{"id":41322,"date":"2018-01-11T06:00:12","date_gmt":"2018-01-11T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=41322"},"modified":"2018-01-11T15:31:33","modified_gmt":"2018-01-11T20:31:33","slug":"borderlands-part-24-the-rise-of-handsome-jack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=41322","title":{"rendered":"Borderlands Part 24: The Rise of Handsome Jack"},"content":{"rendered":"

So Lilith, Roland, and Moxxi have conspired to betray Jack and murder him by killing him and everyone else on Helios Station. Moxxi even gloats as she sentences Jack and his vault hunters (and thus the player) to death. Her behavior is exactly how villains are portrayed, and she’s way out of character. Moxxi says, “If you come down from Helios station alive, a lot of innocent people will die.” Again, that’s probably true. But that’s a pretty hardcore approach to justice. “I know you will do evil someday so I must kill you now but I must do so in a way that kills innocent people and also looks kinda cowardly.” This story can’t decide if Moxxi and company are a rogues or paladins.<\/p>\n

Wait, Who Is the Bad Guy Again?<\/h3>\n

Jack, you're a power-hungry psychopath, so I've decided to use the doom laser to murder you and everyone on the station. While laughing. Remember, I'm with the good guys!<\/div>
Jack, you're a power-hungry psychopath, so I've decided to use the doom laser to murder you and everyone on the station. While laughing. Remember, I'm with the good guys!<\/div><\/p>\n

We’re supposed to be witnessing Jack’s turn to evil, and instead the story is retconning Moxxi as self-righteous and craven. It also seems to be trying to retroactively justify Jack’s later behavior by showing he had a reason for his vendetta against Lilith and company. But if you justify his later evil deeds, then aren’t you actually making them less evil<\/em>? This is exactly the opposite of the thing the writer should be doing!<\/p>\n

The writer has twisted the characters in knots to get us here, and after all that messing around they still can’t make anyone’s motivations or actions make sense. And there aren’t even any jokes to make this fun. This doesn’t feel like the playful, winking, lampshading, genre-savvy Borderlands 2. This feels like “Boilerplate AAA videogame” with a quirky art style.<\/p>\n

After the betrayal, the plot settles down into a race for the vault. The player is trying to reach the vault for Jack, and Lilith and Roland are trying to beat him to it. Earlier in the story Lilith and Roland specifically said they were out of the vault-hunting game. They don’t actually want the vault. They just don’t want him to have it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Slog<\/h3>\n

It might feel like we're in the home stretch, but we're hours from the end.<\/div>
It might feel like we're in the home stretch, but we're hours from the end.<\/div><\/p>\n

The Pre-Sequel is the shortest of the main Borderlands titles. I’d be okay with that, particularly if it meant we got a more focused game with less filler. And for most the of Pre-Sequel, we do. But then here at the end we get dumped into an epic slog. It feels roughly equal in length to the final stage of the original Borderlands. I realize it’s slightly unfair to ding Pre-Sequel for this. The original was kind of a slog all the way through, and Pre-Sequel doesn’t become a slog until the end. Technically this should be a point in favor<\/em> of Pre-Sequel, but this time the end-game slog really stands out because the rest of the game is much more tightly paced. <\/p>\n

Part of the problem is that the whole section suffers from a bad case of “Are we there yet?” You enter the crater of Vorago Solitude and you think, “Ah, I need to reach the bottom of the crater and I’ll find the vault.” The game even gives you a big flashy intro for the showdown with the alien guardians in a quasi-boss fight, and follows that up with another boss fightThis second fight is the most obnoxious in the game for having a foe with a gargantuan HP bar, repetitive attack patterns, and endlessly repeating combat taunts. Seriously, screw the fight with the airship. That guy sucks.<\/span>.<\/p>\n

After those boss fights, you must be on the threshold of the vault right? No. Next you have to go down a huge shaft. The place is filled with alien scenery and you’re thinking, “Ah! NOW I’m getting close!” But no again. At the bottom of the shaft are a series of stadium-sized tunnels. The space is so immense it feels like a vehicle section where the designer forgot to include the vehicle.<\/p>\n

After that big push, it really feels like you ought to be getting near the end. But no, it’s yet another area of Tron-style alien catwalks and waves of foes. There’s no story here and very little dialog. It honestly felt like they got to the end of the game, realized it was way too short, and then just kept on adding levels until they thought it was long enough.<\/p>\n

