Borderlands 2 recently announced its 58 hour campaign, but with length comes the prospect of monotony. The original game’s repetitive, Skag-centric opening may have made for a grindingly slow start, but the sequel hopes to maintain its momentum throughout by bolstering the number of different enemies you will encounter.
Jasper Formen, Gearbox’s lead AI programmer, recently detailed some of the enemies within the game to Joystiq, and it sounds as if variety and stupidity will no longer be a problem.
Whilst there are only 15-20 seperate enemy types in Borderlands 2, each will have numerous variants resulting in between 200-300 different enemies in total. It seems strange that such a large range would be attributed to what one would assume is known data, but the complex nature of the variations apparently makes a definitive number impossible to pin down.
Each individual is also smarter than any enemy AI found within the first game. I wouldn’t expect one of them to be quoting Proust as he runs towards you, but perhaps that run will have slightly more strategy behind it.
Borderlands 2 is going to be, if nothing else, filled with content. Whilst many of these enemies will be fairly similar to one another, slight variation could change which ammo is the most effective or who in your team is the best equipped to take them down. Every new announcement demonstrates that this sequel has grown tremendously, and my anticipation has only ever done the same.