Having just recently gotten back into the console gaming scene, I thought it best to complement my XBox360 with a subscription to Gamefly, a netflix-like service that allows users to rent one game out at a time, and swap it at any time. My first selection to take out was the recently released Borderlands, a decision I would not regret.
The game’s setting is one in which Mad Max would be fairly comfortable. You are on the planet Pandora, a barren rocky world where the bandits run thick and the law runs thin. Much in the style of Final Fantasy, or any number of other Japanese role-playing games, right off the bat you are forced to choose your character’s class- a role which determines your special abilities, strengths and weaknesses. For instance, the Siren class can disappear from view, and quickly gain ground and surprise an enemy, where the Soldier class can drop a defensive turret, healing allies and cutting down enemies with a hail of gunfire. But, in place of swords and shields, your character has access to guns. Big guns. Lots of guns. Any kind of gun you can think of.
One of Borderlands biggest strengths is the sheer number of different guns you can wield. You can carry rocket launchers, shotguns, revolvers, combat rifles, each with different clip sizes, rates of fire and bullet damages and types. Much like elemental spells in your typical Dungeons and Dragons fare, each gun can carry an element type as well. You can wield a shotgun that adds corrosive damage to each shell, or a sniper rifle with shock damage. No two guns are exactly the same in a playthrough of the game.
The best way to advance your character in Borderlands is through missions. You can follow instructions left on Bounty Boards throughout Pandora to gain money and experience, retreive the head of a particularly vile bandit lord from a local gun shop ower, or find small robots who offer backpack upgrades in exchange for help. Borderlands boasts tough enemies as well: wild skags, the ever-present psychos, bandits and midget shotgunners and big bosses who are all eager to make your life short and miserable. As your character completes missions and levels up, you can purchase more class-specific abilities, wield more weapons and ultimately make life for the common man on Pandora a little bit easier. The overarching objective of the game is to seek out the mysterious Vault, following clues left behind in the barren wasteland.
Borderlands can be played cooperatively, up to four players splitscreen on one XBox, or four players cooperatively online. My one main gripe with the game is that it currently offers no functionality for splitscreen players to go online; so my roommate and I are unable to play with our friend in Texas all at the same time. Minor gripes, however, for what is overall a fun, engaging and content-rich game.
— Reviewed by Dan McDonnell
Tech PRose 