Intro
Quite an odd title for a review, don't you think? It really doesn't say much about the game itself, but it says a lot about this review. After investing over 32 hours into this game (29 into my main character), I'm going to give you my honest opinion about Borderlands. This isn't some Rant about how long the game was delayed, it was rushed, or me saying its the best thing since sliced bread. Really around 10-15 hours into the game i would have reviewed this game higher, but there are many flaws that set back this addicting and wonderful experience. This is my longest review i have ever posted here on giantbomb, and that is for a reason. There are many things to justify my score that i give to this game, and i hope you respect my opinion.
Game Play:
This game consists of a World of Warcraft style quest system, yet with a twist. Instead of equipping different armor, shields, swords, helmets, and other equipment found in WoW, you equip just a few things. These include: Shields (Halo-Style), Guns, Grenades (and grenade "Mods"), Class Mods, and Artifacts. So these things sound really weird.. what do each of them do? Shields are self explanatory, they are invisible shields that protect you (not literal shields), a large variety of guns including: Assault Rifle, Sniper, Revolver, Repeater Pistol, Rocket Launcher, SMG, Shotgun. I hope im not missing any! Grenades are basic, but you use grenade mods to enhance your grenades. For example, you can equip one grenade mod to heal you when it explodes and hits the enemy, or have a grenade explode into several other grenades. Class Mods just modify and add perks to your character, and give your character a different "Class". Some enhancements may include: Weapon size increase, + XX to skills, increase fire rate.
All of these cool things wouldn't be good if there weren't cool enemies to shoot. Your in for a treat, there is a large variety of enemies! Anything from skags, flying giant evil attacking birds, crazy midget shotgun dudes, badass bruisers..... Theres to many to list out, and yes there are enemies called "Badass", they are extra tough. You also have a skill tree. There are 3 paths you can go down, or be more of a hybrid and go down multiple paths. For example, on the soldier class there are: Medic, Support, Infantry. I wish that there were more variety to these however. Each of the 4 classes (Berserker, Siren, Hunter, Soldier) only has one main skill. For the soldier, it is a deployable turret. While you can modify your skill with the skill tree, or artifacts, there is only one big skill that you have. There are other things that you can add to modify your character though. It would have been nice for there to be different skills for the soldier instead of just a turret.
The world is huge. There are tons of different areas to navigate to. You will unlock a car and eventually be able to fast travel. I wish that there were specific areas you could teleport to however. It would be nice to go to a specific area of a location so i can get to that quest, rather than having to drive the car (it gets old after a while). Speaking of the car, i wish that they could have added some type of modifications for the cars. There are just two styles of cars: Rocket Launcher Cars and machine gun cars. You can also change the color.... woop ee! Cars often get stuck in areas when driving, causing you to have to walk to the nearest car station or fast travel, this gets very frustrating is is almost guarenteed to happen to you eventually.
Replayability
The first playthrough for this game took me about 24 hours, and i was around level 35. I finished every side quest availible. My character, a soldier, is now level 41 in the second playthrough. I created one of each other class and got to between levels 5-10. I feel that the soldier is the most well rounded class, especially to play with by yourself, and you most likely will be unless you have a friend that will be on with you every time you play. "Well it has online... so i can just play with them right?" Is probably what your thinking in response to me saying you will most likely be playing a lot by yourself. Well, partially, wrong. At level 41, i search for a game and cannot find anything. I try using a level 1 to search for a game (as suggested to by forums), but still couldn't find a single game on the 2nd playthrough. For a game that is focused around co op, this is a major dissapointment. The games online does work well however, when playing with friends. Also at level 41, and the second playthrough, the game starts to get old. Sure you can find better weapons, but to just fight tougher and tougher enemies. I guess thats the role of all role playing games though. I played diablo 2 for several years however, and kept remaking characters... it never got old really. Finding guns should seem like a good incentive to keep playing, and it is somewhat, but most guns you find aren't that great, but when you finally find one that you don't sell to the vendor, it does feel rewarding.
Story
The story isn't that great. You get messages from this woman throughout the game telling you to do stuff. Your on your mission to find the vault, full of glorious treasures and weapons. Thats about all you know throughout the whole game, however near the end it does pick up a little. If you buy this game, don't expect a good story, because there isn't much of one. This game is all about the game play, finding guns, shooting and killing, and having fun.
Overall
Borderlands is a GOOD game. I have got my $60 worth that is a fact. But even though it is a good game, the various flaws mentioned throughout the review set it back, and sometimes make the game frustrating. I also wish this game would have hooked me like it did diablo, but i guess that would be asking a little to much. After i hit 50 i really have no intentions of playing this game anymore, because on the 2nd playthrough, you are playing the exact same game as the first playthrough, just with tougher enemies and "better loot". If your the loot loving gamer that likes FPS and roleplaying, definitely try this game out. You will probably get about 40 hours out of it when all said and done, but will be happy with the experience you had, despite some flaws.
