For those of you that have been waiting in
anticipation for the latest from game developers Gearbox, who brought
you the Brothers in Arms franchise, then wait no more. Introducing
Borderlands!
Borderlands is a first-person-shooter meets
role-playing-game that takes place on the hostile, bandit-ridden planet
of Pandora.
The action begins as you set out into an open
world that looks rather barren with some rusty weapons that have seen
better days, with a couple of quests and a number of baddies who'll do
whatever they can to prevent you from wiping out large numbers of their
comrades, find important documents, or collecting a large stash of
weapons and shields.
The story is based on something called “The
Vault”. This mysterious alien structure is said to hold treasures of
massive power and wealth. So with that in mind, any self respecting
fortune-hunting individual such as yourself would be a fool not to
seeks what's in side.
But that's not what this game is about, it's not
the
treasure at the end of the tunnel, it's about the journey to the
“Vault”. It's about looting towns and fallen victims for ammo and shiny
weapons and the joy of watching an enemies head explode into pieces
through the scope of a sniper rifle.
Sounds kind of cool huh?
Well this is pretty cool also, players can choose
one of four characters, each having quite distinct characteristics.
Mordecai is the “Hunter” - weapons of choice are
sniper rifles and revolvers. His special ability is his pet bird
Bloodwing.
Brick is the “Berserker” - weapons of choice are
explosives and his fists. His special ability is going into “berserker”
mode which makes his melee attacks extremely powerful.
Lilith is the “Siren” - weapons of choice are
incendiary, shock and corrosive guns. Her special ability is is called
"Phase Walk", where she will teleport herself into another dimension
where Lilith becomes invisible and can sneak around enemies with
massively increased speed.
Roland is the “Soldier” - weapons of choice are
combat rifles and shotguns. His special ability is a turret.
It can be specialised to deal damage, heal team mates, or spawn ammo.
As these characters level up, the player can
increase basic stats for them such as health totals, ammo capacity and
accuracy. Each character also has three unique focus skill
trees to develop, allowing for 12 main character specs and many
potential builds.
Like most RPGs, players spend a lot of their time
completing missions. There are around 160 missions to complete each
vary in length and difficulty.
There are around 30 story driven missions, while
the other 130 are side missions. Many of these missions can be
completed offline in co-op mode, which makes for some fast paced action.
Each mission has its own rewards, such as new
weapons, or a progression in the story. After beating the game, you
have the option of playing through a second time, now this is the best
bit, with the same character statistics and all your sweet ass weapons
- but with harder enemies.
One key aspect of this game is the multiplayer
offline co-op mode. Simply grab one of your closest mates and indulge
in some split screen mayhem. The great thing about the co-op mode is
you can play the main story with the help of your friends and at any
time. Players can join your story mode no matter what part you are up
to.
But a word to the wise, try and use different
types of guns than your teammates are using, because this can lead to
some problems latter on as ammo becomes scarce, which is another reason
to play to your character's strengths.
This can also lead to living room disputes over
who gets that shiny new combat rifle or that killer sniper
rifle. But this can be resolved at any time while playing
co-op mode, a player can melee another player to issue a challenge.
When the melee is returned, a player vs. player "duel" starts. So you
can make an agreement with your team mate that however wins the dual
gets the loot.
Players can also travel to "arenas" located at
various locations in the game world. These arenas are specifically made
for competitive play, where players can face off in both Free-For-All
styled games or 2 versus 2 team-based games.
In addition to running around large maps, you can
spawn a vehicle from one the many Catch-a-Ride stations. The controls
can be a little touchy at first and takes some getting used to, but
after awhile its a much faster way of navigating through maps.
The radical new art styling of Borderlands is
another standout. The fresh and exciting visuals combine
traditional rendering techniques with hand-drawn textures to create a
unique eye-popping style.
The simple act of killing enemies saw me having as
much fun as I've ever had in a long time from a first-person-shooter.
The appeal of getting loot and experience rewards made the experience
even better.
I would go as far as saying that Borderlands is a
must have game for fans of first-person-shooters and for fans
role-playing-games, as it does such a great job of tying the two
together into hybrid of sorts. Mixed with high stylised visuals, blood
lust, an almost endless array of weapons and some fast paced action
with the co-op mode and you've got a winner.
Game: Borderlands System: Xbox 360
Players: 1-4 Online: Yes Developer: Gearbox
Software
Distributor: 2K Games
