Gearbox Software delivers a stylish, fun, and frantic shoot and loot experience.
The first thing you will notice about Borderlands is that its cell shaded. Not to many games use this technique and the only time they do is if developers want the game to come across as cartoonish. When details were first being shown of Borderlands it honestly looked like a lot of shooters out there in the market. This new style Gearbox adopted for Borderlands is probably one of the best decisions they could have made for the game. Borderlands is very appealing to the eyes, and the graphics give the game a comic book look and feel. It still finds a way to keep its detail and color palette is rich and bright. You also would not expect by looking at this game that it's developed using the Unreal Engine. Besides the game looking good, the cell shaded graphics makes the game distinct. There Is no First Person Shooter out there right now that looks like Borderlands, which makes it stick out in an over crowded genre. The gameplay of Borderlands is pretty average for this genre. I really don't say this in a bad way either. The game is very simple to pick up and play. You can run, jump, crouch, shoot and perform a melee attack. Do you really need anything more than that? If you do then Borderlands will surely make up for it with what your character will be capable of later in the game. There are four main characters in the game and each one represents a different class. Mordecai (Hunter), Roland (Soldier), Brick (Berserker) and Lilith (Siren). After you make your pick, you can further customize your character. However, the customization is limited to changes of their names and the color of their outfits. Each class has there own special abilities and a class specific skill that can prove useful in a jam. I found that strange, considering the rest of the game. Just like a classic RPG, there is loot galore in Borderlands. When you come across items, weapons, and ammo a screen will appear over it displaying its stats. All your loot is kept in your backpack and everything is place in only one inventory screen. Think Fallout 3, just not as good, but still awesome. There are literally thousands of weapons in Borderlands, and finding new ones is a whole new experience in itself. All the different classifications of weapons are present. You have shotguns, machine guns, pistols, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and so much more. Awesome! The story behind Borderlands starts you off on a bus on the planet Pandora on a bus traveling to the town of Fyrestone. Here you pick the class of the character you want to play. Pandora is a planet discovered by colonists looking for a better quality of life. The planet is barren and the only thing left on it is alien ruins. Some colonists left while the ones that stayed create a culture reminiscent of the Wild West. Later a mysterious vault is discovered and is rumored to contain vast amounts of wealth and alien technology. The goal of the find what's in the vault and each character has their own reason for being on the planet itself. While you are on the bus you are greeted by a vision of a mysterious woman who will inform you that the vault is very much real and she will guide you to it. You are greeted by a Clap Trap (A R2D2 type robot) who tells you a bunch of background info and acts as your starting tutorial. While you enter Fyrestone you meet Dr. Zed, who is taking an axe to a dead body. After this disturbing scene, He will give you your first mission as you go around killing Skags (dog like predators that eat everything) and bandits. Missions can be picked up at the town's bounty board. You will pick this game up very quickly, and Borderlands does a good job of teaching you the game without throwing tutorials in your face.
Overall, Borderlands is a awesome, open world, Fallout 3 type game, with some stunning graphics, thousands of guns, and a fun atmosphere that will keep you playing, playing and playing for ages!