With Borderlands 2 on the PS Vita, one of the things that you can expect is the lack of buttons that it has. Since the device lacks a shoulder button, it’s compensated by replacing it with the rear touch pad and the use of the touch screen. At first, it may feel awkward running while holding the left rear touch pad or doing melee attacks by pressing the right rear touch pad. Give it some time though as soon as the control sinks in, the game plays fine.
Along with the texture pop ins, another problem of the portable version of Borderlands 2 is lag. Sure, the frame rate dips here and there but the lag is annoying. The moment you start the game, you will see that the game slightly lags when loading the game. Be patient and it will load of the menu. Now, when opening menus and choosing things to do, expect a second or two lag to the input. It’s not bad but nitpickers will certainly notice this. In addition, lag on audio can be heard occasionally.
What makes Borderlands 2 so awesome in consoles and PC are the co-op multiplayer feature. Yes, the PS Vita version offers that to but instead of allowing four co-op players like the PC and console version, it’s been cut down to two. In my experience with the co-op on the Vita, it’s actually quite good and the connection is quite smooth. The technical limitations that we found still exists and sadly we can’t do anything about it. Those who are annoyed how Sony has to cut down the four players promised co-op multiplayer into two, I understand why they have to do it as having four will certainly lag the game to the point people will just leave the match.
Porting a huge game like Borderlands 2 on the PS Vita is certainly challenging and it’s no doubt that Iron Galaxy had a hard time in optimizing the game. While I can say that Iron Galaxy did its very best to give Borderlands 2 a proper port to the PS Vita, I must say that they at least did their best. It’s not a bad port at all, actually the content itself and the amount of fun you will get are limitless though the trade off is that players will have to experience its technical limitations.
Giving Borderlands 2 the port treatment is a big ambition for Sony to show off what the PS Vita can do. It works most of the time but be prepared to face problems when playing it – though it’s still playable, you just need to give the game a lot of patience and consideration. Get past it and you will certainly enjoy Borderlands 2 on the PS Vita.
[Editor’s Note: Borderlands was reviewed on the PS Vita. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]