Borderlands is a 1st-Person Shooter with several elements of popular RPG games. You are one of four characters who are all sent on a mission on a strange planet to discover an ancient vault. It also features online co-op, so you and your friends can play through the campaign together.
Gameplay: 8.7
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
Borderlands' claim to fame is their gun generation scripts that seemingly make for something like 2,000,000 unique guns you could pick up through the course of the game. They take a common gun type, somewhat randomize it's statistics (such as damage, firing rate and elemental property) based on your current level, and throw them in the hands of enemies. When you kill enemies, you can pick up these guns and wind up with a crazy combination of weaponry.
Borderlands is similar to Fallout, as it is a 1st-person shooter + RPG in many ways. You are given quests and basically shown where to go to complete those quests amidst their open world.
There's also the treasure-diving aspect of the game where you find tons more treasure than you could ever hold, and sometimes it can make searching for guns kind of a mockery. You'll come across at least 1,000 different guns during the course of the game, and pick up maybe 50 of them. It's a little silly. I would have preferred picking up weapons only off dead enemies rather than at every single turn. They at least stagger your ammo well forcing you to actively use a large array of weaponry, also making the treasure diving pretty important.
Based on your class, you get a particular special ability you can use that is usually pretty fun. A lot of people love the Siren, where you can move at blazing speeds and confuse enemies. I thought all of the classes had a good extra ability.
Like most RPGs you can level up your use of weaponry, attributes and your special ability through experience.
It's a pretty simple and straightforward game - go around completing quests, pick up cool guns, kill stuff. That's the game, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Presentation: 8.5
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
Borderlands uses cel-shaded animation, making the game look cartoony. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of cel-shading, but I can overlook it pretty easily.
A lot of the animations from a 3rd person perspective when watching your friends blast people can be really goofy looking. Due to the presentation both in animations and in graphic style, you can't ever take this game very seriously.
This game's audio presentation isn't anything to write home about. It's decent, but nothing special.
Theatrics: 4.0
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
Borderlands really has a pretty poor story. I honestly can't remember many story details because they are either so obscure or just so boring it's hard to care. All of their quests are basically mission briefings that you read, go do, and then come back to read a de-briefing. I would have loved to see more voice acting or perhaps a conversation system. Having to read so much of the story in such a fast-paced game causes the story to be almost meaningless to the game.
Controls: 9.5
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
This game plays fast and the controls keep up very well.
Driving vehicles could have been better. They feel way too fast and can easily get out of control.
Replay Value: 9.5
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
For a campaign-only shooter I played it quite a bit and explored every little thing. I played through a full time by myself, another 1/3rd by myself and about 1/3rd co-op, making for around 40 hours of gameplay total. It's definitely going to offer more gameplay than most campaign-only shooters, and the fact that you can play co-op will add some extra time, so it's pretty decent. An addition of (balanced) multiplayer in a sequel will be huge. The multiplayer duels that are in the game now are just a mockery - many weapons will end the duel in one hit.
Fun: 9.3
How much fun was the game?
Borderlands is actually a pretty fun game. Just wandering around blasting stuff kept me entertained for a while. I did manage to overlook their almost non-existent story and press through the game, having fun most of the time. My only complaint is the difficulty curve and how easy the game is if you play through every quest. Even on extra play-throughs, the difficulty is still the same and it doesn't really open up new gameplay.
My Overall Rating: 8.9
Gameplay: 8.7
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
Borderlands' claim to fame is their gun generation scripts that seemingly make for something like 2,000,000 unique guns you could pick up through the course of the game. They take a common gun type, somewhat randomize it's statistics (such as damage, firing rate and elemental property) based on your current level, and throw them in the hands of enemies. When you kill enemies, you can pick up these guns and wind up with a crazy combination of weaponry.
Borderlands is similar to Fallout, as it is a 1st-person shooter + RPG in many ways. You are given quests and basically shown where to go to complete those quests amidst their open world.
There's also the treasure-diving aspect of the game where you find tons more treasure than you could ever hold, and sometimes it can make searching for guns kind of a mockery. You'll come across at least 1,000 different guns during the course of the game, and pick up maybe 50 of them. It's a little silly. I would have preferred picking up weapons only off dead enemies rather than at every single turn. They at least stagger your ammo well forcing you to actively use a large array of weaponry, also making the treasure diving pretty important.
Based on your class, you get a particular special ability you can use that is usually pretty fun. A lot of people love the Siren, where you can move at blazing speeds and confuse enemies. I thought all of the classes had a good extra ability.
Like most RPGs you can level up your use of weaponry, attributes and your special ability through experience.
It's a pretty simple and straightforward game - go around completing quests, pick up cool guns, kill stuff. That's the game, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Presentation: 8.5
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
Borderlands uses cel-shaded animation, making the game look cartoony. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of cel-shading, but I can overlook it pretty easily.
A lot of the animations from a 3rd person perspective when watching your friends blast people can be really goofy looking. Due to the presentation both in animations and in graphic style, you can't ever take this game very seriously.
This game's audio presentation isn't anything to write home about. It's decent, but nothing special.
Theatrics: 4.0
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
Borderlands really has a pretty poor story. I honestly can't remember many story details because they are either so obscure or just so boring it's hard to care. All of their quests are basically mission briefings that you read, go do, and then come back to read a de-briefing. I would have loved to see more voice acting or perhaps a conversation system. Having to read so much of the story in such a fast-paced game causes the story to be almost meaningless to the game.
Controls: 9.5
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
This game plays fast and the controls keep up very well.
Driving vehicles could have been better. They feel way too fast and can easily get out of control.
Replay Value: 9.5
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
For a campaign-only shooter I played it quite a bit and explored every little thing. I played through a full time by myself, another 1/3rd by myself and about 1/3rd co-op, making for around 40 hours of gameplay total. It's definitely going to offer more gameplay than most campaign-only shooters, and the fact that you can play co-op will add some extra time, so it's pretty decent. An addition of (balanced) multiplayer in a sequel will be huge. The multiplayer duels that are in the game now are just a mockery - many weapons will end the duel in one hit.
Fun: 9.3
How much fun was the game?
Borderlands is actually a pretty fun game. Just wandering around blasting stuff kept me entertained for a while. I did manage to overlook their almost non-existent story and press through the game, having fun most of the time. My only complaint is the difficulty curve and how easy the game is if you play through every quest. Even on extra play-throughs, the difficulty is still the same and it doesn't really open up new gameplay.
My Overall Rating: 8.9
Great review! Now I am so excited to play Borderlands, especially since 2k’s other games really impressed me. I am going to put this at the top of my Blockbuster queue list as soon as possible. As a DISH customer/employee, it's easy to get bored of TV, so Blockbuster Movie Pass helps to change things up. With Blockbuster Movie Pass, I now can rent games and movies through the mail and get access to online content and new channels through DISH.
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