Borderlands

  Disclaimer : The following review was written based on my experience playing the game in single player mode. I understand some interactions may be different when playing it in Co-Op with others, so take it with a grain of salt.

 




Ah Borderlands, ever so convoluted and seemingly always delayed. It's finally here and is quite different from the game it had been originally pitched as, cosmetically if not anything else. The world of Pandora can be pretty fun if you go in with the proper mind set, but for a more casual shooter fan it can get repetitive and boring real fast. Here's my take on the game.

Borderlands is the long awaited sci-fi shooter brought to us by Gearbox Softwares and Take 2 Studios. This is the brain child of legendary game creator Randy Pitchford and is lovingly called "Diablo with guns", and boy are there guns in the game. According to Gearbox the final gun count for the game was a staggering 17.5 million guns. Of course most of these are just minor modifications on a base template, but that's besides the point. Borderlands was originally pitched as a more traditional gritty and very Unreal-Engine looking shooter before it received a complete visual over haul last year. The game is done completely in cell shading now and the new art style is by far the biggest saving grace of the game.



From left to right : Lilith, Mordecai, Brick, Roland.



Borderlands takes place on a distant planet called Pandora, home to a fabled vault which is full of alien technology, riches and sexy women .. or so the intro of the game will have you believe. You play as one of four characters, each with distinct skill tree's to upgrade. Besides skills there really isn't much of a difference between them though as each character can wield any weapon found in the game. Eg Mordecai's "sniper" tag is kind of useless when you realize the Soldier can handle a sniper rifle just as well. The game starts off with you seemingly arriving on the planet and meeting up with the little guide robot named "Clap Trap" who sets you off on your journey. Thankfully it doesn't accompany you along for long since it gets real annoying real fast.

The world of Pandora is divided into massive zones, kind of like the zones in World of Warcraft, but they are generally big enough to give you an open-world game feel. You can traverse the land on foot or via a handy vehicle which can be found for free at any vehicle vendor station spread across the planet. The car can be outfitted with weapons as well and it can be a really deadly asset, but the game compensates for this well by giving you meager amounts of experience points for any enemy killed via the vehicle. The bandits roaming across the lands will often be in vehicles of their own which can lead to some awesome car on car action sequences.



Besides some character specific upgrades, they all play exactly the same



Your cast includes Brick, the berserker. His unique ability is his enhanced melee combat skill, his special ability allows him to enter a Berserk rage mode where he becomes invulnerable for a while and his physical attacks deal massive damage. The sexy female prominent in most of the game's advertisement is Lilith, the Siren, her special skill is phase walking where she can travel through an alternate dimension to quickly and stealthily approach enemies and as a plus when she exits phase walk it creates a huge dimensional distortion around her which causes damage to everything caught in it. My personal favorite character of the game, Roland, dubs as the Soldier class, his skill tree's are the most well balanced for a regular gun user since they focus more on assault based perks and his special trait is a deploy-able turret that is always with him. The final character is Mordecai, the Hunter, he is slightly more proficient with a sniper rifle than the others but it's not really anything to write home about. His special trait is his pet eagle which can be deployed to strike enemies hiding in cover and bring them in the open.

The closest comparison to draw when looking at the game play is probably Fallout 3. Both games are played through the first person perspective ala a shooter but both games are RPG's under the hood. The difference is that where Fallout was more of an RPG mixed with an FPS. Borderlands is a lot more of an FPS mixed with an RPG. Confusing ? Naww. Borderlands plays a lot more like a traditional shooter with RPG elements thrown on for good measure. You gain experience points and level up for killing enemies, the skill points are only good for additionally beneficial perks. Most of the damage you deal will depend more on the guns you have than anything. You have a Halo style shield at all times which regenerates quickly or slowly depending on the kind you have, some shields even have the additional ability to regenerate your health as well, always appreciated. You will also find some modification based items that alter your gun stats a little bit like adding elemental damage or regenerating ammo, that's right .. regenerating AMMO. Besides that you have a limited amount of inventory space and you don't even have any kind of safe house to store your items either, this can be kind of a bummer since the whole point of the game is to show off crazy guns, but the game doesn't allow you to carry much of them around. You can find items that increase your inventory space, but it's never enough for a game that boasts 17 million guns on the box.



