Borderlands

I could type reems of paragraphs about how great this game is but I'll try and keep it short and sweet for the benefit of whoever reads it.

This is NOT a standard shooter game. It opts for cartoon like graphics as opposed to the polished ones you might get in Fallout or Call of Duty. This gives it a really interesting take on the modern shooter genre.

I also love how the game has a fair amount of humour in it. The little robots called claptraps come out with some really funny phrases and say weird things that make you smile to yourself. There are also references to other popular culture icons. For instance, in the zombie add-on there are references to Scooby Doo which made me laugh aloud.

I bought the game when it first came out and I still play it now. I think that alone is a testament to how free-roaming the game is and how in depth the character builds are. Fantastic online/multiplayer gameplay make it an essential purchase for online gamers.

Well recommended

Borderlands was one off if not THE most surprisingly good games of this generation. When it was announced and shown off there was some good buzz around it but no one expected it to be anywhere near as good as it turned out. With hundreds of thousands of guns, grenade mods, shields to collect, 4 different characters with each having to 3 separate skill trees too level through and a massive world to explore and loot, how can this game go wrong? Plus add in that you can travel through this huge campaign with up to 3 friends in 4 player online co-op.

some people will compare this game to Fallout 3 (PS3) which I feel is not true, fallout 3 is a RPG with some shooter mechanics while Borderlands is a shooter with some RPG mechanics. This may not sound like they would be that different but trust me they are vastly different.

Borderlands plays strangely like a typical RPG; you wonder a open world going from city to city completing quests, gaining experience and money to buy new upgrades or weapons so you can continue killing creatures and going into dungeons to kill bosses. While it is structured like an RPG it always feels like an FPS, it took a long while for me to notice when I was killing groups of enemies that I was just grinding exp, which in a regular MMO or RPG would be tedious and boring but in this it never does.

You play as either Mordecai; the sniper, Lilith the Siren, Brick the Beserker or Roland the soldier, each character has different skills that can be upgraded and a special attack.
Mordecai uses ranged weapons, his skills increase his ranged attacks, the team's accuracy or allow the team to gain more experience. His special attack is launching an eagle towards the enemies, this eagle can be upgraded with electric attacks, poison etc.
Lilith Is a close quarter shooter, she gains exp quicker than the others and most of her skills are just boosting herself in either ranged or melee attacks. Lilith's special attack allows her to move at twice her regular speed, turn invisible and then explodes, damaging any enemies nearby.
Brick is a straight up shotgun or SMG guy, with him you just want to run into the middle of the fight and go crazy, his skills increase his own defence and melee. His special makes him invincible and increases his melee damage for a set amount of time.
Roland is the support class; he is best played if you know you will be playing in a group as he boosts other's weapons or gives them ammo and health bonuses. His special attack let's him place a turret down which draws the attention of any nearby enemies.

The game takes place on the fictional planet Pandora; a planet once filled with rich minerals. Many companies flew to the new planet to harvest the minerals and once it was mined out all the people that could afford to move off of the planet, leaving everyone else to fend for themselves. It was rumoured that aliens had created a vault with technology in it that was incredibly superior to anything previously known. Your goal in the game is to find the mythical "vault" and find out if the myths are true.

I felt that the overall plot wasn't compelling but that wasn't important to me because the journey to that destination was incredibly memorable. The bosses in each dungeon had their own moments which made them distinguishable, the environments were impressive and the cell-shaded graphics give the game a look that stands out more than any game out at the moment.
Any fan of FPS games should not have a problem with this, and in the same breathe fans of RPGs that don't play shooters often will find a lot to enjoy in this game. I played a total of 20-30 something hours in my first play through and that wasn't including all side missions.

Now with the game of the year edition you get 4 add-ons to the game; the Zombie island of doctor Ned, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, the secret army of general Knoxx and Claptrap's new robot revolution. The gameplay in each remains as good as it was but you are put in new locations with new enemies which makes you feel like there is a little more variety in it as you change your strategy to kill them. Each section has new guns, more backpack slots that your character can have, new skills, new quests and the level cap is increased from 50 to 69. Each add-on should take around 3-4 hours to complete so the game of the year addition adds 12-16 hours of gameplay to what already was a 30 hour long game.
Buy the game of the year edition of borderlands instead of the regular as you will not regret it at all.

This game is a great experiment which went pretty well, it's a solid shooter with a pleasing amount of carnage to be had, the RPG element is understated and allows you create an individual character and level them up as you see fit and the graphics are a master class in how cell shading should be used.

The basic game back-story is pretty standard fare: Find the treasure in the post apocalyptic wasteland. There are a lot of elements lifted straight from the Mad Max films as well as games such as Fallout and GTA, these are all good things and give the game a familiar feeling from the outset, this is also one of the few downsides, nothing feels particularly new or original. It's all very well executed and I really enjoyed it but it didn't really push any bounderies other than the graphical style, I was left with the feeling that I'd been here before but not in a bad way.

The action is very solid, guns feel and sound right, there are some rock solid foes to defeat and there is a bewildering amount of things to play with, most of them just lying around the place waiting for you to find them. You can micro manage gun stats if that's your thing or you can just find the weapon you like best and use that to get your own way.

Levelling and developing your character is a fun diversion, you don't get a huge amount of options but what is on offer does alter how you play depending on which order you decide to spend your skill points, this being said, you won't find yourself wasting time levelling dead end skills as you can in some games. It's almost like the option is there if you want it but don't worry too much if you dont. The most important thing is to just keep gaining EXP so that you get more health.

This game is huge. With the add on scenarios taken into consideration it's really huge. It sprawls and doesn't have the on rails feeling, obviously as it is story driven there are certain things you must do in a certain order but if you want to take a break from the main story and just go off on a blood thirsty levelling up rampage then you can do just that.

So, my overall summary is: This game is brilliant, it's huge, the gameplay is great, the graphics are fantastic, there is so much to see and do you sometimes don't know where to start. Just don't expect it to surprise you. Well worth it if you can get it new for £15.00