The Epic Games Store Is Giving Away Borderlands: The Handsome Collection For Free On PC Until June 4
by Matt Hopkins
After recently giving away Grand Theft Auto V and Civilization VI, the Epic Games Store is now offering Borderlands: The Handsome Collection for free on PC until June 4. If you download it now, it’s yours to keep forever.
This article has been sponsored by the Epic Games Store.
The Handsome Collection contains Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and all 50 of their associated DLC packs. In terms of total value, Steam puts it at $339.46, all of which you'll receive for absolutely nothing.
Upon its release in 2012, Kotaku called the RPG-like looter shooter "a charming, funny, hell of a cooperative game with lots of style and personality that you can spend hours with," and thanks to its cel-shaded stylings, the experience more than holds up today from a visual standpoint. Among writer Tina Amini's favourite things about the Gearbox title are its near-limitless number of guns, creative enemies, vibrant personality and excellent dialogue.
Where Borderlands 2 is set on the planet of Pandora, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel primarily takes place on its moon, Elpis. Unlike its predecessors which were developed in the US, Gearbox was keen for 2K Australia to take a stab at a new and different game set within the greater Borderlands universe, giving the Canberra-based team a huge amount of creative freedom.
As former Kotaku Editor Mark Serrels pointed out, this was a unique challenge for the Aussie devs given that the flavour of Borderlands up to that point was "distinctively American". When it came time to provide some placeholder voiceovers, the team put on their best American accents and sent them off to Gearbox HQ.
“We love it. We love that you’ve decided that the moon is Australia,” the US team said a few days later. From that point on, 2K Australia leaned heavily into what was initially an accident, injecting a kind of Crocodile Dundee charm into Elpis and its inhabitants. Borderlands franchise director Matt Armstrong told Serrels that the game had so much Aussie slang, he had no idea what the characters were talking about, and he loved it.
If you're keen to pick up Borderlands: The Handsome Collection for yourself, be sure to jump into the Epic Games Store and claim your copy for free on PC before June 4. Once it's in your library, it's yours to keep forever.