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Here's a Look at Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel's Ruthless Gladiator in Action

Tank you very much.

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Over the next few weeks, GameSpot will be giving you an extended look at three playable characters in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Today we begin with gameplay video of Athena the Gladiator.

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Who is Athena? Well, anyone who played The Secret Armory of General Knoxx from the first Borderlands may just recognize her as a foe-turned-ally who helped the vault hunters take down that DLC's titular villain. But this time around, Athena is more than an ally. She'll be butt-stomping enemies on the moon as one of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel's main characters.

Athena employs an action skill called Kinetic Apsis, a shield that lets her absorb incoming damage and throw it right back at her enemies for double the damage. Upgrades to this skill let her store elemental damage, as well allow her Apsis strikes to chain between a group of foes should they be standing in close proximity.

But as the tank of the group, Athena's skill tree lets her focus on frenzied, close-quarters combat. Maelstrom is a stack system that lets her chain together more and more elemental damage so long as she continues dishing it out in rapid succession, while Blood Rush is a skill that turns her standard melee swipe into a full-on charge attack designed to let her quickly close the gap between enemies.

Watch the video above and you can see for yourself just how Athena performs out in the wild. And as an added bonus, you'll be able to get a look at a new single-person hoverbike making its debut in the Borderlands franchise. Want to see more? Be sure to come back next Thursday for a look at another playable character in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.

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Avatar image for g1rldraco7
g1rldraco7

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Let's go Athena!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Jestersmiles

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Pass.. I wait for the true sequel and I hope it has more rpg elements than previous games. The game is fun but the formula is starting to wear down now. How about adding more active abilities for one...the one ability thing is wearing thing now.


The series needs some new blood not a rehash of the first two games.

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berserks

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@Jestersmiles Yeah get destiny :P I ll get that game for sure ( borderland 2.5 ) but down the line in 2015 .

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Raxyman

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@Jestersmiles You do have played the first one right? There was many improvements from the first to the second. In no way it can be called a rehash. Also, the Pre-Sequel is not made by Gearbox, it's a spin-off to tell Jack's story, since some people asked for that. I actually liked that they didn't let the studio do what they pleased with the game, I've seen many series lose themselves in studio changes.


Having said that, I agree that there's still room for improvement. Things like gun crafting or action skills that require more than just press a key (like for example bringing a menu with different traps you can mine the place with).

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Cxera

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ROFL @ 0:34 "your other left you fu~~ head - " He seemed angry..

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maximo

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what is LAST FM? ITs so irritating

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bbq_R0ADK1LL

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Hopefully they've fixed the levelling in this one. In BL2 you would often end up way over-levelled & gain about 1XP for every enemy you killed if you spent time doing all the side missions. Side missions were worth it for the extra story & humour but wading through waves of weak enemies felt like a grind

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Trev9421

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I really enjoyed Borderlands 2 and it's dlc, so I'm excited for this one. It'll hold me over for several months.

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zoeyleft

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You know a game is good when all the skills sounds completely overpowered! Because you know they went for FUN and also each skill point makes a huge different so it's gonna feel unique each build!

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Deadlysyns87

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Athena joined Hyperion when? too much of a gap between games also when did Athena ever show she was anything other then the original Zero. Also does this mean she turned against the Vault hunters who saved her and died or did she turn against Jack and die either way she should be dead.

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Gallesh

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Elizabeth from Bioshock ?

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Gwarpup

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Playing Defiance reminds me so much of Borderlands. And it's free so I'm not too hyped for another Borderlands game. =/


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Sime115

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Add me. I play defiance and borderlands. T3ddy is a liar

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WolfGrey

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

You mean that game that went bargain bin in 3 months and can now be found for 5 dollars?

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kvan33

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Wake me up when the next gen Borderlands is out.

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Eraldus

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Ugh... you next-gen i diots are so annoying..

