Borderlands PC

Date: 09 / Jun / 2011

Jonny D

It's hard to get bored of Borderlands...Once you get past the Beginning

Borderlands begins with the premise that four startlingly different characters have all travelled to the planet of Pandora (avatar?) in search of the galaxy renowned 'Vault', said to open once every 200 years. The Vault's whereabouts are unknown, as is the nature of what resides within it, although being a vault it is presumed to be treasure! Hence why Vault Hunters have come running to the god-forsaken East coast of Pandora, a planet teeming with psychotic escaped prisoners, nasty beasties, and all sorts of other threats determined to have you killed. Now, at the risk of sounding like the back of the box, time for some actual reviewing. The actual gameplay is centred on getting a mission, driving or footslogging to go find the thing ,or things, that require killing, then killing them. Alternatively, there are other missions focused on finding certain artefacts, or blowing certain things up, but at some point it will almost always come down to killing, and lots of it. This may sound tedious to some, and I agree, it Sounds tedious, but it's at this point that the game's trump card comes into play; the random weapon generator. Of course, this is not an entirely original or mindblowing concept in general, however when applied to guns, there really is a satisfying level of variation, and gun-hunting can quickly become one's favourite aspect of the game. Guns are randomised both by their elemental effect (corrosive, shock, explosive or incendiary), their attributes (fire rate, critical damage, zoom etc.), and their names, including such inspiring titles as: "Bloody Justice", "Glorious Havoc", and my personal favorite the "Rowdy B*stard" combat rifle. There's quite literally an endless combination of guns, and there are also 'special' weapons that can be collected throughout the games...and even these possess an element of randomisation! In Borderlnands, you will never find the same gun twice. However, there are some issues with this game, particularly some of the mission dynamics, and the trudgingly slow beginning of the game. Considering the amount of missions in the game, you can't begrudge that some will be pretty similar, however, the same ol' run here, get this, come back missions do get a little wearisome after a while, especially a mission with multiple pickups, as your beacon (telling you where stuff is) only leads you to one pickup at a time, often in a weird order so that you end up backtracking a fair bit (annoying in the bigger areas). On this point though, it's worth mentioning the vehicle element of the game, in which 'catch a ride' stations allow you to spawn vehicles to shorten the monotony of travelling, and I'll admit it is fun to squish things whilst driving. The story isn't too forceful on the gameplay, presumably to encourage more independent rampaging, however it holds the game together well enough, and provides a satisfying build up to the final section of the game, so no real complaints there. As for enemies, there are just enough types to make random killing an enjoyable activity, and if you get mobbed, the second wind mechanic of reviving yourself by killing another enemy stops death being final (and least for the first time you get knocked down). Finally, the beginning of the game is pretty gruelling what with the collection missions and slow progression, however, once you get past this, and I do recommend doing so, the game really does blossom into a colourful, bloodspurting, stylish chunk of mayhem that'd make Mad Max proud. Finally, some sweet stylistic choices combined with some genuinely good (although at points silly) humour and the near-perfect weapon generation system allows Borderlands to rise above its flaws, and grant a single or multi-player experience that kicks ass, hits hard, and keeps you killing literally thousands of crazy enemies. Strong recommend.

Age: 18-24

Gender: Male