BORE-DURR-LANDZ!!

Well, I've been playing Borderlands as of recent and it's great! I've poured all of my free time into shooting raiders and grinding dem levels. Borderlands is a immersive experience and by immersive I mean you can waste a load of time and it's like Diablo with guns and stuff, everyone except Cliff Blezinski figured that out day one of announcement.











Gameplay:
Alot of people make parallels to Fallout 3 when I beg to differ. Unlike Fallout 3, Borderlands has some real staying power and replayability, Fallout 3 on the other hand collects dust given how disappointing the DLC was. You fight Mad Max styled raiders on the post-apocalyptic wasteland planet, Pandora. You build different skills and perks and come across a multitude of all kinds of guns. Not the promised 67 Bazillion but a hell of a lot more than most FPS's let alone FPSRPG's like Fallout or Deus Ex. You can party with up to 4 compadres and blast some goons. The enemies are interesting however the constant same respawning and SKAG F*@!ING GULLY get a tad stale. This game is best played with a bunch of pals and under various influences. 9.5/10

Visuals and Sound:
The visuals are very neat, they've got this stylized cel shade thing going on to cover up the hideous texture popping ways of Unreal Engine 3. Now don't get me wrong, UE3 has lead to some breathtaking visuals in games like Mass Effect, Lost Odyssey and Batman:Arkham Asylum but the engine has to be used properly to have it shine. We all remember the Mass Effect texture pops during conversations or integral parts of the game and titles like The Last Remnant haven't handled the engine well. It all depends on who's in control, I think Borderlands has a neat style but the visuals aren't spectacular.

Titles like Prince of Persia, Naruto UNS and Valkyria Chronicles have set the bar really high when it comes to cel shading. The sound is lacking in terms of aesthetics, I like the western 'Firefly' tone to some of the music but the fact is, there isn't much music. Sometimes you're wandering the desert with a guitar's twang in the background and nothing else, I think that's to get across the feeling of lonliness after the heat of battle but I...wouldn't mind custom soundtracks...just sayin'. The voicework is corny and over the top...so it's perfect! 8/10

Style:
Games these days lack a significant sense of style, this game doesn't try and trail blaze, in fact it mimics the trail blazers. Borderlands is basically a parody of every single post apocalyptic film and video game ever made as well as a hell of a lot of movie references. Hideo Kojima school of thought is that if you like a movie alot, force it on everyone else and you'll either get yawns and sighs or admiration. I admire what this game does, when I had to take on 'Mad Mel' and I found out one of the guns had the tagline "Your move, creep!" I knew I was in love.You don't always have to remake the wheel, sometimes you just have to give people the wheel and put a little spin on it e.g the RPG elements, the art direction, etc. I'm a sucker for cool visual effects and references to RoboCop. 10/10

Overall:
Overall, I love this game and I'm gald they're making DLC for it. I will be playing Borderlands for a long, long time. Hopefully it doesn't go all Oblivion/Fallout on me and stop being interesting. If Gearbox wants to, they have a chance to make Borderlands a big ass thing in gaming history and it is definetely a contender for GOTY 2009.

Overall Rating 9.5/10