[09/11/09] Borderlands - PC -

[emsley]

Borderlands review. (Single player only)

 

 

Let’s get the basic crap out of the way first – It’s a first person shooter but I don’t think I need to tell you that considering we are a gaming forum, the game starts up quite impressively even though the splash screens for the PC are quite long paced – we have a great introduction and it sets the tone for the game from then on in – you get to choose between 4 characters and because this is my review I will name them thusly: A ninja – A woman – A medium sized looking guy – and a brick. All with individual skills – I picked the big guy known as brick and his special skill is smashing stuff up with his fists. I’ve not played around with any of the other characters yet.

 

 

Once you have done that your greeted by a claptrap a tiny robot that scoots around on one wheel and has (at first) quite a lot of charm – this little douche bag introduces you to the game world and the basics of controls so for a FPS that will involve crouching, shooting, and jumping over a log and running. I’m always happy to get an immediate refresher on the basics of an FPS just in case I forget or panic when I’m greeted by an area where I have to jump to get to the next bit.

The added element to this FPS is that it is a slight RPG hybrid with a good amount of stats on the weapons. If you love numbers and adding up all the pros and cons of a weapon then this should slap your ass and tickle your tits in that department. There are a few weapon classes (and hundreds of guns) such as sniper, smg, shotgun, rifle, and handgun. No surprises there then.

 

The guns come thick and fast – you will be constantly weighing up your options with the weapons you find, does it do more damage? Is the rate of fire to slow? But this shotgun holds 12 rounds and that one only hols 6 but is three points power fuller? Is this scoped or not? Its good fun and I can tell now if I should pick up a gun or leave it on the floor for the skags to chew on. I rarely pick something up keeping it in mind to sell as the shops don’t really sell anything that out performs what you find in the general game world, the shops don’t really do much for you other than to get a few upgrades early on and health packs which are never quite enough to full up your characters health, you have to fiddle around with health one set does it quick the other does it slow. And you do have a limited amount of slots for equipment and your backpack but eventually you do get upgrades to help you out in this department.

 

 

The action has a great a pace and balance to it, You will love getting into fights with the various enemies in the game and they do sometimes die in funny ways – I shot a midget with an smg the midget burned and caught on fire leaving some of his head and POP off it went – oh I’m setting him on fire with an element weapon some guns have electric/fire/acid add on but no big deal, but worth mentioning.

 

Combat is fun – and it’s what gives the game its presence especially as the levels go up, you get to level out your character as you go adding new skills or faster reload damages or crazy shit like “When you kill an enemy you will have 10% damage increase for ten seconds” I normally find myself rattling enemies of with a shotgun to the face – it seems to down them the best.

 

There is a good variation of enemies human and bugs alike. Some are just tougher variations such as – Bandit – will become Badass bandit! – Same with the bugs and the skags, the skags of which you will fight a lot of early on.

And I have to say that you will fight bosses in this game which makes for a refreshing change as most FPS shooters can’t pull this off they are varied and can be tough to kill – and every time you fight a boss you get a lovely splash screen of the guy in mention its little touches like that that can make a big difference to a game.

Overall combat is solid but occasionally (And only mildly) irritating as you yell “WTF HOW DID I DIE? I HAD FULL SHIELD BITCH!” (Oh yeah better mention you buy and upgrade your shields as you go) mostly you will enjoy getting into fights or dealing with pesky bird things that try and swoop on your face out of no place. Fighting the bugs makes for linier gaming but fighting the bandits more than makes up for it.

 

 

There are plenty of missions and graphical difference as you go – I love how the game is cell shaded and it gives it that look – everything is solid in the graphic department (although I did experience tearing and strange twitching of my screen position) it’s a sandy affair with chunks of colour thrown in and certain points. I like the graphical style. It pleases me like a professional blowjob.

 

Around the game world you will loot boxes, toilets, washing machines, mailboxes and a whole host of other shit I cant be bothered to write about here – in them you will find Money, ammo, weapons and nades. Looting is part of the fun but when you see another bunch of lockers lined up for you kind of start to go “Hmmm poopy!”

Overall this game is a HIGH quality title I only wish there were more cut scenes like the brilliant start up intro to help immerse me even more, the only downsides really are the lack of character interaction, occasional irritating fights with bugs (there shit they just flop at you there could be 30 at a time and they would still not chin you) and an odd feeling of staleness in the game.

 

Any true core gamer will have this sucker on his or her shelf.

This game gets a big thumbs up from me.

 

Oh and you can drive cars that fire rockets and they also do turbo.

 

Emsley.

[Devia Eleven]

It looks like you have the wrong date posted in the thread title.

[emsley]

Uk does it date/month/year

[Devia Eleven]

It says you posted the thread on the 9th of November, which means the date would be, 9/11/09

[emsley]

Well duh emsley = I must of got the game hacked early

[Skythe]

This review is golden.