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Borderlands: The Handsome Collection is a compilation of first-person shooter games developed by Gearbox Software and published by Take-Two Interactive for the Nintendo Switch. The collection consists of both Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. It was released digitaly and as part of the Borderlands Legacy Collection.

Gameplay

Borderlands 2

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

Plot

Borderlands 2

The game opens with six Vault Hunters (Axton, Gaige, Krieg, Maya, Salvador, and Zer0) aboard a Hyperion train on Pandora. Jack, supposedly supporting them, suddenly sabotages the train and leaves the Vault Hunters for dead in a frozen wasteland. The Vault Hunters are found by the last remaining CL4P-TP ("Claptrap") unit. The Guardian Angel contacts the Vault Hunters and instructs them to accompany Claptrap to the city of Sanctuary, and to join the Crimson Raiders, an anti-Hyperion resistance movement made up of former Atlas soldiers and Pandoran citizens, in order to defeat Handsome Jack.

Upon arriving at the gates of Sanctuary, the Vault Hunters are asked to rescue Roland, now leader of the Crimson Raiders, who has been captured by a bounty hunter called the Firehawk. The Vault Hunters meet the Firehawk, who turns out to be Lilith, whose powers as a Siren have been significantly enhanced by the new supply of eridium. Lilith informs the Vault Hunters that Roland was actually captured by a group of bandits. After fighting through the bandits' territory, the Vault Hunters rescue Roland and return to Sanctuary.

Roland and Lilith learn that that the Vault Key stolen from Tannis is being transported aboard a Hyperion train, and ask the Vault Hunters to retrieve it. To accomplish the mission, the Vault Hunters enlist the aid of former Vault Hunter Mordecai, and of Tiny Tina, a psychotic, explosives-obsessed girl. The Vault Hunters derail the train, but instead of finding the Vault Key they encounter Wilhelm, a powerful Hyperion cyborg and one of Handsome Jack's enforcers. The Vault Hunters kill Wilhelm and recover his power core, which Roland recommends be used as the power source for Sanctuary's shields. The power core turns out to be a trap; it allows the Guardian Angel, who is actually working for Jack, to lower the city's shields and render it vulnerable to a bombardment from Helios. Lilith saves Sanctuary, which was originally a large spacecraft, by activating its engines and teleporting it away to the sky.

Handsome Jack's plan is to open Pandora's second Vault and unleash the "Warrior", a powerful Eridian monster controlled by whoever releases it; knowing that the Vault Key only charges itself once every 200 years, he is using Eridium to forcefully charge it. Angel communicates with the group in Sanctuary, and divulges that the Vault Key is kept with her in a heavily guarded Hyperion facility. The Vault Hunters embark upon a series of missions in order to assemble what is needed to overcome the facility's defenses, including obtaining an upgrade for Claptrap, visiting the Hyperion city of Opportunity, and enlisting the aid of Brick, now leader of the Slab clan of bandits. During the process, Mordecai's pet bird Bloodwing is captured and killed by Jack; Mordecai vows revenge and joins the other three former Vault Hunters at Sanctuary. Roland and the Vault Hunters assault the Hyperion compound and meet Angel, who is not only a real person, but a Siren, and Jack's own daughter. She requests to be killed in order to stop her father from using her to charge the Vault Key and gaining control of the Warrior. Jack sends in waves of security forces to protect his daughter, but ultimately, Roland, Lilith and the Vault Hunters successfully kill Angel. An enraged Jack teleports in, kills Roland, and captures Lilith, whom he uses to resume charging the Vault Key in Angel's stead. Before Jack can force Lilith to kill the Vault Hunters, she teleports them out of the facility and back to Sanctuary.

Mordecai and Brick decide to learn the location of the second Vault to confront Handsome Jack. While the Vault Hunters travel to the Hyperion Information Annex and obtain the Vault's location, the two steal a Hyperion ship. The Vault Hunters approach on foot, battling Hyperion forces, while Brick and Mordecai are shot down but left alive. Ultimately, the Vault Hunters find and defeat Jack himself but are unable to prevent him from opening the Vault. Jack summons the Warrior, and the Vault Hunters manage to kill it and either execute Jack or leave the task to Lilith in the aftermath.

Brick and Mordecai arrive just as Lilith attempts to destroy the Vault Key. However, she accidentally activates a secret information bank within the Key, containing a huge map of the galaxy with several Vaults marked on it. Lilith remarks that "there ain't no rest for the wicked" before the screen cuts to black. During the credits, various scenes are shown of the Pandorans celebrating Handsome Jack's defeat and taking back their planet from the remaining Hyperion forces, Lilith becoming the new leader of the Crimson Raiders, the Vault Hunters being hailed as heroes for their deeds, Lilith, Brick and Mordecai mourning Roland, and Mordecai hatching and raising a new pet bird called Talon.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

