Borderlands is a futuristic western hybrid RPG/FPS game from 2009 set in a fictional universe. I know I said I hated shooters...but I don't like simple shooters with no depth. I have no problem with the shooting system, I have a problem with the absolute brain-dead gaming design and lack of any substance, depth, strategy...etc. If the entire point of the game is to run around and pull RT, I'm out. **Burr chill chill** Sorry, it's getting cold up there on my high horse. Anywho, Borderlands is no such thing, it is essentially an open world "dungeon" crawler with leveling and tons of loot. I mean TONS. I present to you: Borderlands.
Borderlands gives you the choice between 4 characters, or class, each with special abilities and varying available perks to level. Roland is your standard warrior/soldier, Mordecai is a sniper and ranged attacker, Lilith is basically a rogue class and Brick is a melee character. You can use any class of guns with any character, but characters have different proficiencies in the different classes. In addition, each character has a specific ability. Roland has a support turret, Mordecai has a hawk that can decimate enemies, Lilith can go stealth and Brick can basically go insane and punch things. Each character can eventually specialize in 1 of 3 categories; for instance, Mordecai can specialize in sniping, using revolvers, or using his pet Bloodwing. You're not pigeon holed, but obviously it's good to have some focus because you can't get enough points to cover everything.
One of my absolute favorite features of this game was the co-op. While the 4 person online co-op is a great feature, the absolute best part was the 2 player couch co-op. Yes, it's splitscreen, but yes, it's amazing as well, and I actually played the entire game in my room with my friend. It made it a thousand times better, and of course you can revive eachother if you die. There is also an arena battle...which frankly is stupid and seemed like more of an afterthought, and is completely broken if you're Mordecai because Bloodwing will down everyone with one hit. I think I played it once to get an achievement and was never drawn back.
So onto the leveling. The level cap started at 50 but has been raised to 69 through DLC. You level by...completely revolutionary here...killing enemies and doing quests! Ok, nothing surprising. As you level, you get skill points you can allocate to skills. Simple RPG stuff here gang. The skills are pretty diverse, ranging from damage increases to killing perks. You're forced to start with your class skill, but after that you have 21 options, with more opening up as you add to the level (standard tree system). Each tier has 2 perks with 5 levels, once you put 5 stats in cumulatively to that level (in that tree), you can move to the next tier. You can actually get the 3 major class bonuses on one character, but can only get one level in the last final perk. Also equipment has level caps, so often you can use new weapons as well. In my one playthrough with no DLC, I think I got to around 41. There's no real ability to grind in the standard game, as once you pass an enemy's level...they're useless to you in terms of XP. You can join a higher level person's game, and you'll get XP even if you stand there and they kill everyone, but it's kind of pointless as it'll just happen naturally. Especially if you get the DLC. I got the first three, and Zombie Island and Secret Armory are ENORMOUS and great areas. Mad Moxxi's kind of sucked, to be honest. But regardless, there's a new game+ option so there's no point of maxing out your first playthrough.
Alright, so on to equipment. You start off with 2 weapon slots (that goes up to 4), a shield slot, a grenade modification and a class specific modification (so Mordecai's can only be equipped by Mordecai). That's about it...but I'll get into more details. Oh, I should add one thing, you can find elemental artifacts that are specific to a class and will add elemental damages to your special ability. So basically you stick a gem up a hawk's butt and it can then electrocute people. Very sensible stuff here. Also you can upgrade your capacity by finding Claptraps and rescuing them. Everyone loves an increased inventory.
Ahhhh, loot. One of my favorite parts about this game and basically its calling card. It did a great job here to be honest and is one of the best systems I've ever encountered. Basically enemies drop weapons, you get weapons for completing quests (usually unique), you can buy them from merchants or vending machines, and you can find them from chests. The uniqueness of the system comes from the fact that the weapons are randomly generated; meaning you may get a pistol with acid bonuses with a larger clip and higher damage, or you can find the exact same pistol with fire damage and lower damage. The combinations are nearly limitless, and while you will obviously have some overlap and repetition, you will rarely, if ever, find the exact same weapon twice. And it's not a cheap gimmick; each weapon plays differently and it actually matters. Weapons also have a level floor, meaning the better the weapon, the higher you have to be to use it. This prevents people from dropping weapons for friends at a low level and putting them in easy mode. In addition, weapons have a rarity level, and from common to rarest is white, green, blue, purple, yellow, orange, dark orange, pearl. Pearls are typically the best, obviously. More so, weapons can have elemental damage, including fire, shock, explosive and corrosive. Weapons ALSO (yes I know this is getting absurd) can have "flavor text" added to them, which is typically some cryptic saying in red text that adds yet another boost to the weapon, and needs to be looked up to really know that the heck it does. I don't even think I covered everything, such as multipliers that detail how many bullets are fired with a single trigger pull...this system is ridiculously deep and absolutely fantastic. They took pride in their weapon system and nailed it.