The look and feel of the game is generally the same as an FPS


The "loot whoring" is the meat and potatoes of the game. Besides some fixed guns received after boss battles, all the item drops from enemies and chests, the "loot" if you will, is completely randomly generated. You will find new guns coming out of every orifice in a newly killed enemy and ammo and money in every toilet lid you pick up, very reminiscent of Diablo. But just because you find new guns all the time doesn't mean you'll be using them. An average player will probably find an ideal gun "type" quickly and stick with it until he finds a better weapon in the same class. For example, my play through for the most part involved me using a fully automatic assault rifle with a large clip, even though I was picking up assault rifles with higher damage but limited to 3 shot bursts at a time, I would stick with the fully automatic and any weapon I would find in that class. Like the weapons, shields and mods are also generated randomly. It adds a nice incentive for replaying the game since no two item drops are likely to be the same and on second play through the game drops even stronger weapons to compensate for the higher leveled enemies.

Borderlands is NOT an epic adventure with an enthralling story or characters to drive you forward. If you're about to start the game with those expectations, you will be disappointed. What this game is however, is a nice throw back to the loot whoring days and for those gamers who want something to show off in a game, since some of the high level loot in the game is worth showing off. Pandora is a barren wasteland and you will run into all but 12 friendly human NPC's in the entire game. This is even more of a barren wasteland than the world of Fallout 3. The fact that every other place looks similar doesn't help the game's cause much either. The main quest line can take around 15 hours or so. The game does not have a difficulty selector and the AI is handled on the fly depending on how you're playing, so the game time may vary depending on how good of a player you are. Besides the un-interesting central plot line, there are a good amount of side quests spread through out the planet. Like the main quest though, these mostly just involve you going from point A to point B and either killing everyone there or finding an item and returning with it. The quest line could have used some variety and the game could generally have used some more story exposition to attract a bigger crowd, but the design choices seem deliberate and make sense for the kind of person the game is targeted at.



Loot is the word of the day, and it is found everywhere.



If you've played through the game once, there isn't much incentive besides finding higher leveled items or joining co-op with other players. Second play through start you off at a higher level and the game increases the enemy levels accordingly, dropping higher leveled loot along with it. I can understand how playing with friends can increase the fun and I would whole heartedly recommend you find three friends and play through the game with them.

The game features drop-in drop-out Co-op where you and three other people can play at the same time. The guests are always in the host's instance of the world so enemy levels are generally based on the host's level stats. Besides that the game features a split screen mode for local co-op as well which is greatly appreciated. There isn't any difference in the game or the world depending on the number of players, the game just throws more enemies to compensate for the higher player count. You can initiate duels with other players by attacking them with a melee weapon, and the fights end when one players health drops to zero. But there's nothing to gain from these duels, no exp, no boosts, it's just there for fun and letting out pent up rage.

Overall I didn't go in the game with high expectations, and the game matched accordingly. Kind of a let down since the world of Pandora has so much potential, it looks unique, but there's absolutely nothing to do there. The unique visual style and high emphasis on guns sets it apart from most modern WRPG's. The game is decent, if not great.


Value / Worth : 7/10
The quest is of decent length and there are plenty of side quests to increase the game clock, but the variety is lacking and there aren't generally many "different" things to do in the game.


Graphics : 8.5/10
Some odd slowdowns during combat mar the otherwise visually interesting world of Pandora. The visual art style does a great job of setting it apart from the crowd.


Sound : 6/10
Not much to score in this category, the half dozen music tracks keep repeating in the world and there isn't much voice acting besides the odd cut scenes here and there. It's all passable.


Gameplay : 8/10
It plays like a decent shooter with RPG elements. There's not much to talk about. One thing you should remember though is that the accuracy stat of a gun really DOES make a difference, even if you're right next to the enemy.


Multiplayer : ??/10
Haven't played much of the multi player, but I have seen enough to form a general opinion that playing with friends will always be more enjoyable than playing with strangers.


Overall : 7.5/10
If loot whoring is your foray, you will feel right at home. But if you're someone who prefers their games to have decent story lines and characters, you will be disappointed.