Borderland |REVIEW| 2009

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Name:Borderlands.
Genre:shooter,RPG.
Theme:Sci-Fi.
Platforms:PC,360,PS3.
Relase Data:Oct-30-2009.

DESCRIPTION
In the distant [CENSORED]ure, several colonization ships head to Pandora, a planet on the edge of the galaxy. The colonists are drawn there in search of a better life as well as vast mineral resources said to be on the planet, free for anyone's taking, akin to a [CENSORED]uristic gold rush. Some time after settling the colonists discover that there is little the planet offers, aside from some decrepit alien ruins. Those who have money leave, the remaining po[CENSORED]tion devolves into chaos and lawlessness. Some of the settlers seek to get rich quick by discovering alien technology. Most others are just trying to survive. After seven earth years, the planet's slow orbit brings a transition from winter to spring, and many horrifying creatures emerge from hibernation.

REVIEW
Borderlands was rather hastily compared to everything from Fallout 3 to Diablo 2 in the months before its release, but the recent slew of trailers featuring foul-mouthed robots and psychotic bandits, along with the colourful and controversial cover art, suggested a wicked sense of humour more akin to the Oddworld games or even Grand Theft Auto. Now that the finished product is here, it’s obvious that Borderlands has indeed borrowed elements from a number of different games but combined them into a stylish and memorable first-person RPG.
To be honest, the story is almost incidental and glossed over for a large portion of the game. Borderlands is all about the quests, the weapons, and the insane collection of characters you meet on your journey. The first to greet you as you step off a rackety old bus is an eccentric robot known as a Claptrap, which leads you to the first town of the game and gives you a mini tutorial of sorts. This is a great introduction to the controls, and almost instantly shoves you into combat against a horde of abusive bandits.

In fact, compared to most RPGs that spend half an hour customising your character and a week or so setting up the story, Borderlands almost feels like pornography. There’s a two-minute cutscene that explains the set-up, then you choose one of four different characters and you’re away, straight into the action. You still earn experience with every quest completed and enemy killed, but levelling up simply grants you a single point to pump into a limited number of character-specific abilities. It’s rather stripped-down, but fits the general feel of the game and will definitely appeal to action lovers more than hardcore RPGers.

The four playable characters are fairly typical of this type of game. Brick and Roland are the tank and the soldier classes, so while Roland is proficient with heavy weaponry and can deploy turrets, Brick prefers to enter a Doom-style berserk mode and crush people with his fists. Lilith, the sole female of the group, is a siren (basically a mage) who can turn invisible, while the final character Mordecai is a sniper with a killer pet called Bloodwing. All of the characters feel quite different and require different tactics to master, so there’s bound to be one to suit every style of play.

Borderlands’ story plays out through a number of quests – just 30 in total, although there are well over a hundred side-quests to bulk up the game. Each one successfully completed rewards you with XP, and usually cold hard cash and bonus items, so the optional missions are well worth doing. You’re even helped when deciding which to do next by a difficulty rating. The only problem is the lack of variety. Most quests involve walking somewhere, killing everything that’s about, maybe flicking a switch or grabbing an item, then walking back. Practically none of them involve any kind of twist or surprise, but the gameplay is so enjoyable that it’s not a huge concern.
The game essentially plays like a first-person shooter with RPG elements. One feature hyped in pre-release by developers Gearbox Software was the sheer number of guns Borderlands contains, and they’ve certainly delivered on that front. All of the pistols, rifles, shotguns and other weapon types have a number of characteristics such as damage, reload time and clip size, and no two guns you pick up will ever contain the same combination. You can also find a limited number of rare and special weapons with unique features. Some have zero kickback, or come fitted with scopes, or even fire flaming bullets.

The enemies in Borderlands aren’t quite as fantastic as the weapons sadly. The bulk of them fit into just two categories: human bandits, and vicious animals such as the rather grotesque skags. Skags may sound like a term for describing the regular inhabitants of an Essex tavern, but they’re actually slavering dog-like creatures with scary teeth and a violent disposition towards humans (I’m talking about the skags here, not the Essex lot). Both the bandits and the limited variety of creatures come in different flavours, ranging greatly in terms of strength and power, but you’re fighting them so often that you’ll quickly long for a killer android or a zombie to punch holes in instead. Skags are by far the worst in the first half of the game, as a fresh pack of them assaults you almost every five seconds without fail. Killing one often results in another emerging from a nearby cave, so battles can quickly become annoying when you’re just trying to get to the other end of the map. Bosses too are generally uninspired, composed mostly of souped-up bandits and/or more bloody skags.

TRAILER