Background (Taken from the Borderlands Wiki)
Gaige was a high school student from the planet Eden-5. She originally conceived Deathtrap, then called DT, as a science fair project to combat bullying. Her rival, Marcy Holloway, was a contestant in the science fair as well, and used her father's money to buy her way through the competition. Marcy apparently stole Gaige's DT designs and sold it to Eden-5's police force.
On the day of the science fair, Marcy's father bribed the judges, helping win her first place with a defective robot based on Deathtrap's blueprints. Gaige placed third. Marcy then shoved Gaige, causing Deathtrap to identify her as a hostile. Deathtrap attacked with its claws, causing her to explode due to a miscalibration by Gaige. Gaige was escorted to the principal's office, and faced expulsion and arrest for accidentally murdering her rival. She called her father to create a distraction to help her evade arrest, and bought a ticket to Pandora, where she stowed away on a train leading to Windshear Waste.
This is a rather goofy & original way to introduce a character and his/her background. It’s basic, but clever, and it actually build part of her character in the game (The rest of it was all up to her, so to speak). I should quickly mention that Gaige is currently the youngest of the Vault Hunters in the game, as she’s only 18 years old (The older Vault Hunter is Salvador, who’s 36 years old).
Character
Gaige is a very punky character. During her ECHOcast previews, she came across as a someone who had little to no respect for the system, and had a particular dislike for bullies. Gaige is also a very smart girl: she’s a expert in science & mechanics, with a particular love for robotics. She seems to be more attached to Deathtrap than to other people, but she isn’t really mean to anybody. Despite her outer appearance, Gaige can be quite the girly-girl: She’s apparently a My Little Pony fan (As evidenced by the names of some of her skills), and enjoys cupcakes & hot chocolate. Yeah, anyone can enjoy cupcakes & hot chocolate (I quite like them both!), but for some weird reason it’s girly with her.
Strengths
Shock & Explosive Master
- Although Maya (The Siren) manipulates electricity, and everybody else knows a thing or two about explosives (With perhaps the 2nd dlc character having about as much mastery as Gaige), Gaige has more powers over these two elements than anybody else. With many of her skills across all her skill trees taking advantage of shock & explosive weapons, Gaige can quickly deplete an enemy’s shields, and blow them away with a well-aimed rocket launcher.
Anarchy
- One of the more interesting skills in Gaige’s plethora of skills, Anarchy can turn the Mechromancer from a mild-mannered shot, to an overpowered killing machine. As she’s in a fight, when she kill a target (or does a full reload) she gains a stack of Anarchy. For each stack of Anarchy she gains, she receives a small boost to damage. This comes at the cost of a small penalty to her accuracy (More on this in a bit), and thus makes hitting something a little harder to hit. Despite the flaw, the amount of damage you can you with a horde of Anarchy stacks is impressive!
Deathtrap
- We can’t forget this metallic fellow, now can we? Although he can’t do much at first (He can only claw at enemies when he’s first selected), when Gaige begins to go down each of her skill trees, Deathtrap gains all sorts of abilities. A whirlwind attack, a heat ray, and gaining the ability to be infused with a element are just a few of the enhancements your robotic friend can gain. By later levels, Deathtrap becomes a powerhouse of an ally.
Easy Class to Start With
- If you’re new to Borderlands 2 (Or First-Person-Shooters in general), then Gaige is the character for you. All throughout her skill trees (Mainly the “Best Friends Forever” tree), she gains access to skills that can help out first-time shooter fans. From the “Close Enough” skill that’ll deflect bullets towards enemies if you miss them, to the “The Better Half” skill that increases the fire rate when your magazine is down to half, there’s something that’ll help you out in some way.
Weaknesses
Something Good In Every Tree
- This was actually something of a problem in the original Borderlands. Everybody in the first game had good skills across all their skill trees, and Gaige is no exception in Borderlands 2. There’s something great in all her skill trees, which makes the prospect of a specialized Mechromancer difficult, but not necessarily impossible.
Anarchy Accuracy & Reloading
- As I said above, Anarchy gives you the ability to trade in accuracy for increased damage. The decrease in accuracy isn’t so bad when you only have a small stack of Anarchy, and is actually reasonably controllable. It’s when you have a large stack, however, that accuracy becomes an issue. Even if you don’t increase the amount of Anarchy you can gain, your maximum capacity will be 100, and you’ll have a hard time hitting targets (Even sniper rifles, known for having good accuracy, will become difficult when aiming at targets). This decrease is coupled with the fact that if you reload out of a fight, or reload prematurely, your stacks of Anarchy will disappear rapidly (This is incredibly irritating if you have a larger stack). If you select the Discord skill, reloading isn’t quite so painful. If you don’t take Discord, then a accidental reload may cause trouble for you in a firefight.
Deathtrap Clipping
- This is really more baffling than a weakness. For whatever reason, the development team decided that Deathtrap could clip through walls. Not through massively thick walls, but your robotic friend has the amazing (Note my bad attempt at sarcasm) ability to move right through less thick walls/covering. This is really more baffling than anything else, as you’d expect the developers to find this problem out early on in the programming of the class.
Can Be A Hard Class To Play
- Although Gaige is a class that great for first-timers to get into, she can actually be quite tough to use. Her first two trees aren’t too terrible to manage, as the skills within are relatively easy to manage. It’s really the “Ordered Chaos” skill tree that can cause trouble for new players. The tree that manages Anarchy, the early skills in “Ordered Chaos” aren’t that hard to keep track of. It’s when you get further down the set that things prove troublesome, as you’re keeping track of so many things, the chance for an accidental reload can be high.
Overall Opinion
Gaige the Mechromancer is a class that’s perfectly suited for beginners to the first-person-shooter genre. With many friendly skills in her first two skill trees, it eases new players into a comfortable position to take off into the world of FPS games. Gaige is also a good class for players who enjoy a challenge, as the “Ordered Chaos” skill tree provides plenty of challenge. Her weaknesses might cause you to think twice about playing her, but she has more than enough positives to relatively bury them, and ultimately create a fun experience.
Gaige gets a out 7 to 8 of 10
See you all later this week, when we’ll take a gander at the 2nd dlc character. Until then, stay Otaku!
***
Gotta keep up with Breast Cancer Awareness, so here's a fun little video for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5oWjeL1FHo
No comments:
Post a Comment