Recent reviews by Miria Jiyuu

Exactly what you expect from a Borderlands game. If you like Borderlands games, you will probably like this one too.

I purchased this game waaaaay back at launch, Sunk about 30 hours into it just planet hopping looking around. It was okay, but could have been much better.

I skipped over the foundation update and started playing again with the pathfinder update. There was so much new content, I built my base, continued to planet hop looking for anything interesting, but eventually got a little bored and moved on.

I just started the atlas rises update and this game finally feels like what I thought it was going to be a year ago. I was always content with the game, but now I'm actually excited about it. The planets themselves offer so much more variety now with their biome system, and with the identification of a type I know what I'm getting into. Dogfighting actually requires thought into it now (before I could just shoot down ship after ship without much effort) and the new system for moving the ship means I can have fun just flying through an asteroid field at full speed trying to dodge them where before the ship responded like a shopping cart that was overflowing with rocks. I haven't even really begun the quests or story yet, but it's on my list for my next sit down with the game.

That being said, it's still a little buggy and there are some performance issues, but where before I would have given the game a 5/10, I now give it a 9/10.

First off, before anything.... I KNOW IT"S ON PC BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD USE A CONTROLLER. Just trust me, the way the game's built it feels so much better that way.

Okay now that that's been established... the actual gameplay.

The Reflex system IS in this game, but if the last game you played was Reflex, well, it handles a little differently, so be prepared. The rider control influences the bike a lot more in turns, you can easily accidentally 180-360 degree turn your bike if you aren't careful. Other than that, the responsiveness is a lot better and feels a lot more like your rider has weight. It does make the physics system a little wonky if you ignore the rider control though, as the bike feels a lot more like a slippery brick, Rainbow has done a wonderful job of weighting these systems together and the rider and bike feel separate and together at the same time (unlike Reflex where they often felt more separate than anything else).

Vehicle customization returns and changing off stock parts does change the performance of the bike/atv, although the fine tuning from Reflex is not there, (I'm very sad about this).

The AI still crashes into you, but it won't throw you off your ride. It actually drives like it isn't trying to commit a murder suicide constantly, although the AI doesn't compensate for slipperiness on the ATVs so be prepared to see more than one com flying at you from another track section. Other than that, it's no more easy or difficult, you just won't be forcibly wiped out by the AI every 10 secs if you get stuck in the group.

Your Bike is also more sturdy now, or at least it feels more sturdy (I've been told it's slipperry though if you don't pull back on the rider to increase traction), and wiping out isn't quite as easy unless you throw the bike and rider hard in one direction or ram your front wheel into the ground when landing. The actual Reflex (QTE to stay on the bike from Reflex game) is gone making some landings that seem like they should throw you off strange when they would have thrown the QTE to recover in your face before, you now have to recover (or break your riders neck) with your own decisions, the bike will not auto-recover via magical Analog stick flick anymore.

And finally we also see the return of the 50cc class. That's random but it's so fun.

Overall Score:

Pros-
- The Reflex system, after a minor adjustment period, feels a lot better
- The core gameplay is still there, however it leans heavily on the reflex system rather than steering.
- Bike customization affects performance to a degree
- Your placement is still determined more by the lines you picked and your ability to control the bike than your ability to out run the AI with blind speed. In fact, blind speed will lose the race a lot of the time, even on rookie.
- There are 34 tracks. 17 Supercross, 12 National, and 5 Rhythm
- You can wear a chicken mask as a helmet

Cons
- The Gameplay is a bit more nuanced and weighted towards the rider than before. As such it feels very clunky if you ignore the rider controls.
- Bike can feel slippery and underperforming to new players. This is fixed with parts which are unlocked during play easily.
- Fine tuning is gone

Overall 7.5/10 It's good.