Borderlands

Interesting day, almost got arrested for walking at the watertower trail. Police guy saw me walking by the part that goes near the waste treatment plant and asked for my ID and took down a bunch of info. He knew my brother Matt (who is in the state police) so he didn't do anything, but I wonder what would have happened if he didn't? Funny thing is I've been going down there for years and mom has literally gone down there six days a week for over 15 years. Guy said they had to be careful after 9/11.

So yesterday I finished Borderlands, a new game out on the 360, PS3, and PC. I played the 360 version though the shots I've seen comparing it to other versions doesn't make the other versions look any better or worse. Being that I just beat it, figured it would be a good game to review (the reason for the lack of updates being my playing the game so much). Also with the new system of giving the pluses and minuses per pro or con, I think I'm gonna remove the Closing Remarks section as it's sorta redundant as it was where I weighted the pros and cons.

Borderlands

Overall:

Borderlands is a fun FPS/RPG from Gearbox Software and 2K Games (whom you might remember from Bioshock and Elder Scrolls IV). You play as one of four characters (each one representing a different class, well rounded Soldier, melee and explosive oriented Berserker, elemental focused Siren, or sniper Mordecai) exploring the planet Pandora in search of a mythical "Vault" that is said to contain riches and power for whoever finds it left behind by an alien civilization. Obviously this won't be easy and the planet is essentially a series of slums and bandit camps. The game plays as a FPS but the damage you do is determined by your level, the feats you take at each level up, the damage stat your gun has, whether you critted, your proficiency with that type of weapon, and whatnot. The damage you take is the same way (though I don't think the enemy can crit on you) and you can take all kinds of skills that raise your max HP or shields or improve reload time or accuracy. You take missions from various townfolk and bounty boards to further your progress or just do side quests for fun.

Pros:

This game has a lot of quests for you to do (+0.50) so you have a lot of ways to explore the game world and level. If you do a lot of the quests you should never need to grind (+0.25) specifically to level or find better weapons, though you certainly can if you want. Speaking of exploring, there are all kinds of little things to find if you go out and check out different areas. From little Clap Trap robots (saving them gives you a larger inventory to hold more items) to caches of weapons that are usually better then what enemies drop, as well as just finding little (or large) groups of bandits or wildlife to fight(+0.75). The wildlife tend to appear in packs with different kinds of strengths (Pup Skags, Adult Skags, Spitter Skags, Elder Skags, Badass Skags, Alpha Skags, Fire Skags, Corrosive Skags, ect for example)(+0.50).

Another positive aspect is the incredibly large variety of guns(+1.0). They have several types that you can earn proficiency in (shotgun, smg, rocket launcher, ect) but even within that group there are numerous different guns per each level. You might have a pistol made by one of the 8 or 9 different corporations that you have to be level 10 to use, but that corporation might have several pistols for level 10 and up characters but each one of THOSE comes with random little positives and negatives (Slightly larger clip size, faster or slower reload time, better or worse accuracy, a mod to shoot fire/shock/explosive/corrosive rounds ect.) so even two guns for the same level character made by the same company could have different stats and work differently. Obviously the commercial saying "87 bazillion guns" is exaggerating but I could easily believe the number of different combinations is in the millions. So you're always on the lookout for better and newer guns as you go (obviously higher level enemies will drop higher level guns).



Multiplayer is another big aspect of the game, they strongly encourage co-op (either split screen or via Xbox Live but sadly not both at the same time) and to keep things interesting the enemies get stronger and the loot they drop gets better with more people(+0.50). It also helps to have different classes out there to cover your weakness or get you up if you're down (you go into a L4D like thing where you're on the ground shooting enemies as your health drains, though if you kill an enemy you come back with a tiny amount of health, other players can revive you as well if they get to you fast enough).

I like the humor and style of the game as well(+0.75). All kinds of neat little references and fun enemies to fight. Who doesn't like blowing away a "Psycho Midget" wielding a machete or fighting a boss named "Mad Mel" who drives a vehicle not unlike a certain famous similarly named movie character? The game doesn't take itself too seriously and that's a good thing cause I think if they did it would be too "extreme" to work well(+0.25).

+4.5

Cons:

I noticed a couple of glitchy quests where an item you were looking for wouldn't appear unless you left an area and came back, but these were limited to a sub-set of side quests where you had to find parts of a certain kind of gun and one of them wouldn't appear where it should and you'd have to come back later (or the game would get confused and keep pointing you towards a part you already got, not sure which was going on)(-0.50). A smaller glitch I noticed was that some achievements just don't unlock when they should. Granted that doesn't interfere with game play, but it's something that's pretty easy to catch (especially since the two I noticed were ones you'd have to try to not get) so I would have expected better of them(-0.25).

The game has a good intro but after that the story is told via the quests (usually the little text you see after you complete it) or in-game and Borderlands isn't able to do it in a way that the Half Life series can(-0.50). The story isn't bad, it could just be presented better, except the ending, that was just sorta disappointing(-0.25).

Another problem with the game is that the environments do tend to start looking the same after a while, being mostly a desert/junkyard cross(-0.50). That's sorta the theme of the game, but it could use a few different areas (the last area looks different but you need a little more then that) that stand out throughout the game.

Lastly, the classes all have a focus but could use some more specification(-0.25). I'm not saying don't allow certain classes to use certain weapons as that would diminish the fun, but I know there is some overlap in the skill tree and if they had more options and less skills that all or several classes could learn I think it would benefit the game. Also, the player vs player aspect felt a little tacked on (-0.25). You can melee a friend playing with you to fight them (they have to accept) but there's no reason to and until you get ways to quickly heal yourself later on is a pain in the ass to recover from (especially if you lose).

-2.5

Overall Rating:9.0/10