For our latest Reader Review we have Borderlands by frequent poster ROFLCopter, a 15 year old. Remember, you can submit a Reader Review about any game you want. I want to hear from you!  (Note: It may take a while for it to appear. I’m very busy, and lazy, so if you’ve submitted a review, just wait, it will appear!)

BORDERLANDS
by ROFLCopter, age 15

I’ll go ahead and say it now: Borderlands is my favorite game of 2009. Is it perfect? No. Is it for everyone? Probably not. But Gearbox’s new IP is nonetheless one of the best and most entertaining co-op games out there at the moment.

So what is it, exactly?

Borderlands is an “RPS,” or “role-playing shooter,” with a definite emphasis on “shooter.” Gameplay-wise, most FPS fans will feel right at home here – in fact, the controls are almost identical to those of Call of Duty. The shooting isn’t like Fallout 3, either, with invisible die rolls going on behind the scenes; when you point and shoot, your bullets will go where you expect them to (as long as your gun is accurate enough, that is). It is possible to score critical hits on enemies, but landing these is dependent on scoring headshots or hitting other weak spots, rather than luck. (As a side note, damage numbers will fly off of enemies as you shoot them, which is a cool, somewhat RPG-ish touch.) The enemy AI aren’t the best and brightest, though, and they’ll do dumb things pretty often, like stand out in the open to reload or run in circles while they decide where to take cover. But on the whole, the combat is a solid and quite enjoyable foundation for the game.

The graphical style leans in the direction of cell-shading, a style I personally love. It fits well with the Borderlands’ tongue-in-cheek tone, and makes for a more interesting visual palette than most dystopian-future shooters offer. Next to games like Fallout and Gears, which utilize black, grey, brown, and not much else, the change is refreshing and welcome.

Character progression is the primary source of the RPG label. As a player, you can choose from four characters at the outset, and each has a special ability that distinguishes them from one another. From left to right in the picture above:

– Roland, a fairly typical soldier who can spawn a stationary “Scorpio” turret
– Lilith, a “siren” who basically acts as the mage of the group; her Phasewalk ability allows her to turn invisible and move at high speed, and it creates a shockwave whenever she enters or exits
– Mordecai, the sniper/hunter/rogue whose pet Bloodwing (a sort of alien hawk) can be released on enemies
– Brick, the tank, who can quite literally put away his gun, put up his fists, and punch people’s faces off

Each also has a unique three-part, tiered skill tree that allows for an appreciable level of character development. Roland, for example, can specialize towards straight weapon damage, heavy turret use, or a supporting/medic role. Questing and fighting both provide XP, and each time you level up, you get one skill point to use on your tree. The level cap is 50 (although the most recent DLC raised it to 61), but in one playthrough you’ll only be able to reach 35 or so, so there’s a good amount of replay value to be had.

Those who look for story in their games, however, should stay far away. This is not Bioshock; in fact, if Gearbox neglected to include a story entirely, I doubt anyone would notice or care. Each character has a small backstory and a reason for coming to Pandora, the planet on which Borderlands takes place, but this information comes entirely from the instruction manual. In-game, all you know is that you’re a mercenary searching for a mysterious “Vault” said to contain untold riches, a “guardian angel” is sending you messages leading you along the way, an evil corporation is trying to beat you there, and you have to kill a crap-ton of enemies to reach your destination. There really isn’t anything else to it.

