Review: Borderlands (Xbox 360)

Author: Tigervamp | Date: November 19, 2009

“I am CL4P-TP but you may call me by my locally designated name, annoying little shit”. This line, minus the bit about him being an annoying little shit, is uttered by a small robot as the game begins. It is quite obvious that players are supposed to like this robot. I hate him with a passion. His appearance annoys me. His voice annoys me. Everything about him annoys me. I don’t think I’d be as annoyed at this pretty insignificant robot had he not been created as light-entertainment. Another character was created for this very purpose and his name was Jar Jar Binks. The major difference is that Jar Jar was created to amuse children and this robot is featured in an adult game with an 18 rating. Strange decision.

This serious/silly juxtaposition is indicative of the entire game. I can’t understand why this game deserves an 18 rating. I can only assume the creators purposely did just enough to warrant the 18 rating in order to gain a certain type of lucrative publicity. I’ll concede that there is a lot of blood. Heads explode and limbs fly off bodies but all the while it’s wrapped up in cartoon visuals.

The characters constantly say the same lines. The Soldier, for example, says “critical biatch” when you deal critical damage to an enemy. This type of thing was fine for a little while until I realised the characters were speaking like some friends you may have. Not the good friends. The type of friends who run around on Xbox Live throwing out lame semi-abusive lines in the hope that it’ll make them sound cool and, most importantly, tough. The type of friends who aren’t really friends at all and you just hang around with because it’s too much effort to ignore them. Heroic characters shouldn’t have to try hard to appear impressive and they certainly shouldn’t remind you of random tossers you bump into online.

I take issue with Borderlands being sold as an RPG/FPS, or an RPS (Role-Playing Shooter, apparently), when it’s no more than a marketing technique. The back cover mentions the game has “accessible role-playing character progression”. This statement is utter nonsense. This game does feature character progression, that much is true, but nothing you won’t find in most recent FPS titles. Taking Call of Duty as an example, you gain experience points, you level (rank) up, plus you gain skills and unlock weapons.

Anyone describing Call of Duty as an RPG would be considered a lunatic so Borderlands must surely have more RPG elements. Not really. For a start there’s not much of a story. A Cortana-like woman appears on occasion and asks you to go and kill some people. That’s about it. Squeezing in some sort of story right at the end does not make up for a huge void through most of the game. Then we have the NPCs you can communicate with. Except you can’t have a conversation with them as unlike in almost all RPGs you don’t have an option of what to talk to them about. You simply walk over to them, click to interact, they say something, you click to accept a mission, that’s it. Fallout 3, this is not.

I’ll now put an end to the negativity, before it drives you all to suicide, and instead focus on what makes this a very enjoyable game. I am not a fan of Cell-Shaded graphics but after playing for a while the visuals did begin to grow on me. The sound effects are nice and crisp which help to keep you on your toes as you hear the screams of a small burning hatchet wielding man as he runs directly at you with an intention of causing severe ill-health.

Guns, guns, and more guns. Borderlands has quite possibly the greatest collection of weapons I have ever seen in a videogame. Pistols which electrocute the enemy. Shotguns which cause them to burst into flames. Machine-guns complete with bullets which explode on contact. Rocket-launchers which shoot out three rockets in quick succession. Sniper-rifles which have a poisonous after-effect. Grenade upgrades which cause them to bounce, rain down from the sky, burst into flames, fire off electricity, multiply into others, stick to enemies, plus drain health from your unfortunate victim and into your own body. All of this and more. As far as I’m concerned this game is all about the array of weaponry. It is that damn good.

“GamesMaster, why is Borderlands so addictive despite its many flaws?” That question was never asked of the GamesMaster because A) this game wasn’t released back then, and B) GamesMaster only knew of combinations to unlock level selects. This game is very addictive. I keep finding excuses to play some more. I’ll just shove the game on for a little while. I’ll be off in ten minutes. No more than that. Should really switch it off now. Been playing for hours. I will just check my map for a moment. No harm in doing that. Ah, my next mission isn’t far from my current position, I might as well go and have a look. No harm in doing that. Just a quick look. I’ll be off in ten minutes.

As with many titles, especially on the Xbox 360, it’s in the multiplayer where things really shine and this is no different. The co-op in itself isn’t particularly special, playing through the single-player missions with the additional combat in the arena, but adding a few friends to a pretty solid game suddenly turns the fun factor up to 11. Four character classes (although the only difference is in the skill tree) and four player co-op. It’s almost as if someone planned it this way!

If you’re looking for an RPG you should check elsewhere because at best this game can be considered a Diet version of an RPG. Maximum fun – minimum story. For an RPG/FPS mixture you need look no further than Fallout 3 or Bioshock as both titles have much more going for them than you’ll find here. Having said that, if you’re looking for a fun game with lots of guns and explosions this is definitely the title for you. If the creators had only included something worthy of the RPG label, for example an interesting story with well-rounded characters, this could easily have been an excellent game. Borderlands is the type of game which gets better the longer you play. Despite falling short of my expectations this is a highly entertaining romp and well worth a look.

8/10