The opening of The Pre-Sequel begins some time after the events of Borderlands 2, on the flying city of Sanctuary, where the three former Vault Hunters Lilith, Brick, and Mordecai interrogate the ex-Atlas assassin Athena after having captured her. Athena recounts her story, starting after the death of General Knoxx, when she received an offer to go find a Vault on Pandora's moon, Elpis, from a Hyperion programmer named Jack. She joins fellow Vault Hunters Claptrap, Nisha, Wilhelm, Timothy, and Aurelia on a spaceship headed for the Hyperion moon base Helios. On the way, they are ambushed by the Lost Legion, an army of former Dahl marines led by Colonel Tungsteena Zarpedon, and crash-land onto the moon base. After meeting up with Jack, they attempt to use Helios' defense system against the Lost Legion, but realizes there is a jamming signal coming from Elpis. They attempt to escape, but are stopped by Zarpedon and a mysterious alien warrior, so Jack stays behind to fend them off and sends the Vault Hunters to Elpis via a moonshot rocket.

After landing on Elpis, the Vault Hunters are helped by Janey Springs, a junk dealer who guides them to the spaceport town Concordia. Here, the Hunters, under Jack's orders, request help from his ex-girlfriend Moxxi to find the jamming signal. After raiding a former Dahl station, they find out that the signal was put up by the Meriff, the person in charge of Concordia, as well as Jack's former Hyperion underling. While this is happening, Zarpedon activates Helios' primary weapon, the Eye of Helios, which fires a powerful beam on the surface of Elpis, stating she plans to destroy the moon to stop Jack from opening the Vault. Jack confronts and kills the Meriff at his office. With Concordia secured, Jack and Moxxi guide the Vault Hunters to the next step in retaking Helios. They infiltrate a Lost Legion base, run by two Dahl officers, the Bosun and the Skipper, in search of a military artificial intelligence, which Jack plans to use to build a robot army. After defeating the Bosun, it is revealed that the Skipper, who renames herself Felicity, is the A.I. they were looking for. The Vault Hunters travel to a robot production facility, where Jack enlists the help of another Hyperion scientist named Gladstone to build his robot army. Gladstone suggests using his prototype robot, named the Constructor, which has the ability to build an infinite number of robots. At first, Felicity agrees to help them by becoming the A.I. for the Constructor, but upon witnessing the violence she has to go through, she begins to hesitate. After being forced into the Constructor bot, she takes control of it and battles the Vault Hunters. Felicity is defeated, and her personality is deleted from the Constructor bot.

Having obtained his robot army, Jack and the Vault Hunters travel to Helios, while enlisting the aid of Moxxi and two former Vault Hunters, Roland and Lilith (who were on Elpis for a vacation). While on Helios, Jack ruthlessly kills Gladstone and the other scientists working for him after suspecting one of them to be a spy for the Lost Legion. The Vault Hunters defeat Zarpedon and her forces, and proceed to reboot the Eye of Helios. It is revealed that the Eye is actually the eye of the Destroyer, the monster that was released from Pandora's Vault in the first game, which Jack took and made into a weapon. The Vault Hunters inject slag (Eridium runoff made by Hyperion) into the Eye, under Moxxi's directions. When attempting to reboot, Moxxi, Roland and Lilith betray Jack and destroy the Eye to prevent him from gaining ultimate power. Seeking revenge, Jack and the Vault Hunters travel back to Elpis, where they find its Vault having already been opened, as mentioned by Zarpedon before her death. The Hunters battle several of the Vault's guardians, and defeat its ultimate guardian, the Deva-like Empyrean Sentinel.

With the Sentinel dead, Jack enters the Vault, but finds no item of value, other than a mysterious symbol floating in midair. As he interacts with it, the symbol shows Jack a vision of the Warrior. However, he is interrupted by Lilith, who phasewalks in front of him and punches through the Vault symbol, burning it onto Jack's face and disfiguring him. She teleports away, leaving a scarred and insane Jack behind, who swears vengeance on Lilith and all the "bandits" on Pandora, now intent on awakening the Warrior to take over the planet. Realizing that the hero who once saved her on Helios is no more, Athena leaves Jack's employ.

Having finished listening to Athena's story, Lilith orders the Crimson Raiders to execute her, against Brick and Mordecai's protests. However, as they open fire on her, Athena is saved by the alien warrior who appeared on Helios with Zarpedon, revealed to be one of the legendary Eridians. The Eridian warns the Vault Hunters of an imminent war, and that they will need "all the Vault Hunters they can get".

During the credits, several scenes are shown revealing what became of the Vault Hunters after helping Jack. Wilhelm and Nisha join Jack in his rise to power; Wilhelm is transformed further into a machine and destroys the settlement of New Haven while Nisha is made Lynchwood's sheriff and hooks up with Jack, who proceeds to raise an army, Athena discards the money given to her by Jack and leaves Elpis, and Claptrap is dismantled and left for dead by Jack at Windshear Waste. In a post-credit scene, Jack, now going by the name Handsome Jack and wearing a synthetic mask to hide his facial scarring, kills his CEO, Harold Tassiter, and announces to Tassiter's secretary on an intercom that he has replaced him as the new head of Hyperion.

Reception

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