I picked this up to play coop with my wife, and that was the way we played from day one. I played Zer0. As I’ve mentioned a few times in this thread, it was not particularly fun. It wasn’t horrible – we got to level 13. But it wasn’t nearly as good as BL1.
Recently I’ve started playing SP was Axton, and the differences are striking. It’s a lot fun, and I don’t think it’s just because Zer0’s special move kinda sucks and Axton’s is pretty cool.
Difficulty - BL2 was quite difficult with two players. A badass was a problem. We had to both blow our specials to drop one. Frequently one of us would be in Fight for Your Life mode. We would suffer a full “wipe” around every 20-30 minutes. Boss fights were very difficult and usually involved several wipes. The difficulty didn’t make us stop playing, but it was enough to reduce the overall fun factor. You don’t feel like a hero when you spend half the game in Fight for Your Life mode (and so, so often your partner gets the killing blow on your target and spoils your recovery). SP is much easier. I very rarely enter Fight for Your Life. Badasses are not particularly difficult. I’ve died about 4-5 times. It took about 10 hours to reach level 13 and the quest to rescue Roland in my MP game. It took 6 hours in my SP game. Some of that is knowing where to go, sure. But not most of it. Most of that is because the game is so much easier.
Ammo - Ammo was always a problem in MP. We both had to frequently switch to secondary or tertiary weapons. It was actually frustrating. In SP ammo is very rarely a problem. Ammo was very rarely a problem in BL1. Maybe it’s because enemies take so many more bullets to kill? I don’t know, but the ammo issue sucked.
Loot - in my current SP game, I laugh when I see the loading screen tooltip to group up with more players for better loot. Because in my MP game, loot was horrible. After 13 levels and ~10 hours of play we had found one purple, and 3-4 blues – combined, not each. The only “reliable” method of getting eridium was to gamble for it. It never dropped, and was very rarely found in containers. The shitty loot was so bad it really reduced the fun-factor in a game about collecting loot, because 99 times out of 100 the loot was crap. Upgrades were few and far between. By level 13, I think I had upgraded my primary weapon, a sniper, three times. Maybe twice. “Oh look, more shit loot.” It became a mantra for us, really.
In SP, this is completely reversed. Loot is more frequent, and good often enough to keep me interested. I have a legendary, a “pink” purple, a few more purples, and more blues than I can count. I don’t have to gamble for eridium, because enemies drop it (rarely), and I find it containers far more often than I did in MP.
I’ve looked at the patch notes and found no mention of them addressing any of these many issues.
So, that’s my story. I’m having fun. Seems a shame about the MP, though.
