Borderlands Review

Written 12/21/2010

Note: This review is for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video were taken on my machine.

Borderlands is a pretty hard game to categorize. The official website and advertisements claim that it's the offspring of an FPS and RPG's union, and I can believe that. I've also heard it classified as a Looter-Shooter, which is also accurate. In short, this is the hybrid genre to beat all hybrid genres. It does make you wonder though, is it a good idea to cross-breed an FPS and RPG?

Visuals and Presentation

As I sit here and think about how I'm wanting to start each section of this review, I'm realizing how truly difficult Borderlands is to describe. Everything is a hybrid of two things, except for the sound. The visuals in particular are very stylized but yet they try to give off a somewhat realistic feel at the same time. It can be a little jarring at first, with realistically detailed textures that are slightly cell-shaded, but the effect quickly grew on me to the point that I quite liked uniqueness of it. The same treatment can also be seen in the environment, player, enemy, NPC, and weapon models; and the quality remains quite consistent throughout the entire game.

Pandora is a desolate place very reminiscent of the Capital Wasteland of Fallout 3 with the exception that a nuke hasn't hit this planet. It's a very barren and unforgiving place, but not a particularly varied one. Expect to see a lot of sand and rock with the occasional bandit camp littered about when roaming outdoors. The interior areas, while largely reusing textures and prefab models, are all uniquely designed so that they really feel original. Toward the end of the game you begin to see some real variety, but it doesn't last very long. The most variety you'll be seeing in the game will be in the DLC areas such as Dr. Ned's Zombie Island. I only purchased the initial three DLC packs available at the time of this writing (The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, and the Secret Armory of General Knoxx), and they provide a much more pleasing visual package than the core game with environments specifically tailored to the individual topics of each DLC. In all, the core game looks and feels great, but if you're looking for a little more variety, buy some of the DLCs.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

Sound is probably the most straightforward, non-hybrid, aspect of Borderlands. Most of what you'll be hearing is the gun sounds, and there's quite a few to be heard. Each sound is perfectly appropriate for the type of gun you're firing, and avoids making any particular weapon sound weaker than it actually is. The music and other general sound effects are also solid, but the music can be a bit repetitive. You're going to be hearing the same exploration tune so much it's going to get stuck in your head for a while. The combat music is good, but it really blends into the background when things get heated up. The music in the Mad Moxxi DLC however, is just plain awesome! I found myself so distracted by it that it would almost get me killed; it's that good! Voice acting is good as well, if you can hear it. Some voices come in loud and clear and are performed very well. Others are hard to tell because you can't hear a dang thing they're saying. So keep the subtitles on and be ready to speed read. Other than that, I have no real complaints about the sound. It won't win any awards, except for possibly the Moxxi music, but it's by no means bad either.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

More often than not, games are either supported by strong gameplay and have a very weak story, or vice-versa. Borderlands is most definitely a perfect example of the former. The gameplay is so solid that it makes the admittedly non-existent story just disappear (more on that in the next section). As I've said earlier, Borderlands is the offspring of an FPS and RPG's union, and there's really no better way to describe it. If you've played either Halo or Call of Duty, the shooting mechanics will be very familiar to you. If you've played World of Warcraft or any other MMO, the loot and skill-based mechanics will be very familiar to you.

At first glance, it's very difficult to distinguish between the shooting mechanics of Borderlands and Fallout 3. Both give you weapons with damage, accuracy, and fire rate stats, and let you shoot in a traditional FPS style. The difference is where Fallout 3's shooting mechanics are ruled by the RPG “number-crunching” method to determine hits and misses, Borderlands' shooting mechanics are ruled by your actual accuracy and twitch skills in an FPS method. That's not to say the stats on your weapon make no difference, because they do, but rather to say that you can overcome the poorer stats of your weapon with sufficient FPS skills. A weapon with poorer accuracy stats simply means your reticule is bigger, thus forcing you to either waste more shots or get closer to your target.

