Awesome combat, a great RPG and loot system and great quest design make Borderlands one of the best shooters in years.
The story is unfortunately forgettable fare, with the plot revolving around the search for the sacred Eridian Vault of Pandora. One of four fortune hunters take on the task of searching for it, aided by a mysterious female entity, the Guardian Angel, along the way. The player will also meet many characters who give you hundreds of quests amidst the search. I wasn't engaged by the storyline, only by quests and as the game progressed, it started to seem like something just to propel the action along. It has a lot of personality, however. The Claptrap robots are among the most charming and humorous characters in the entire game, as they give you advice, tell you where to go and even help you find hidden stockpiles - assuming, of course, you have already helped them by finding aid units (which make up a dozen of in-game quests).
Borderlands is a very streamlined experience while simultaneously catering for the more invested players. As soon as the game begins, you are given the choice of four given characters with their own unique abilities, traits and weapon preferences. There is Mordecai, the Hunter specialized in Sniper weaponry; Brick, the Berserker who specializes in his fists (damn powerful at that); Lilith, the Siren useful with corrosive weapons; and Roland, the Soldier specializing in the standard rifles and soldier weaponry. They are great set-ups, each with their individual "Action Skills" - A power that, depending on the class, acts as an ally or a magic spell. For example, Roland's Action skill is a turret, Mordecai's Bloodwing (a bird-like creature), Lilith's is Phasewalk (Invisibility and increased speed on unsuspecting enemies) and Brick's is Berserk, a sixty-second outburst of momentous maniacal damage. All are useful for different situations, and are just great fun for dealing with large groups of enemies.
The interface and Heads Up Display are amongst the best in gaming, and are incredibly accessible. The game uses a smart, holographic in-game interface when observing weapons and quests, and is really well-designed. It's easy for games to overwhelm you with their RPG elements and interface designs, but here it is top-notch. At the beginning of the game, you start off at Level 1 and work your way towards the 50 level cap. Levelling up is hugely addictive and is done so by acquiring XP. Earning XP in the game is easy and is given for every little thing you do - killing an enemy, completing a quest, completing challenges etc - and really helps to keep you invested in the experience. The challenges are just as good. Here, there are hundreds of small requirements that can be tackled for XP bonuses; some small, some huge. Challenges are tied to everything in the game. A certain number of kills, spending money and completing quests are just some of the challenges on offer. It's hard to state how many there are, and seeing for yourself is the best way.
You can spend money in the game, with a very usable currency system. You gain money from fallen enemies and completing quests, and can purchase many things. There are three different vendors in the game - Aid, Ammo and Weaponry - and all contain useful items. You can buy health packs and more powerful shields and grenades, as well as guns and ammo upgrades. When you have used those guns or collect other weapons, you can sell them at any of the three vendors for money. You can even buyback items you have sold, which is a great feature.
The best thing about Borderlands is the gunplay and subsequent loot. Like I mentioned early in the review, there are a large number of guns and can be purchased, collected or found. When you kill enemies in the game, they drop items such as shields, grenade modifications (adding extra damage and unique elemental abilities), guns and cash. You can acquire these items and are identified by their colour codes. Ammunition is highlighted by a white outline, while cash is yellow and guns are dependent on the element. There are some different elements in the game, such as incineration ammunition and weaponry, which sets enemies on fire and deals high damage towards normal enemies. There are electricity abilities which shock enemies. There are corrosive weapons and abilities that poison enemies and there are also artifacts that enhance the character's abilities based on their class.
Some artifacts - modifications that give the player extra damage or elemental abilities for their guns or action skill - are dependent on the current level the player is at. This is great for the knowledge of whether some abilities are too powerful for you at the current state and require grinding to eventually acquire them. Then again, a lot of guns require certain levels before their availability. It's worth the grinding, though; these higher-tier guns will give you considerably more power than your enemies. The Action Skill abilities I have mentioned can be upgraded with skill points. The skill points are obtained each time you gain a level. There are three skill trees to max out - health upgrades, ammo upgrades and teamplay upgrades (for co-op play).
There are also Weapon Proficiencies. These are levels that are gained with each specific number of kills you gain while playing, as well as general use of that category of gun. For example, you can level up a Sniper Rifle to level 10 and receive higher damage for that category, meaning that all sniper rifles acquired at any point will also hand out the same amount of damage, which is awesome. You can also make the shoot-and-loot gameplay better by balancing out each weapon proficiency, so that you have a killer arsenal to choose from.
