Game Review – Borderlands

Developer: Gearbox Software (Feral Interactive for OS X version)
Engine: Unreal 3
Platforms: OS X, Playstation 3, Windows, and Xbox
Released: 2009 (2010 OS X version)
ERSB rating: M for mature

In honor of the recent release of Borderlands 2, I have decided to write a review of the original Borderlands. Right now some of you are going, "why would you write a review of a 16-bit game that came out in 1989?" No. I'm talking about the REAL original Borderlands that came out in 2009. The "original" 16-bit The Border Lands that supposedly came out in 1989 is a "demake" of Bordelands 2, a marketing gimmick created by Gearbox to promote the release of Borderlands 2. Don't feel bad, they had me fooled too.

So now some are asking, "why do a review of a game that came out in 2009?" Well, because a) I've played through it several times and on multiple platforms and b) I personally know people out there who have not played it yet, but would love it. For those people this review will provide the information they would need to decide if they want to play it or not. For those who have played it, this review might provide some tidbits that you might have missed.

PREMISE

The story of Borderlands revolves around four playable characters searching for a vault of treasure on a planet called Pandora. The characters had grown up hearing stories of this vault and became "Vault Hunters" when they matured. As the player, you can chose one of these four characters to play and are guided through the game by a mysterious woman via some strange psychic/video transmission.

Although the storyline is pretty linear, the four playable characters offer a good variety of gameplay mechanics to fit just about any style of gameplay, from the mystical/magical to the racing in with guns-a-blazin'.

There is Lilith, the Siren, who can Phasewalk (turn invisible); Mordecai, the Hunter, who has a bird that he can send to attack his enemies; Roland, the Soldier, who can place turrets to help him rip his enemies to shreds; and Brick, the Berserker, who can go into a fit of rage killing everything with his bare hands. It's important that this game have this variety otherwise you would have little reason to play the game again once you completed the story.

In addition to the four character classes, each has a skill tree with three specialties. Lilith has Controller, Elemental, and Assassin skills; Mordecai has Sniper, Rogue, and Gunslinger skills; Roland has Infantry, Support, and Medic skills; and Brick has Brawler, Tank, and Blaster skills.

What is nice about the skill tree is that you are not locked into one specific specialty once you choose a skill like so many other games that use this mechanic. Rather you can mix and match skills from different specialties to suit how you would prefer to play. This allows each character to be played in numerous unique ways, rather than just three. Couple that with the fact that once you finish the game you can select Playthrough 2 from the main menu to play the game with your leveled up character and harder enemies and, you have a recipe for a game with absolutely phenomenal replay value. I am currently on my seventh playthrough, but am afraid that I'm starting to get sidetracked by Borderlands 2.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay consists of missions that you complete for money, equipment, and most importantly experience points. The missions can be a bit repetitive (go there and kill/retrieve/destroy that), but nonetheless are fun. There is no little amount of killing in this game. It's not like Metal Gear Solid, where (if you choose), you can sneak through the entire game without killing a single enemy or like Grand Theft Auto where you can spend hours or days doing things that don't involve killing. Oh no. You will kill in this game . . . A LOT. Even though the game is somewhat open like GTA (you can go where you want and complete the available missions in whatever order you choose), there is not much else to do but kill things and practically all of the missions involve combat. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing. While it can seem like it would get repetitive, it is executed (pun intended) nicely and the repetitiveness is tolerable. However, it does keep one tightly tied to the storyline. There's not much chance of getting sidetracked from the main missions in this game. Even if you do the side missions as they come up, you are forced back to the main missions to open up more of them. There's just not much else to do to keep it interesting in this respect, so if you are looking for a GTA clone, look elsewhere.

Battles can get a little boring if you level up too fast, but each mission has a threat level associated with it ranging from Trivial to Impossible based on your character's experience level, so you can easily gauge the difficulty of the mission you are about to attempt. If the difficulty is too high, there are plenty of side missions that you can complete to level up your character to make things a bit easier. However, there are some mission that even though they might be labeled as Trivial, are still quite challenging, especially if the mission involves fighting a boss.

Graphically the game is stunning. Although there is plenty of graphic violence and blood, the game's cell-shaded graphical style makes it all very cartoonish. This is a nice change from the realistic blood and guts that is usually associated with this genre of shooter. The environment and character textures are detailed and really pull you into the game despite it's cartoon-like appearance. Being a first-person shooter, you don't often see your character except for his or her hands and guns. However, the camera angle changes when you get into a vehicle, so you do frequently see your character model and of course you see your character in the status screen menu as well. As such, the design team gave us the ability to customize our characters' outfit color. Not much else changes with the model (i.e. no guns strapped to the back or anything), but it is nice to dress your goon up to suit your mood.

