Round up three of your friends for a trek through Pandora in this great role-playing shooter.
The game is set on the trashy planet of Pandora. You (and your friends hopefully) take on the roles of a group of mercenaries: Brick the berserker, Roland the soldier, Lilith the siren, and Mordecai the hunter. In the game you travel to Pandora braving monsters, bandits, and barren landscapes in search of the Vault, a fabled treasure trove that promised a life of luxury for its discoverers. In order to find it, though, you must employ the help of the planet's inhabitants by performing different tasks for them. The Vault hunters' biggest obstacle, though, lies with the Atlas Corporation and their unruly security force the Crimson Lance, who are also in search for the Vault.
Along the way you will meet some memorable characters such as the CL4P-TP (Claptrap), a group of rambunctious robots who guide you between different areas of Pandora and some of whom you must rescue along the way; Tannis, a researcher that is your main aid in finding the vault who has scattered some amusing tape recordings around the planet; and Scooter, a hillbilly mechanic who was named after his sister and provides you with fast four-wheeled transportation. In spite of this, the storyline is but an afterthought in this game, only serving as a backdrop to the missions you take on. Also, your own characters' quips during battles and while finding loot don't lend much to their respective personalities. While the story (and the ending particularly) may disappoint, it is counterbalanced by not only a great sense of humor but also some fairly solid gameplay.
All in all, Borderlands is a great first-person shooter that features some pretty tight mechanics with whatever weapons you use. However, the game in many respects also fits in the role-playing genre. You take on missions that involve collecting items, killing a certain number of certain types of enemies, defeating a particular enemy, etc. You receive experience from killing foes and completing quests that go towards leveling up your character and improving weapons proficiencies. As you level, you unlock a character-specific skill (for example, Roland can unlock a deployable machine gun turret with a shield for cover) and assign points to certain skills in several specialization trees unique to your character. These specs can be further customized with interchangeable class modifications that feature powerups to existing skills and special traits such as health regeneration and damage resistance.
The loot, which comes in the form of money, weapons, class mods, and shields, is what becomes the main driving force in this game. And trust me, there is plenty of loot to be had. There is a staggering amount of weaponry to find all throughout Pandora, including assault rifles that regenerate ammo, revolvers with corrosive bullets, and burst-fire rocket launchers. While many of them you will likely sell at one of the numerous vending machines around (yes, this is where you make all your purchases as well), you will discover diamonds in the rough that you will likely use for a long time on your journey. The anticipation of finding these rare gems in a weapons crate or after defeating a boss makes the game surprisingly addictive.
If you're hungry for the best loot, though, it's best that you round up three of your friends and travel Pandora together in online cooperative play. To me, this is where the game truly shines. While the enemies become harder to kill and the all drops can be picked up on a free-for-all basis, a well balanced team is virtually unstoppable against the bloodthirsty bandits and the Crimson Lance. It is best to have each player as a different character, as they each can contribute different buffs and aids to the collective. Two-player split-screen is also available, and it's also possible to join up with random players via Xbox Live.
Borderlands features interesting cel-shaded graphics that seem appropriate for the Pandoran environment and mood of the game as a whole, though certain instances tend to showcase muddy textures and graphical glitches. The environments themselves are, for the most part, brown and dirty with sparse vegetation. There is a sufficient amount of variety in the locales you'll visit, though; one town sits upon a veritable landfill, and you'll trek through dark caves filled with glowing crystals. The sounds in game are decent as well. Weapon discharges sound okay but lack a certain oomph. The ambience is virtually silent, but this rather complements the vast bleakness of Pandora, and it is filled in with a nice ambient soundtrack that feels appropriate and heightens during enemy encounters.
There are no real game-breaking bugs that I've encountered, thankfully. The biggest nuisance comes from driving around. The controls are lended from Halo-style dual analog driving. While there's nothing wrong with this, there's a noticeable lag in between when you move the stick to turn and when you actually do turn. This is especially noticeable when using the afterburners on the vehicles, which provide a speed boost. It's fairly easy to get used to, though, and it wouldn't be as much of a problem if the collision detection and physics weren't just as annoying. If you hit any wall or surface, you stop on a dime. No matter with what angle or speed you may approach something, you will always stop dead in your tracks and have to back up to continue. Sometimes you'll get stopped by an invisible barrier jutting a few feet from an actual surface or a simple grating jutting out from the ground. Again, it doesn't detract much from the overall gameplay, but it does make driving more of a hassle instead of an experience.
All in all, Borderlands is a great hybrid shooter and RPG made even better by solid co-op play. The story is ultimately forgettable, but leveling and treasure-hunting more than make up for it. If you and your friends are looking a violent and humorous romp through a vastly uncharted territory, then you can't go wrong.