Reviews VideoGame / Borderlands

We were promised an FPS/Action RPG hybrid with Gun Porn and it delivers

The following review covers the vanilla game, see my other review for the DLC.

The main selling point of Borderlands was always going to be its Gun Porn. Not in the sense of realistic Twenty Minutes Into The Future weapons or detailed animations, but the sheer number of them, combined with World Of Warcraft style stats. On paper this is one of those things that could easily be a disaster, but it seems to work very well. The stats of the weapons translate into greater or lesser versions of the kind of limitations an FPS might put on itself to be more "realistic" so fans of shooters will be able to feel the difference (for example less shaky aim, more accurate shots). Combined with the endless scrambling for better equipment RPGs give you the result is highly addictive but lacks the tedium of grinding.

The other nice thing is the sheer variety in the weapons. In addition to random elemental effects (for example acid to destroy armour, electric for shields, fire for flesh, etc) some guns have truly unique characteristics, such as firing rockets or ignoring shields. Then there's grenade mods (which make your grenades become anything from proximity mines to health draining weapons), shields (which offer elemental resistances, automatic defenses and even healing) and class mods (which give out even more abilities). Each also character has their own specialities and action skill which their skill tree (very much like the one in World Of Warcraft) can be used to upgrade in various ways.

The graphics are fun to look at, using a specialised form of cel shading to give them "outlines" give the game a very distinctive style that fits the dark but farcical tone very well. The script and characters themselves are also rather amusing with some genuinely funny moments.

The only weak point is the quests (which are decent enough but tend to descend into Twenty Bear Asses or Fetch Quests), although playing co-op with friends takes the edge off it. The rewards also tend (with some exceptions) to be rather lackluster compared to what you find, making the only reason to take them to gain the XP and money. There's also little motivation to explore without them (although there are a few Easter Eggs to be found).

Conclusion

An excellent FPS/RPG hybrid that gets even better playing it with friends. 8/10