-Sequel, I honestly believe has the best NPC writing. I played through it with my friends and had so many moments where we just couldn't stop laughing, which was unexpected from a spin-off.

Borderlands 3 has the best gameplay by a wide margin and while the main story itself kind of suffers from several issues that I think have always been present, the writing overall is still a lot of fun in most places.

If I had to pick a favorite, I would say Borderlands 3 just because it actually does present you with activities in the game to grind for rather than New Game Plus. It's biggest crime in my opinion is that it locks so many slots and features behind story progression and the main quest can take a while if you're not tunnel visioned. Ran into a couple of spots where I was getting item drops for gear slots that I hadn't acquired yet through story missions.

 

[Deleted member 9486]

I never played 1, have played the rest.

2 is my overall favorite. The writing, humor etc. is just the strongest of the three I've played (discounting Tales from as that's a different type of game) and that's the second biggest draw to the franchise for me--the first being chaotic co-op fun with friends that doesn't require the skill or coordination of things like Destiny raids etc.

3 is very close though. It looks (of course being newer gen) much better, plays better, and has the better end game. The plot and writing just isn't as good to me which holds it back. Being able to fast travel from anywhere is a huge improvement as well given how many quests send you a long ways away from a fast travel point/objective giver that you need to get back to to turn in the quest.

Pre-sequel was just fine. Enjoyed blowing through the campaign, didn't like the O2 stuff, just felt a bit janky and less smooth than than 2 or 3, the maps were designed a lot worse with more confusing main paths, tons of tedious back tracking to turn in missions/get to fast travel points etc.

 

[Deleted member 9479]

There were parts of 2 I enjoyed more than 1 (Dragon Keep) but 1 might have been a better game overall; hard to say as it's been so long since I played 1. Still haven't played 3 yet, a little miffed the PC Halloween sale only covered the deluxe editions.

 

[Cripterion]

Borderlands 2 is still my favorite. Far more varied setting despite being all set up on Pandora.

 

[benbeau]

Tales from the Borderlands easily. A Borderlands game that that relies entirely on its writing sounds like a recipe for disaster, but Telltale managed to knock it out of the park. It's such a criminally underrated game.

 

[Torpedo Vegas]

3 Plays the best and over all I liked it the most, but 2 had by far the best classes. I liked Zero and the Mecromancer the most.