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filthy_casual_

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I have a fairly quick connection and GS's video player lags. IGN's doesn't as much and Youtube hardly at all. Am I the only one?

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sepir

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

Nope, I wish they allow buffering. It's why I ignore anything that isn't written on here (well, occasionally I go to one of the articles and read the comments to see if it is worth putting up with the stuttering, but that is rare).

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Sumpskildpadde

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Some laptops are bad at handling hd videos if it's not connected to the power chord. Are you on a laptop, and are you only running on your battery?

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filthy_casual_

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> I am on laptop but running off the cord. And IGN and Youtube hardly give me any problems.

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ringringabel

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<< LINK REMOVED >> sometimes it does for me too, but GS has a fancy vid player that plays at 60fps

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179107199999

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> The like is for the Ringabel in your heart

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Thuaxiz

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I was interested in this game, but it looks way too similar to borderlands 2. Almost like an expansion pack set on the moon.

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nyran125tk

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if you have Borderlands 1 and 2 , why do you need this? The graphics dont look any better or anything. Its the same game

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The-Neon-Seal

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Because graphics are really what define how diffrent games are? Never mind the story, weapons, abilities, mechanics or characters right?

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Gwarpup

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> True the graphics are already about as good as they can possibly be for borderlands considering it's art style. It just needs more depth added, more abilities and a new story/setting. I'd like to see more multiplayer centered abilities. Like being able to teleport a friend to a higher location out of harms way to sniper for you.

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aliloush92

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This game doesn't look much of an overhaul of Borderlands 2. It's as though they made this game just to temporarily keep us distracted while they make something epic to be released a few years later...at least I hope so because I'd be disappointed if this is all what they have to offer.

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McDog3

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<< LINK REMOVED >>


Oh Gearbox will certainly start development on Borderlands 3 at some point (if it isn't already in initial planning stage). This definitely appears to be one of those games that's released to try and "bridge the gap" between core release dates. Either way, i'm looking forward to some more Borderlands action.

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natethegreat235

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SHOW ME CLAPTRAP!

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The-Neon-Seal

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@natethegreat235 He's still sulking because nobody went to his party and Jack installed thoses stairs...

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UltATK

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looks like a overly glorified bot shooting game

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shingui5

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As always with Borderlands: it sucks if you're playing it on your own, but really fun in co-op.

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seanwil545

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I've enjoyed both play modes honestly.

These days I don't have a stockpile of friends clamoring to play online.

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KoRniTo

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Yup, same here.


Either way, I'll have fun with this game.

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eternaldragoonx

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meh

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UFOLoche

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Hopefully this isn't as much of a grind as BL2 was. Seriously, farming bosses for legendaries was one of the dumbest choices they made.


Also, just wanted to note, one of them said "You can just wipe out a whole room with your action skill if you take this game changer", which hopefully means they understand now that bullet sponge enemies aren't fun and are working to rectify that.

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kvan33

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Dude, let's be honest here. Farming bosses for legendaries was a choice you made. Yeah, that can get tedious. So why did you do it?

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spartanx169x

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<< LINK REMOVED >> I found that bullet sponge enemies were only if you were two low below their level to fight them. IF you were the same level or higher it wasn't much of an issue except for boss battles. But again if you leveled up adequately enough above them they were easily defeated as well.

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UFOLoche

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Ehhh, in UVHM, I'd disagree, especially against certain enemies. Ultimate Badass Skeletons for example were massively spongy, while Mage Skeletons could just become invincible for a while if they felt like it and, due to UVHM's stupidly high health regen, took a lot of ammo to kill. It also doesn't help that going invisible negated any effects on them which meant slagging(The whole thing UVHM is based around) was useless unless their AI actually didn't take a quick potshot and then leave(Which is common for them to do).


That's just in AoDK, though, there are quite a few other enemies that were massively bullet spongy, even when I was using the proper guns and playing the character the proper way.

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spartanx169x

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Oh, Well I have not done The UVHM. So can't disagree about that.

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