I’ve been playing Borderlands this week – both solo and co-op – and just about finished my first playthrough last night.
The game takes place on a far-flung planet known as Pandora, and you play one of four characters intent on unlocking the secrets of the planet – notably a ‘vault’ of legend containing untold wealth.
The four characters each have different specialties, including the rifle-savvy soldier (Roland), the elemental siren (Lilith), the brute force of the beserker (Brick), and the subtler approach of the hunter (Mordecai).
Pros
Interesting graphical style. Cel-shading isn’t always executed successfully, but I can say in Borderland’s case it’s an excellent use – and helps distinguish it from other titles with parallel themes.
Some of the boss fights are tremendous fun – nothing like testing out the new gun you found on some unholy giant beast who can take an impressive amount of punishment.
Grinding for XP and searching for loot is rewarding, albeit in a repetitive way.
The four playable characters boast fairly diverse skills and specialties, and allow for further specialisation within the class with class mods.
The guns handle surprisingly well – I like being able to aim down the sights, and the ‘feel’ of the weapons is just right. It would stand up well in its own right as a pure shooter.
Cons
Sometimes the sheer diversity and range of weapons and mods can leave you spending far too much time comparing the minutiae of damage stats, fire rates and whether it’s worth dropping what you’ve got to pick up some more loot.
Solo play isn’t as rewarding as co-operative, although it’s not without charm.
The story behind the game is largely irrelevant, and the ending is underwhelming to say the least.
Secondary missions are a bit samey: Got to X location, find Y, kill Z, return.
Parts of the game a glitchy: I lost out on an achievement that I should have got for no apparent reason, and on occasion my co-op partner would turn invisible.
At times, the diversity of enemies does seem pretty slim: You spend the first half of the game killing nothing but skags (alien feral dog-like creatures) and raiders / psychos – only once you reach more interesting locales do things get more diverse.
Overall
It’s not perfect, but some of the points I’ve picked up on above are simply artifacts of what the game is – an RPG with guns. The core mechanics are spot on for that – while there may be stats overload and grinding, it’s more of a fault with RPG games than with Borderlands.
Solo, it’s worth the price of admission, but playing co-operatively Borderlands is a must buy. It’s not perfect, but I’ve had a hell of a lot of fun in Pandora so far, and I don’t think the first playthrough will be my last.