InsaneBear

Review: Borderlands

Score: Good
Difficulty played on: No difficulty options.
Time to beat: 25-30 hours depending on how much level grinding you do.
Loved the most: It’s so addicting I had trouble pulling myself away to write this review.
Hated the most: A bevy of small problems crop up to bog the experience down.

What would happen if the FPS and RPG made a baby? Gearbox’s Borderlands asks just that question and gives us a spectacular answer in the process. The term “Role Playing Shooter” that’s being used to describe the Diablo-esque FPS might be a little misleading–”stat-building shooter” is probably more accurate–but the final formula is satisfying nonetheless. Rock solid gun-play and an endless flow of new and improved loot combine in a beautifully rendered game-world to create a devilishly addictive experience for up to four players. Unfortunately though, many of the game’s ideas aren’t fully fleshed out and minor problems plague the experience so regularly that Borderlands falls short of its great potential. It could have been a genre-defining, standard setting game we’d remember for years to come, but instead, it’s just a really fun and addictive shooter that with any luck, will inspire a better RPS in the near future.

Upon starting up a new play-through of Borderlands you’re introduced to four mercenaries riding the post-apocalyptic version of Greyhound. Aside from the chuckle-worthy things your bus driver has to say about each character, the game does a good job of explaining the basic play-style of each class. The Soldier is a well rounded rifleman with the ability to use an upgradable turret (more on that later), the Hunter is your run of the mill sniper with a blood-thirsty pet thrown in on the side, the Siren is more of a support class that catches her enemies off guard and deals elemental damage, and the Berserker is a straight-up bad ass whose forte is pummeling enemies to death with his rather massive fists. Each character is fun and has a unique feel to them, although some definitely seem more fun than others.

Once you select your character you’re contacted by a mysterious woman who only you can hear through your ECHO system (which I’m now realizing you don’t actually receive until you’re off the bus…plot hole?). She tells you that all the fairy tales of a treasure filled alien vault are true and that she’s going to help you find it as long as you go along with her. That’s about as interesting and in-depth as the story gets for your entire play-through, so it’s a good thing you’re not thinking about it most of the time.

What you will be thinking about a lot of the time is just how damn pretty Borderlands is. From the second you get off the bus and are oriented by a silly little robot you’ll notice the much talked-about art style of the game. Dubbed as a “Concept art” visual direction, it’s not quite cel-shaded and not quite realistic. If you’re just going about your business of shooting everything that moves, you probably won’t even notice how different the graphics are. But the second you stop and admire your gun or the far-off scenery you’ll be wowed by a hand-drawn look that feels like it’s out of a comic book. Everything’s painted in a wonderfully diverse color palate that makes the world of Pandora the most inviting post-apocalyptic setting you’ve ever seen. And small touches like melting enemies or exploding heads embellish the cartoonish vibe of the game masterfully. If you can ignore an unusual amount of texture pop-in and frame rate drops, this game offers one of the most visually stunning worlds to date.

Not to be outdone by the visuals, all of Borderlands‘ audio is spot-on as well. The music consistently sets the perfect tone for the action and the sound effects are both believable and hilarious. Crazed enemies routinely shout out obnoxious insults before letting out terrific screams of agony when you set them on fire. Your own character adds to the over-the-top ambiance with heartless quips and maniacal laughs that usually force a crack of a smile the first few times you hear them. And in addition to the one-liners enemies spout at you, the few NPCs who are voiced all have distinct and funny (or annoying depending on your perspective) personalities. From top to bottom, the sights and sounds of Borderlands are triple A.

One of the more impressive feats of the game is how it manages to take its “bazillion” guns and make them all look, sound, and feel different. The computer-generated loot never repeats itself exactly, although you’d be fooling yourself if you went in thinking you’d get a bazillion completely different weapons. The weapons are divided into traditional sub-classes such as revolvers, machine guns, shotguns and so on. The variations in each gun usually come in the form of stat modifications to rate of fire, damage, ammo capacity, elemental effects, and so on. The system works well though, as each gun feels different enough from the last to keep you interested in trying out new ones. And considering you’ll always be finding better and better weapons for your arsenal, you’ll be trying out a lot of new guns.

I found the random weapon-generation system to be very satisfying with the exception of rocket launchers, which feel very weak, and the omission of melee weapons. Although the guns certainly don’t feel quite as hand-made as individually crafted death dealers from other games, like the Fat Man in Fallout 3 for example, the system definitely works and keeps you coming back for more. Perhaps the ability to mend your own firearms would have been an interesting direction to take, but I’m not really complaining.

The guns aren’t the funnest weapons the game has to offer though. No, that honor goes to the special ability the player unlocks about an hour or so into the game. Each character has their own special ability which sets them apart from each other in a pretty drastic way. Brick’s Berserk mode sends him into a hulk-like fury that turns his fists into lethal weapons. Mordecai possesses a deadly eagle that can strike enemies from above. Lilith has the ability to go into “phase walk,” which turns her invisible and hurts any enemies around her with an explosion of element damage when she returns to this plane of reality. Last but not least, Roland can set up shop with a shielded turret that can do anything from attack baddies to generate team health to supply ammunition.

