Review #232: Borderlands 2(Vita)

 Oh boy...

 Fact: Borderlands 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. Fact: Borderlands 2 on the VITA almost made me hate it. Seeing how I already wrote about Borderlands 2 in this little blog o' mine, I'll just go over what makes the Vita version so terrible.

 First, the good, it's Borderlands 2 on the Vita. No, really, when the game is at its best, it's awesome. Plus, the fact that they managed to cram such a massive game on a tiny Vita cartridge is nothing short of amazing. And that's just about the best thing I can say about it. Y'see, the game made me go from ecstatic to miserable oh so many times that it ain't even funny. There's a lot of problems with the port, that I'll elaborate on shortly, but the biggest issue are the freezes. The game crashed/froze on me over 10 times before I stopped counting, the Lynchwood area being particularly terrible about it, almost, if not all, of my play sessions in that area ended on freezes, and half of my total freezes where in that area. If it was one buggy area it'd be one thing, but this can happen ANYWHERE. Admittedly, some areas are worse than others, but the issue remains, I was scared of playing Borderlands 2, as I didn't want to end up miserable and frustrated. And when you really get into the game, it's so much fun that you forget about your fears.... and then it crashes. And this is one of those games where you can't save manually, so you'd better learn to force the game to auto-save every now and then, by crossing certain checkpoints, in order to keep your progress in case the worst happens. From what I could gather from boards, other people suffered the same way I did: At the game's beginning, it's all fine and dandy, but after you cross 10 gameplay hours, give-or-take, the freezes become a common occurrence.

 Having such a broken mess is inexcusable, but the game is further gimped by other factors. The framerate is pretty shaky, and can reach single digits for a couple of seconds. Honestly, I was having so much fun, when it wasn't crashing, that I didn't mind. I was playing Borderlands 2, on the flippin' go, framerate be damned! Multiplayer has been reduced from 4 to 2 players, understandably, it's hard to fault it for this, but it's somethin' to keep in mind. Another issue are the controls, while you can map any function to any button, fact is the PS Vita doesn't have as many buttons as the PS3, so 2 actions will have to be mapped to the touch screen, and another two to the rear touchpad. You can get used to it, I did, but it took more than a fair share of grenade suicides when accidentally touching the screen. And then there's the Cross-Save feature with the PS3, you can only transfer characters one by one, so that you can't clone them, and while the PSVita version doesn't have access to all the DLC, you can transfer a character that is equipped with DLC equipment, however, he won't be able to use it. Levels carry over, even if you don't have the +11 Level DLCs, but you won't be able to level up the character.

 Then we have the DLC, oh boy... The game has been abandoned by Iron Galaxy, the guys that did the port, although it seems it wasn't their choice. This means that Borderlands 2 on the Vita only gets 5 of the DLCs that matter: Pirate Scarlet and her Pirate Booty, Crater of Badassitude, VaultHunter Pack(+11 levels) and the two DLC characters. This is all the DLC that is available and 'included'. Kinda. Y'see, even if you buy the physical version, the DLC is download only. Some people claimed that 'the cart couldn't hold all the data!' and that's a lie, both DLC characters and the headhunter pack are 100 KB each, you are downloading keys. And in an effort to discourage buying the game used, you can't buy the DLC separately, want the DLC? You better hope somebody has an unused code.

 And this is the honest truth, during the first 10 or so hours, I was ready to score the game a 9 out of 10. I was having a blast, it was Borderlands 2 on the go, it was amazing. After the first few crashes, I was gonna score it a 7, because they were annoying but not a deal breaker. After I hit the double digits I was ready for a 5-4. But after experiencing this roller coaster of bliss and misery, I decided that this is unacceptable. The game is broken, sure, at times I was relieving all the fun I had with Borderlands 2, all over again, but... it's not worth it.
 2.5 out of 10.