Borderlands Reviews

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Written by BuckGB on November 5th, 2009

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Borderlands succeeds in creating a '˜role playing shooter', in that it very successfully combines two genres, the FPS and the RPG. The shooting is fun and furious while the looting and levelling make the game very compelling in place of a lacklustre story. While the single player suffers occasionally from slower pacing and frustrations, it still manages to be compelling on its own. If you've got some friends to take along for a pillage and plunder, you're not likely to come out for a while. As such, the final score represents a split between the single and multiplayer experiences. Hopefully Borderlands will encourage developers into think deeper about just what makes each genre tick the next time a genre mix comes along.

Yet even with our long list of drawbacks, we couldn't pull ourselves away from the game. Maybe it's the art style or the joy of watching Brick go into a Berserker fury. Perhaps it's the peculiar satisfaction in watching damage number fly off an enemy has he bursts into flames and dies vaporizes while doing a little dance. Whatever it is, Borderlands has got style to spare, and we were able to look past the game's flaws and focus on the joy of shooting up the malevolent inhabits of Pandora.

Borderlands will suck players into a huge world that is just begging to be explored, but exploration isn't one of the game's strong suits. Players will undoubtedly have a great time with the different character builds, weapons, and multiplayer squad configurations, but will also be served lackluster narrative and mission structure that temper the experience. Overall, it's absolutely worth playing, however, as there is no other game that achieves cooperative RPS gameplay equivalent to what's presented here.

This game certainly has a lot of flaws. But it got the most important things right. Those things are gameplay and good controls to accommodate the gameplay. It's not like you can't put on different music or something, though it may interfere with the frame rate even more, but I digress. If you like Diablo, you might like this game. If you like first person shooters, like Call of Duty or Halo, then you might like this game. If you like RPGs, FPSs, and a game that has a long main story and quite a bit of replay value, then you will most likely love this game. The looting system allows for a lot more replay value. Claiming to have 17 million different guns, which is strange since I've found the exact same gun twice, and had them in my inventory at the exact same time. Also with the downloadable content on the way, we all have our hopes up for things even greater. This game is near greatness, but falls somewhere around pretty darn good. This game is worth buying. You won't get the full experience if you rent it, since it's pretty long. Buy it if you have someone to play it with.

However, since the stars of Borderlands are the guns, combat dominates. Fortunately, it's quite good. Handling weapons feels very comfortable, and mixing in the special abilities creates some interesting tactical situations.

Borderlands may not be the most original game on the market, but it's about the most solid co-op Action RPG you'll ever find either on a PC or a console, and that's saying quite a bit. If you pine away for Diablo 3 but also keep going back to play split-screen Halo with your buddies on the weekend, Borderlands is the closest you'll come to a dream game. Though it has some serious design flaws in its multiplayer setup as well as its GUI, the pros greatly outweigh the cons.

It has weaknesses and some of them are pretty obvious ones, but it remains a game that we enjoy playing and it's hard to ask for more than that.

Even with these problems, the desire to keep leveling up, to keep getting stronger, to keep getting better weapons, better shields and better stuff is strong enough to overcome them. Packed with so much stuff to see and kill, Borderlands offers plenty of things to aim your spiffy new weapons at, all the while providing one of the best co-op experiences of the year.

Borderlands is a mix of great ideas and inadequate implementation. Fortunately, Gearbox's great ideas far outweigh any of the game's faults. The story and multiplayer implementations could definitely use some improvement, but these are minor concerns compared to the immensely satisfying combat, the addictive looting and leveling systems, and the gorgeous art design.

If you can get past all the problems that plague the PC version, you'll discover an extremely fun and addicting FPS that sprinkles in some RPG elements, and a "bazillion" guns, to create a unique experience unlike anything else.

Borderlands is a brilliant loot hunting title, one of the best out there at the moment, and at its very core Borderlands is a clever and addictive game. But it falls short in a lot of areas, in co-op the flaws will be easy to ignore, but going solo you've got to really love loot hunting to get the most out of it.

Simple, lightweight fun that you can jump in an out of. sounds pretty good right? Maybe not game-of-the-year material, but its an enjoyable experience in which players are constantly being rewarded for the destruction they inflict. The game has some serious issues, but with some patching it could be a title worth having. Right now it's an enjoyable but tedious single player experience, and a solid (but perilous) multiplayer game with lots of potential.

However, the end boss balance and geometry problems notwithstanding, it's one hell of a game that absolutely sings when it's working and when you can enjoy it with a friend. If you have the patience, Borderlands truly hits on a gaming hunger pang you may not have known you had and without the kind of depth that could dissuade the RPG-phobic.

If aimless enemy killing, (loot) collecting, (fetch-questing), stylized 4 player FPS action excites you, then Borderlands may be a game you should strongly consider purchasing. Add the fact that 3 of your online buddies can drop in and out of your game at any given moment to help out, or be helped out, and B-lands is one of a kind. On the other hand, if (fetch-questing) is a term you avoid, online co-op is something you rarely do, and a driving-plot is what keeps you coming back for more in video games; Borderlands may be a rental consideration. It's another one of 2009's (Hate it / Love it) titles.

In the end, I say this is a game to buy. Even someone like me, who only gets into Diablo style games 50% of the time, this one is just fun.

I firmly believe, as a shooter, Borderlands would be average without co-op, and abysmal as an RPG. What was lost in the apparent breeding of the two genres was a powerful story and diversity of gameplay, and so adding levels and stats doesn't quite cut it. In actuality, in spite of these congruities, all of its parts are tailored toward the shooter genre, so it's not an RPG at all really, it's just a multi-layered FPS, which, to be honest, is brilliant.

The trouble is that Borderlands has such a solid, smooth gameplay style that you can't avoid becoming addicted to it. Sure, it becomes quite a grind on your own and it's ultimately shallow, but there's no game out there that offers such a pure, addictive RPG system in a shooter, especially not one with an incredible co-op experience. A bit of repetitive strain injury never hurt Diablo's success, and it only serves to hurt thousands upon thousands of bad guys in Borderlands, which is a very good thing indeed.

While Borderlands does have issues, it doesn't change the fact that this game is addictive. You'll be playing for hours and not want to put the game down. I kept telling myself (just one more loot drop,) but I kept playing. Aside from the story being forgettable, Borderlands is exactly what I wanted from Fallout 3. You get an amazing shooter with terrific loot drops and RPG qualities with massive replay value. Pick this up right away for whatever system you prefer.

Borderlands is a great example of a game that probably shouldn't work, but does on nearly every level. Once you get past the paper-thin story and just start wandering the wastes and grinding, you're in for a treat. It is a fun grind too, offering tons of ways to slay your enemies and lots of surprises to keep you coming back. The game takes it up a notch when you start playing with friends, and turns a very enjoyable gun-fest into something else altogether. Featuring lots of light tactics and tons of tactical considerations, Borderlands is easily the best First Person Shooter I've played in a long time. Great graphics, solid sound design, fun quests, and a sense of humor that shows through in some weird places makes this game easy to recommend. Pandora's an ugly planet, but you can make it cleaner one bullet at a time.

If you loved Phantasy Star Online or those sorts of games then we would say that Borderlands is a must buy. If you aren't familiar or weapon hunting doesn't appeal then there is little to see here due to a sub-par story saved only by fairly solid gameplay. We also recommend looking into whether you would have anyone to play through with as, while you can play with anyone, it would avoid potential loot theft. As a single player experience it just about holds up to scrutiny, but if you are looking to play it entirely alone then knock one off the final score.

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