WR: Borderlands (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

November 10th, 2009 by

borderlands2

Developer: Gearbox
Publisher: 2K Games
Genre: First Person Shooter/Action RPG
Players: 1-2, 2-4 (online)
Console: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
ESRB Rating: M (Mature)
Hours Played: 40
Progress: Finished main story and all side quests

Developer Gearbox is probably best known for its Brothers in Arms franchise and has been working for years now on the gem that is Borderlands. As this title came closer to release you could feel the buzz and excitement building among the video game media and fans; not surprising considering the original and mouth-watering concept behind the game: think of it as Diablo with guns. Wrapped in a First Person Shooter (FPS) coating, Borderlands is all about the loot, shoot enemies – collect loot, open chests – collect loot, find containers – collect loot, all while being able to pair up with a buddy through split-screen or up to three through Xbox live. Gearbox seems to have found the magic formula for creating a game that’s easy to pick up and nearly impossible to put down, read on to find out why….

Borderlands is set on the planet of Pandora, covered in arid wastelands, run down towns and heaps of scrap it is somewhat reminiscent of a mix between Fallout 3 and Mad Max. You play as one of four treasure hunters, whose main goal is to find the “Vault”, a place of lore rumoured to hold fantastic treasures with the ability to grant great powers. While on this quest you’ll need the help of the relatively peaceful townspeople that dot Pandora’s hostile landscape as they try to eke out a living amid bands of maniacal bandits. Under the guidance of the Vault’s “Guardian Angel” you embark on a long quest that will take you all over Pandora in the search for a treasure some say doesn’t even exist…

The art style of Borderlands is as refreshing as the game’s concept, it has hints of cel-shading but comes across more as a comic book, as the outline of characters and environments are drawn with an abundance of pencil lines, making it seem like the game was hand-sketched, much like a comic. The result are visuals that are more detailed than cel-shaded graphics yet still have an animated look. This level of detail is easily apparent when you walk up to a character or even a simple boulder, these “hand-sketched” textures add an extra level to the environments and give the game a look you haven’t quite seen anywhere else. Pandora is a huge world with a surprising degree of variety, the level design is great, the player is taken from barren desserts to snow-covered mountain peaks, always with something interesting to explore. Because the game tries to do a lot: generate sweeping environments, throw tons of enemies at you simultaneously and render flashy weapon effects, there are issues. First, it takes a while for textures to load; enter a new environment and polygon models will be blurry as the top lair of textures is loaded, second, there is frequent slow down when the action heats up; use a gun with elemental damage and watch as your bolts of electricity slamming into a group of enemies, while you’re jumping around for your life, causes the game to stutter badly. Lastly there are glitches: critical NPCs can fail to load, achievements sometimes won’t unlock (this unfortunately happened to yours truly) and objective markers can point to the wrong place on the map. This can happen with big games like Borderlands, think of some of the glitches in Fallout 3 for instance, yet it certainly detracts from the overall experience.

A catchy soundtrack overshadows solid in-game music, which mainly consists of techno-inspired, atmospheric tunes that kick in as enemies are engaged. The lack of voiced dialogue is disappointing, most quests are explained in text, with only the main story elements granted serviceable voice overs. A high point are the “Claptraps”, small, square robots that aid you in your quest while often providing comic relief with their clumsy mannerisms and goofy quips (Ed. note: The robots are very similar in speech and manner to the robot GIR from Invader Zim).  Sound effects are a tad sparse and nothing special; this isn’t really a game that will set your home theatre set on fire, unless you relish the constant sound of gunfire (because there will be a whole lot of that).

The controls in Borderlands are intuitive and somewhat reminiscent of Halo.  With the default configuration (there are 5 additional configurations available, but you can’t custom map controls, tisk) left trigger button allows you to look through a gun’s sight, right trigger button is the fire button, left bumper is to use your character’s skill ability while the right bumper is used for grenades. The Y button is used to cycle through weapons, the X button is to reload, the B button allows you to crouch and the A button allows you to jump. The D-pad is used to map weapons from your inventory to one of the four available directions, this feels a bit limiting as there are so many guns and weapon types available to enjoy that I would’ve rather seen a collapsible “weapon ring” with a wider variety of guns, perhaps even as a secondary option to the D-pad short cuts. Having said that, controls are extremely responsive, characters feel nimble and seem to keep pace with the action quite well.

The core gameplay mechanics center around gun-play and lots of it.  The controls and speed very much feel like a high-paced FPS, yet your mission objectives and character progression are more akin to a hack-and-slash RPG. Although there are countless quests to embark on, the developers have done a good job at creating variety, you won’t always be tasked with tracking down a certain bandit and eliminating him, sometimes you’re foraging for rare crystals, other times you’ll be asked to remove bird droppings from wind turbines… Yes, Borderlands can definitely have an unique sense of humor at times, but it’s the crazy art style, over the top action, humor and character development that make it such an addictive experience.

