Developer - Gearbox Software
Publisher - 2K Games
Available On - XBOX 360, Playstation 3, PC
Reviewed On - PC & XBOX 360

First person shooters have been a stagnating genre lately with many developers happy to simply iterate on past successful franchises. Thankfully Gearbox and 2K Games are trying something new with several years of development and a whole graphical redesign bringing us the self-described “Role Playing Shooter” known as Borderlands. Taking cel shading to whole new levels on the Unreal 3 engine, Borderlands is an exciting and entertaining universe that reaches beyond unique presentation and actually tackles a new hybrid of gaming genres.

A mash of role playing game elements within an FPS make the label of “FPSRPG”  quite fitting for Borderlands, but more accurate would be “MMOFPS” as many of the RPG elements are more commonly known from massive online role playing games. On the surface Borderlands plays like an FPS with all the action happening in real-time and most of the skill relying on a player with a steady hand and sharp eye. But underneath Borderlands is structured much like an MMO with many addictive features that feed on the classic urge to level up and fit out a character with shiny loot and new abilities.

Borderlands features four character classes to pick from each fitting a common role such as Brick the large melee unit with a lot of health, or Morkai the hunter who specializes in ranged damage with an ally hawk who likes to engage in combat. Lilith the Siren is an agile lady with special powers that damage enemies and Roland is a versatile soldier unit that can also heal and support team mates. While each character plays a specific role with three different ability trees to level through, it’s great that any class can level up their proficiency with any weapon type, so Brick the tank could still effectively use a sniper rifle despite it clashing with his general tanking abilities.

The most engaging aspect of this genre hybrid is the visceral and rewarding response a player receives from combat. Visual damage indicators pop up when shooting an enemy with big critical hit indicators providing a very satisfying response to accurate shots with most enemies having a specific weak point to aim for. The experience bar  on screen helps feed the addictive grinding nature of MMO’s as each kill pops up an XP bonus constantly leveling up a character but the biggest incentive comes from the amount and variety of loot dropped by most enemies.

Borderlands has a huge variety of guns that generate randomly as they’re dropped. This means that most guns found in the game will be entirely unique creating a random chance factor that adds even more to the loot whore nature of the game. Most weapons will also have an elemental attack type such as lightning for shock damage or explosive fire for damage over time creating some truly powerful guns to find all over the place. Even grenades and shields have randomly generated effects that help in battle, but Borderlands is mainly about the guns constantly offering new weapons through the insane amounts of loot to constantly collect.

While a lot of these MMO elements create a very addictive FPS experience unlike most others, it also brings a few side affects that really don’t work well in a concentrated story-driven experience. There are always a plethora of side quests to find around Pandora, but most of them are very similar consisting of killing a certain amount of enemies and returning for a reward. Unless the reward is particularly useful for a player, all of these quests are essentially useless as they provide little outside of the main story experience.

The story itself is pretty basic and fairly predictable only held together by personified characters with a lot of hilarious dialogue and charm in the actual script. A few recurring characters have some great lines and a lot of it’s quite offensive, but it fits in well with the barren wasteland planet that is Pandora filled with all sorts of rednecks and low-brow inhabitants suffering the side-effects of living in such a place. Even all the bosses have a cinematic grindhouse style opening segment with a few lines of dialogue that really adds to the overall atmosphere which Borderlands accomplishes well.

Apart from having an underwhelming ending to the story the game reaches an abrupt halt when all’s said and done, with no real end game content to test out all the character building and loot whoring. To reach the maximum level cap of 50 a second playthrough is definitely necessary, and all the loot will be more powerful on a second playthrough but with the exact same story and the exact same quests it too is just another path to an ultimate end that makes any playtime outside the necessary quests essentially worthless.

Of course Borderlands does have an online element, but it is a very touchy experience. Teaming up with 3 buddies to make a versatile team and work together is a lot of fun especially if the character classes are mixed around, but finding a balanced experience is difficult. Borderlands makes no attempt to level out the enemies or even distribute loot when you’re teamed up online and finding someone around your level to play with can often be a bit tricky. This also means it’s entirely possible to join a high level friends game and have them breeze you through half the game but this takes out all the fun as stomping down low level enemies gets tiring quickly.

You’ll need some pre-planning to get a consistent online experience going and some trusty friends too, as any and all loot is up for grabs as soon as it hits the ground. This means one player could potentially seize all the loot in a game, even if it’s useless for their class with no way to restrict the greedy. You’ll also instantly add all the quests of your co-op partner to your quest log, there’s a lot in the online that needs reworking but essentially it’s possible to grab three friends and play through the whole game which is still a lot of fun.

Despite a messy online component Borderlands is still a great game that pulls off a blend of genres well, creating a refreshing first person shooter with many addictive elements that feed on the grinding nature of MMORPG’s. If you like big critical hits, loads of XP and piles of loot to compare then you’ll love Borderlands. You’ll also find a solid and satisfying FPS to boot, just don’t expect the lifespan of a true online universe.

Borderlands

80%

The Good -

• Huge amounts of randomly generated loot to collect.
• Detailed and vivid cel shading within an atmospheric universe.
• Can be played entirely in 4 player co-op

The Bad –

• No auto balancing in online play.
• An underwhelming end to a simple story.
• A bit short and lacking end-game content.