Borderlands Review
Imagine waking up on Christmas morning. It’s early and nobody’s awake, so you sneak down to check out the tree. Lo and behold, presents everywhere! Now, imagine that those presents are Skags, viciously snapping at your heels. Instead of Christmas morning, it’s the future and you’re in a post apocalyptic wasteland, and there are guns, and bandits … you know what, this metaphor is terrible. Long story short: Borderlands is an incredible and addicting game.
Borderlands seamlessly merges first person shooting with role playing mechanics into a package that is the best and most addictive game I’ve played in some time. The ‘just one more gun’ mechanics will draw you into the game and the solid shooting and co-op tomfoolery will keep you there for a good long while.
If you like shooters, you must play Borderlands. If you like RPGs, you must play Borderlands. If you only play Spider Solitaire between phone calls, you must play Borderlands. [For all ‘X’, ‘X must play Borderlands.’]
What went right?
Progression: Most reviews are going to focus on the guns of Borderlands, or the graphical style, or the shooting mechanics; don’t worry, I’ll get to those. The real jewel in the crown of Borderlands, however, is the sense of progression. RPGs have always had character development, but previous ‘role playing shooters,’ such as System Shock 2 or Bioshock, did not include significant increases in power. Sure, you add plasmids and gain additional health, but the splicer that could kill you at the beginning of the game could still kill you at the end (if you’re grossly incompetent).
In Borderlands there are no such worries about lowly starting level Skags. Occasionally for sport I’d shoot one for 100x their health, but usually I let them nip at my heels as I ignore them. Go find a low level player, foolish Skag! You continuously pass through low level areas during the game while returning to towns, and it really gives you perspective on how far you’ve come. In most shooters, weapons remain the same with the same old damage even at the end. In Borderlands, however, you inherently grow in power outside of equipment and there’s nothing more satisfying than encountering a frustrating enemy from a few levels back and one-shotting them in their stupid face.
Second Wind: Another great mechanic in Borderlands is the ‘second wind’ effect: once you die, you have a short period of time to kill an enemy in order to resurrect yourself with low health but a full shield. While it can be frustrating to die with nobody around, or while fighting a boss who has far too much health to kill before you bleed out, but there are an equal number of moments where you are brought down by an enemy with a sliver of health remaining and you catch him in the back as he retreats towards cover, saving you time and money. I had one fight with six separate second winds, and the frenetic rhythm of some of the battles with repeated deaths and resurrections is exhilarating.
Skags: the only natural enemy of the Borderlands player
Guns: Here we finally are – the guns! Don’t worry, they do not disappoint. The variety of guns is perhaps not quite as great as the developers make out given they mostly share a dozen or so stats and weapon models, but the combinations create nearly infinite variations. The functional difference between the guns is primarily due to what class you choose, be it pistol, shotgun or sniper rifle etc. as well as which elemental damage and other statistics you go for. Most of the excitement isn’t so much associated with the guns themselves, but for the childlike glee that comes from opening a weapon chest and hoping to find a purple (epic) or orange (legendary) weapon. Sure, it’s mostly vendor trash, but once in a while …
Customization: The game makes quite a big deal of its ’87 bazillion guns,’ but the gun you choose is but a small part of your character’s identity. The skill trees for each player are varied and the choices you make really do adjust the strengths and weaknesses of each character. There are class modifications and grenade modifications that can adjust magazine size, weapon damage type, whether your grenades damage enemies or heal you etc.
Style: Yeah yeah, you all know about the graphical style, but the world of Borderlands is more than just guns, and most of the characters are zany and completely over the top. Boss freeze-frame introductions and enemy comments are some of the little touches that transform otherwise faceless foes into memorable encounters.
My name's Brick. I like easy listening music, bowling and PUNCHING PEOPLE IN THEIR FACES RAAAAAAAAARGH!
What were they thinking?
Slowdown: There is some unforgivable frame rate loss on consoles when the action on screen becomes hectic. This is mostly when you shoot a squid-like insect worm in his fat face and the bloodsplosion and particle effects along with a giant ‘CRITICAL’ word flash up on screen, dropping playability to zero. While it is sometimes amusing to get a still image confirmation of the no-doubt horrendous damage you just inflicted on some poor innocent squid-worm, it would be nice if everything was tuned to the hardware’s limitations.
Repetitiveness: I understand that it’s tough to introduce more variability than ’87 bazillion guns,’ but every town pretty much looks the same, every human enemy until the very end of the game looks the same, and I can practically count the number of separate ‘enemy types’ there are with one hand. Was it too much to ask for different map tilesets, or a couple enemies that weren’t just Skags with poison/fire etc.? I am grasping at straws here somewhat, but what do you want from me? The game is amazing and this is the negative section of the review.
IN THE FACE!
Disorientation: Modern games have come up with a useful invention: guidelines on where to go. While there is a diamond on your compass that shows you the general direction, sometimes that leads you to the opposite side of an impassable wall from your objective, and you have to circle around the entire map. I found myself opening the interface constantly to make sure I was going in the right direction and either an onscreen minimap or a Dead Space-esque quest line would have been immensely appreciated.
Borderlands is not without weaknesses. The slowdown likely can’t be fixed given console hardware limitations. The co-op mode really needs a trading interface, and having to look at the ground to pick anything up is fiddly. These are trivial in comparison with the ridiculously addictive gameplay mechanics on offer in Borderlands. I wanted to exclude the negatives section from this review, but I haven’t yet received my duffel bag of cash from Gearbox yet (seriously Gearbox, what’s the holdup?).
If you have an especially addictive personality, you might actually want to stay away from Borderlands. Or at least get a few weeks of snacks ready before you start so you don’t starve to death. I suppose being addicted to a videogame is a little better for your health in the long run than being addicted to most other things.
Don’t miss this instant classic. Now excuse me, I’m off to settle an old score with Skagzilla.
