Forget the cinematics, forget the flash, and the deep story. Give me everything else instead. Borderlands.

User Rating: 10 | Borderlands PC
By trueepower44 | Review Date:
Borderlands is not about the flash. It's about the whole package in which it delivers. Few games have co-op that are this good. No game combines FPS elements with RPG elements like this game does. You get to pick from four different characters, each of which have 3 skill trees, and all of which play differently. A point is rewarded after you level. Upgrades to your inventory space can be found, and Mad Moxxi's Underdome DLC provides a stash which is valuable (to store the massive amounts of items you will come across). That DLC is the worst of the three now available. But, as a whole the three DLC's are very good, especially for the money (The Secret Armory of General Knoxx adds a lot of new content in particular pumping the level cap to 61). The fourth DLC is coming next September 2010.

Borderlands is often overlooked because it doesn't have the story that similar type of games have such as Fallout 3. But, it easily makes that up with the massive database of unique weapons, shields, and grenades which are color coded in Diablo like fashion. The color coded system is often copied by other games, but never surpassed in the way Diablo 2 mastered it. But, Borderlands does an excellent job in mixing it's RPG elements into it's FPS game play. The game rewards you for using a certain type of weapon, and you will gain bonus stats if you decide to use shotguns over machine guns. This makes the game feel more like an RPG, and adds more depth to it. The boss fights are fun, and rather then worrying about ammo, (or just conserving ammo) Borderlands focuses on fun. The second wind mechanic which is the only thing unique to the game play (not like the AP used in Fallout 3) is when you are dead you have the chance to revive yourself by killing something. The mechanic is very simple, but allows you to play faster without worrying about dieing. It simply gives you a chance to keep on going through mobs, and thus it plays faster than Fallout, a lot faster. That is something Fallout does not do. I am a fan of Fallout 3, but this game simply delivers more fun with the co-op play (not featured in Fallout 3), item system (much more fun for treasure hunters out there, and a reason to keep on playing), unique graphic engine (Fallout 3 is nice, but not as unique), and game play (which is much faster than Fallout 3, which also allows you to play through again on tougher difficulty levels).

Borderlands isn't for everyone, but what it does give is indeed special. Warranting close to a 10, I would say 9.7. Some features which could be included in the future would be item space without an expansion, more specialization for each character, and more characters to choose from. It's a simple game overall. Gearbox should keep it that way in the future. Great game by Gearbox.



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