Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, Handsome Jack Gets A Makeover

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was a fun game that built on the franchise’s tone and loot-heavy gameplay loop. Unfortunately, as our review pointed out, the game felt penned in by last-generation hard-ware. Now, Gearbox has created a collection that tells the story of Handsome Jack while taking advantage of the horsepower of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Andrew Goldfarb, content manager at Gearbox, says that the team was surprised by the amount of people who asked during PAX East if the Pre-Sequel would be coming to the newer platforms. At the time, he says they weren’t considering it, but the obvious interest made the team rethink their initial plan. The game came out on last-gen consoles last October, and Goldfarb says a surprising number of Borderlands players had already moved on to the newer systems. The Handsome Collection gives the studio a chance to package the entire Handsome Jack saga including Borderlands 2, the Pre-Sequel, and their respective DLC for people who missed out on it, as well as returning players.

Besides the 1080p visual makeover, one of the biggest additions is the inclusion of four-player splitscreen. Before, two players could fight on Pandora (and its moon) together in couch co-op. Franchise director Matt Armstrong says that kind of local team gameplay was part of the series’ life-blood from its inception, but they couldn’t push past two players. Last-gen consoles simply didn’t have the memory to satisfactorily run the game with more players in split screen. Now, two players can team up against enemies in a 60 frames-per-second framerate, and four players can play with 30-frames-per second the same as Borderlands 2’s single-player campaign.

Players who paid their dues in the most recent pair of Borderlands games can import their story progress, character progression, and badass rank into the Handsome Collection. Considering how much time many of us have put into Pandora and its moon, it’s great that all of that exploration wasn’t for naught.

Claptrap-In-A-Box Edition
Claptrap has evolved from a robotic pest in the first game to a playable character in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Since he’s essentially the series’ mascot, Gearbox is offering a special edition of the Handsome Collection featuring a remote-control Claptrap, which spouts several of his signature catchphrases and has a camera in its eye that can be used to watch a live video feed from his perspective. Claptrap has internal gyros that allow him to cruise around on one wheel, just like in the game. It includes 12 exclusive lithographs highlighting the vault hunters that are in the game, and a steel case for the game. If you want it, it’ll set you back $400 if you can track one down. Only 5,000 of them are being made, with half for the PS4 version and half for Xbox One.