Editor's Say - "Superb" "The start of the RPS genre" Find out what i thought...
Borderlands review by Simon a.k.a. [TheDevilDweller]
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***** INTRODUCTION *****
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THE POSITIVES:
Playing co-op with friends you trust - Loads of weapons to play around with - The ability to use your own weapons and items within any hosted game - Whatever you have in your inventory is literally yours until you ether drop or sell - The ability to join or invite a player to your game anywhere and anytime - duelling you friends
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THE NEGATIVES:
No trading feature within the game - Most weapons and item require a specific experience level in order to use - The Story - The Ending - Redundant boss fights
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***** PLOT *****
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Borderlands is all about the game-play. Whilst it does have a story-line (sort of) it's nothing authentic, and if you do get into the story, all you'll find is a very (VERY) uninspiring ending.
As one of the four main playable characters (who are purely game-play based characters), you arrive on a planet called Pandora. Pandora is a wasteland where literally every scumbag in the universe is in. In Pandora, every man is for him self. Friends mean nothing, killing is just as normal as breathing, there is no such thing as lovely sunshine's and picnics. It's kill or be killed in Pandora. Why would you want to be in a God forsaken place like Pandora you wonder? Somewhere in Pandora lays a Vault where it is said to hold fantastic riches that was supposedly stashed eons ago by an advanced alien culture. The Vault is told as a mystical story but there has been people and creatures from all over the galaxy that have came and die looking for the Vault… you are one of them. As you play you learn that this Vault can only be opened with several certain keys hiding around Pandora, which are pretty simple enough to find, but the catch is, the Vault can only be opened (even if you have the keys) once every thousand years. The main plot with the Vault remains a mystery throughout the game and as you get further into the game, don't be surprised if you forget about the Vault it's self. Throughout the play-through you will be dealing with side missions, boss fights, dealing with residents of Pandora, and lets not forget, watching your back from the creatures and deranged psychopaths that linear the wastelands of Pandora.
The story is not the worst I've ever seen, but it could have been much better. The game does feel as if the creator where concentrating more on the game-play aspect, and keeping the story relatively simple.
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***** GRAPHICS *****
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Borderlands visuals are cartoonish based. Somewhat like Street Fighter IV, and 2008's Prince of Persia, only not as polish in my opinion. Some texture when up close or looking through a score on a weapon can looks rather blurry and dull, but the overall presentation is pretty good.
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***** GAME-PLAY *****
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Borderlands consists of two genres rolled into one, Role playing Game (RPG) and First Person Shooter (FPS), which makes "Role Playing Shooter (RPS)". Basically, think Fallout 3, but more in depth with experience point and levelling up. Borderlands is a game that need to be played with friends. You can of course play it on your own, but you want to get the same value as you would get from playing with a buddy.
As the game starts you are giving four characters to pick from. The four main playable characters are purely game-play material. Even though each character do have one liners in game-play, and names (which you can only see on the load and save memory screen), there not real characters per say. Each characters has there own ability and weapon preference. The four characters consist of a Soldier that can deploy a Scorpio Turret gun to aid you in battle. A Siren Phasewalker who can turn invisibly and has extreme speed with running and reloading weapons. The Hunter that can send out his pet Eagle to instantly kill certain enemies. The Berserker who annihilates adversaries with his fists while in an almost indestructible rage state. The overall game-play experience is pretty much the same no matter what characters you use, except for the ability and weapon preference. Each character can use any weapon, but using the sniper rifle with the Hunter class is more affective, just as using rifles and heavy weapons are more affective with the Soldier class.
There are six different type of weapons i.e. handguns, sub-machine guns, rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers, as well as different types of grenades but there are literary hundreds of different effects, looks, and choices of weapons in Borderlands. Each weapon can have different attack damage, range etc. Borderlands is an RPG (as well as an FPS) so don't go expecting a shotgun to kill a close range enemy with one shot like it (may) would in real life… unless your experience level is quite high and your enemies is quite low. Borderlands is about experience points. Enemies come in experience levels and sizes as well as you do so you'll constantly need to find stronger weapons in order to survive. Shooting a level 45 enemy with a rocket launcher at 500 damage points will not have the same effect as doing so to a level 2 enemy.
The lake of trading weapons in Borderlands is slightly of putting as to why there is no trading feature. Most weapons have a level lock which means, you'll need to reach the certain level to use the certain weapon. There is no why for other players to see your inventory like in Resident Evil 5 etc. If you want to trade weapons or items, you must do so through (obviously) by asking the player what he or she has in there inventory, then wait for them you simply drop the item to the ground so you can pick it up.
