Borderlands Review

Borderlands

Information
Developers: Gearbox Software. Additional: Shadows in Darkness, Darkside Games, Demiurge Studios. 
Publishers: 2K Games
Platforms: PC (Windows, OS X), Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Type: Stand Alone
Modes: Single-Player, Co-Op Multiplayer, "Vs. Multiplayer"
Genres/Perspective/Flow: First Person Shooter, Role Playing game, Science Fiction, Action-Adventure
Rating: ESRB - M, PEGI - 18
Release Dates:
X360 & PS3
NA: 20/10/09
PAL: 23/10/09
PC (Win)
NA: 26/10/09
PAL: 30/10/09
PC (OS X)
03/12/10
Series: Borderlands
Average Completion Time: 33 Hours
Trophies/Achievements: 51 in standard + 30 in DLC
Other Editions: Game of the Year Edition.
Additional: review based on Xbox 360 version. Game accessible through Xbox One backwards compatibility.
Alternate Recommendations: Dead Island, Fallout 3.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Synopsis:
A sci-fi/action RPG from acclaimed developer Gearbox, Borderlands combines the best in first-person action gaming with elements of a traditional role-playing game (RPG). The excitement of this hybridization is further magnified by the game's groundbreaking content generation system which allows for a near-endless variety in missions, environments,enemies, weapons, item drops and character customization, making the game's single player, multiplayer and online campaigns not to be missed. ( Source: howlongtobeat.com)
Review:

The game that made loot dropping mechanics in the modern First person shooter possible; you know that game Destiny well think off borderlands as its grandfather. Being the game that made loot dropping guns popular overall, with the game having over millions of different guns both in shape and statistics, so no getting attached to your weapons because you’ll be constantly swapping and selling them.
But before I start on anything else I’ll start this off, before you even load up the game, at the options menu. So in terms of customization there not much to change just the standard stuff like sensitivity, controller layout, music and such which is all well and good but I would have liked a bit more since this game to be fair is very over the top, so some more silly options would have been nicer but what’s there is fine I guess.

So once the game has booted up, the first you’ll notice is the strange art style known as cel-shading, this really if the game a distinct look from any other first person shooter games that all have a more realistic approach. The art also blends in well with the overall tone of game as it has a really over the top and silly atmosphere that make the game more fun to play, with exaggerated character introductions that partners well with the immature but well written humour. However the overall look of the game can be summarised quickly as just brown since every single area with the exception of two or three have this colour palette which can be a bit of a turn especially if you played the sequel before this one, but if you like the palette like I do it gives off a good sad tone like “there’s no hope” which mixes well with the game world as it is full of hostile creatures, shabby towns and psycho cannibals which also have these dirty and dark colours that fit them into the game world effectively.

Speaking of the game world, the designs of the creatures mainly are superb with there being a good amount of variety in this department that give the world an organic feel like it could survive in the harsh wastelands thanks to their overall appearance to the way they act, one good example is the Skag: the first creature seen in game; has a month that splits open three ways, a long tongue to whip the player and powerful legs to leap at you and this is only the very basic versions later there ones that spit acid or have strong body armour that make you think about how to fight them. Which can also be said about any of the creatures or even other enemies in game like the bandits who you will be fighting most of the time, which are made up insane and dangerous humans and cannibals which are fun to fight as there’s just enough variety to think about how you’ll tackle them but still even with the amount of variety given, I would have liked a bit more as by the third quarter potion of the game you will have fought close to everything and start to get bored during some combat situations especially if you’re higher levelled then them, the challenge & thrill disappears.

