borederlands review

It's that undeniable impulse that pokes at the pleasure centers of the brain when you're looking at that sleek and impossibly flat television at the front of the electronics store. How much better and brighter would life be if only you could bring it home? You consider what's in your wallet, what kind of space rests between credit balance and limit, maybe for a second what your family might think, and perhaps more importantly how jealous your friends would be. It's what drives economies that thrive on consumerism, and that urge to snatch up glittering new toys is what keeps the action energized in Gearbox's Borderlands, a first-person shooter title that caters to the thief, hero, and adventurer lurking in all of us.

For the uninitiated, this is a loot hunting game like Blizzard's Diablo. The action begins and you're flung out into an open world with a handful of quests and legions of baddies who'll do whatever they can to prevent you from killing their leaders, wiping out an arbitrary number of their compatriots, opening drain valves in their hideouts, snatching up important artifacts and documents, or collecting a large number of shiny objects. There's a tale of a secret vault and advanced technology and a snowy image of a female face that pops onscreen when important things are about to happen, nudging you forward and providing additional narrative context, but this isn't a choice and consequence game with morality systems and labyrinthine quest strings. It's the loot that's the real motivator here.

You'll start out with rusty weapons that look as though they've spent a better part of their existence at the bottom of a bog and it won't be long until you find new weapons that not only look better but have improved functionality. As you progress through the game you'll find shotguns, sniper rifles, submachine guns, handguns, and rocket launchers that glow with elemental effects like fire and lightning and can eat enemies alive with corrosive effects or hit with such an impact that it pulps a target into a gruesome mess. There are even more bizarre and powerful alien weapons towards the later stages. Moreover, as you use a weapon, you'll become more proficient with it, further enhancing the sense that your character is gradually but inevitably becoming a ferocious fighter who can shoot, shatter, and burn all obstacles in the way.

As you level and progress through the story you'll be frequently swapping out gear so you're always outfitted with the best, and feel a surge of jittery anticipation every time an enemy explodes into a cloud of candy colored loot. The character class skill trees, however, which are packed with an abundance of passive abilities, are less interesting. Each class gets one and only one primary action skill, which you'll be using frequently throughout the course of the game. The Hunter class tosses out a bird to attack from afar, the Berserker charges forward and smashes foes with his fists, the Siren enters a temporary invisible state, and the Soldier can drop down a sentry turret to help out in a fight.

As you level you'll earn points that can be allocated into skill trees, which can change up how much damage you do, how much damage you can take, and make your action skill a deadlier ability. The Siren, for instance, can add shock damage to her Phasewalk skill, dramatically shorten its cooldown period, and turn into a contagious inferno after every kill. Yet even with all these options for customization, many skills are percentage bonuses to damage or shields that are more difficult to notice during gameplay. Maybe I'm alone on this one, but a greater number of action skills per class and a larger degree of distinction between some of the skill choices would make the tree progression more exciting. While the skills in Borderlands unquestionably do affect how you fight and deal damage, it seems like there was room to do more here. If you do decide you want to switch up how your skill points are spread out across a skill tree, you can easily pay with in-game money to reset it and redistribute points however you see fit.

The large variety of weapons does make up for a few forgettable skill options to a degree. Since the game feels, moves, and plays like a first-person shooter and most of what you'll be doing is firing weapons and engaging in fast-paced gameplay, perhaps that's the reason Gearbox chose to build in so many possibilities for passive percentage upgrades, so as not to slow things down too much. Perhaps that's also the reason there's no collection of armor pieces or anything else of that sort. Character customization, aside from the guns, skills and handful of accessories, is limited to choosing a name and clothing colors. That's not meant as a criticism -- I think the streamlined character customization works well with the game overall -- but it's something you should be aware of before picking this up. Many players will have their hands full juggling guns, class, grenade, and shield mods, to care, but more hardcore gamers looking for more options for bolstering stats might feel something's missing.

Hopefully that gives you a sufficient overview of the types of methods of customization in the game, and has properly prepared you for what kind of experience this is. If you're rolling your eyes at all this information, think it's boring and inconsequential, and just waiting for me to get to the part where I say if the game is any fun or not, then your heart probably isn't in the right place. That's not to say you'll hate the game, but a frenzied, drooling desire to kill, upgrade, kill and repeat is required to really get the most out of this experience. Were this a typical action-RPG loot-driven kill-fest, such a warning wouldn't be necessary, but considering this game is actually a first-person shooter, perhaps not all prospective buyers might be familiar with how it works.