The quest design is fantastic. There are hundreds and hundreds of different quests throughout the game, and most are straightforward. The Fyrestone quests, at the start of the game, are there just to help you adjust to the game's nuances. Once you enter the Dahl Headland and beyond, things get interesting. Each time you complete a quest, you earn XP as well as cash. Sometimes, you will also gain a weapon or shield for completing a quest, and this is especially true with helping Claptraps, who give you modifications to extend the capacity of your inventory. There are numerous bounty boards throughout the game. These are hubs for quests and are the sources you return to upon completing the quests to turn in and obtain your XP and cash. One awesome thing about the design is that you can have as many active quests as you like, and when you complete a quest, you can immediately begin another quest without having to return to a bounty board or the person who gave the quest. Also, you can turn in multiple quests at a time and gain substantial XP and cash, which is immensely satisfying.
The quests are made better thanks to some fantastic enemy AI. While no overtly smart, they will still try to gun you down, run at you with machetes and even try to run you down. There are different variations of enemies in the game, ranging from the skags and spiderants to scythid and rakk. These creatures are well-designed and feature a good challenge, especially in numbers. There are also a handful of human types including bandit raiders, brutes and psychos. Brutes pack larger health and deal out more damage; Psycho enemies run at you and cut you up; and there are mutant enemies that can come in blazing (on fire), suicide and midget variations. The midget shotgunners are amusing, especially as they fly back when firing a shot. There are also some tougher types of the same enemies, known as Badass. These pack more health, deal out heavy damage and glow illuminate purple in their eyes, making them look very much intimidating. Same can be said for tougher skags, who can be fire, corrosive and shock variations. Enemies in the game also have health and shield meters, as well as their individual levels. Of course, lower-end level enemies will be a breeze, but higher-level enemies will be very difficult. Near the start of the game, some enemies may have a skull icon to the left of their meter, which signals that they are a higher level than you and should be avoided. Of course, you can ignore this advice and take your chances, but you will most likely be torn apart. Coming back to that area when a higher level is fun and rewarding.
The visuals in Borderlands are fantastic, with great lighting and an attractive, cel-shaded style akin to games like Crackdown. When exploring, the game opens up, especially later on in the game, to big, sprawling vistas with huge structures and towers reminiscent of canyons and pitfalls – all of which look awesome. The character animations are also very impressive, with enemies responding to being shot; their limbs falling apart from gunfire, and their movements impressively realistic. Some enemies can also be incinerated, shocked or corroded to ashes, which is satisfying and visually impressive. The environments also feature solid texture work and some fantastic detail, especially Fyrestone and New Haven, to name a few. The character models are decent, though the in-game models can be a little underwhelming. The art direction is first-rate, though. The colour palette is a strong focus of red, blue and grey and comes together really well. The cut-scenes look cool although I wish there were more. The cinematics for introducing characters and bosses feature an appealing, grindhouse look, and look awesome.
This also works in tandem with the good smoke and water physics. It would have been nice to see full destructible environments, given the size and scope of the areas, but the explosions – whether it's from a rocket or an oil canister or vehicle – look great. The weapon models also look great, although the many different types of guns don't visually differentiate. Not all things are perfect though. There are some noticeable framerate drops when in large, heated battles and a lot of slowdown can occur when navigating an area occupied by a large number of enemies. Thankfully, these aren't frequent, but definitely noticeable. The same goes for the large amount of texture pop-in, especially when loading a game and subsequent area. Also, there is some pop-in and the main character can sometimes get stuck in posts, fences and rocks, although this is a strictly occasional event.
The audio design in Borderlands is great. The sound effects are solid and the soundtrack is awesome, especially when in firefights. The voice acting is strong and features some great writing. The Claptraps contain much of the game's humour and personality, especially when they dance and shout. None of the characters are exactly deep in any way, and most of the voice work is few and far between, but they are written well and always have some witty things to say.
There are vehicles too, although they mainly serve as a quick-point to travel. They can be used in battle though, and are quite effective. There are two types of main weapon that can be attached, rockets or machine guns. I personally perceive the rocket-mounted vehicles to be strongest, particularly later on in the game, although machine guns are effective against lesser enemies, such as raiders, skags and spiderants. Colours can also be chosen to your desire, with my favourite being red. The vehicles can also be used to mow down enemies, which is humorously entertaining. Some areas feature multiple vehicles that you can attack, which lead to fun vehicle shootouts. Some quests are also tied to these sections.
