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Overview
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel sits chronologically between the original Borderlands and Borderlands 2, and it earns that position by doing something neither of those games attempted: making you sympathize with Handsome Jack before watching him become a monster. Released in October 2014 by 2K Australia, the game drops players onto Elpis, Pandora's moon, where oxygen is a resource, gravity is a suggestion, and the loot keeps coming.
The story is framed as a confession. Athena, one of the playable Vault Hunters, recounts the events to Lilith, Brick, and Mordecai after being captured by the Crimson Raiders. What follows is a surprisingly layered origin story that tracks Jack from an idealistic Hyperion programmer to the scarred, power-hungry tyrant players fought in Borderlands 2. The moment Lilith burns the Vault symbol onto his face lands with real weight, because by that point the game has spent hours making Jack seem almost reasonable.
Gameplay and mechanics
The core loop is pure Borderlands: shoot enemies, collect procedurally generated weapons, level up, spend skill points, repeat. But Elpis changes the rhythm in ways that matter. Low gravity means fights have a vertical dimension that flat Pandora never offered. Players can launch themselves high into the air, hover briefly, and slam back down with a ground-pound attack called the Butt Slam, which deals area damage on impact.
Key mechanics that define the Pre-Sequel experience:
- Oz Kits replace the grenade-mod slot and power jetpack movement
- Cryo element freezes enemies solid for explosive shattering kills
- Laser weapons arrive as a new weapon type alongside standard guns
- Oxygen management adds light survival pressure in open-moon areas
- Four-player co-op carries over from previous entries
The playable cast includes Athena, Wilhelm, Nisha, Claptrap, Timothy (the Doppelganger), and Aurelia Hammerlock. Each has a distinct skill tree, and Claptrap in particular plays unlike anything else in the series, his action skill pulling random effects from a pool of abilities.
World and setting
Elpis is a more confined setting than Pandora, but 2K Australia uses that constraint well. The moon's sparse, crater-pocked surface gives way to Hyperion installations, Dahl military ruins, and the junk-town of Concordia, which serves as the game's central hub. The reduced color palette compared to Pandora's cel-shaded chaos actually suits the story's darker tone.
The supporting cast is strong. Janey Springs runs the Concordia junk trade with cheerful efficiency, Moxxi operates her usual morally flexible angle, and the AI character Felicity gets one of the series' more unexpectedly affecting moments before the plot forces the player to delete her personality. The Lost Legion, led by Colonel Tungsteena Zarpedon, makes for a more grounded antagonist faction than most Borderlands villains.
Content and replayability
The base game runs 20 to 30 hours depending on how many side missions get completed, and the series' True Vault Hunter Mode returns for a second playthrough at higher difficulty. The Claptastic Voyage DLC adds a full campaign set inside Claptrap's subconscious, which is exactly as chaotic as it sounds and widely considered the best content in the package.
The game is available on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, PlayStation, Xbox, macOS, Android, and the Nintendo Switch as part of the Borderlands Legendary Collection. The Switch version bundles the Pre-Sequel with Borderlands and Borderlands 2, making it the most portable way to play all three entries back to back. For fans of co-op looter-shooters looking to understand how the Borderlands universe fits together, the Pre-Sequel remains the connective tissue the series needed.
