PlayStation Vita Borderlands 2 Bundle Review

I am not much of a handheld gamer. The PS Vita Slim is the first handheld device I have bought since I got an Nintendo DS Lite several years ago. But I had put enough time into both the PS Vita and the Nintendo 3DS to know that I prefer the Vita. So I decided to go and purchase my own, and I got the PlayStation Vita Borderlands 2 bundle. After putting lots of time with both the PS Vita slim and Borderlands 2, here are my thoughts. Note that this isn't a full review, so therefore there is no score.

What's In the Box

The Bundle itself is actually a sweet offer. Inside the box you'll get the new PS Vita (along with the standard instruction manuals, charger, AR cards, etc.), a copy of Borderlands 2 for the Vita, and an 8GB memory card, all for the standard $200 price tag of the Vita. That's pretty sweet, considering Sony doesn't include a memory card with the PS Vita normally and it must be purchased separately. However Borderlands 2 takes up a good 5-6 GB of that memory card, so you'll probably end up purchasing a 16 or 32 GB memory card in the future, and they're unfortunately not cheap.

What's changed

The PS Vita Slim is a lot lighter and a lot less bulkier than the original model. While the original's build feels much more premium, the Slim isn't too far behind that. Holding the slim feels a lot better than the original though, because of the bigger finger rest on the back and a smaller back touchscreen so you won't be making as many accidental touches this time around. However, it is still not perfect and the way they want you to hold it still feels a little awkward. In terms of buttons, they are mostly the same, except that the PS, start, and select buttons are now a circle instead of an oval. The accessory port which really didn't hold much of a purpose has been removed, and there is now a light that indicates various states of the Vita. Battery life has been greatly improved. While playing Uncharted: Golden Abyss, I was able to get a solid 5 hours out of it. It's not the best battery life, but it's much better than what we had before.

OLED vs. LCD

The most talked about change however, is Sony's decision to replace the stunning OLED display in favor of a cheaper LCD screen. This has deterred some people from picking up the new model. Even though I didn't own the original model, I have spent enough time with one to where I can barely tell the difference between the two. Yes OLED looks better, but if you gave someone the LCD one without telling them the screen they would not be able to notice. Uncharted still looks fantastic on the LCD screen, and LCD also improves battery life and cost. So if you're on the fence about getting a Vita Slim because of the screen difference, don't be. It's still miles ahead of other handheld devices like the Nintendo 3DS.

Remote Play

The Vita hasn't exactly been flying off shelves, but sales have increased over the past few months because of the ability to remote play your PS4 over Wi-Fi. The Vita slim does a good job of holding up, and it is still really cool to see games like Infamous Second Son running on a handheld. However, make sure you have a good Wi-Fi connection, as the game started lagging and eventually crashed as soon as I left my bedroom where my PS4 was at. I do have a terrible 3 mb/s connection, but it is worth noting if Remote Play is one of your selling factors.

Borderlands 2 Port

I didn't really get into Borderlands 2 when it came out in 2012. Don't get me wrong, it's a good game, but it had flaws that just kept me from going beyond 10 hours of playtime. So Borderlands 2 wasn't a big reason why I got the PS Vita, but I know a lot of people are looking forward to it. So after putting several hours into it, I can say the Vita version of Borderlands 2 runs very well. Yes the frame rate does drop occasionally and there are a few bugs, but the fact that a game like Borderlands 2 is running on Vita (and well at that) is enough to forgive the drawbacks. If you have the PS3 version, you can cross-save between the two, meaning you can continue to play your PS3 character on the go. It's not enough to bring me back to Borderlands 2 for a while, but people who enjoyed Borderlands 2 will probably like this port.

Conclusion

The PS Vita Borderlands 2 Bundle is a great deal for $200. The Vita Slim is fantastic, Borderlands 2 runs very well, and there are thousands of games waiting to be played on your PS Vita from PS Vita games to PSP games and PS One Classics. I doubt this will be enough to make the Vita a viable competitor in the market, but that shouldn't deter you from picking up this great deal.


Note: This is different from how I will review a game. When reviewing consoles I give no score, I just give you my impressions of the device.


Will you be picking up the Vita Slim? Have you already? If so, what do you think? Let me know in the comments!
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