Borderlands

Borderlands




Borderlands by gearbox is a well thought out game with the attempt to combine RPG (role playing game) elements with FPS (first person shooter) elements. It actually pulls it off and pulls it off well. The story is about a Vault that promises vast riches and power that only opens up every 200 years on this wasteland of a planet whose inhabitants have gone a little nuts, to say the least. You are an outsider (1 out of 4 different “classes”) who’s sent to find this vault now that it’s about time for it to open again. You are guided throughout the game by a strange girl who appears every now and then through a satellite feed. There are several thousand different weapons in the game that drop very much like any RPG out there…off of dead enemies and chests. The weapons, armor and grenade mods are of different quality symbolized by the color of the name (white, blue, purple and orange being the rarest). Any veteran of mmorpgs will recognize the loot system.

Pros:

Sold graphics that is a mixture of comic book art with cell shaded graphics. Thus, giving the look of playing in a well animated comic book. The visuals are very nice and give the feel of being on a wasteland of a planet. The RPG element is well imbedded into the game with the loot, character customization (standard skill trees) and quest system play style. The first person element of the game is very smooth and easy to use. The game plays very well as a whole with the constant drive to find that ever elusive purple or if your very lucky orange quality weapon.

The game has a very high replay value with the level system and other classes to play each with their own unique play style and “special ability”. The online is nothing more than a 2-4 person co-op of the one player game and it actually does this very well. Even the split screen modes plays out smooth.

There is dueling and an arena for a little pvp action that is a lot of fun as well. As long as your not trying to acctualy beat someone 5 or more levels higher then you.

Cons:

The story is full of holes that kind of leave you asking “huh?” by the end of the game. The ending is not what you would be hoping for with all the effort you put into the game. However, it does leave the game open for DLC (downloadable content) and a possible borderlands 2. Its very easy to bypass a lot of the story by skipping the quest text and can easily be done by mistake (yes, I know there is a quest log to go back in and look, but lets be real how many of us are going to do that when we have so many skags to blast apart?).

Score:

9 out of 10

A very addicting game that is well worth getting.