“Borderlands: Legendary Collection” is the first three games of the muchly loved, first-person, looter shooter franchise developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games, in one quaint little bundle.

Like most fans, I was luck enough to have played the original title quite a bit on the Xbox 360, followed by Borderlands 2, so like most I am not new to the Borderlands series. To sweeten the deal it also has the game that bridges the first two titles; “The Pre-Sequel” and not only that, but all their DLC as well, so let’s get into it shall we.

Plot

Borderlands 1 Kicks off with four heroes/vault hunters travelling by bus on the distant planet, Pandora. They are searching for an Alien Vault along their journey, battling local wildlife and an onslaught of bandits, ensuring some of the most tense and epic gun battles I’ve been in while. You will also meet some colourful side characters including the most annoying, Claptrap, along the way. (Editor Note: Deadset, you are like the only person that thinks he is annoying..)

Each person is their own class essentially; Mordecai – Sniper Class, Roland – Support Class, Lillith – Assassin Class and Brick – Tank Class, my personal favourite. Each comes with their own skill trees to improve as you level up by collecting and earning skill points.

Borderlands 2 continues the story from the original, five years later with four new Vault hunters, well six really, thanks to all the DLC. As you play you are also introduced to one of the best villains in a franchise, Handsome Jack, President of the Hyperion Corporation. Handsome Jack’s plan is to open Pandora’s second Vault and unleash ‘The Warrior’, while it’s up to the six Vault Hunters to stop his evil plan.

This time round the hunters are as follows. Maya, the Siren who can phaselock her enemies in bubbles almost controlling Gunfights. Salvador, the Gunserker who can unleash a firepower of a one man army. Axton, the commando of the group with his own lil turret, another personal favourite. Zer0, the assassin with the power of creating a decoy. Gaige, who has the Mechromancer ability to summon a big robot to fight for her and finally, Krieg, the lunatic who can go in Melee mayhem with a axe gaining 500% melee damage, definitely a skill set I can respect. Each also can be upgraded like the prevous title.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel developed by 2k Australia, sees you follow Handsome Jack as an employee of the Hyperion Corporation on a space station. Enemies attack as he leads a group of four vault hunters made up of NPCs and bosses in the other Borderlands games/DLC.

This one sees the return of Athena; The Gladitor, Wilhelm; The Enforcer, Nisha; The Lawbringer, The still ever annoying Claptrap, Aureli; The Baroness and my badass dude Jack.

Gameplay

The Gameplay is the exact same as you received on the Xbox or Playstation except ported over to Switch button mapping. While I naively thought the Nintendo Switch as a less superior machine, it actually surprised me and handled all the gunfights/crazy boss battles like a champ as I fought my way through each mission. I really was enjoying mowing enemies down for that sweet, sweet loot that Borderlands is well known for, as I levelled my badass tank to take all that damage.

Each game felt new but familiar, this helped with the fact that each game had those cross over connections whether it’s appearing as an NPC or a playable character. Each title in this collection continues with the famous and brilliant humour and dialogue which makes for a rather enjoyable experience for the hours upon hours of content to playthrough. I did find though in the Pre-Sequel, running between oxygen bubble domes was a bit androganous, at the best of times.

Controls

The controls are almost identical to the Xbox, though I did have issues with the A, B, X, Y buttons being different on the Nintendo Switch, resulting in me pushing the wrong button multiple times, but that’s not the game thats just a me thing and my bad Xbox habits. Using the Analog sticks was also a bit finicky for the first 5 minutes until I became accustomed to the feel old and new players will pick it up with ease.

Audio/Visuals

I have long known about the down scaling in graphics on the Switch, but boy, this sure did blow my expectations out of the water. The graphics do take a hit compared to how it looks on other consoles but it still looks pretty darn good, especially with the cel shaded art style used with Borderlands. While playing on the T.V. isn’t all that sharp, playing in handheld mode is frankly, downright amazing, almost as if it was made for portable play. Who doesn’t want a handheld shooter? I preferred playing in handheld mode simply because it looks magnificent and had tighter controls. It’s also worth noting that even the cut-scenes looked like you’d expect on the full console. The Audio is brilliant and compliments the game well whether its in docked or portable mode, with everything sounding like it should. Borderlands background music is always a joy to listen to even as I grind away to my next level up with often an intensity that rivals most games.

Multiplayer

I often found I was losing connection joining/having people in games in the Multiplayer Mode. When I was able too, it was quite simple/quick exploring Pandora with others through the no voice chat on Switch makes it a little difficult to communicate towards objectives and kicking ass.

Conclusion

I’m not a big fan of grindy games, especially hitting higher levels then watching my EXP bar fill slower and slower, it frankly starts to bore me. Borderlands however, did keep me entertained for quite a while with its leveling systems and upscaled looting. Fans of the genre will definitely love it on the Switch. Hell, even new players will get a kick out of it as it is not often a triple AAA, handheld shooter comes along on the Switch. 2K and Gearbox Software have done a tremendous job at porting all these over to a handheld device. Peace.

Written by: Anarchy Risen