Speaking of vehicles . . . there are two types of vehicles in the game. A buggy that you can access early in the game and a Hummer-like vehicle that you gain access to later. Both vehicles require you to complete some missions before you can use them. In addition each vehicle is equipped with machine guns on the front that shoot straight ahead and a turret that can shoot wherever you point the camera. The turret will be either a heavy machine gun or a rocket launcher depending on what you choose when you spawn the vehicle. Vehicular combat is pretty intuitive and easy to get the hang of. Unlike the vehicles in most other games, you do not actively steer these beasts. Instead they steer to wherever you have the camera pointed. this part takes a little getting used to, but is not too hard and actually makes the battling much easier since you can always keep your eye on the enemy.

There is no shortage of armament in this game. In fact, one of the selling points that Gearbox made when they released the game was that there are over 17,750,000 variations of guns in this game. For an old-school hoarder like me, this was not good news. Many times I was faced with giving up a killer gun for one that was even more killer. The guns are randomly generated from various parts and with various characteristics like damage, accuracy, fire rate, zoom capabilities, elemental effects, and several other factors. They are also level contingent, meaning that occasionally you will find a powerful weapon that you have to wait to use. As you level up, so do the guns you find. Don't even bother trying to be a collector. You will never have enough space to keep even a fraction of the coolest weapons that you find, even if you have the storage chest that you can get if you have the Mad Moxxi's Underdome downloadable content. Just be happy with what you have and know that the next really cool weapon is right around the corner. There are also vending machines which you can use to buy new weapons, ammo, and armor, but I found that most of the time I had something better than what the machine had to offer. That said, it does not hurt to look when you come across a weapon vendor, because I have found a few gems being sold as well. The ammo vendors are nice especially if you find one fairly near or right in your battle ground. Fighting hordes of enemies can expend a lot of ammo, and while many enemies drop ammo, you will often find yourself wanting to top off your supply, especially going into a heavy boss battle. Don't be afraid to spend your dough on ammo . . . EVER. There is plenty of money to be had both by completing missions and by selling excess gear to the vendors.

The time it takes to complete the game can vary depending on how many side missions you do and whether or not you have any of the downloadable content (DLC) available. Doing all the side missions, I completed the main game in roughly 40 hours. The DLC added about another 35-45 hours on top of that. So be prepared to spend some time getting through this game. It will take more than a day in most cases.

Speaking of downloadable content, there are four add-on packs available for Borderlands; The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, and Claptrap's New Robot Revolution. All of these add-ons except for Mad Moxxi, have a new story arc and plenty of missions. In Zombie Island you fight zombies and other diabolical creatures including a wereskag (you'll see) trying to find the reason why everybody on the island has been turning into zombies. In General Knoxx, you fight an army of Crimson Lance soldiers (remember the baddies in Old Haven) to find and loot General Knoxx's armory which contains a boat-load of weapons which you have very little chance of getting all of unless you cheat. In Robot Revolution you will fight a ton of fanatical CL4P-TP (Claptrap) robots and Hyperion soldiers in an attempt to defeat Interplanetary Ninja Assassin, Claptrap and quell his robot rebellion.

We interrupt this review to bring you the following special report: a mini-review of the Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot DLC . . . 

Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot departs from the mission based go-here-do-that routine and offers up arena style battles. In each arena you battle wave after wave of enemies increasing in difficulty with each wave. I swear, some of the levels are simply impossible to get through even with a high level character, but maybe you'll have better luck. The arena style battle is nice once in a while for a change of pace, or to take a break from the regular game, but it does not really offer much to me in the way of fun. However, Mad Moxxi's does offer the Bank of Marcus (or Marcus Bank, something like that). This is a place where you can "store your crap", as the bank menu says. The bank is not unlimited though. At character level 1 you get a level 1 bank account with 12 slots at no cost. At level 3 you get a level 2 bank account with 15 slots, but it costs you around $12,000. This progression of bank levels tops out at level ten, which provides 42 slots and requires the character to be level 48, having completed Playthrough 2, and costs $9,999,143. This is all fine and good, and I was excited about it at first until I realized that by the time you can really store any significant crap, you've already thrown away (read: sold) more than 42 great pieces of equipment. In addition, since the weapon drops level up as you do, why hold on to that old used-to-be-killer-but-now-it's-a-piece-of-crap (literally) level 10 rifle when you are now level 40? If you can get Mad Moxxi's for free go for it, but otherwise spend your money on the other DLC. This ends the mini Mad Moxxi review. Now back to our regularly scheduled review already in progress.