Throughout your play through there are bosses that you'll encounter in the game. Each boss is not really as satisfying as they should or could have been. Some boss fights can be purely easy if you find a dead spot where you can just sit on one spot shooting everything you've got at the boss with out them even hitting you. The boss fights can be pretty redundant, but not enough to cause any big uproar with the game.
Pandora is a pretty big place to explore. Throughout the game you gain money which can be found by completing mission, or looting the wastelands of Pandora, in order to buy new weapons, abilities, items, ammunition etc. Enemies can also drop loot on the ground after killing them. All items can easily be seen and noticed with the same glowing light effect seen in Resident Evil 4 and 5. As said, Pandora is a pretty big place. Each location is separated with a (rather long) loading screen. There is also a useful feature that you can use which allows you to teleport to any previous place you desired to go, which are located in several points in certain locations. To aid you in your travels, you have access to a vehicle which you can find in several spots in certain locations. Playing in a four player co-op game, two vehicles can be spawn at a time, while the other two remaining playing mount up on the vehicle gun turrets, which can ether be (with the choice of the player/s) a rocket launcher, or a machine gun turret.
You can drop in and out of any game (providing you have friends playing of course) as easy as pushing the start button. As you play Borderlands, every weapon, items etc that is in your inventory, you experience points level, your abilities etc, will always be with you (providing you save the game of course), even if you join a friend who is new to Borderlands. You can ether join your friends game, or invite him (or her) to your game at anytime, but doing so will cause the joiner to correspond in the hosts missions only, which means if your new to Borderlands and you join a friend who is pretty far in to the game, you'll miss out on the earlier missions. If your at level 45, and you play with a friend just starting out, the game will automatically even the difficulty out considering both your experience levels, which can make it slightly harder for the low levelled player, and still roughly easy for the higher levelled player.
Borderlands also comes with an additional feature that can only be played with more than one player, the Arena. The arena ia a place where you and your friend/s fight each other to the death, which can be pretty fun. Outside the arena, you can challenge a friend to a duel by using a melee move on the desired player you wish to do a duel with. When the duel starts you and your friend are caged in a cricle dome of light where you both battle out in a duel. Both the winner and loser gain nothing in terns on the health, experience etc, but the winner gains respect as the loser hides in shame.
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***** SOUND DESIGN *****
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The sound design are pretty great. Everything sound right, and the weapons sound awesome. The in game music (even though I wouldn't say there download material), fit's the game rather well.
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***** LIFE VALUE *****
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Borderlands is crammed with hours and hours of game-play value. The overall length of the game may very well last a good 20 or so hours your fists time around, but if you have a friend to play it with, Borderlands is worth another 20 hours more.
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***** EDITOR'S FINAL THOUGHT *****
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Borderlands was made to be played in co-op, ether just you and your buddy roaming the wastelands of Pandora, or a group of you and three other friends (or strangers) reeking havoc upon the world. Playing Borderlands on your own can be a wee bit… boring, but still pretty fun if that makes any sense?. I for one loved playing Borderlands whether it was with friends or alone. Borderlands reminds me of Fallout 3 in many ways but overall, there two pretty different games. The cartoonish looking visuals that can be see in games like 2008's Prince of Persia and Street Fighter IV I found very inspiring, and it's what interested me to the game when it was first announced. Overall I personal loved every minute played Borderlands (Despite the few minor problems and the redundant boss fights), and if for whatever reason there want be a Borderlands 2, I'm looking forward to more for the RPS genre, because I personally thought it worked very well.
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***** RECOMMENDATIONS *****
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Borderlands is two genres rolled into one, Role Playing Game (RPG), and First Person Shooter (FPS). If you like games like Fallout 3, Oblivion, like FPS games, co-op games, and game that require the use of experience point and levelling up a character's abilities, weapons and so on… Borderlands is a game for you.
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***** ADDITIONAL SCORE *****
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Story - 5/10
Online Multiplayer - N/A
Life Value - 9/10
Presentation - 9/10
Graphics - 9/10
Atmosphere - 9/10
Game-Play - 9/10
Controls - 9/10
Sound Effects - 9/10
Concept - 9/10
****EDITOR'S CHOICE*****
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***** EDITOR'S OVERALL THOUGHT SCROE: 9/10 *****
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Borderlands review by Simon a.k.a. [TheDevilDweller]
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