Borderlands is arguably one of the less popular First Person Shooters out there, created by a company that hasn't really been very popular, per se. Once you get into the game, though, it's a pretty interesting FPS/RPG mixer with some equally interesting characters and plot, with a party-focused gaming system that I've never actually tried. Published in 2009, Borderlands became an icon in the gaming industry, spawning the perfect sequel, and an less-than-surprising pre-sequel. For this review, I'll be talking about the core game, not counting DLC or expansions, and I won't be reviewing the multiplayer aspects of the game, as I've never played the game with other people. Either way, let's get into the Review.
How it Looks:
Borderlands graphics are stylish, and though they've started to grow old, they were pretty gorgeous for their time. The characters are each as unique as the next, including the main characters, and the powers and abilities of each of them. The guns look good, as they usually do, but after a few guns collected, you start to notice that, though there's a few guns that stand out, the majority of them are going to end up being repetitive, with particular guns using the same parts over and over, with very slight variations to their look. Just like the guns, the world has very few places that look genuinely different, with the majority of it being colored in a drab brown. Though this is understandable, as the story takes place in a desert world, it does get boring and repetitive after a while, specially since you get to spend a long time in Fyrestone. The game doesn't really do anything super revolutionary with it's graphics, but it does look good, and the enemy characters do, if you like seeing the same character reused over-and-over again with next to no alterations beyond name.
How it Sounds:
Borderlands sounds good, but it's not all that great. No song, bar the intro song, stood out to me as interesting, even all the way to the final battle, which has... I honestly don't remember. Either way, the sound design isn't particularly stand-out-ish, as anything beyond the game's intro song is pretty standard. The monsters and enemies sound alright, the general sounds for the guns and grenades are alright. Honestly? This game sounds alright. That's about it.
How it Plays:
Borderland's strength is it's gameplay, and that's about it. It mixes an RPG loot-collecting system with a hectic First-Person Shooter play style that, unfortunately, it doesn't take advantage of. The RPG systems are too straightforward and alter the characters in too simple a way to seem like you're genuinely progressing. Often times, you pick up the same weapon repeatedly, in spite of the game's apparent randomly generated loot. You'll most probably end up with a boss-specific weapon for the majority of the game, or until the next boss drops a weapon. The FPS aspects are unforgiving at times, as enemies take far too little damage in comparison to the damage they deliver. I suspect that the multiplayer aspects of the game makes it better, but I can't say for sure. As an additional note, the bosses in the game range from incredibly easy (Where you can hide behind cover and fire at them from away) to impossibly hard (Bosses that can move through the same terrain as you, leading to your demise.) The final boss of the game is specially disappointing, as I defeated it far too easily.
How it Stories:
Unfortunately, Borderlands is not very exciting when it comes to story. It's a search quest after another, intertwined with go kill x amount of people or monsters in x place until the next marker comes along. This is a pattern that flies throughout the entire game, leading up to a final confrontation that honestly, leaves a lot to be desired. The reason I mention quests, is because that's the way Borderlands delivers it's story, and if you're not paying attention, you'll probably miss a lot of the story. And, leading up to the final boss, you'll be so out of tune from the quests, you'll probably end up forgetting what that giant, one-eyed creature is. Or, you know, what you were supposed to be doing that entire time, story wise. Borderland's story fails to deliver, and as a result, whatever positive the rest of the game might have, the story fails to bring it all together appropriately. In the end, it could have done so much more, but failed to do so.
Verdict and Conclusion:
Don't let all my negative points deceive you, as the game is genuinely fun, in short bursts. There's little point to picking a specific character, beyond what their Action Skills do. Regardless, Borderlands is a very ambitious take on the FPS genre, specially as it attempted to mix RPG elements with it's FPS elements, creating a formula that would become incredibly popular a long time later. Needless to say, Borderlands gets a solid three stars from me, for it's interesting mechanics, but it loses those two additional stars mostly due to it's inability to optimize those same elements to it's advantage.
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