User Review : Borderlands

Borderlands Review

As the theme tune sings, from the fantastic Cage the Elephant “There ain’t no rest for the wicked”. And it’s true.. us video game reviewers lead a tough and demanding life, but when asked to review 2k Games/ Gearbox Software’s fantastic FPRPG (First Person Role Playing Game) Borderlands, I jumped at the chance, having followed the game since its very conception a few years back. However, is the fastest selling original game of the year going to rip apart the FPS rulebook forever, or is it going to be a gimmick that will become tedious quickly, like other RPGs I can think of? (I’m looking at you, Guild Wars)

In short, it’s amazing. In long terms, its AMMMMMAAAAZZZIIINNNGG. This is no understatement: Borderlands is quite possibly the best new game of this year. Sure, fanboys will crawl out of the woodwork of the internet to criticize this (“What about Modern Warfare 2? lol n00b”) but I’m talking original, not a sequel. Sure, Borderlands brings aspects from countless numbers of games ( from the wasteland setting of Fallout 3 to the crazy-ass cartoon visuals of games such as Team Fortress 2), but it brings them together into a new and refreshing experience that will easily suck 30-40+ hours out of yours and your friend’s lives, and with the promise of fantastic DLC, Gearbox and 2k Games could be on to a fantastic franchise, easily on par with any other game on the market.

You play as one of four characters: Roland, the Soldier class, Brick, the Berserker class, Lilith the Siren Class and Mordecai, the Hunter class. As with all games that allow you select a specific class, each of the classes suit a different playing style. I picked Roland, as I like being able to support my friends with heavy machine gun fire and the Soldier class mods such as Leader (Boosts Party XP by 20-30% depending on the level of the class mod) suit a co-op experience. Roping in 3 “volunteer” friends to play as the other 3, our valiant party set forth into Pandora’s wasteland, but not before each of us customised our character’s names and colour scheme. The Weaponry has had a big deal made out of it, with the advert boasting 87 bazillion guns. While I’m certain there is a usage of creative license in that claim, one thing is for certain: this games has guns. Lots of Guns. Guns that vary from rocket-shooting Shotguns to Electric Snipers, guns that have Blades on the barrel and guns that pretty much guarantee the annihilation of even your biggest foes. Enjoy the awesome guns you get, the tiered system copied from Diablo and WoW means the best weapons are often the rarest.

With Foolish kitted out like M Bison from the Street Fighter series (in uniform colour at least), we set off on our way. Well, we would have done, if it were not for the fact that the PC multiplayer is essentially broken. After opening literally 14 ports on my router just so I could host a game, we finally set out on our way. After being led by hand through the first tutorial quest by the adorable Claptrap (am I the only one who wants a Claptrap figurine?), we were dumped in Freestone, left to our own devices in a new and exciting world. In theory. In reality, however, we had to do a series of story quests just to open up the side-quests and vehicle checkpoints. This game is another one of those sandbox titles that gives the illusion of Freedom, but discourages free roaming by a series of interesting but sometimes frustrating barriers. Certain areas have certain levels of enemies, discouraging you from going there until you reach said level or higher. Also, the quests are just so much fun, you don’t need to free roam. The staple of MMORPG and RPG quests alike are here in abundance, but unlike those games, they are coupled with the manic feeling that comes with playing a FPS. This mix of my personal favourite genres is quite frankly a match made in heaven.

Borderlands also capitalizes on a fantastic graphical scheme of Cel-shading to give the game an extra sense of uniqueness. There’s no denying that Borderlands is the most aesthetically pleasing game this year. Sure, other games look better in conventional graphics- Modern Warfare 2, get out of this review- but no game this year gave me such a sense of “WOW!” than Borderlands. However, some textures close up do look quite blurred and dated, but in general, it’s amazingly beautiful. It helps with the total immersion into Pandora too, as if we had normal graphics, some of the guns, enemies and places would just be bizarre….Frankly the game is still bizarre, but in a normal style, it would be overly bewildering.The Music and Sound effects also help with the immersion aspect. Each Bandit and creature you encounter wondering these dangerous and scary wastelands each has their unique sound. The Bandits cackle convincingly, the Skags screech like some of X Factor’s more delusional auditionees and the guns sound amazing. In other words, Pandora will become your second home.

This game also has the longevity of two games. This is because, once you’ve played the questline through to the mysterious Vault, you get the chance to play the whole questline again,with the same character, weapons and level. Of course, the enemies level up to match your character, otherwise there would be no challenge, but is a very neat idea. Kudos to Gearbox. But the biggest addition to the game is the Downloadble Content we have been promised. Well, the first set, The Zombie Island of Dr Ned, is already here and with the second piece on the way in the new year, stay tuned to Gameztraffic for the reviews.

In conclusion, Borderlands is a fantastic game. It’s one of the best concepts for a game in recent years, and for once, a hyped game did not disappoint. If you haven’t bought it, what the hell is wrong with you? Get it. Now. or this Skag is going for your Jugular.

Score

9.0

Graphics

9.0

Sound

9.0

Gameplay

9.0

Fun Factor

Overall

9.0