The world of Borderlands is huge, with the potential for dozens of hours of exploration and hundreds of quests along the way. Yours quests will take you to alien ruins, bandit camps and even a city built in the middle of a landfill. To help you traverse this landscape there are two person vehicles reminiscent of dune buggys and a fast travel system which becomes available later on in the game. You’ll find yourself relying on it a lot as some of your quest objectives can be separated by a decent amount of distance.
Borderlands was designed to play in co-op, while it is still fun and enjoyable to go questing on your own, it’s at a somewhat slow pace, with you having to backtrack through the same areas for the first couple of hours. However, if you take advantage of Borderlands split-screen or 4 player online co-op then the pace quickens up and if you can get a mix of different classes in there then you start to really get a feel for what the games about. Players can hop into your game at any time no matter what level they are or how far they are in the story. Its still possible to find stuff to do with your friends up to about a 10 level difference. Also if someone joins your game the enemies get harder increasing the chance for better loot drops, they can also heal you if your downed or man the vehicle turret enabling you to focus on driving.
However, there is one problem with co-op your better off playing by yourself if you don’t know anybody most of the time, this is due to there being no loot rules in Borderlands so it’s a general free for all and don’t be surprised if you get somebody who joins your game seas a purple or orange blip picks it up and then leaves before you can get a second word in. However, there isn’t this problem with money or xp with these being shared out equally between all players no matter what. If you cant decide who should get an item or just want to prove who is superior then there’s two options available to you one is just dueling which can take place anywhere the downside to this is the loser has low health. The other option is fighting in one of the arenas scattered across Pandora, which are custom built for multiplayer, the upside of this is that there are no negative consequences for fighting. Its completely possible for you to spend 35+ hours on borderlands with strong replayibilty value due to the enemies being scaled up when you start your next playthrough and the quality of the loot improving as well.
The decision that affects you most in game is which of the four classes you choose at the beginning, whether its the hunter Mordecai who has a killer bird as his special ability, Brick the berserker who starts swinging his massive fists at enemies in a damage resistant rage. Roland the soldier deploys a turret flanked by shields or Lilith the siren who can phasewalk, which turns her invisible and increases her speed. All of these special ability's can be customized in distinct ways such as the turret being able to heal you or it being able to resupply you. Each of the classes are worth having a play around with as they do have different styles of play such as the hunter favoring long range engagements over close encounters which is more of the berserkers area of expertise.
Borderlands is all about the loot, reminiscent of Blizzards Diablo, at the beginning you start off with one or two rusty weapons that look like they haven’t seen action for a good millennia. However, it’s not long before you find better looking weapons with somewhat upgraded stats. This isn’t a game for somebody who doesn’t want to be bothered by stats and have to wonder which gun is superior to which. Guns are classified in the standard categories of pistols, submachine guns, shotguns, combat rifles, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and alien weaponry. Damage isn’t always the key factor with other stats such as fire rate, mag size and environmental effects playing in to the equation. Guns have the possibility to deal corrosive damage (one of four elemental effects) or you can find a bladed weapon, which increases your melee damage. Then, there’s one of Borderlands biggest selling points the amount of guns currently its over 7 million, which is more guns then every gun in all other Xbox 360 games combined. The reason for this is that Gearbox built a random gun generator, meaning that no gun should ever drop twice unless its a quest related weapon. With all the loot you'll be picking up you will need to take advantage of the vending machines scattered across Pandora, which will buy any loot that you receive. They also periodically restock on new weapons and items and usually have a special offer on a given item for a limited amount of time.
The other way Borderlands rewards you is by leveling and upgrading your abilities each class has three trait trees that you can put points into, its not possible to fully max out all of these trait trees but its possible for you to respec your character whenever you're in a town so long as you have the money. The shooting mechanics work well with no obvious problems or limitation while it will seem weird to shooter fans that if you shoot an enemy in the head they don't die this is what happens when you factor in shields and health. One little gripe of mine is the over exaggerated physics when you crash into a rock while driving the car.
The enemy A.I can be hit and miss with them sometimes noticing you as soon as you are within sight while others will not even notice you when your shotgun muzzle is in their face. During a firefight enemies will try and flank you if your in a close to medium range engagement if your at long range then they tend to just stand there. Enemy tactics also vary on which one your facing if your facing a Bandit then he'll keep his range and just take shots at you however, if you're fighting a Bandit Psycho, then he'll charge towards you on fire trying to chop you up into little bits.
Borderlands uses a cell shaded style which works well for itself however, don't think that this makes the game goofy and cartoony while the game does have a sense of humor it doesn't try and get any cheap laughs. Borderlands can sometimes seem a bit repetitive with you spending a lot of time in caves and mining complexes, but there are a few views that are simply breathtaking such as a mining complex burning to the ground as the sun sets behind it or some of the later areas which, are more alien in appearance. Some of the best moments in the game are the animations for when you kill an enemy with an elemental gun such as if you use a corrosive weapon his face melts off, or if you use a fire weapon he runs around screaming crying for his mommy. There are problems with the graphics though such as pixelated shadows and textures taking awhile to fully load.
Borderlands is a game which is slow getting started but once it's up to full speed you won’t want to stop. While your not advised against playing this game alone, its definitely better to bring friends along with you for the ride. With all the emphasis put on the vault it is somewhat of a disappointment, however the vault doesn’t do justice to the amount of fun you’ll have on your journey there. Borderlands focuses much more on the means then the ends as you travel across Pandora. With memorable characters such as the breakdancing claptrap and midget bandits, this is one adventure you definitely don't want to pass up.
Overall 8.5/10
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