Pro's: Con's:
- Long Game (24 hours first playthrough) - Repetitive after first playthrough
- Fun Gameplay - Needs Better in depth skill tree (w/ more skills)
- Great Loot finding - Finding an online game in higher levels near impossibe
- Large variety of weapons - Needs more car variety / travel options
- A Unique Experience
Quite an odd title for a review, don't you think? It really doesn't say much about the game itself, but it says a lot about this review. After investing over 32 hours into this game (29 into my main character), I'm going to give you my honest opinion about Borderlands. This isn't some Rant about how long the game was delayed, it was rushed, or me saying its the best thing since sliced bread. Really around 10-15 hours into the game i would have reviewed this game higher, but there are many flaws that set back this addicting and wonderful experience. This is my longest review i have ever posted here on giantbomb, and that is for a reason. There are many things to justify my score that i give to this game, and i hope you respect my opinion.
Game Play:
This game consists of a World of Warcraft style quest system, yet with a twist. Instead of equipping different armor, shields, swords, helmets, and other equipment found in WoW, you equip just a few things. These include: Shields (Halo-Style), Guns, Grenades (and grenade "Mods"), Class Mods, and Artifacts. So these things sound really weird.. what do each of them do? Shields are self explanatory, they are invisible shields that protect you (not literal shields), a large variety of guns including: Assault Rifle, Sniper, Revolver, Repeater Pistol, Rocket Launcher, SMG, Shotgun. I hope im not missing any! Grenades are basic, but you use grenade mods to enhance your grenades. For example, you can equip one grenade mod to heal you when it explodes and hits the enemy, or have a grenade explode into several other grenades. Class Mods just modify and add perks to your character, and give your character a different "Class". Some enhancements may include: Weapon size increase, + XX to skills, increase fire rate.
All of these cool things wouldn't be good if there weren't cool enemies to shoot. Your in for a treat, there is a large variety of enemies! Anything from skags, flying giant evil attacking birds, crazy midget shotgun dudes, badass bruisers..... Theres to many to list out, and yes there are enemies called "Badass", they are extra tough. You also have a skill tree. There are 3 paths you can go down, or be more of a hybrid and go down multiple paths. For example, on the soldier class there are: Medic, Support, Infantry. I wish that there were more variety to these however. Each of the 4 classes (Berserker, Siren, Hunter, Soldier) only has one main skill. For the soldier, it is a deployable turret. While you can modify your skill with the skill tree, or artifacts, there is only one big skill that you have. There are other things that you can add to modify your character though. It would have been nice for there to be different skills for the soldier instead of just a turret.
The world is huge. There are tons of different areas to navigate to. You will unlock a car and eventually be able to fast travel. I wish that there were specific areas you could teleport to however. It would be nice to go to a specific area of a location so i can get to that quest, rather than having to drive the car (it gets old after a while). Speaking of the car, i wish that they could have added some type of modifications for the cars. There are just two styles of cars: Rocket Launcher Cars and machine gun cars. You can also change the color.... woop ee! Cars often get stuck in areas when driving, causing you to have to walk to the nearest car station or fast travel, this gets very frustrating is is almost guarenteed to happen to you eventually.
Replayability
The first playthrough for this game took me about 24 hours, and i was around level 35. I finished every side quest availible. My character, a soldier, is now level 41 in the second playthrough. I created one of each other class and got to between levels 5-10. I feel that the soldier is the most well rounded class, especially to play with by yourself, and you most likely will be unless you have a friend that will be on with you every time you play. "Well it has online... so i can just play with them right?" Is probably what your thinking in response to me saying you will most likely be playing a lot by yourself. Well, partially, wrong. At level 41, i search for a game and cannot find anything. I try using a level 1 to search for a game (as suggested to by forums), but still couldn't find a single game on the 2nd playthrough. For a game that is focused around co op, this is a major dissapointment. The games online does work well however, when playing with friends. Also at level 41, and the second playthrough, the game starts to get old. Sure you can find better weapons, but to just fight tougher and tougher enemies. I guess thats the role of all role playing games though. I played diablo 2 for several years however, and kept remaking characters... it never got old really. Finding guns should seem like a good incentive to keep playing, and it is somewhat, but most guns you find aren't that great, but when you finally find one that you don't sell to the vendor, it does feel rewarding.
Story
The story isn't that great. You get messages from this woman throughout the game telling you to do stuff. Your on your mission to find the vault, full of glorious treasures and weapons. Thats about all you know throughout the whole game, however near the end it does pick up a little. If you buy this game, don't expect a good story, because there isn't much of one. This game is all about the game play, finding guns, shooting and killing, and having fun.
Overall
Borderlands is a GOOD game. I have got my $60 worth that is a fact. But even though it is a good game, the various flaws mentioned throughout the review set it back, and sometimes make the game frustrating. I also wish this game would have hooked me like it did diablo, but i guess that would be asking a little to much. After i hit 50 i really have no intentions of playing this game anymore, because on the 2nd playthrough, you are playing the exact same game as the first playthrough, just with tougher enemies and "better loot". If your the loot loving gamer that likes FPS and roleplaying, definitely try this game out. You will probably get about 40 hours out of it when all said and done, but will be happy with the experience you had, despite some flaws.
Pro's: Con's:
- Long Game (24 hours first playthrough) - Repetitive after first playthrough
- Fun Gameplay - Needs Better in depth skill tree (w/ more skills)
- Great Loot finding - Finding an online game in higher levels near impossibe
- Large variety of weapons - Needs more car variety / travel options
- A Unique Experience