The Charge:
Lock, Load, and face the madness!

Opening Statement:
How many games come along and promise to provide a mish-mash of “Genre A” and “Genre B” and wind up with a watrered down version of both that dissapoints and frustrates. Gearbox Software, those guys behind Ubisoft’s Brothers in Arms series have unleashed their new baby onto an unsuspecting Fall market. Promising a fresh combination of first person shooter and action role playing, does Borderlands cross the gameplay border into awesometown? Or is it better off being detained at customs.

Facts of the Case:
Pandora, a harsh alien wasteland, is home to a dirty, wild west-ish breed of frontiersmen. Settlers and treasure hunters attempt to make a life for themselves in shanty towns and ruins while contending with the local wildlife and the Mad-Max style bandits that roam the wastes in death driven hell-machines. As one of four characters you step into the ruthless world of Borderlands, your goal is the discovery of an ancient vault, rumored to be filled with alien artifacts that will bring wealth, power, fame, and women. Along the way you’ll meet some colorful characters, and even more colorful bad guys. It’s not going to be an easy trek, thankfully you can bring three friends along for the ride, and there’s a huge arsenal of lead throwers at your disposal.

The Evidence:

Borderlands had me right from “press start”. The cheeky intro monologue spoken in a thick Russian accent the opening montage set to the strains of avant rockers Cage The elephant’s “Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked” and the unique visuals and sense of style that screams “Heavy Metal!” (the magazine, not the music.) Once you’re off the bus and into the starting area, a charming little dump right out of Fallout 3 called “Fyrestone”, the blinders come off, and the massive world of Borderlands is yours to explore. You see, unlike most first person shooters, Borderlands gives you an entirely open environment to roam freely in, with only a scattered roadblock here and there to keep you from wandering into regions beyond your means. The world is huge, and you’ll be given several forms of conveyance to make your travels a little quicker.

Upon first glance, Borderlands definitely looks the part of first-person shooter. One trigger fires, the other lets you aim down your weapon’s iron sights or take advantage of a scope, and you will shoot a lot of bullets in classic shooter fashion. Then you get into the meat of the game, barely 10 minutes in, and you realize that there is actually far more role-playing game than you might think. Borderlands borrows liberally from the massively multiplayer model, included is your typical level grinding, fetch quests, boss-fights, and unique weapons with special properties. You level up abilities and each of the four characters represents a ‘class’ of sorts complete with a Diablo II/World of Warcraft style skill tree, and a unique ability to give you an edge through the lengthy game time. Try to do too much shooter-ing without paying heed to role-playing fundamentals, and you may wind up with gear that cripples your ability to kick ass to the point of being completely helpless.

Much of the brilliance of Borderlands’ design lies in how the two halves form a whole. The shooter side is fast paced and fun, with fast response times that almost recalls elements of Timesplitters, it’s fun and easy to pick up and play. The role-playing side is a little more in depth, and is absolutely essential to success. You will find an unholy amount of firepower, and you’ll be swapping regularly for weapons with varying status effects like poison, electric, or flame shells, and comparing damage and rate of fire stats as though you were looking at the DPS on that unholy Bastard Sword +1 that you just nabbed off of a slain orc. It’s an immediately gratifying crossover for fans of in your face visceral shooters and role-playing gamers alike.

The remainder of the awesomeness comes from Borderlands’ open ended multiplayer. You can hook up with three others online and play through the entirety of the game as a co-operative experience, and this is truly the best way to experience it. With a solid mix of classes, each character has their own role in multiplayer, and a solid team with a diverse pool of talents and weapons can really make for an awesome experience where everyone pulls their weight. There are some balances in place to prevent power leveling, if you’re character is too far afield, one way or the other, from the game’s host, than you won’t be able to turn in quests for valuable XP. Sure, Borderlands works as a single player game, and does so pretty well, but the multiplayer experience is where it’s at. If you’ve ever spent an evening playing 4-player LAN with Diablo, or the idea of chasing elusive loot drops and grinding just one more level with your guild appeals to you, than Borderlands will be right up your alley.

In terms of presentation, I’d be hard pressed to believe that this was actually powered by the Unreal 3 engine, save for the texture pop in that plagues 98.5% of U3 powered console offerings. The character models and environs are pretty rudimentary, but the cel shaded (strike that, more graphic novel) art style actually looks incredibly impressive. Framerate remains consistent, weapons look great, explosions are good, and enemy designs are pretty interesting. Overall the visual package makes a great first impression that actually lasts. Both consoles perform admirably, with nary a shade of difference between the two (some say the PS3 has sharper textures, but I didn’t notice a thing on my display).

The audio is solid, but rudimentary, though the use of rock n roll tuneage suits the game’s vibe perfectly, and the ambiant music sets a pretty good mood. The voice actors are good all around, and the writing is clever, and at times laugh out loud funny. I did find that music got a little “skippy” on the PS3 version at times, but it wasn’t a major issue.

Rebuttal Witness:
While Borderlands is a riot with a group, some may find that playing solo can get a little dull. The game is built around a rigid quest structure, so it may feel like you’re just checking objectives off as you go about your business. That said, there’s more than enough content to keep you focused, and those of you who err on the side of grinding shouldn’t have any issues.

Closing Statement:
Borderlands is just one hell of a sweet surprise. It’s got just the right mix of technical cool, addictive RPG elements, tongue in cheek charm, and visceral shooter action to appeal to a wider range of players than either the FPS or RPG on it’s own ever could. From the looks of things it’s something of a sleeper hit, and it deserves to be. It’s easily one of the best offerings of 2009.

The Verdict:

Platform: Microsoft Xbox360, Sony Playstation 3, Games for Windows PC
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K Games
Release Date: October 20th, 2009
Rated: M(17+) for Mature.

By Steve Power

Tags: Borderlands, mystery game, PC, PS3, review, vault, Xbox360

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 2:51 pm and is filed under PC, PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.