Borderlands

Recently I decided to download myself Borderlands since it was relatively cheap (30 dollars) on the Xbox live marketplace. And I needed to quench my thirst for an RPG related game.

My thirst good quenched, quite well even.

Let me explain what Borderlands is actually:

In Borderlands you create a vault hunter, a character you use to explore the world of Pandora.(wasn't that also the name for the planet in that James Cameron movie?)

Pandora being a steampunk semi apocalyptic alien world ruled only by Anarchy.

Now I said Borderlands is an RPG right? I lied (sort of).

Borderlands plays like a shooter in a free roaming world where you can take quests or just explore, A lot like Fallout3 but done right actually.

Unlike Fallout 3 however Borderlands plays smooth.

Being build on the Unreal engine Borderlands actually feels responsive, in a sense that you don't have to shoot a target twenty-seven times, before for some weird reason the hit detection decides this time your bullet actually did hit.

The entire game actually shows signs of the Unreal engine, being on an alien planet, doing massive Super Mario like jumps, shooting futuristic weapons.

Which introduces what defines Borderlands most to me, fun.

I was tired of shooters that took themselves too seriously, think of gritty war simulators that focus a bit too heavily on being ''realistic'' and dark.

After all, I have no interest in being a soldier, I just want to shoot some things in a satisfying manner.

Borderlands delivers on that by it's sheer creativity, no two weapons are the same (arguably), enemies range from deranged criminals wearing ski-masks to colossal world destroyers that are so huge they have their own ecosystems attached to them.

The downside to this? The humor especially in quests sometimes borders being just infantile, Having to clear poop from a fan is an actual mission for example.

A collosal world destroyer, with optic problems so shooting the eyes helps.

Remember how I talked about Borderlands being a roleplaying game? Let me explain:

You start the game out by selecting one of four predetermined characters, a soldier which uses machine guns and can set down turrets (the average Joe character), a scout that uses sniper rifles and a bird to kill his targets from afar, a brute that uses his fists and rockets to inflict damage from a short range and the all around Siren that just likes to set things on fire (literally).

When you play as one of these characters, you will notice that killing enemy's gives experience, gather enough and you will go up a level. When you level up your character becomes stronger and gets the ability to use a point to specialize in a certain aspect in combat.

Also, you carry your weapons with you the entire game, each weapon having unique stats that allow them to be useful in different situations.

It's like Pokemon... With guns!

The game looks rather unique, having a definitive cell-shaded style bordering between cartoony and standard alien shooter game in a rather pleasing manner.

There is also an online mode that works rather well, but due to Xbox-live being full of thirteen year olds asking you if they can steal your weapons and demanding for duels in a high pitched voice the online mode is best played with a friend.

All in all I got around 30 hours of playtime from my Borderlands so far and can wholly recommend it to anyone interested.

Borderlands is available for both the Xbox360 and PS3, the ps3 version having an exeptionally sweat package where the downloadable content is included.

I however got the Xbox360 version.