The Vault<\/h3>\n

*POKE*<\/div>
*POKE*<\/div><\/p>\n

After you beat the big boss, Jack enters the vault with you. It’s this strange purple void with freaky alien stuff all around. There’s a floating glyph in here, in the shape of the vault symbol. Jack touches it and he gets a mind-expanding blast of exposition foreshadowing, letting him know about the next vault. (Which is the vault we open in Borderlands 2.)<\/p>\n

In the middle of this fantastic journey, Lilith appears and punches him in the face through the glyph. This knocks him out of the vision and scorches the vault symbol onto his face. <\/p>\n

So this explains why Jack wore that mask in Borderlands 2. Lilith horribly disfigured him.<\/p>\n

I’d cry foul that this cutscene plays out while the player character stands by and does nothing, but that’s not nearly as big a foul as the fact that Lilith walks away without killing Jack. <\/p>\n

Apparently the entire Borderlands 2 war with Handsome Jack was a fight the Borderlands 1 vault hunters started with a craven backstab, followed by another backstab. They pissed him off, but then didn’t kill him. Lilith ran all the way to the vault so she could punch him in the face and then leave? This is both craven and stupid, and neither of those attributes fits her character.<\/p>\n

We learn that Jack’s bloodlust against them in Borderlands 2 was kind of justified. His cruelty towards civilians is of course 100% evil, but his raging vendetta against Roland’s crew is just continuing the fight that Roland and Lilith started. <\/p>\n

Jack is writhing on the ground with his face on fire, and Lilith casually teleports away without finishing the job. (While the player characters stand by and do nothing.)<\/div>
Jack is writhing on the ground with his face on fire, and Lilith casually teleports away without finishing the job. (While the player characters stand by and do nothing.)<\/div><\/p>\n

This makes it look like the Borderlands 1 heroes were kind of dicks for not telling the Borderlands 2 player characters the truth, and instead pretended like Jack was attacking them for no reason. In light of these events, you’d think Roland and Lilith might say something like this in Borderlands 2:<\/p>\n

“I wish we’d killed him when we had the chance.”<\/p>\n

“I kinda regret pissing him off.”<\/p>\n

“I wish we hadn’t worked for him in the first place.”<\/p>\n

You’d think Borderlands 2 Jack would bring this stuff up:<\/p>\n

“I’m gonna make you guys pay for all your treachery. You’re gonna be sorry you crossed me, pumpkin.”<\/p>\n

But no. In Borderlands 2, neither side in the conflict ever makes reference to this, the inciting incident. This reveal does not mesh with what the previous game told us, so this doesn’t feel genuine.<\/p>\n

End<\/h3>\n

Let's subject this sympathetic character and former ally to interrogation-by-firing squad and then execute her without even naming a crime, much less proving guilt. Remember, we're the good guys!<\/div>
Let's subject this sympathetic character and former ally to interrogation-by-firing squad and then execute her without even naming a crime, much less proving guilt. Remember, we're the good guys!<\/div><\/p>\n

On top of this, there’s the uncomfortable fact that this entire story is being told as a flashback. <\/p>\n

Lilith has Athena standing on trial for her “crimes”. This “trial” is taking place in front of a firing squad<\/i>. The story of the Pre-Sequel is Athena’s account, trying to explain why she worked for Handsome Jack. When we get to the end of the game, it’s clear that Athena acted honorablyBy Pandoran standards, anyway. I mean, she killed thousands of dudes but everyone kills thousands of dudes.<\/span> and risked her own life to save Pandora. Not only has she never wronged Lilith, but Lilith has wronged Athena. Athena would have been killed along with Jack if their first assassination attempt had worked.<\/p>\n

Roland and Lilith’s betrayal nearly killed her, yet Athena didn’t seek revenge. She just walked away once the job was done. And yet Lilith orders the firing squad to kill AthenaAthena is saved by aliens at the last minute.<\/span>. She doesn’t even offer a good reason. Lilith is being straight-up evil here. She’s completely out of character. <\/p>\n

Wasn’t this story supposed to be about Jack’s<\/b> turn to evil?<\/em><\/p>\n

“But Shamus, Jack killed Roland in front of her, so it’s kind of understandable that she’s going overboard!”<\/p>\n