Now I mentioned ways to find weapons, and I'm going to go into greater detail about that. The weapons are randomly generated unless they're a guaranteed reward/drop. That means that every chest is random, every enemy drop, and every vending machine, will have random stock. The vending machine actually changes inventory every 15 minutes, and the differences are usually substantial. I spent hours just hanging at vending machines looking for a monster weapon, which WILL pop up. Also, chests are not one time use, and you can easily quit and reload your game to do a new chest run. I spent hours in one town hitting 4 rare chests just stocking up on rare items, which you can keep, or sell to afford other items. Oh yea, money, you get this from killing people, selling, and doing quests. Again, standard. Back to the chests, even the freakin' chests have rarity levels, with the rarer the quest being, the better the items (typically).
So I've managed to detail everything but the game itself. Basically you're running around a futuristic wild west doing quests you get from characters or the quest boards. There are quests where you have to find crap and quests where you have to kill crap. Nothing special here. There are a TON. I think it took me like 60-70 hours to beat the first playthrough. Luckily the localities are pretty diverse and keep it relatively interesting and challenging. And this game is plenty long, ignoring the DLC, plus as I mentioned there is a NG+, which raises all enemy levels. You can also only get end-game equipment on the NG+, ignoring DLC again. This game has a story...but it's kind of dumb to be honest. It's just fun killing everything, that's enough for me.
Speaking of which, enemies also have a randomness to them and can have random abilities and attack sequences. The combat is actually a blast. It's not realistic what so ever, as your bullets hurt more when you're a higher level, so it's like any other RPG. There is a big focus on head shots here, as that's a guaranteed critical hit, a staple in the genre. It's nice having control over it for a change rather than it being random. Ammo...you have to find it, and your capacity is capped. You can run out at times but you're rarely ever SoL, you can typically find some lying around. You can also buy it from shops and vending machines as needed. A big focus is also placed on the class ability. They can be HUGE life savers and do a ton of damage. You can use them once, then have to wait for them to cool down. There are typically skills you can invest in that reduce this time and reduce it with kills as well. You can also upgrade them, as I mentioned. I played as Mordecai, and by the end of the game he was killing six targets at once and recharging before he came back to me, also re-filling my health as well. Honestly, Bloodwing seemed broken as he made it pretty easy. Ok, so if you die, you become downed. If you're playing with friends then can revive you, otherwise you have to kill people to get your second wind. Obviously you're screwed if there's no one in range. If you bleed out, you lose money and respawn at a medical station, sometimes extremely far away. It's annoying, but what are you going to do. Suck less I guess lol.
This game is massive. Thankfully, you can fast travel and unlock cars. Claptraps typically open new locations, which you earn by completing quests and furthering the story. It's a simple progression system: you to quests to move forward, with new locales opening up. Nothing revolutionary but it works.
Let's touch on the DLC a bit. I have all but the latest one, which I'm sad I never got around to. The first was the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, which sends you to an island with...zombies. And other supernatural creatures like werewolves. The enemies scale based on when you enter it. This is pretty enormous and took me and my pal a ton to beat 100%, but it was an absolute blast and a fun change of pace. There are a ton more enemies than usual but they're also easier to kill generally. The second one was Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, which is essentially the multiplayer arena mode with set enemies. I actually despised this DLC and only played it a few times, so I can't really comment on it. It did add a storage box, so I guess it did have a purpose. The third was the Secret Armory of General Knoxx. I beat this and generally enjoyed it, but it forced you to drive a little more than I was happy with and it kind of got old. The combat and areas themselves were great, just took a little too long to get to sometimes. Still this was very much worth the purchase.
Something this game has that is pretty rare is good humor. It's actually a pretty funny game. The game is FULL of pop-culture references, half of which I didn't even catch. The cover boss, 9-Toes, is a reference to a villain in Mad Max, and constantly complains about his missing toe and his third testicle. The splash screen literally says "Also, he has 3 balls." And his dogs are named Pinky and Digit. Yes, it's cheesy, but it's also funny. I remember Die Hard references, Fight Club, hell even Call of Duty. Half the fun is just finding them all. Aside from that, the game itself is funny, fueled mostly by the Claptraps and their abuse throughout the game. Seriously, everyone is trying to kill these things for some reason and they know it, and are thus very uncomfortable. It's just a weird game, full of sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek mockery of the genre and its inspirations.
If it wasn't obvious, I adored this game. Typically once or twice a year I get a game that completely engrosses me and dominates my gaming. Like Dark Souls stole my last year of law school, Borderlands stole the better part of my first year. The game itself was fantastic, but I'm telling you there is some serious value in being able to play the ENTIRE game with your friend in the same room. It rekindled being a kid, and just made it that much better. Unless you don't have friends, then it might realllllly suck.
Aside from that, this game had length without being dull. There was always something I could do, something to look for, something to work towards. I was constantly finding better weapons and trying to figure out what worked best, and was always looking forward to reaching the next perk level, or reach the level to use a ridiculous gun I've been holding on to for 5 hours. It just keeps you hooked. Do you ever play a game and get to the point where you force yourself to play it just to finish it? Batman: Arkham Asylum reached that point for me...not Borderlands. I actually looked forward to playing it every day and WANTED to, because it was fun and funny.
I can't really point to a flaw or something that really bugged me. I think this game was absolutely fantastic. It had everything I wanted in a game, and I never expected to find that in a shooter. Can't really say enough other than to give it a try. And pick Mordecai, he's the freakin' man.
Next up: Ehhh I don't know, might finally get around to Symphony of the Night.
Borderlands Game of the Year
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