I’ll start off by saying that Borderlands plays three different ways. If you play this game by yourself you may have some fun but overall it will not be the experience that Gearbox intended. Playing with your friends will most likely be the most enjoyable experience, while playing in a public game will just turn into a chase for the loot and people dropping the second a boss is killed.
I’m going to review this based off the second style. Playing with friends.
I haven’t finished the game yet, but I’m fairly certain I can give an accurate review based off my time in the game. There is something so simplistic about Borderlands that makes it so good. At it’s core, Borderlands is a shooter, however the RPG elements that were added along with the multiple ways to customize your character make it far more than just a shooter. As I’ve stated earlier, this game is best enjoyed with your friends, and while the voice support isn’t anything to write home about, it often does the job well enough.
This game isn’t about story, and you’ll be hard pressed to find an interesting one. In fact most of the story is told by a woman appearing on your screen to tell you things here and there, and while I’m a big fan of story telling I often found myself ignoring her.
Another big selling point with this game are the millions of guns available to you. I simply cannot believe how many different weapons are available. I think that is what pushes me to the next boss , and the next boss, I want to see what will drop next. The shield upgrades and artifacts are also a nice touch, and upgrading the amounts of ammunition you can hold is equally satisfying. It certainly does well with the MMO style of a “Carrot on a stick” as you will always want to keep playing.
Now for the game play. The Shooter aspect of the game is spot on, the controls are tight and enemies animations when they die can be hilarious at times. That said, the vehicles control like they are filled with helium. They are very floaty and controlling them seems to be something to master as they tend to get stuck on just about anything. Borderlands has grenades and it knows how to use them. There are upgrades that change the way grenades act. As in, you do not get different types of grenades, you just equip an item that changes what the grenades do, from bouncing around, to stealing health, there are plenty of varieties. So grenades act more as ammo for the equipped item. A very cool idea.
I’ve read other reviews and this game has been compared to Diablo in most of them. I can defiantly see why. The addictive game play matched with the random loot, it certainly does take a lot of queues from Diablo, and it’s all the better for it.
I could ramble on and on about how good this game is, but I feel I’ve rambled enough. If you want to play a great shooter with your friends, that you can play through multiple times, this is the game for you. It’s just a nice change to play something so simple yet so fun. Simply put, buy this game. You will have fun.
8.9/10
