Od Studios -- Borderlands
| [ |
Borderlands -- by sector24, 2009-12-01 |
] |
 |
Developer: Gearbox Software
ESRB Rating: Mature
Genre: First Person Shooter
Platform: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Publisher: 2K Games
Release Date: 10/20/2009
What is Borderlands?
Borderlands is the most recent attempt to combine two highly successfully game genres; first person shooters and role playing games. Gearbox is by no means the first to attempt this herculean feat and the industry is filled with the corpses of the damned, cursed to wander the dark corners of the internet as lost tormented souls. Planetside, Tabula Rasa, Hellgate: London, and others have all challenged the video game gods and failed. So how does the newest contender fare? Let's find out.
What does this game do well?
The first thing you notice about Borderlands is the art style. The game was initially designed with a more realistic look, but at some point the art department at Gearbox staged a minor revolt and began working on a "graphic novel inspired yet not cel-shaded but looks cel-shaded" art style in secret. When word finally got out to the boss, Randy Pitchford, they revealed it to him and he loved it. Personally I find the graphics acceptable but not fantastic. I must admit though that screenshots do not do the game justice. When you are actually walking around in the game world it looks much better than any still frame could convey.
The second thing you notice is the game's tone. Borderlands never takes itself too seriously and there is a lot of humor mixed into the dialogue and the game world. Not all of it manages to hit home, but it really does set a playful mood that is a welcome departure from other first person shooters. This is definitely the type of game where you can just kick back and enjoy the ride without moral consequences or any oppressive feeling of right or wrong. Everyone on the game world of Pandora that is not a questgiver is an evil bigot, and they need to die.
But let's talk about what you really want to know; is it a good shooter? Well Gearbox Software specializes in shooters, having done the Brothers In Arms series in addition to some work with Halo for the PC and the Half Life series. They know how to make a good shooter and it really shows. I'm pleased to say that the shooting mechanics in Borderlands are really tight. Unlike "progression" shooters where your initial character is awful and you have to level up your weapon skills, a level 1 character in Borderlands is a perfectly proficient and deadly lead vendor. Sniper rifles are rock steady even with 0 weapons skill, bullets go where you aim depending on the actual gun's accuracy rating and player skill is the primary factor in whether you hit or not.
This is not to say that your character won't improve drastically throughout the game. While you may be singlehandedly keeping gravediggers from the unemployment line, you are still limited by the stats on the guns you wield. Low end pistols may be doing a measly 9 damage per hit so you are going to have to perform more than one bone biopsy before you can pronounce the patient deceased. This is where the game gets into the role playing aspects. Borderlands touts an impressive "87 bazillion" guns and features an AI gun builder that assembles weapons from stock parts such as barrels, grips, scopes, magazines, etc. The final product is a randomly generated weapon with a variety of statistics that determine its final makeup.
So to answer the burning question on everyone's mind, no there are not 87 bazillion unique weapons. Quite often there are two guns where one is just a few points of damage better than the one before it, or just a tiny bit more accurate but with a smaller clip. But I can say that there are some really amazing weapons that will surprise you, even after you think you've seen it all. Just to take the review into story time for a moment, I found a rocket launcher with a 5 round magazine that fires corrosive rockets which I thought was kind of neat until I actually equipped it and fired it. It turns out that it shoots all 5 rockets with a single trigger pull, making it an incredible way to start out a fight against a group of enemies. There are shotguns that fire rockets, weapons that fire bullets that bounce off walls, weapons that regenerate their own ammunition, or have a chance to ignore shields, etc. So no, there aren't 87 bazillion unique guns, but there are at least several hundred completely unique guns and even when farming for your "endgame" perfect weapon you can probably choose from 3-5 really top end weapon features to look for. So overall I would say that the randomly generated guns are a success, if not a little oversold by the marketing department.
Borderlands also features a skill tree similar to something you would see in Diablo II or World of Warcraft. Every character has 1 special ability, and most of the skills in the tree are passive bonuses that improve your special ability or your base character stats like health, damage, etc. The skill trees are not as impressive as either of the Blizzard games they derive inspiration from, but they aren't terrible either. My biggest complaint is that some of the skills are only good in theory, but once you start playing the game you realize that they are almost worthless or become worthless when you find certain equipment. However, each character has more than one viable build and there is a definite sense of improvement as you level up and spend your skill points so I can't be too harsh on the game in this department. It's just that it doesn't quite live up to the standard set by the games Borderlands is trying to emulate.
Your character also has weapon proficiencies. When an enemy dies, your proficiency with the weapon you are holding increases, and you get bonuses to its stats when it levels up. Now like I said previously, the shooting mechanics are already tight. The weapon proficiency does things like increase you damage, reduce your recoil, and turn a 66% accurate gun into a 75% accurate gun. This is an excellent design choice and its great to see a game give you bonuses instead of forcing you to level up in order to remove penalties.
Borderlands supports four player cooperative play and I think this is almost a requirement because the game becomes exponentially more fun with friends. Not only do you get to mix and match skills and playstyles, but the enemies become much more numerous and powerful and the loot scales accordingly as well. In single player an area may spawn 4-6 regular opponents, but with 4 players the same area will spawn a whole legion of enemies with increased health and damage. Single player is fun, but the game world is much more desolate and the game is slower paced. Great for explorers, but not as much for first person shooter fans. Either way though, the game is incredibly addictive. You will lose sleep and possibly miss meals and family obligations.
What new and innovative ideas are implemented in this game?
While Borderlands is innovative in the sense that it combines first person shooter and role playing aspects more successfully than many games that have come before it, there aren't a whole lot of new ideas. The only one that struck me as really neat is that the game's vending machines have a "deal of the day" special item which is usually a little better than their normal stock. This item is the same for everyone, so if it's really good the first player to buy it gets it, and the vending machine will be sold out until the new inventory appears tomorrow. A game day in Pandora is approximately 20 minutes or so. It's not an industry changing mechanic or anything, I just thought it was neat.
Continued on Page 2
Leave the author a comment:
| |
|
