First Term Paper

The Physics of Borderlands: the Presequel

On October 14th, 2014, publisher 2k released there latest video game, Borderlands: the Presequel. The game was developed by studios 2k Australia, Gearbox Software and Aspyr. The game is an action adventure, first person shooter role playing game that takes place on the colorful and wild planet of Pandora. Throughout the game series you play as a bounty hunter, fondly referred to as Vault Hunters, who complete missions for cash, gear and weapons. Where the first two games (Borderlands and Borderlands 2) kept us on the alien planet of Pandora, Borderlands: the Pre Sequel takes us on a journey to Pandora’s moon Elpis. Borderlands creates a fun and entertaining universe to explore by manipulating physics. In this game we see that the laws of gravity are manipulated to hilariously unrealistic proportions, the atmosphere does not obey real physics for gameplay purposes, and the science of “digistructing” or constructing digital information into physical matter is used as an explanation for role playing mechanics.

For their third installment, 2k studios took the risk of switching their game from the beloved and familiar environment of Pandora to the moon of the planet from the two other previous games. By switching the game to the moon, the game developers took advantage of low gravity by “improving” on their game mechanics. Normal human characters were already given the ability to jump to great heights in this universe, so the introduction of low gravity exaggerated this mechanic even further. Jump pads were introduced that can launch enemies and characters through space like a cannonball. This changed the overall structure of their maps by making them a lot more vertically stratified. To help players traverse more through the environments, players could use their oxygen resources to provide themselves with an additional boost to make it to particular platforms and areas. Although the gravity modifications feel believable, a few mechanics are unrealistically altered for gameplay purposes.

First, the gravity on the Hyperion remains the same as that of the earth-like planet Pandora. The Hyperion space station is a colossal sized space facility that almost appears to be half the size of the moon. The only possible explanation could be some form of unseen gravity manipulation to allow the scientists and citizens of the space station to walk comfortably. Space stations that have centrifugal force make sense because they harness their own gravity, but this station does not have that attribute.

The next notable change of the laws of gravity would be the ability to launch people into orbit by smashing down on them with a grounding pound attack. While in midair, the player can manipulate their own gravity by falling fast into the ground below. The result is a devastating attack that can send nearby assailants hurdling into space where they perish. The laws of gravity are obviously altered by making the limp dead bodies affected less by the gravity of the moon, compared to alive enemies. This can be seen again when opening containers, in which ammo and cash floats outward as if they were in free fall or underwater.

On Elpis, there is also a lack of atmosphere. Because of this all human characters have to wear what is call a "Oz kit" or oxygen kit. While the oxygen can be used for the ground pound attack, the resource is also slowly decreasing throughout the game. While this may seem inconvenient to manage a new resource, the developers made sure to keep providing players with oxygen by placing terminals that have the ability to generate small sustainable atmospheric bubbles, as well as spreading out oxygen vents that crack through the moon's surface to allow player to refill their tanks. The developers also made it so that when enemies die, they drop oxygen containers, allowing the characters to continue fighting without worrying about their oxygen resources becoming drained.

While the use of atmosphere adds dimension to the gameplay, it also manipulates some laws of physics for gameplay purposes. While boxes outside of an atmospheric containment appear to release free floating objects, containers within an atmospheric barrier keep objects in their place.

One of the most unbelievable use of physics comes from the beginning of the game, when the player is shot from an orbital cannon onto the moon's surface inside a metal storage crate. The player manages to survive the impact through some miracle, without being slowed down in the atmosphere. Although this physics are improbable, they help carry the story onto a new location by moving the player off their initial location on the Hyperion Space Station to the alien moon.

The Borderlands game universe uses a lot of science fiction gimmicks from teleportation, to space travel, and through the use of protective electromagnetic shields. It's most impressive use of scientific physics is what is called "digistructing". Digistructing allows players to render new weapons, vehicles, and even themselves. While digistructing is a useful game mechanic that rationalizes game logic like storing hundreds of objects in your inventory, coming back to life, and making vehicles appear, is it actually physically possible? According to the formula E=mc^2 it is theoretically possible to convert energy into matter if you had technology to do so. So if it was possible to use digital information to convert energy into matter, there is potential for the technology to work, but there is no tangible technology we currently have to relate it to. The closest of these probably being 3d printing, which still needs physical matter to create something from digital information.

Overall the series pushes and alters physics in interesting ways to allow the player to collect objects, transverse their environment and battle their foes. Most of these changes in physics were intentionally done by the developers to suite the story and gameplay, rather than cater to actual science. Borderlands: The Presequel is a good example of how games can manipulate real world physics to create a more entertaining and fun atmosphere.