Yesterday I downloaded the Borderlands: The Handsome Collection on Xbox One and excitedly jumped right into the graphically polished Borderlands 2. The first thing I noticed (after the annoying long intro you still can’t skip) was just how crisp everything looked. I played a little bit of Borderlands 2 on the 360 with my brother while I was on vacation and I can say the updated version on the Xbox One is much easier on the eyes. The damage numbers that pop out of enemies look especially clean (a weird thing to comment on, I know) and it felt so satisfying to watch those numbers fly around the screen again.

The gameplay is still the same as far as I can tell, but that’s fine as Borderlands 2 was a blast to play even on the 360. I never got too far into either Borderlands game, but I’m glad I didn’t as I’ll get to experience all of the gameplay in a superior format.

I played around the first hour of the game yesterday solo (I had my game set to open, but no one jumped in) and it was enjoyable, though I found myself dying more than I would have liked. After I hit somewhat of a road block I decided to back out to the menu and try to hop into someone else’s game. The process proved to be a tad unpleasant, as I had trouble joining a game and it took longer than I would have liked. I was initially matched into a game only to receive a message saying I wasn’t on the same patch version as the host which didn’t quite make sense (unless an update dropped while I was playing solo). After that I timed out trying to join another game, but eventually got into a game on the third try.

The multiplayer was as enjoyable as I remember it being, though Borderlands really shines when playing with friends (which I have yet to do). I’m looking forward to jumping back into the game with people I know and mowing down enemy after enemy with a variety of exciting weapons!

I haven’t tried out Borderlands the Pre-sequel yet (I’ll probably wait until I finish Borderlands 2, unless I get bored) so I can’t comment on the quality of that experience. I’ve heard it performs less smoothly than Borderlands 2 which is unfortunate if true. Hopefully it’ll get patched and the issues will be ironed out before I get around to trying it out.