The gunplay in Borderlands is brilliant, especially when combined with the character's Action Skill. In a firefight of multiple enemies, it is satisfying to deploy a turret and have it tear apart raiders and skags, leading to numerous loot drops. The control scheme is great and feels right at home with the crop of other first-person games. There are so many guns to use and finding the best ones is what leads to the fun factor of the game. Each weapon has its own damage rating, as well as accuracy and rate of fire. These parameters will lead to the addictive weapon-hunting aspect of Borderlands, and elevates the experience to beyond simply finding a better gun. You want to have a powerful arsenal, not just a better looking model or a gun that fires corrosive round merely for the sake of it. Each weapon has bonus damage criteria on its interface, which can be higher damage, weapon zoom and accuracy bonuses or elemental fire. Each weapon has its own traits, which makes it especially deeper than many shooters. Also, when you equip a shield or artifact, your Action Skill will gain bonus features. For example, the deployable turret may be given the chance to incinerate enemies or corrode them, or the Bloodwing may have a higher damage bonus.
Some weapons may also be required to take down different enemies. These enemies may have shock or corrosive shields, meaning that the weapons relative to these shield types will be entirely ineffective. However, corrosive enemies will be vulnerable to incinerate attacks, so planning your weaponry in tandem with the enemy is very important. Enemies may also carry elemental weapons which makes combat interesting. This also means, of course, that you can equip elemental shields too, which balances out the complexities of each fight.
There is multiplayer in Borderlands, and it is great. Four players can join via co-op or online - The latter being wholly recommended. It's fun to strategize sharing loot and raiding different areas of Pandora, and satisfying to take on the Rakk Hive in a group of four. Also, the game is made tougher – dependent on the number of players present. I think it's a cool addition, as it isn't a simple breeze through the experience, but rather an exciting challenge that it should be. There is also split-screen support, ensuring you and a friend can tear up Pandora locally. There are also the options for duels. These are just simple 1v1 pvp mini-matches, where you aim to kill each other. There is also a location in Pandora that caters this action. The multiplayer lends well to the teamwork aspect that most online co-op games should be, as you can revive downed allies or, depending on your turret or other Action Skill traits, can even revive them with that skill. You can also give health regeneration to teammates and give them more ammo, pending whether you assign your skill tree to fit the teamwork aspect. One issue with multiplayer, however, is that each player must be at the same part of the game to play alongside one another, so planning accordingly is the best solution.
When you have completed Borderlands, your level will carry over into the new playthrough, meaning you can work your way up to the level cap. The enemies' levels also increase - as does the game's challenge. Variety also differs, making sure that you won't be obtaining the same items each time and tougher variation of enemies will appear, such as BadMutha brutes or Hawking skags. Third playthroughs will open up to even tougher enemies, so make sure you are well equipped before jumping in a third time or more. You will also gain significant XP and cash bonuses in a new playthrough, which is awesome. Challenges will also reset, so you can gain XP all over again.
I must also mention the significance of levelling up in regards to the main bosses in the game. Some bosses can be swept aside easily if you are a high level. The boss fights will not be a challenge or any fun if you are a certain level which makes the fights seem imbalanced. The last boss, for example, was incredibly easy as a level 37 soldier, which makes me question if Gearbox dropped the ball on this issue. I wish the bosses scaled to your level or had damage or weapon advantages over the player to incur a challenge, but it isn't to be. It's a shame, too, because the bosses are well-designed and engineered well. The environments they take place in are open and varied but the fights can be exploited to a simple degree. Of course, they will be much tougher on a second and third playthrough, but first-time players must take note of this issue.
Overall, Borderlands is a completely awesome game that redefines fun in a shooter. Addictive looting and weapon-hunting are par for the course but the surprisingly deep combat, great RPG elements and great levelling up make this one of the most entertaining shooters in years. AI is great and the interface and HUD are fantastic, although the boss fight issues are a blight on an otherwise exemplary experience that you can't miss.
SUMMARY
Presentation 9.5 - A fantastic HUD and interface, and a brilliant overall presentation.
Graphics 9.0 - Awesome art style with beautiful environments and brilliant animations.
Audio 9.0 - Great voice acting, fantastic sound effects and a good soundtrack.
Gameplay 9.0 - Great gunplay, awesome quests, fantastic looting and fun exploration. Boss fights do disappoint, however.
Replayability 9.5 - Borderlands' initial 30-hour story opens up in subsequent playthroughs to tougher enemies, along with the great gunplay and content.
Overall - 9/10