The writer went all-in and had Lilith actually give the execution order. An alien saves Athena at the last minute.<\/div>
The writer went all-in and had Lilith actually give the execution order. An alien saves Athena at the last minute.<\/div><\/p>\n

If you play the Dragon Keep DLC, you’ll see we end up spending a lot of time with Lilith. That story makes it clear that Lilith is not crazed with bloodlust over Roland’s death. In fact, the entire theme of the DLC is about accepting and dealing with loss. She helps Tiny Tina cope with this same loss. The Lilith we see in Dragon Keep does not fit with the Lilith we see in the framing story of the Pre-Sequel. This really stands out because these two events happen next to each other in terms of the Borderlands chronology. <\/p>\n

This would be okay if this was some side character or a joke story, but Lilith is at the center of both of these plots and these character moments are not aiming for comedy. <\/p>\n

This is supposed to be the story of how Jack fell to the dark side, but instead the writer made it look like Roland, Lilith, and Moxxi were kind of secretly bad guys all along. And kinda idiots. And it doesn’t really mesh with the events of Borderlands 2. And it’s not funny. <\/p>\n

This story does not work. It makes our cool heroes less cool and less heroic. It makes our fun villain less fun and villainous. I guess this makes the universe of Borderlands a lot more nuanced, but that’s not really what I was looking for in a comedy game about double-jumping and ice lasers. It turns out everyone<\/b> is a stupid asshole, not just Handsome Jack?<\/p>\n

This Could Have Been Better<\/h3>\n

This rivalry from Robocop would have made a far more coherent foundation than the messy retcons and character alterations the Pre-Sequel gave us.<\/div>
This rivalry from Robocop would have made a far more coherent foundation than the messy retcons and character alterations the Pre-Sequel gave us.<\/div><\/p>\n

I think rather than trying to depict Jack’s turn to evil, we could have just started with him evil and instead shown his rise to power. Ditch the moon-saving plot and instead make it a story about reaching a vault as a means to wealth, fame, and power. Just embrace the scheming. <\/p>\n

We didn’t need to make the Borderlands 1 vault hunters into villains. This story already has a pretty good villain in Tassiter, the no-fun-allowed corporate stooge who is Jack’s supervisor. This could have been a Robocop-style intra-company rivalry between these two guys as they race to the vault, vying for power and prestige within the company. <\/p>\n

This plot would be a much better foundation for absurd jokes about corporate infighting and excess. It wouldn’t have turned our former heroes into jerks. It wouldn’t have required messy retcons and lore-patches like Lilith’s sudden malicious stupidity or Moxxi’s abrupt tech skills. <\/p>\n

We don’t have sales numbers, so it’s hard to really compare how the Pre-Sequel did compared to the preceding game. If you value Metacritic, it’s worth noting that the community gave the Pre-Sequel 6.2 compared to the 8.2 of Borderlands 2. It certainly left a smaller impression on the fans. Borderlands 2 was talked about and obsessed over for years after release, but the Pre-Sequel seemed to fade into the background as soon as it hit the shelves. <\/p>\n

The Pre-Sequel was far smaller than Borderlands 2, both in scope and variety. There were fewer areas to explore. Fewer sidequests to do. Fewer characters to meet. Fewer enemy types. Even if the story had clicked into place and delivered on the laughs, it’s possible the game might have struggled anyway. <\/p>\n

I want to stress that the Pre-Sequel isn’t a horrible game. I know I’ve been negative, but that’s because I’ve been focusing on what went wrong with the premise. There are several good moments in the Pre-Sequel, and if you take the time to do the sidequests you’ll find quite a few laughs in the style of Borderlands 2. The failings I’ve been obsessing over aren’t some horrible affront to storytelling or a betrayal of the series. It’s just a story that doesn’t have a lot of punch, doesn’t have a lot of laughs, and is kind of off-putting in a couple of spots. <\/p>\n

That’s it for Pre-Sequel. Next week I’ll end this series with a few comments on the franchise as a whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So Lilith, Roland, and Moxxi have conspired to betray Jack and murder him by killing him and everyone else on Helios Station. Moxxi even gloats as she sentences Jack and his vault hunters (and thus the player) to death. Her behavior is exactly how villains are portrayed, and she’s way out of character. Moxxi says, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[609],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-borderlands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}