Today, PlayStation and Gearbox announced that Borderlands 2 will be available to play in virtual reality with Borderlands 2 VR. The biggest change, aside from reworking everything to work in a virtual reality environment, is that this will be a single-player experience. The newest feature for Borderlands 2 VR is Gearbox’s take on bullet time, B.A.M.F. Time.
B.A.M.F. or BadAss Mega Fun Time gives players the speed and reflexes of a rabid skag which allows for such things like 360 no-scope headshots and the ability to dodge bullets. You can also use the characters’ Action Skill during this time as well when the rest of Pandora is gunning for you.
The original four playable Vault Hunters, Maya, Axton, Salvador, and Zer0 are back. Each has been given BAMF Time upgrades to previous abilities and since this is a single-player experience, some abilities have been changed. For instance, Maya’s “Res” ability is now called “Empathy” which causes Phaselock energy to deplete half of your current health and damages enemies based on how much health you lose; it also doubles healing during B.A.M.F. Time.
Another change that’s new to the Borderlands franchise is the ability to drive in first-person. Since this is in virtual reality, players can aim and drive at the same time, using the headset to aim the vehicle’s guns.
Brian Burleson, a producer at Gearbox, had this to say about the announcement,
As soon as we brought the game to PS4 as part of The Handsome Collection in 2016, our brains immediately began cranking on how we could bring the experience to VR and take advantage of PS VR’s capabilities. We all have spent years immersed in the world and these characters, so we were excited to utilize the PS VR to bring everyone in even deeper.
Borderlands 2 VR will be available on December 14 for PlayStation VR.