There are few games more engrossing than Borderlands 2. The world is vibrant and rich, the gameplay is near-perfect, and the main campaign offers dozens of hours of entertainment for any gamer.
So then what makes it so good? Why does it resonate with so many players? Is it just a really cool game?
No. Borderlands 2 is a shining example of a video game that has meaning behind its seeming simplicity. Behind every explosion, every bullet whizzing by your head, there’s an underlying purpose to make you think about what you’re doing in this post-apocalyptic world.
The explanation is done here about borderlands 2 what do you mean theoretically?
Here are some more points discussed about Borderlands 2-
1. Is Borderlands 2 just a fun game?
It is easy to find out why Borderlands 2 turned out the way it did. There is a lot of blood and gore in the game, which might initially repulse some players. But it’s the kind of experience that makes you want to continue playing.
You get to see what kind of bad guys you can kill, and how damaged your character gets during fights. Plus, you get to do all this in a completely silly world that works so well because of its ridiculousness.
Nobody there has any qualms about raging at stupid sentient bullets, or punching around a massive dragon at point-blank range.
This is Troma-level craziness taken to its logical conclusion (or devolved). It is no surprise that the game is so popular.
2. Overthrowing oppressive regimes?
The player character(s) is/are literally seeking to overthrow a despotic regime, albeit without the help of a revolutionary vanguard.
Even as it appears to be as apolitical as possible, Borderlands 2’s plot has an ideological valence that goes well beyond aestheticization or popcorn entertainment.
It is a tale that takes place in the aftermath of an oppressive regime’s collapse, and it uses its own internal logic to evaluate the material conditions that produced this outcome. The game’s implicit question: what comes next?
3. Borderlands 2 & Post-Structuralist Philosophy
We know that in Borderlands 2, you shoot at all sorts of bad guys, but there is an underlying philosophy that makes you think about why you are doing this.
The game’s premise might be silly, but once you begin to dig deeper into the narrative, there is a lot more going on under the surface.
The main character(s) suggests that defeating villain after villain doesn’t necessarily mean change. Instead, the only way to really change the world is to change how it works.
4. The Limits of Narrative Agency
In Borderlands 2, you can shoot your way through a seemingly-infinite number of enemies, but there is no real narrative agency because all you end up doing is creating more enemies for yourself.
So while the game replicates narratives and literary devices that typically offer narrative continuity and closure, players are ultimately left with a sense of disjunction and incompleteness.
In short: it may be fun to play as a lone gunman in-game, but players intuitively know they aren’t really accomplishing anything in the grand scheme of things.
5. Borderlands 2 as Postmodernist Text
Borderlands 2 is a deconstruction of the heroic figure, and its narrative disassembly is ultimately more important than the action on screen.
The game’s main intention: to bring players face to face with themselves by forcing them to confront just how truly meaningless their actions are in a world where everything dies and reforms over time.
You can shoot all the bad guys your heart desires, but you’ll never make any long-term change. The only way to make an impact is to tear down the system itself, which means you won’t necessarily be able to make yourself feel better about your actions by conjuring up a personal narrative justifying them.
6. Borderlands 2 & Post-Postmodernism
Borderlands 2 is a deconstruction of the heroic figure, and its narrative disassembly is ultimately more important than the action on screen.
The game’s main intention: to bring players face to face with themselves by forcing them to confront just how truly meaningless their actions are in a world where everything dies and reforms over time.
You can shoot all the bad guys your heart desires, but you’ll never make any long-term change. The only way to make an impact is to tear down the system itself, which means you won’t necessarily be able to make yourself feel better about your actions by conjuring up a personal narrative justifying them.
7. Borderlands 2 & Post-Realism
At first, it seems like the game is set in a completely fanciful world, but then you realize that this is not the case.
The entirety of Borderlands 2’s narrative is all about an imaginary place and time (post-apocalyptic San Diego), but it all revolves around something real (the player’s agency or lack thereof).
