The development of Borderlands is a sordid affair, full of initial promise, complete rehauls, and delays a plenty. The final push towards release started last year with its reset in art style and adjustment in direction, then at E3 we got to catch up with the developers who genuinely seemed to think that the revamp was going to result in a product that more people would enjoy, or if you will, "be fun", did it work?

Borderlands is set in a desolate wasteland type world where bandits, mutants, midgets, and other bizarre creatures roam, it is the home of the outcast and desperate, treasure hunters and other such wastes of oxygen. A fabled treasure, a Cortana-esque spirit guide, little robots and fairly colourful character, it’s a good mix of story, and non player characters, but when you are in a desolate wasteland, you are alone. Borderlands comes into its own when you are joined by a friend or three, the action moves at a faster pace, there are more laughs from Scooters’ one liners, and divying up the loot actually becomes something to look forward to.

The gameplay rolls out like a shooter, the difficulty, enemy levels, and random loot is wholey based on your characters level. The way things were initially explained to me by the developers, was that the world would be totally open from the outset and that your progression was only impeded by your ability to kill the people that need to be killed, in reality it was a far more linear experience that saw me following the main quests with a few side missions in between to level up. There world is segmented and blocked off without the completion of certain missions. Guns have level limits that prevent you from using them until you are stronger, the spawn of them is also dictated closely by your level.

Shooter fans may like it, RPG fans might also enjoy, fans of both genres however, they will lap it up like a rare form of drug, despite there not being many RPGFPS’s around the addiction might be instant. It’s a combination of clean shooting and challenging bosses and growth that makes it instantly different from almost every other offering. Experience points are gained from completing missions and killing adversaries, as you level, so do you enemies, it’s a vicious cycle.

Something that Gearbox did incredibly well, is the script of the NPC’s, there are some really funny moments that had me laughing audibly, I just don’t think they occurred enough, the barrenness and solitude is a little overwhelming and the interrupting com transmissions don’t do the justice to the lines that an animated character might.

In the end, even without rich cutscenes and an engrossing story, there is plenty of game to be had, I would seriously recommend hooking up with some friends to play this. There are plenty of people in the ButtonMasher community that you could team up with if needed, but you will find the tactics and class system far more rewarding if you team up with some others. If you can’t? Well you still might enjoy it if you are one of those people I mentioned above, there is a great mix of elements from the two genres that mean you might have something to chew away at for quite some time.

Note: I experiences multiple system freezes while playing this game, at least 10-15 times, more than any other game I can remember. I don’t know if my Xbox is getting old, or if it’s the game, but I feel it needs to be said. There were also many random floating sprites/characters that would pop up and disappear again.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 9:25 am and is filed under Playstation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.