The main draw, the backbone of Borderlands, the thing that will keep you coming back again and again, is the loot. The tagline “87 BAZILLION GUNS!” isn’t as much of an exaggeration as you’d think; weapons are procedurally generated based on a pool of different parts and manufacturers, and the total of unique possibilities is actually somewhere around 17 million weapons. Searching and looting and fighting to find that awesome new gun is what makes the game so addictive, and there’s plenty of variety to be had: SMGs, combat rifles, machine guns, shotguns, snipers, rocket launchers, pistols, and alien laser guns are all here. Many weapons have additional elemental damage on them (either incendiary, corrosive, shock, or explosive) and some do things that you wouldn’t expect, like shotguns that fire rockets, or revolvers that shoot a group of pellets shotgun-style. Damage, accuracy, rate of fire, clip size, scope, element, and other modifiers are all shown neatly on a little holographic pop-up that appears whenever you approach a weapon on the ground, so you can compare easily to whatever guns you already have. The system is slick, allows you to check stats with ease, and makes looting a very smooth, enjoyable process.

As far as multiplayer goes, there’s two-player splitscreen and four-player online co-op to be had, allowing you to progress through the game with friends or even just mess around and loot stuff. Borderlands is fun in single-player, but it’s meant to be played in co-op. Enemy difficulty and loot rarity both increase, making for both a more challenging yet more rewarding experience, and the vehicles were made for multiple people, each one having a mounted gunner seat on top. If you’re into adversarial multiplayer, you can challenge others to a duel simply by meleeing them, and a dome will form around you to create a makeshift arena in which to fight. Or you can go to an actual arena, several of which are scattered around Pandora, for a more organized competition. Both of these are fun, but they’re more of a side course to the main meat of the shooting and looting co-op that makes Borderlands so great in the first place.

Content-wise, Borderlands is rated M (17+) by the ESRB for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor, and Strong Language.

– Blood and Gore: Definitely. It’s possible to blow off heads, arms, and legs of enemies, and if you’re powerful enough or have an explosive weapon, foes become nothing more than a cloud of blood and chunks. Each element also has its own death animation: those who burn to death scream and disintegrate into ashes, those who are corroded melt into a puddle of green goo, and those who are electrocuted shudder until their eyes bugs out and their skull explodes into fragments. Yet these fatalities lean more towards the exaggerated, cartoonish side, appearing silly and over-the-top rather than gruesome. Borderlands is not a game that takes itself seriously, and so it’s hard to be really offended or disturbed by the violence.

– Intense Violence: I object to this descriptor, because it’s so hard to call the violence in Borderlands intense. You aren’t fighting a war to save the US from nuclear attack, as in CoD4. You aren’t fighting rival gangsters on the gritty streets of Liberty City, as in GTA IV. You’re fighting some goofy bandits and psychotic midgets searching for treasure on an alien planet. It’s ridiculous and almost silly at times. Sure, when you’re getting mobbed by ten Bruisers with heavy machine guns at a time, it can get frenetic and, yes, intense as you fight for survival, but that’s not the kind of “intense” that the rating seems to imply.

– Mature Humor: This one’s kind of an odd descriptor. The implication, to me, would be sexual humor, and while there’s some of that (not much that jumped out at me, though), the so-called “mature humor” is more evident in some audio diaries you find detailing the arrival of the scientist Patricia Tannis on Pandora and her slow descent into madness. In one diary, for example, she explains how her final surviving colleague got trapped under falling rubble – instead of trying to help her, Tannis listened to her gurgle while pretending to hold a conversation with her, then strangled her once she got bored. It’s inappropriate more in a twisted sense than a suggestive one, as there are some sexual remarks here and there but not enough that I can see it really warranting its own label.

– Strong Language: Not really. Bandits sometimes throw around “asshole” and the like, and one character is referred to as a dick at one point, but overall the language tends to stay at a medium level. It does depend on what character you play as though – I never heard my Lilith swear, but characters like Mordecai and Brick sometimes say stuff like “Aw shit, look at that!” when finding loot and such.

Overall, Borderlands is a fantastic addition to the library of anyone who plays a lot of co-op, or anyone who enjoys shooters, really. At about 25 hours for each full playthrough I’ve completed (having done all side quests), it’s a pretty good value for your dollar, and if grabbing loot with friends sounds like your thing, then you will be hooked for a long time to come.

Tags: Reader Reviews!