Borderlands Review by Link584
"Borderlands is a science fiction based first-person shooter with RPG elements that was developed by Gearbox Software for Microsoft Windows, Mac, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was first revealed in the September 2007 issue of Game Informer magazine." - Wikipedia
An RPG esque first person shooter? I guess giving this game a chance is worth a shot!
An RPG esque first person shooter? I guess giving this game a chance is worth a shot!
Story
You start off by arriving on the planet Pandora after a treasure of legend contained in a vault. During your journey you begin to find pieces to helping locate and figure out the mysteries of obtaining the mystical treasure, while also fighting off another group of people from a large cooperation who desire it for themselves. One group of treasure hunters fighting another? Sounds like a certain Nicholas Cage movie to me. Simple, but gets the job done.
Design
The world is a pretty barren place. It was been looted of it’s natural minerals and resources, and only has so much left to offer. It is also the breeding ground of different monsters including it’s local form of dog beast called Skags. The setting isn’t the prettiest or the smoothest, but for the atmosphere of treasure hunting and gun looting, it works. Make sure you play with friends though, as the vast amounts of dirt can get boring to look at by yourself as the hours pass on.
You start off by arriving on the planet Pandora after a treasure of legend contained in a vault. During your journey you begin to find pieces to helping locate and figure out the mysteries of obtaining the mystical treasure, while also fighting off another group of people from a large cooperation who desire it for themselves. One group of treasure hunters fighting another? Sounds like a certain Nicholas Cage movie to me. Simple, but gets the job done.
Design
The world is a pretty barren place. It was been looted of it’s natural minerals and resources, and only has so much left to offer. It is also the breeding ground of different monsters including it’s local form of dog beast called Skags. The setting isn’t the prettiest or the smoothest, but for the atmosphere of treasure hunting and gun looting, it works. Make sure you play with friends though, as the vast amounts of dirt can get boring to look at by yourself as the hours pass on.
Gameplay / Controls
There are four classes in this game to choose from. Soldier, Sniper, Siren, and Tank. Each offers a skill tree which adds a nice RPG element to the first person shooter world, with 3 different trees to choose from or mix and match. If a person sticks to one tree in particular, you are rewarded the further down you upgrade with more advanced skills. Three main trees per class and four classes to choose from really add variety to Borderlands, and it is fun to see how your play styles might vary from your friends.
Controls are simple and easy to get used to after you’ve got a couple hours under your belt. It’s just like most first person shooters, but with new elements to play around with and RPG tools. Overall, controls are solid and even if you go away for a couple weeks, you’ll pick it right back up again.
There are four classes in this game to choose from. Soldier, Sniper, Siren, and Tank. Each offers a skill tree which adds a nice RPG element to the first person shooter world, with 3 different trees to choose from or mix and match. If a person sticks to one tree in particular, you are rewarded the further down you upgrade with more advanced skills. Three main trees per class and four classes to choose from really add variety to Borderlands, and it is fun to see how your play styles might vary from your friends.
Controls are simple and easy to get used to after you’ve got a couple hours under your belt. It’s just like most first person shooters, but with new elements to play around with and RPG tools. Overall, controls are solid and even if you go away for a couple weeks, you’ll pick it right back up again.
Music
There isn’t much to say about music in this game, it’s more in the sound effects category. Even then, the game will most definitely get boring to your eardrums, which is why laying with friends not only is more fun, but it will distract you from the bad parts of single player. Single player seems to drone on without something more carrying you into battle. In multiplayer, you hardly notice this at all. It all depends on how many you play with to distract you from the little things. Then again, this game was built for multiplayer, and not single player.
There isn’t much to say about music in this game, it’s more in the sound effects category. Even then, the game will most definitely get boring to your eardrums, which is why laying with friends not only is more fun, but it will distract you from the bad parts of single player. Single player seems to drone on without something more carrying you into battle. In multiplayer, you hardly notice this at all. It all depends on how many you play with to distract you from the little things. Then again, this game was built for multiplayer, and not single player.
Presentation
The presentation of the game blends the idea of a vast barren world and small dirty towns with uninteresting people work together. The towns even have little robots called Claptraps in them and even found in dungeons. These little guys are either an annoyance or really funny depending on who you are. My girlfriend and I found them to be one of the greatest video game character additions ever created, and found some of their lines to be laugh out loud funny. Overall Pandora has created an interesting atmosphere to say the least, and some memorable characters outside of Claptraps.
The presentation of the game blends the idea of a vast barren world and small dirty towns with uninteresting people work together. The towns even have little robots called Claptraps in them and even found in dungeons. These little guys are either an annoyance or really funny depending on who you are. My girlfriend and I found them to be one of the greatest video game character additions ever created, and found some of their lines to be laugh out loud funny. Overall Pandora has created an interesting atmosphere to say the least, and some memorable characters outside of Claptraps.
Conclusion
The final conclusion about my trip to Pandora is this. The RPG elements worked great, from skill trees to guns with upgrades and stats. The main characters work and even talk now and then while you’re killing things but you don’t ever feel attached to them. The Claptraps left a huge impact on me leaving me wanting more. The enemies and some locations were repetitive. As you can see it has it’s ups and it’s downs. I’d have to give this game a… Well, two ratings. Single Player a low 3 out of 5, and multiplayer a 4 our of 5. This game was meant to be played with as many friends as possible, and when you do it is a blast! Borderlands 2 has my name on it when it is released, as the first can be a ton of fun. Do not wander Pandora alone, cause it’s boring, and you’ll be Skag meat.
The final conclusion about my trip to Pandora is this. The RPG elements worked great, from skill trees to guns with upgrades and stats. The main characters work and even talk now and then while you’re killing things but you don’t ever feel attached to them. The Claptraps left a huge impact on me leaving me wanting more. The enemies and some locations were repetitive. As you can see it has it’s ups and it’s downs. I’d have to give this game a… Well, two ratings. Single Player a low 3 out of 5, and multiplayer a 4 our of 5. This game was meant to be played with as many friends as possible, and when you do it is a blast! Borderlands 2 has my name on it when it is released, as the first can be a ton of fun. Do not wander Pandora alone, cause it’s boring, and you’ll be Skag meat.