I put off getting Gearbox's Borderlands for a bit over a week after the release because I just wasn't sure if this was the game for me. The commercials made it appealing, as did all of the reviews I read, but for $60, I just wasn't sure about this one. Finally, I decided to take a chance and it paid off.
The first thing you need to know about Borderlands is that if you're not playing this via online or LAN with friends or stranger (either one), then you're probably wasting your time and money. The single-player experience can be boring and frustrating, but when three other players join in for co-op gameplay, you get a mash-up of Phantasy Star Online set in a Fallout 3-esque environment with FPS gameplay similar to Halo and Call of Duty.
You start off by picking one of four characters: Roland the gun-toting soldier, Lilith the stealth/magic femme, Mordecai the sniper/assassin, and Brick the boxer/tank. Then you guide that character through the familiar RPG "fetch and return" and "kill and/or collect x amount of y" quests throughout the large landscapes and varied dungeons. The overarching story is to find the secret Vault while being guided by a mysterious woman who talks to you in your mind. Don't expect an epic or deep plot here. It serves no other reason than for you to go out and kill things.
Unlike similar titles like Fallout 3 and Hellgate: London, which use an under-the-hood die roll system to determine combat results, Borderlands has a pure hit or miss factor depending on your aim. If you hit the body, it takes damage. A bullet to the head resutls in a critical hit, causing more damage. So aiming plays a large part in how hard an encounter will be for you. Also, your overall level, weapon level, and weapon proficiency play a large part in the amount of damage you output. If you use the shotgun a lot, then you'll become extremely dangerous with a shotgun. The same goes for pistols, machine guns, rifles, etc.
Questing and leveling are not the only RPG elements in Borderlands. The skill tree will be familiar to many Diablo 2 and World of Warcraft players. Each character has three distinctive skill trees to apply skill points towards. So even though you may find yourself playing with another Roland, the abilities between the two of you may be noticeably different depending on your skill point allocations. You might spec your Roland to be an all-out damage dealer with guns, the other guys may spec more of a medic, causing his friendly fire to heal teammates. You don't have to worry about being stuck with a particular spec either. You can re-spec anytime, but at a cash cost.
The loot system has it's pros and cons for me. First of all, there are a LOT of different weapons to find. Some are the same items, but may do fire damage or ice damage, etc, or have different firing rates and magazine sizes. I love feeling of opening a chest or looting an enemy and not knowing what goodies are going to be there. Besides, guns, you'll get randomly generated items including, ammo, grenades and grenade modifiers (fire, corrosion, ice, shock, stickies, bouncies, HP transfusions, etc), gear in the form of power shields, and support mods that affect skill tree allocation. There are color indicators, similar to that of World of Warcraft, that determines rarity (white, green, blue, purple, and orange). This brings me to what I don't like about loot. The game lacks a reasonable way to distribute loot between players other than people making a mad dash for the drops and grabbing whatever they can, regardless of if they can use it or not or it being better suited for another party member, and selling it for cash if it's not an upgrade for them. Also if you want to trade or give an item to another party member, then you have to drop it on the ground and hope the right person picks it up. This can be extremely frustrating if not playing with friends or trusted gamers.
The visual style of Borderlands just works. The use of solid outlining and bold colors gives it that Street Fighter IV painted look, completely different from the other Unreal Engine 3 titles. This makes the post-apocalyptic industrial wasteland come alive and complements the (at times) over-the-top silliness of the game. The art style is a constant reminder not to take the game too seriously when I see a shotgun-toting midget running at me or boss who gives me the Degeneration X crotch slap before trying to blow my head off.
As I said before, the game really becomes fun when you add three others into the mix. The more players there are, the harder the enemies become. The harder enemies become, the better the loot becomes. Plus, it's more exciting when you walk into a town full of gun-toting baddies and the group has to work together to survive. Whether you trying to peel a crazed axe-wielder off of your teammate or as a medic, shooting him with healing bullets to keep him alive, the more, the merrier. There are some arena areas that allow for PvP or just whacking an teammate and waiting for them to accept the challenge can start a versus mode, but that usually a way to tell when party members are getting bored or the level 50 cap has been reached and, well, they're bored.
Death in Borderlands does not mean the end of the fight. While you're down, you have an opportunity to kill an enemy to get a "Second Wind" that brings you back into the fray before bleeding out and respawning. Players can also revive you but at the risk of exposing themselves to danger while doing so. It's extremely frustrating to get taken down during single play, miss the "Second Wind", and have to no one to revive you, resulting in a respawn that incurs a fee each time.
Many of the boss fights were anti-climatic. Whether in single-player or multi-player, you'll basically find yourself strafing or circling the enemy while shooting everything you have at a weak spot until he drops. Some bosses are able to be exploited by just staying out of engage range and sniping them until they die.
Many other reviewers had a problem with having to drive or run for long distances throughout the game. I really didn't mind it because it drew me into the massiveness of the areas. Although, without an overlaying map or minimap, it was frustrating to have to constantly pause the game to check the big map for positions an routes. I'm hoping that this, along with the loot and trading system, is something that Gearbox fixes in patches.
All in all, Borderlands was well worth the money I spent for it. Combining an awesome FPS experience with solid RPG elements and sealing the deal with enjoyable multi-player gameplay keeps me coming back for more even after the 30-ish hours of the main story has been completed. I'm looking forward to the DLC that Gearbox has on the horizon.
Labels: Douceswild, PC-Games, PS3, Videogames, XBox-360
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