I can't really move on without talking about the weapons themselves. There are literally anywhere between 100,000 – 1 million guns in Borderlands. It seems like black magic, I know, but the system used to generate weapons is really quite ingenious. To put it as simply as possible, there are roughly 10 (I may be exaggerating, as I've not really counted) gun manufacturers in the game, and each specializes in certain weapon stats. Some focus on damage while sacrificing accuracy or fire rate, while others focus on high accuracy with limited damage potential, while others focus on giving the weapon an elemental property, and so on. Then there are a vast amount of individual gun parts, like stocks, scopes, barrels, etc, for each manufacturer. So when a chest is opened with a weapon in it, or an enemy drops a weapon, a manufacturer is (I assume) randomly chosen. After that is established, then random individual gun parts are chosen within that manufacturer available options until the weapon is complete, and that determines its stats. This means you will hardly ever come across the same gun twice, and assure that the weapon you're using is truly unique to you. For a more detailed explanation of this, among other things, check out this dev interview by GameSpot.

The RPG side of things becomes most apparent in the amount of looting that you do, and the skill tree used to specialize your character. To put it bluntly, if you don't loot, then you won't progress, then you will surely die. It's like this in almost every RPG known to man, and Borderlands is no different. You need to constantly be scavenging for better and better loot to stay competitive with the enemies you're fighting, and it almost becomes a meta-game in and of itself. Your skill tree allows you to specialize your character to your playstyle. I played the Soldier class (there's also the Berserker, Hunter, and Siren classes), and my skill tree allowed me to progress in offense, defense, healing, or a bit of each; which is what I chose to do. The skills themselves, aside from your one active skill, serve to buff your character to make them more proficient in a certain role. Considering the Soldier's skill trees above, it's pretty easy to guess what each one does. You also level up just like in a traditional RPG by completing quests, killing enemies, and completing challenges to gain XP.

Pandora itself is a pretty large place, and you're going to be traveling a lot. Luckily, there are Catch-A-Ride stations scattered all around the planet that spawn vehicles, and generally make your life more enjoyable. Typically there are only two-player vehicles available, but in the Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC, there is a vehicle that can carry a full group of four players. Speaking of full groups, Borderlands' multiplayer is a whole lot of fun. It's basically just a four-player co-op through the single-player campaign, but going through the empty wastes of Pandora is much more enjoyable with a friend at your side. Just keep in mind that your connection is dependent on which player in your group is the server host, so be sure the one with the best connection is hosting the server. With all of that said, you're going to be hard-pressed to find a more unique and enjoyable gameplay experience than Borderlands.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

This is going to be a really short section because there's just not much to say here. You're on Pandora because you are a Vault Hunter. What's in the vault, no one knows, and you never find out. That's it, case closed, the end, no joke. The story in the core game is an excuse to shoot everything in your path, and that's ok considering how good the gameplay is. Just don't expecting anything deep and engaging. The DLCs on the other hand have very enjoyable and focused stories. So if you're looking for any kind of story at all in Borderlands, buy the DLCs.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

If you enjoy the gameplay at all in Borderlands, playing online is enough to keep you happily occupied for a very long time. Playing the campaign alone took me roughly 53 hours to complete, and I still have a few side quests left to do. Then after you complete the game once, a second playthrough option opens up that brings everything's level range up to high-levels. So even level 1 areas become challenging again. Overall, it just depends on how much you enjoyed the game the first time. I can definitely see myself replaying this in the future though.

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

To answer my initial question in the opening paragraph: yes, it is definitely a good idea to cross-breed an FPS and RPG; so long as the product is as awesome as Borderlands. If you enjoy originality in your games, give Borderlands a try as soon as you can! The game is available for PC, 360, and PS3.

Borderlands Overall Score:

System Requirements

• OS: Windows XP/Vista
• Processor: 2.4 Ghz or equivalent processor with SSE2 support
• Memory: 1GB System RAM (2GB recommended with Vista)
• Graphics: 256mb video ram or better (GeForce 7 series or higher/Radeon HD3000 series or higher)
• Hard Drive: 8 GB or more free space
• Sound: Windows compatible sound card