Title     Borderlands Developer    Gearbox Software Publisher    2K Games Platform    XBox 360 Genre    RPG / FPS Release Date    October 23, 2009

Take an RPG, cross it with a first person shooter, add a story about a vault, and set it in a wasteland and you might initially think of Fallout 3.  Add cel-shaded graphics and multiplayer and you now have Borderlands, which the creators Gearbox Software are calling a ‘Role Playing Shooter’.

The vault is full of treasure, left behind by an advanced alien race on the planet Pandora.  Everybody wants a piece – corporations looking for a technological edge over their competitors, the bandits who live on the planet, and treasure hunters coming to make their fortune.  This is where you come in.

The game starts with a bus travelling along the dusty roads of an arid landscape known as the Borderlands.  On the bus are four passengers: a soldier, a siren, a hunter, and a berserker.  This is your character selection stage, with each preferring different types of weapons and having a special action skill.  The Solider can deploy an automated gun turret with a shield to help in battle, the Siren can become invisible and benefits from increased speed, the Hunter can call in his Bloodwing (a predatory pet), and the Berseker enters an enraged state with increased  power to his fists whilst invulnerable and re-generating health.  Each skill lasts a short amount of time and has a cool down period before becoming available again.

Once you have chosen your character you will be dropped off outside the town of Fyrestone and met by a small CL4P-TP robot,  or clap-trap as they are known.  Here, you’ll get your heads up display and be introduced to the controls and you’ll also learn about the New-U stations, where your DNA is stored.  These are your checkpoints throughout the game and allow you a small amount of customisation.  You can select from a small palette of colours for your clothing, name your character, and re-distribute your action points (of which you earn one each time you level up).

Now you are ready to find the vault and make your fortune…except for the small problem that no one actually knows where the vault is.  A mysterious woman will appear to you telepathically, encouraging you towards the vault, but most other people don’t even believe the vault exists (and the few that do won’t give up the information for nothing).  So, you’re going to have to work for it by completing missions which can be obtained from the characters you encounter or from bounty boards spread across the land.

As with any RPG, as you complete missions you level up and enhance your character’s abilities, however the missions also have levels.  Most missions will be classed as normal as they are within one or two levels of your own, while anything three levels below you is deemed trivial and anything three levels or more above you will be listed as ‘tough’ or ‘hard’.  This means that you will not always be ready to take on the next main mission and will have to complete a side mission or two.  Some are simply to deliver a message which leads onto another mission, but with 140+ missions throughout the game, there is always plenty to do.

With so much to do and varied enemies to fight, you’re going to need weapons, and there are plenty to find or buy.  You’ll have the normal array of pistols, sniper rifles, assault rifles, SMGs, shotguns, and rocket launchers but each will have different attributes.  Some will have scopes, higher damage, larger magazines, and less recoil or can have an added ability to deal corrosive, incendiary, explosive, or shock damage.  Any weapons you don’t want can be sold via the vending machines which also have a special offer (usually for a costly price) which is for a limited time only before being replaced with another.

There are different areas in the game for you to travel to, (a small amount of loading time is required when you change areas), each with it’s own town or bounty board and there are a few ways to travel.  As you make progress through the game you’ll eventually fix the fast travel system which will allow you to travel between any fast travel stations you have found in the game.  There is the option to walk/run everywhere which can take a while, especially if you are travelling across many different areas, or you can drive since you’ll have access to vehicles which come equipped with weapons and turbo boost.

You’ll earn XP through the normal ways such as completing missions and killing enemies throughout.  However, you can also earn XP from completing challenges in the game which range from killing so many enemies, number of kills with a certain type of weapon, buying/selling items, etc.  The challenges all come in four levels, each offering more XP than the last.

The game can be completed in single player or with friends, and up to four players can play the game in co-op mode – this can be from the start of the game or you can join a game in progress.  All players can bring any character they want, so it’s possible that you could end up with more than one Soldier/Siren/Hunter/Berserker in the party.  The game then plays from the host’s progress and the enemies are based on their character’s level.  If your character level is lower than that of the host then you will find the enemies tougher but will earn more XP.  However, if you have a higher level than the host, the enemies may not pose much of a threat to you so you will earn little XP.  If the host is further into the story than you, then the missions completed only go towards the host’s progress and you will still need to complete them through your own game.  Any money collected is shared, but weapons, shields, and health need to be distributed.

Whilst in multiplayer you can melee a co-op partner and if they return the favour, a duel starts (which might happen if someone took the weapon you wanted).  The game will place a barrier around the two of you to battle it out, or you can find some battle arenas to fight with two to four partners.

The game also uses a smart autosave system.  This allows you to choose which character to use, whether it’s your existing character or you want to start a new character, or if you are progressing through playthrough one or two (if you have already beaten the game).  You can take any character through to any game and the XP you earn always remains with your character.

Pros

• An rpg without stat tracking.
  
• Plenty of weapons to choose from.
  
• Able to invite friends to join you anywhere anytime.

Cons

• Can't put your own waypoints on the map.
  
• Weapons on the vehicles don't have much movement for aiming at airbourne targets.
  
• No place to store weapons/equipment unless you buy the 2nd dlc.

Summary

Borderlands is a enjoyable game whether you are playing single player or with friends. Combining two popular styles of games into one, means this may appeal to those who normally wouldn’t play one of those genres while also appealing to fans of both.

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