Tenth game I beat in 2010: Borderlands
By BeautifulSpaceCowboy 1 Comments
I finally wrapped this game up!
Borderlands
Gearbox’s first-person shooter RPG, Borderlands, has all the trappings of a game that I would find difficult to put down. And I did for awhile. The constant progression of new weapons, unique characters to level up, and varying skill branches always kept Borderlands fun and interesting, especially with three friends. My character class of choice was the Siren, but you also have your choice of a Soldier, Hunter, or Berserker. Phase Walking and popping out and blasting everyone with an SMG was great, but that could only take me so far.I am a sucker for story. As my time becomes more and more valuable to me, I tend to lean towards games that tell me a good story because I do not want to feel like I completely wasted 10-40 hours. I don’t care if a game only takes four hours to beat; if the story is solid, I feel it is money well spent. What Borderlands had in time and fun gameplay, it lacked ten-fold in story. I wanted to touch on some of the problems I had with the ending to this game, so if you have not finished it, do not read on.
My major problem is not getting any satisfaction from the end. By the end of the game, it becomes a race to stop Commandant Steele from opening the vault. She has put you through a lot of trouble up to this point, so I was looking forward to finally killing her. However, the game chooses to take that away from me. Then there is The Destroyer. It was a very uninspired boss. I didn’t have fun fighting him, and why did the Guardian have to set it up like some big surprise? If she told the player the truth, he/she would never have gone to the vault in the first place? That, to me, shows a lack of wanting to write a story that convinces the player to go despite facing a god from another dimension. This takes us to after the fight against the Destroyer. You are contacted to sell the vault key. After all of this, it boils down to selling the one item that compelled the character through story. It just feels like it cheapens the whole game.
After beating the game, I planned on continuing to level my Siren while I finished missions and started the DLC, but I could not bare to go on. The game had just left a very sour taste in my mouth, and it is going to be a long time before I decide to touch Borderlands again.