Borderlands

Borderlands Review

Developer: Gearbox Software

Publisher: 2K Games

Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, OnLive

Release date: October 20, 2009

Genre: First Person Shooter Action Role Playing Game

Possibly one of the greatest titles ever release. This game is the perfect game for you if you like to play FPS co-op and RPG’s. First things first though. In this game you choose to play as one of four bounty hunters on a desert planet called pandora trying to find the treasure of what is referred to as the vault (I found this pretty funny since I had just come off a Fallout 3 binge, hah). It’s one of those legendary treasures that your character grew up hearing about so everyone thinks you’re crazy for trying. Some people pretty much say ah what the hell, you’re crazy but that’s who I need to complete this task for me. For some reason though you keep getting these cryptic messages in your head from an unkown entity that helps you towards finding the vault, and she keeps displaying herself as an angel type thing.

As you progress through the story you find that there is this mega corporation named Atlas that is also after the vault. They of course threaten you to try to keep you away from the vault and hand over any info you have on it, but who cares you’re a badass bounty hunter. You kick their ass, of course. So while venturing for the vault you find only one other person actively looking for the vault, too bad she’s bat shit crazy. Actually it’s pretty awsome, she is some of the best comedic releaf I have experienced. Don’t worry she helps you get to where you need to go, maybe not always where you want to go but then it just wouldn’t be as entertaining. In the end you wind going through these ancient alien ruins fighting off ancient alien created android gaurds just to find that the Atlas bitch that was pestering you so much has beaten you there. Turns out that there is a gaurdian that is released when the vault is opened and it scewers the Atlas chick like a cabob (damn, I was really looking forward to killing that cunt). So you kill this huge ass creature that is gaurding the vault but for some reason you don’t get to go into the vault. I felt so jipped when that happened. I was like “this is garbage, I want my money back”, hahahaha, sorry inside joke. Oh yeah, you know that angel that kept talking in your head, she’s a satalite (son of a bitch!).

Like I said, there are four different characters you can choose to play. There is Mordecai, Lilith, Roland, and Brick. Mordecai is my main homie in this game, he is just such a smart ass and has a pet hawk that helps you kill fools. How awsome is that? Very that’s how. Anyway Mordecai is the hunter class who is proficient with sniper rifles and revolvers. His special attack is his pet hawk Bloodwing. Lilith is the siren class who is proficient with elemental ammo and can fight while invisible with hyperspeed for a short while. Roland the soldier class specializes in rifles and shotguns. Roland is able to deploy and turret with a shield and is the only character with a medic class (I think it’s awsome that you can heal your friends by shooting them). Then there’s Brick, he is the berserker class, the classic brawn over brains character in almost every RPG. Brick is skilled with exposive weapons and has probably the most satisfying special ever, the ablility to withstand all damage and just flat out pummel your enemies to mulch (I love hearing brick yell for more blood). Each character has 3 skill trees that you can fill with points you earn while leveling. Which skill tree you use can greatly effect your gameplay and there is usually group effects for playing co-op in at least one skill tree for each character.

When seeing how the graphics looked in previews of this game prior to launch I was weary about how the game would look. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Gearbox had decided to make the game cel-shaded. It gave the game a very comic-like look and allowed the game to still look beautiful while conserving memory. This was needed because of the fact that Borderlands has BILLIONS OF GUNS! Gearbox had actually created and engine that created random guns from specs that had been programmed into it.

Playing this game felt very natural to me. The controls were smooth with no lag (essential for a FPS), and navigating things like inventory and the questlog were very easy. This game was definitely made to be a c0-op game. Don’t get me wrong, the single player action is very entertaining, but co-op is where it’s at. The game will compensate for there being more players by making enemies harder, but they are still no match for this band of bounty hunters. There are tons of group effects that can be used to power-up your team. Not only are there effects in your skill trees but they can also be found in some of the class mods as well, and when each team member brings 2 or 3 team power-ups to the table you can become unstoppable. It’s great to have someone you can play with on a regular basis, even if it’s only one person, because you can customize your skill trees to compliment each other and can make leveling alot easier. Though you can always pay to reset your skill trees, it only charges you as much as you can afford it’s great.

I absolutely loved Borderlands. The loads of guns, comedic stylings, and multiplayer was all masterfully done. I still would have liked to kill that Atlas bitch though. I give this game 10 exploding headshots out of 10.

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