After a good session last time, we’d found our way to Sanctuary and met Lillith. Our first order of business in this session was to head out and rescue Roland. After a bit of messing about getting an appropriate vehicle, the mission proper started with us fighting our way through the Bloodshot Stronghold to find Roland.
As ever, our task wasn’t to be straightforward. No sooner had we met Roland, before he was whisked away by W4R-D3N. This was the start of some more prologued shooting, as we fought our way through scores of robots to catch up with Roland before destroying W4R-D3N and setting Roland free.
After a brief trip back to Sanctuary, we learned that Jack was transporting the vault key on a train, which we had to hijack and search to find the key. On our way, we met Mordecai and Tina, before blowing up the train and finally meeting the famed Wilhelm, who Angel had been harping on about for quite a while now! Wilhelm was quickly dispatched, dropping a useful power core as he did so. All we had to do now was head back to Sanctuary, replace our own ageing power core and retire to a life of peaceful solitude on the nearest beach.
This sequence of missions is probably my favourite in the whole Borderlands 2 main campaign. The tight confines of the stronghold leads for some intense gunplay, and this followed with the more wider spaced robot fighting section is a good contrast in mission style. The level of difficulty is still a little low given our high XP levels, but hopefully things will start to become a little more challenging in future sessions.
Roland’s rescue has always been one of my favourite sequences in B2. It doesn’t matter whether I’m underpowered or overpowered as we were in this session. One-shot kills no problem.
Finding the parts for a bloodshot car has always been a necessary chore and breezing passed Bad Maw is a nice change from the usual challenge it presents in a vanilla playthrough.
The fun starts in the Bloodshot Stronghold, the open spaces and narrow corridors with different levels of attack coming in waves is FUN and one of my favourite all-time game sequences.
There are a few stages in B2 I consistently die. The confrontation with Mad Mike and his deadly overpowered rockets is one of them. Mad Mike went down quickly here, but it was like unexpectedly taking down a challenging seasonal opponent. It felt good over easy.
The sequence leading to Roland’s rescue from 26-32 minutes was probably the best AD, and I have worked together, it looks good on screen, especially with my phase-lock now jumping between bad guys.
During the Bloodshot sequence, (18:37) I picked up a gold pistol from one of the cupboards, I clocked it was gold which was why I took it but didn’t pay it much attention then.
My second weapon slot always has a high fire rate, usually an SMG or pistol with good short to medium zoom. On the surface the gold pistol I picked up ‘React Hornet’ is underpowered, but it’s very high fire rate and reload coupled with corrosive damage make it an excellent weapon to go against lower-powered flesh and any level mechanical opponent. What makes it exceptionally useful is dropping down from the longer zoom of the sniper and working the crowd with its short to medium zoom.
I equipped React Hornet as we entered Tundra express and I expect it to be my primary weapon for long periods as we move forward. As you watch the video, you can see how much fun I’m having using it. I mention it during the gameplay several times as we take out Wilhelm and on through the next video.
A great session to play, hopefully, that comes across in the video.