This is a great summary of the game, I just wanted to add on that you don’t necessarily have to start a new character for expeditions. They added the “Expedition Terminus” in the Space Anomaly a few updates back, which lets you start the expedition from an existing save.
That said, I always start a new character, because those first couple hours where I’m trying to get on my feet are always the most challenging for me, and that keeps the game fresh by pushing me outside my usual style of engaging with the game.
Definitely looks like more Borderlands.
I really enjoyed 1 and 2, played through the main story in both at least two times. I installed 3 over a year (two years?) ago and just completely stalled out on it, so it remains unfinished.
I really liked the low-gravity aspect of Pre Sequel, and the more immersive thematic elements of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands… Hopefully there’s something like those things here, that really adds on to the core gameplay loop, and not just additional in-game currencies or another elemental damage type.
In addition to a few I’ve seen posted already (Stardew Valley especially)…
This is exactly it for me. Everything else was really enjoyable – but then it just suddenly ends. There’s no freeplay after completing the main story. They went so far as to show a text warning, stating the game is about to end, and you have to confirm to proceed. After that, the only way back in is to load a previous save. I really wanted that unstructured exploration time, like you get after finishing the main story in Skyrim/Fallout/etc.
!Also, I think the “slideshow” style presentation for the ending contributed to this problem. A nice cinematic ending would have had way more weight and felt less tacked-on for me.!<
Return to Moria for me. I picked it up for free from Epic recently and it’s all I’ve played since. Going solo and I just made it to the Pilgrim Road waypoint.