‘Borderlands 2’ is Free for Mac and PC, But You’ll Have to Hurry!
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Gearbox, 2K, and Take-Two Interactive will soon release Borderlands 4, the latest installment in the long-running Borderlands franchise. To promote the impending release, the trio is making Borderlands 2 free for Mac and PC users. But, you’ll have to move quickly to grab it before it’s gone.
To get the game for free, you’ll need a Steam account. Make sure to log in and download the game before June 8 at 1:00 p.m. ET. After this deadline, the game will cost its usual price of $20.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Borderlands 2 is a popular first-person loot shooter. Part of the reason for the game’s popularity is its dark sense of humor and its stylized design. As of November 2022, more than 77 million copies of games in the Borderlands series have been sold, with Borderlands 2 accounting for 26 million of those.
The Borderlands games are first-person shooters set in an open world that also include some role-playing video game (RPG) elements. Players select their character from a range of options and must fight their way through multiple missions while collecting and using increasingly powerful weapons and other gear. The game can be played as cooperative multiplayer, or it can be played solo, depending on your feelings about such things.
The first game in the series, Borderlands, was released in 2009 and proved immensely popular with gamers, leading to the sequel Borderlands 2 being released in 2012. The sequel also scored well with players and critics.
Players must complete quests and defeat foes to earn in-game funds and experience, which expands the player’s skill tree. If a player is killed or falls into a bottomless pit, they will respawn at the most recent checkpoint but only after losing some of their funds. The games are divided into several maps, and players can teleport to any previously visited area of the map upon reaching a waypoint station on the map. Otherwise, players must reach certain points on the edges of the map to move into a different area.
A central feature of the game is its loot system, which generates pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, shield generators, grenade modifications, and class modifications. Gamers can pick up items dropped by foes and found in containers around the battlefields, or they can be gained as rewards for completing quests.
All the games in the series are rendered in a comic book-like fashion, using fully realized hand-drawn textures and adding noticeable outlines to create the appearance of a comic book-ish world.
While the game was released in 2012, back when Intel-powered Macs ruled the roost, the game still plays well on Apple Silicon-powered Macs, thanks to Rosetta 2.
Interested gamers can log in to their Steam account and download and install the game for free, but only until June 8 at 1:00 pm Eastern Time (12 p.m. Central Time, 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time). If you don’t have a Steam account, you can sign up for one free on the Steam website or in the Steam app.
Borderlands 4 is scheduled for a September 2025 release on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, and Windows platforms.
