Borderlands review. UPDATED (12/22/10)

  I recently purchased borderlands and received it 2 days ago. Now before I begin this review I just want to say the game has ALOT of potential and there are a few flaws with it. My first problem with the game is once you finish the main story line the game gets boring really really really fast even if you still have quests to do. Second The online multi-player functions is pure shit, being able to play up with 4 people is pure rubbish in my opinion. They should have made a server for everyone where it could fit like hundreds of people like mmo's (though it would require maintenance alot.)
  Now to begin, the opening story takes place on a planet called "Pandora", about the tale of a legendary vault, in which if someone ever found this mythical vault, they would get unimaginable power and money beyond their wildest dreams. The story ends showing 4 mercenary soldiers on a bus heading to a deserted, barren town, called Fyrestone. The names of the 4 mercenaries are, Lilith - a siren, Brick - a berserker, Mordecai - a hunter, and Roland who is a soldier. After a title sequence introducing all of the characters, you get to choose which one of the classes you want to play for the entire game, upon choosing which class you want to be the game finally begins.
  Upon exiting the bus, you are greeted by a friendly, quirky little robot called a claptrap, who introduces himself and explains the basic game mechanics to you, along with giving you a device that display's how much health and ammunition you currently have. After a quick tutorial about the game, you are then thrown headfirst into combat against some local bandits.

(Ninja Claptrap of doom!)

The controls for borderlands are relatively easy to learn, it's pretty much your standard control set-up that you find in most other first person shooting games for the PC, so there's not much to talk about there. The graphics are very lovely and unique in Borderlands, because instead of following traditional, realistic graphics that most modern games' now-a-days' use, Borderlands uses cell-shaded cartoon graphics with boldly stated black lines.

(Boldly stated cartoon graphics)

    Now to address the weapons, it is true that there are literally millions of weapons! but once you get to a certain level you mainly stick to the guns that are around your level, which is good and all, but then weapons become very limited because people do not want to exchange/or can't find any better weapons.
  The combat system for Borderlands is entertaining and fun, the player versus environment is very fun and will keep you occupied for hours, but they could have made a variety of different monsters' for you to fight that you do not have to find by following the storyline.
  The game doesn't have much of a replay value, I am currently Lv. 34 after beating the game and instead of having to grind and camp the monsters that appear before the final level, I can restart the game on a harder chapter that you unlock after beating the game, which basically means you restart the entire game from the beginning, but the monsters will be harder and around your current level. For example, since I beat the game at level 34, I will restart the game on a harder setting known as the second playthrough, then the beginning monsters' you encounter at the beginning of the game will be around level 34. But unless you want to replay through the entire storyline once again, there is really no point in it (yes I did do the second playthrough and got bored). Gearbox software has released DLC for Borderlands that will give you different side stories to playthrough and it does keep you busy, but again after beating those you will become quickly bored with the game.
Overall I think the game has alot of potential. It's a very fun game, with slick fun graphics, and it was a very good attempt on Gearbox software's part but they could do ALOT better.

Graphics: 10 out of 10
Gameplay: 9 out of 10
Story: 5 out of 10
Environment: 6 out of 10

Overall rating: 6 out of 10 passable.

This review has been brought to you by Cody Sparks Owner of NightmareStudioz.

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