Borderlands

Borderlands first released in 2009 and developed by Gearbox Software can best be described as a fun and charming looter shooter. Borderlands combines elements from different genres of games including the rarity level loot from action RPG’s along with intense FPS firefights. The version I played for this review is the updated game of the year version on xbox one, but I also played the original back when it came out.

Borderlands is a tough game to describe at its core. It has a specific gameplay loop of performing simple, mostly fetch quests while shooting your way through groups of enemies and looting everything along the way. I would say it is mostly an FPS game that uses RPG elements. The combat is very fun and satisfying and gets really intense and challenging at times. The variation in the action comes in the form of bazillions of weapons, and different types of enemies. Bazillions is not a real thing, or at least I think it isn’t, but the developers were quoted as stating the game features a Bazillion weapons. This statement is very true as every single weapon is essentially randomly generated, even special reward weapons. Each weapon has a few different categories of stats that will be randomly generated such as weapon zoom, damage output, fire rate, and magazine size. Despite having a ton of weapon loot and different stat configurations each class of weapons for the most part will feel similar and there are not enough differences between weapons to really utilize this type of system effectively. The classes include rifles, pistols/revolvers, SMG’s, snipers, rocket launchers, and shotguns. There are also special alien weapons that can be found as high-end loot. There are different rarities of weapons such as common, uncommon, rare, & legendary. Just because a gun is legendary does not mean it will have better stats than any other rarity.

Another highlight of Borderlands is the enemy design. Along the campaign you will encounter many different types of enemies including camps of bandits and psychos, colonies of spider ants, groups of puppy dog skags, and the ever-loving midget psychos. There are other types of enemies in the game, but to avoid spoilers I will let you discover those. Enemies will usually group up around objectives or in groups along the way creating very intense and fun group firefights. The enemies are all unique and designed well with a lot of character.

Borderlands gives the player some choice as well including the option to choose one of four-character classes each with their own unique ability and proficiencies. The soldier can deploy a turret that can be infused with healing and elemental attacks (proficient in rifles), the Siren can phase in and out for a damage blast and quick maneuverability (proficient in SMG’s), the hunter can summon an attack bird (proficient in snipers/pistols), and the berserker can go into super aggressive mode and pummel everything around him (proficient in rocket launchers). I have played most as a soldier, but have also dabbled in the other classes and they all seem fun to play in their own ways. Despite being proficient in one weapon each class can effectively use any weapons in the game. Each class also has a RPG like skill tree that can be customized to any playstyle, and a skill point is awarded for each level increase.

Borderlands is without issues of course. The weakest part of the game is the story. It is clear that this is not an epic RPG story type game, and the story that is here is very shallow and overally simplified. I really wish the story was better and more of a focus. There is also a lack of voice acting in the game with there being very little spoken dialogue other than audio logs. The bosses in the game also feel very weak compared to the rest of the gameply and enemies, and most of them can be killed in a few hits. They also lack the same charm as the base enemies. Since I have played mostly the GOTY edition I will also comment that the DLC’s are mostly just okay with some being super repetitive and tacked on. There are 5 total DLC packs and none of them really stand out as adding a ton to the game other than a little variety.

Another weak spot to the game is the traversal and vehicle sections. The vehicles are great to use to navigate between objectives to cut down on time and traversal and can be summoned for free at any catch a ride station. There are areas of the game which force the player into vehicle combat, and these sections are very weak including one vehicle combat boss fight where I died over and over again. The game is admittedly heavily co-op inspired, which I have not played, so the vehicle sections and shooting might be better with a partner manning the guns. The overall amount of backtracking and fetching for quests is another drawback to the game and it feels like too much time is wasted in just traversal. There is the option to fast travel to areas, but they don’t always get you to where you need to be. I will also mention the General Knox DLC contained so much vehicle driving and back and forth traversal that I nearly spent hours just driving between the same points as there are no fast travels in the dlc’s.

The graphical style of Borderlands is really nice. It is almost cell shaded but not quite fully cartoony. It is also hard to describe the visual style, but it is a style we do not see enough in video games. It is almost like adding a cartoon filter to a normally designed game but not fully cell shaded. The drawback with the visuals is that the game has a bland color scheme with a lot of just brown and gray scenery areas with nothing that is really bright or pops out with you. The overall aesthetic can be described as drab, but it does fit the atmosphere of the barren apocalyptic world. The gunfights and enemies look great. There is a lot of gore here, which is easily the best part of the visual package. The audio sounds nice as well with a fitting somber type background track that strongly intensifies during firefights. The guns and combat all sound great and the limited voice acting that is in the game is done well. It is worth noting that the original release of Borderlands had some technical issues mostly with slowdown and framerate, but the updated versions all run perfectly fine.

Overall Borderlands boils down to a really fun loot-based shooter that is not perfect but laid a really solid foundation for the series and keeps me entertained even 10+ years after its release. For its time in 2009 it was ambitious especially in regards to the co-op in the game and still holds up enough today to still be fun and engaging. Overall, I give Borderlands an 8/10 and is worth checking out at least once for any gamer. Those gamers looking for a grindy shooter will love Borderlands.