The soundtrack for the most part is typical shoot-'em-up fair. Music is actiony during actiony (I know I made that word up, so shut up) parts, moody while exploring caves, etc. The highlight in the music soundtrack though is Cage the Elephant's Ain't No Rest for the Wicked blaring in the opening sequence. Awesome! The sound effects and voice overs are quality as well. A repeater does not sound like a revolver does not sound like an assault rifle does not sound like a sniper rifle. You can hear the caliber of each gun distinctly with your eyes closed. You can also distinguish when that weapon has additional effects such as acid or flame by the sound it makes. There was a very high-level of detail given to the sound effects.

The dialog and voice acting is also top-notch. The voices fit the characters well and the actors behind those voices do a great job of giving the characters life (Scooter is my favorite character). The dialog that these non-player characters carry out is downright hilarious at times. One of my favorite soundbites is in the mission sequence that unlocks the Catch-a-Ride system and gives you access to the buggy. Scooter says, "Hey, you the one killin' all the crap when people ask? The Catch-a-Ride near Fyrestone is more busted than my momma's girl parts. Really appreciate you takin' a poke at that. The uh, system, not my mom. Hot dog down a Skag den, know what I'm sayin'?" If you don't get the hot dog down a skag den comment, you will after you play.

The only shortfall in the dialog is in regard to the player characters. The canned one-liners of the player characters are a bit lack luster and get repetitive over time. The voices don't quite seem to fit the character you are playing, but this could be in part due to the fact that we really aren't given much background info on each character to imagine how they should talk. That said, this is a very small flaw and does not degrade from the game much.

MULTIPLAYER

Another area where Borderlands shines is multiplayer mode. I don't feel that I can give the multiplayer mode a thorough review since until recently my gaming has been in short burst and I don't think it's polite to jump into a multiplayer game and then say, "See ya guys," in the middle of a battle. However, from the little time I did get to play in multiplayer mode, I loved it.

Multiplayer is co-op primarily. With you and up to four other players running through the story missions. Any combo of characters is allowed, in other words if all four of you want to be the siren, go for it. However, since the enemies are stronger and each character class has strengths and weaknesses, the best way to go about it is to get on or create a diverse team.. Having a couple of brutes that can take the foes head on with a long range sniper and medic for support, makes for a great multiplayer session. Even if you are just pairing up with someone it can be fun as long as your characters are complementary.

Vehicle combat takes on a whole new shine when two or more players get together. One player drives and the other mans the turret. This works surprisingly well. If you ever played the 1980's vector graphics game Tail Gunner, you'll have an idea of what it is like to man the turret while someone else drives.

I'm sorry I cannot say more about the multiplayer mode, like if you can use headsets to communicate (I assume so), or various other questions you might have about it. I just didn't get to play around with it enough. perhaps if I get some more multiplayer time in, I'll revisit this review and update it. Until then, here's my assessment:

SUMMARY

Overall, I think that Borderlands is a great game. It's got a bit of the first-person shooter, and bit of the RPG, and a bit of the vehicular combat genres, which are balanced just right, meaning that there is no one aspect that makes you go, "Wow. There is way too much of that!" All the pieces come together and work like a well oiled machine. It works so well in fact that you don't mind picking it up again and again to see what other directions you can take it. In total game time and replay value, the game is well worth the $39.99 (free for the Playstation 3 if you are a Plus member) you will shell out for the main game. The downloadable content is also worth the price, except for Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, and adds a significant amount of gameplay to the game.

PROS

Enough variety to suit any preferred style of gameplay.
Beautifully detailed cell-shaded graphics
High attention to detail graphically and acoustically
40+ hours of gameplay
Good voice acting
Good downloadable content to extend gameplay
Millions of guns

CONS

Linear storyline
Repetitive missions
Too easy if leveling up too fast
Not enough inventory slots to store millions of guns

RATING

Graphics        - ★★★★☆
Sound            - ★★★★☆
Gameplay      - ★★★☆☆
Replay Value - ★★★★★