Borderlands E3 Previews
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The first is at IGN:
Gearbox says the game was first built as a first-person shooter, then had RPG elements layered on top. We didn't get to play, but we were treated to an extended demo showing off a few quests as well as the character development system. Before starting out you'll need to pick a character class, of which there are four. The demo focused on the Brick class, which is basically the tanking type. Each class gets a few different branches for its skill trees, which you can power up with points earned by leveling up. So for instance with Brick you can choose to focus on his melee skill set, earning special abilities like an adrenaline rush that allows him to run around like a madman pummeling enemies with fists. When selecting a class you'll also have the opportunity to customize the appearance to a degree, as well as slapping on a custom name, so not everyone who picks Brick is going to appear to be the same, and they'll be further differentiated depending on what skill branch you decide to follow.
The second is at G4:
Pitchford compared Borderlands to one of his favorite games from last year, Fallout 3, which he admitted didn't have the best shooter parts. What makes Borderlands unique, he argued, was that it's taking the opposite approach of Fallout 3. Whereas Fallout 3 incorporated shooter elements into what was essentially a hardcore RPG, Borderlands is adding RPG elements into a hardcore shooter. Given Gearbox's past -- porting Halo to PC, developing Brothers in Arms -- they know shooters.
The third is at GameZone:
For the role-playing aspects, the skill tree is decisively in-depth with each of the four characters having three different routes in their skill tree to dedicate points. Brick, the heavy hitter of the bunch, has abilities to go berserk and attack all of his enemies with his fists. This fury allows for an advantageous position over his enemies as they aren't able to keep up. In addition, other characters in the game include: Mordecai the sniper, Lilith the faze walker (invisibility/cloaking ability), and Roland the all-around solider class that can heal his teammates.
The fourth is at 1UP:
Borderlands looks pretty swell in motion. Aside from some shaky animations over the LAN-connected co-op, the game ran smoothly and delivered a rich visual aesthetic that is miles ahead of what the team showed off last year. Not only do the characters and vehicles pop off the screen, the game just seems to carry a bit more panache that in the past. Leveling up delivers a bold "LEVEL UP!" message on screen, elite enemies carry a "Badass" prefix, and the ability progression tree uses cool, comic-like icons. Borderlands showed promise before, but now it has a fresh and original style to match what looks to be a large amount of substance.
And the fifth is at IncGamers:
We were also quite taken with the game world, which features a real time day/night cycle and looks pretty stunning thanks to the comic-esque, cel-shaded art style. Powered by the Unreal 3 engine, the game runs along at a fair old pace too, which became most obvious when the players took control of one of the game's many vehicles, which can be customised both visually and by adding weapons.