The levelling itself is quite fun to do as it can be earned in a ways from shooting enemies, completing quests and completing challenges. Now I know this doesn’t sound like much and let me tell you it isn’t as these ideals quickly get old really fast since enemies with the exception of bosses don’t yield much experience, while quests do but these quests get over repetitive as the game goes on from tasks like: kill this, big up one item or pick many or get to this location/ talk to someone, which does sound like a lot but trust me it’s not. When it comes to the challenges as well there’s no real variety as it’s mostly just made up of: killing so many of something, using guns and looting and that’s only if you notice there are challenges as unless you explore the menus screen you won’t know about since the game gives you no hints towards its existence. However there is another type of levelling up in the game, that you’ll notice but no what it does: Weapon Proficiency. This is levelling up for your weapon classes which adds various bonuses to each class of gun, that the game neglects to tell you about.

Now before I get to the real meat of the gameplay, there are a few problems I forgot to mention one of which is the use of invisible walls (a true gaming taboo) featured in a lot of quests and areas of the map, that mainly occur when the game doesn’t want you getting somewhere, getting up to an item a certain way or driving into non-drivable areas. For the first point it’s completely understandable but the second and third it isn’t as sometimes you’ll find easier ways to reach location/items in some quests but then the game says “no you have to go up this way” which totally breaks immersion causing frustration; while with the third point there are a good few areas where the developers but down blocks to keep you from going in locations with cars, this is okay yet in others they totally didn’t bother add all leaving “gates” completely open except with an invisible wall in place.  

Another issue I had was the car combat which while being a great way to flatten enemies faster as well as get somewhere easier there’s no other use for them which is shame and an overall untapped source of expanding upon the mechanics. One other point I forgot to mention was the lack of customisation both on the character model and the car as both are just change the colours in which you get a limit of eight for the car while with the character you get a view colours options on the clothes and the option of changing your name which doesn't affect much whereas you won’t even see your character colours in game unless you’re on spilt-screen.

Time for the meat of the title now: The Loot dropping system. (Featured in many modern games as well as good old hack n slash games). This feature allows for continuous guns to be dropped that differ in appearance and constantly change individual statistics of: gun’s damage, rate of fire/ amount fired and accuracy this leads to some pretty interesting mixes. Though this isn’t the only thing you can loot as there are various shields, grenade modifications, class modifications, elemental modifications, health pick-ups, ammunition and money to collect which change in very similar ways. Though I will say that money has no place in the game, as you get from most items from chests and containers, you’ll never use it except to buy ammunition from vendors at early point in the games though from there on you’ll just collect it. On point I must praise is how they implemented the statistic changes into the game world, as the guns featured in game are manufactured by various companies which each are strong at certain statistics or modifications such as Maiiwan weapons all carry elemental bonuses on them while Jakobs weaponry has high damage rates but low accuracy, while overall adds to the game world. On the note of immersing features in game, the fast travel system was added superbly as an actual function machine that allows people to travel across the planet which can also be said for re-spawning system which is also a functioning machine in the game world that reconstructs your body each time you die as well as takes a fee every time, this I felt overall adds to the context of the world.

Now for the combat which plays like any other shooter but with the enemy variety and loot system makes these experiences ten times as fun than a regular shooter which is only increased by the soundtrack included in game that fits battles to a good effect. However during the larger battle sequences the frame rate can drop drastically which will break your immersion.

The point I will bring up is the setting/story and characters also known as the games lowest points since it feels like they exist just for the sake of the gameplay with the setting just being there to allow for all the crazy designs while the story is non-existent told mainly through small captions included when taking quests or turning them in with small amounts of dialogue from NPCs that by the way are know more than static models with barely enough animation to call them characters.

In conclusion Borderlands is a successful experiment in FPS/Loot System hybrid game that is held down by having zero story and small mechanical error but on another hand uses a different art style and over the top humour to stand out from the crowd. I'd recommend to any who wants a game they can turn their brain off too-to play for a bit of fun. 

(Additional: There no section on the multilayer, cause you apparently need friends for that!)

Final Scores:

Story/Characters: 4.7

Gameplay/Mechanics: 7.2

Visuals: 7.1
Sound: 7

Final Verdict: 6.7/10 (Alright)