Each character has three paths of improvement that can result in drastically different play-styles. Some talent trees focus on the character’s special ability while others forgo it entirely. The special abilities themselves can be tailored towards offensive or defensive players, and things get really interesting when you’ve got four players leveling up together and specifying their load-outs to support each other.

It’s so fun that one can’t help but be let down by the shallowness of the RPG elements. Besides investing in the talent trees there are no additional skills or actions to work towards like the perks in Fallout 3. The rate of progression is also painfully slow, as you’ll only be around a level 35 or so after your first play-through. If you want to get to the level 50 cap, you’ll have to start a new game plus, which pits you against tougher enemies in the same missions. Even at level 50 though, you can’t completely fill all three talent trees. It leaves you feeling like the RPG elements in Borderlands are only skin deep and missing a lot of potential.

With out a doubt though, the most glaring omission of RPG staples is story and interesting NPCs. This game relies exclusively on loot and leveling to drive you forward, with one of the dullest stories I’ve ever seen in a video game. There are no real conversations with the NPCs, which is a shame considering how personable they generally are. The quests are really ripped straight out of an MMO, with basic “kill X amount of Y” or “collect this many of these” narratives. Even when it seems like there’s potential for an interesting story arc (later in the game a beloved character mysteriously dies) the developers completely gloss over it. The missions are really nothing more than an excuse to find loot.

The open-world structure of Borderlands also contributes to some terribly slow pacing. One might think that in place of an interesting RPG story Gearbox would at least focus on the fast and furious pace of a traditional FPS, but that’s simply not the case. On my first play-through it took me nine hours before I unlocked the fast travel feature, which is pretty useless considering the quality of the map. The ability to drive also takes a few hours to unlock. This is all in addition to the slow leveling and lack of intriguing narrative. Add that all together with constantly respawning enemies (they even respawn behind you in the middle of missions) and you’ll feel like you aren’t making any progress sometimes.

Considering all the faults of the RPG side of the game, you’d better hope the shooting half is damn good. Luckily, it is. Unlike other shooting RPGs, the developer actually decided to let skill prevail over stats here. If you line up your shot and hit an enemy in Borderlands, you’ll hit him. Weapon stats effect damage, but they never get in the way of gameplay. And while enemies generally run blindly towards death, the combat still manages to be fun somehow. Maybe it’s the cheapness of sheer numbers and enemies that can head-shot you with a shotgun from 300 yards away while strafing that adds a sense of danger and excitement to it. Whatever it is, I can’t stop playing it and collecting that sweet, sweet loot.

One of the pleasant surprises I found in Borderlands is the variety of things and places you’ll be collecting that loot from. While enemy types generally boil down to bandits or wild enemies, there are literally dozens of class variations in there that give you a wide breadth of foes to dismantle. And despite my preconceptions of a post-apocalyptic world, this shooter actually manages to send the player to a variety of caves, towns, piers, and so on that give a sense of geographic diversity. Even the quests themselves, while simple, manage to maintain their freshness throughout with moderately different tasks. Variety’s really not an issue in Borderlands.

Rounding out my thoughts on Borderlands‘ gameplay are a few minor complaints that pop up a little too often. The first complaint is how utterly awful the driving segments of the game are. The handling of the vehicles is so awkward that you’ll constantly run into punishing geometry that brings your car to a dead stop. The physics are also way off and result in a lot of wonky crashes. I would complain that there are no vehicle-specific missions or upgrading/customizing options for your dune buggy, but maybe it’s a good thing that I didn’t have to spend more time in that death trap. Lord knows I already spent far too much time there.

Another issue that comes up while driving is the lack of a mini-map. This is probably the game’s biggest short-coming, as you’ll literally be checking your main map for directions every thirty seconds. And because that map doesn’t label any locations beyond specifying what they are (trading outpost, vehicle station, so on) it becomes unnecessarily difficult to navigate the world. I would say the driving felt tacked on if it didn’t occupy a quarter of the game, but since it does, I can only say that it’s dreadfully under-developed and misguided. There’s also way too much back-tracking and micro-managing of inventory. The bosses are sort of weak as well.

When all’s said and done though, Borderlands is incredibly fun and offers a ton of value. The campaign is lengthy whether you’re alone or with friends (although I must say it seems to move much faster with friends). The different classes and co-op play give you plenty of motivation to play through multiple times, although the inability to skip in-game tutorials and snail-like pace are minor deterrents to replays. When playing with friends you can challenge them to duels or find arenas to duke it out in crude death-matches. But when you get down to it, the real value lies in the loot. All those increasingly rare guns and shields and modifiers keep you coming back for more, and more players mean better loot. Beware that there’s no proper trade-interface, so if you play with strangers you might be taken, but there’s always more loot to be had. Did I mention the addictive qualities of loot?

So is the RPS successful? I suppose that depends on your personal definition of “RPS”. What matters is that Borderlands is insanely addicting and offers a ton of value. The core gameplay is immensely satisfying and the audio/visual presentation is a joy to experience. It’s the small things that bog this game down. Hopefully a sequel or a rip-off will take the foundation of Gearbox’s new shooter and raise the bar. Until then, I’ll be playing me some Borderlands.

Author: Cody

Tags: 2k games, borderlands, gearbox, review