This man seemed to be a far cry from the one I met in Borderlands 2, so I proceeded to play Pre-Sequel waiting for a turn something that would show Jack turn from man into monster. I had assumed that many of Borderlands 2’s fans had just as many questions about Jack as I did after finishing the game, and naturally thought that the Pre-Sequel’s focus on a pre-mask Jack would give me the answers I so desired.Īt the beginning of 2K Australia’s try at Borderlands, Jack is working as a lower-level Hyperion employee, and seems to genuinely have concerns for the innocent lives of Pandora’s citizens. Thankfully, I was able to immediately jump into the Pre-Sequel, the game meant to act as Jack’s origin story. ”You’re a savage! You’re a maniac, you are a bandit, and I am the goddamn hero!” – Handsome Jack The fact that Jack’s final words were of someone who was far more gray than the cartoon villain I met in Tales from the Borderlands made me all the more interested to learn about the man behind the mask. Jack was steadfast in his belief that everything he did, from imprisoning his daughter to awakening a monster capable of obliterating entire civilizations on Pandora, was all for the greater good. As the player, I still had a ton of questions about the man I’d just slain, only to be very quickly ushered to the credits.Įven so, in Jack’s final moments, he swore that I was the villain of this story, and that he was the hero. Unfortunately, Borderlands 2 ended on a rather abrupt note, with the most interesting character in the game’s death being treated with little ceremony. That level of intimidation and danger stayed with Jack up until the point where he was killed, revealing a branding of the vault symbol underneath the mask he wore through the entirety of Borderlands 2. It wasn’t until the midpoint, where Jack was revealed to have been holding his daughter Angel prisoner in order to utilize her abilities, that this one-liner spewing antagonist became someone that felt like a legitimate threat.
Originally a man I only knew by reputation, Jack’s charisma, sense of humor, and dashing good looks won me over in the hours I spent playing Tales’ second episode “Atlas Mugged.” For more than any other reason, I wanted to go back and play Borderlands 2 and The Pre-Sequel to understand this enigma of a villain, which made the recent release of the Handsome Collection pretty perfectly timed.īorderlands 2’s focus on the past of the original Borderlands vault hunters meant that Jack was pretty absent early on through the game’s campaign, having pretty much existed solely to taunt me over my walkie. Jack’s appearance as an AI in Tales from the Borderlands is the reason that TellTale’s adaptation is currently at the top of my Game of the Year list. Unlike most fans of this Hyperion dictator, my first exposure to Handsome Jack was through TellTale’s Tales from the Borderlands (which I’m currently reviewing here at Gaming Trend), and in the few hours that he appeared in this adventure game spin-off, Borderlands’ signature villain made a huge impression on me. There aren’t many characters in games that have grabbed me as quickly as Borderlands’ Handsome Jack.
0 kommentar(er)
