Borderlands may be the most ridiculously ridiculous, addictive, fun, and amazing game on the market. The designers behind this offering know exactly what they’re doing – making something enjoyable without excess baggage.
Rating: M
Genre: FPS/RPG
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Gearbox
Players: 1-4
Release Date: October 20, 2009

BUY

I’ve tried putting my finger on what makes me like Borderlands so much, and it’s really hard to do without saying things that may come across as negative. It’s also becoming hard for me to put down words here to describe a game that has so little. It’s so much more of an experience or an adventure than something modular that can be broken down into gradable sections. I’ll do my best, though.

Oh noes! A huge thing!

As I’ve said before, I really like that Borderlands doesn’t waste your time with a story. Don’t get me wrong, there is a story, but you don’t need to pay much attention to it if you don’t want. There aren’t hard moral choices or really any emotional moments deal with. It’s the story of an other-worlder who comes to the planet of Pandora in search of a mysterious Vault. All of this is gleaned in the opening couple minutes while you’re deciding which character class you’re going to be. After that, stuff happens and…then more stuff happens. It doesn’t matter, and that’s what makes this fun. You collect missions, kill loads of guys while you do these missions, and you level up. It’s like high fructose gaming, and I love it. For someone who has yet to play Borderlands, this may sound repetitive and shallow. Granted, some of the fetch quests and gun part collections get a bit old after the 18^th mission, but overall it’s much more fun than any description could do it justice.

Part of the fun of the missions is finding new weapons and mods to add to your arsenal. With over 17 million different weapons generated within the world, finding the rarer ones is really rewarding. Borderlands really compliments all playing styles with the variety. For example, as a Siren I like to equip a large shield with a quick recharge, a caustic shotgun or SMG, charge into the middle of a gun battle, and just unload into my enemies. If I become overwhelmed, I slip into my Action Skill, blast into a fireball, and become invisible so I can leave the heat of the fight to regain my bearings. I have other friends who prefer hang back and snipe as much as possible before cautiously approaching with a pistol drawn, and a couple who like to play to the point of incapacitation, where they can kill an enemy while dying to gain a second wind and a full shield recharge. The game is designed to be fun for everyone and every playing style.

Ain't no rest for the wicked.

One of the best things about this Borderlands (there are so many), is that it’s replay value is huge, to the point where you almost have to play it a second time to achieve the full experience (another pro that sounds like a con). Your character can reach level 50, but you only get to around 35 in the first play-through. Navigating Pandora a second time is just as rewarding, if not more so, than the first go ‘round. In addition to the packaged game, the DLC that’s been made available has been wonderful. There is a lengthy playable mission on a zombie island on the first, and the second is a Horde-esque Arena match where you have to survive waves of enemies. Very fun, very challenging, very time-consuming.

Hooray, you've found it after 5 hours of looking and it not being where it said it was on the map.

Of course no game is perfect, and there were a few gripes I had with Borderlands. The first is quite selfish, in that I wish I could somehow earn 55 more skill points in order to level in every character modification available. The game maxes you out at 45 (with 2 more available in the Mad Moxxi DLC), which makes you *gasp* choose what you want to be special at. I also hate the Claptraps, the annoying little robots who are just kickin’ it all over the planet, and you have to keep dealing with them. If they had used a robotic voice, or really ANY other voice than what they went with, I wouldn’t have minded. The game was practically made for co-op, but if you’re using the same TV with P2, the status and options menu doesn’t shrink to fit the screen, you have to keep moving it left and right to get the whole picture. For a game so close to being perfect, I’m really surprised that this made it into the final product – I don’t know anyone who thinks operating the menu like that is enjoyable.

If you haven’t given Borderlands a chance yet, please reconsider. In a world of gritty, humorless first person shooters, Borderlands gives players all of the watercolor fun and violence they can handle, and then some. While that may come with a bare minimum-story caveat, you won’t even notice.