It’s especially the latter, the character development, that will have a lot of players sink dozens of hours into Borderlands. Each character class, of which there are four: hunter, soldier, berserker and siren, has his or her own skill tree, which is divided into three categories, and each one will have a “core skill”, the soldier is able to deploy an automated turret for instance while the hunter has a pet avian (“blood wing”) to aid him in combat, there are many, mostly passive, upgrades available in addition to these core skills and you’ll never be able to upgrade them all, therefore spending your skills points wisely is important, so important as a matter of fact that the game allows you, for a cost, to reset your skill points and redistribute them. Yet no one can deny the sweet, intoxicating aroma of fresh loot and it’s the prospect of constantly fighting higher level enemies and getting better weapons and gear that makes you want to press on, all so that the better weapons you found allow you to take on better enemies still, resulting in even better loot… and so the cycle continues. Not just your brazenness in combat is rewarded however, weapon chests are stowed in hidden locations all over Pandora, and containers holding money, ammo and gear can be found everywhere.

Borderlands offers different 7 weapon types: pistols, SMGs, combat rifles, shotguns, launchers, sniper rifles and Eridian (alien) guns, rated on damage, accuracy and fire rate. In addition to offering bonuses like increased zoom, or recoil reduction these weapons can also possess elemental effects divided into: corrosive, explosive, shock and fire. Throw all these elements into a pot, mix heavily and what have you got? Well, a nearly endless supply off guns that is yet another factor in Borderlands’ addictiveness, questing for a sniper rifle that sees just a bit further, or an SMG that fires just a tad faster will constantly push your compulsion for more loot and desire to outdo your friends.

Part of Borderlands’ appeal is to join up to three friends (or strangers for that matter) online to share in the bloodletting. One might say “why share all that delicious loot, if I can collect it all by myself?” The more players online at the same time, the harder the enemies become, giving you more experience and better loot. A party with different character classes usually gives you the best results as they favor different weapon types, some excel at close range, others at long distance and a mix of these usually works best. Some character abilities can really boost a party’s effectiveness like the soldier’s “cauterize” skill, which heals allies by shooting at them, or some of the soldier’s class mods (equipable items that give stat boosts) that grant ammo regeneration to the entire team. As much fun as it is to play Borderlands with others, you rarely get the feeling that multiplayer was the only way it was meant to be played. Although large, the levels are easy to get around in with the aid of vehicles and teleport stations, missions can be challenging but are never impossible and enemies can be tough, but never to the point where level grinding won’t help. The most common issue with the multiplayer is the tussle over the loot: although players share in the collected cash and experience, items and weapons only go to the player who picks them up. This can result in some frustrating cherry picking, as that rare shotgun you’d been waiting on forever, gets nabbed right in front of your eyes. It is therefore most rewarding to play with friends, as you can typically have an understanding as to who benefits from which weapon types. Lag can definitely be an issue at times, especially in ad-hoc games and remember that adding more real life players will only add to the existing frame rate issues already present in Borderlands, nevertheless this is an extremely satisfying multiplayer experience with a huge online community.

You know you’re onto something when every conversation you begin with a friend or co-worker starts with “So, what level are you in Borderlands?” Even once the 30+ hours campaign has ended, you’ll be more than happy to come back, face the tougher enemies and collect even better loot in subsequent play-throughs. There are so many good games we get to play here at Game Usagi, yet every time it was a challenge to put down Borderlands to move on to something else.

Easy to pick up and nearly impossible to put down, both hardcore gamers and casual ones alike will find something to enjoy here. An affinity with First-Person Shooters or Hack ‘n’ Slash RPGs helps, but Gearbox managed to blend the two so expertly a new sub-genre was created, one with great graphics, solid level design and more guns than a Florida NRA convention.  Some patchable glitches aside, this is a game you don’t want to miss.

Graphics:

+ Great cel-shaded/comic book art style

+ Huge environments

– Frame rate issues when there is a lot of on-screen action

– Textures are slow to load

Sound:

+ Great music and score

– Sparing voice overs

Controls:

+ Intuitive shooter controls that any FPS fan will feel at home with

– Only 4 pre-mapped weapon slots just doesn’t seem enough with that many guns out there

Gameplay:

+ Lots of different enemies to take on with lots of different guns

+ Character development and ever improving loot make this one addictive experience

– Map marker doesn’t always accurately point towards objectives

– It’s too easy to get stuck behind rocks and other objects, forcing you to restart

Multiplayer:

+ Lots of fun to play with up to 3 other friends

– Struggles over who gets what loot can be common, especially with strangers

– In multiplayer, which areas of the world are accessible, which missions are available and what level your enemies are, is all based on  how far along the person who created the game happens to be…this can really limit your freedom at times

Usagi Factor:

+ Very easy to pick up and nearly impossible to put down

+ Original twist to the traditional dungeon crawler formula

– Some of the glitches can be quite frustrating (I mean, don’t mess with a guy’s achievements!)