Gearbox Software has done it again.  Just when I promised myself I wouldn’t spend every hour of my free time killing hordes of psychos for that next mind-blowing weapon,  it’s 3:00 in the morning, and I have school tomorrow.  What makes Borderlands 2 so addictive?  One reason stands above all the others.

Guns.  More guns.  Guns on guns on guns.  Excuse me sir, would you like some more guns with that gun?   When I say lots of guns, I don’t think you truly appreciate what I mean by “lots of guns.”  In fact, I don’t really think there’s any other way to put it other than that.  And not only are there a lot of guns, but there are a lot of guns that do really crazy things.  Like explode when you reload them, then reconstruct in your hand seconds later.  Did that rocket launcher just turn into a homing rocket and turn that Skag into a fine red mist?  Yeah, that just happened.

If you’re new to Borderlands, you’re going to have a lot of moments like these about pretty much everything.  For those of you who are Borderlands veterans,  feel free to skip ahead while I give all the uninitiated a crash course on the wild world of Pandora.

So what is Borderlands 2?  Well, Borderlands 2 is a strange breed of FPS and RPG that’s all about the loot.  You play as one of four Vault Hunters and fight your way through bandits, robots, and wide range of monsters and mutants to stop Handsome Jack, the head of Hyperion Corporation, from destroying all life on the planet Pandora.  But who cares about that, right?  Let’s get to the meat of the game.

Borderlands 2, at its core, is a co-op game.  You can be a one-man wolfpack all you want, but you’ll miss out on half the fun of the game.  Each Vault Hunter has skill trees and abilities that can help out you and your three comrades as you fight through various badass baddies who want nothing more that to crush your dreams and drink your blood.  So if you don’t have any friends, start making some now, because you’re going to need them to take on Handsome Jack and his merry men.  And by merry I mean certifiably insane.

Another reason you’ll want friends is simply because of the replay value.  Just to give you a sense of the replayability of Borderlands 2, lets do a quick calculation.  Four Vault hunters, with three radically different skill trees each.  Over a bazillion guns, randomly generated on the spot. approximately 60 hours of gameplay just for one character, and a new, uncapped “Badass Rank” system that can give you bonuses across all your characters.  Yeah, that’s enough math to know that I’m probably never going to stop playing this game.  Say hello to the daily grind.

Some people will probably ask, “Well, what’s different from the original Borderlands?”  and the answer is, not a whole lot.  Borderlands 2 is a sequel that refines and improves everything from its predecessor. This is a good thing.  It has a few hiccups here and there, but none of them ruin the experience of the game, and that’s all that really matters in the end.

So for those of you still on the fence about buying Borderlands 2, I’m more than happy to help solve this dilemma; buy it, now.  If you’re still not convinced, then take a look at the intro from the game below.  (Warning:  Insanity incoming.)