Enter Pandora: a seemingly endless desert full of dangerous wild animals, men who are in search of treasure, and other men who look like they’re straight out of the Mad Max movies and are out to kill for the fortunes they seek. That’s why people come to Pandora: to find treasure. As I played Borderlands for the Xbox 360, I felt the sense of a California gold rush — except on another planet and in the future. And with lots of guns.
Borderlands begins with you on a bus. Who are you? You get to choose from four different characters. Your experience will differ greatly with each choice. My first playthrough, I chose “the hunter,” who is characterized by his ability to wield a sniper rifle. I love that this game caters to people’s preference to gameplay styles. I often find myself attracted to sniper rifles in most games, so thank you, Gearbox, for the opportunity to indulge. You can also choose a guy who is handy with an assault rifle, a guy the size of a house who likes to punch things, and a sultry, downright babe-alicious woman who prefers elemental attacks. Of course, your character can use any weapon, but the skills will lean more toward whatever weapon your character prefers.
I’ve read some stuff about Borderlands, and a lot of gamers refer to it as a “looting game.” That couldn’t be truer. Lots of swag is up for grabs here. Money can be found almost anywhere. A skag (which looks like the spawn of a wild boar and a scrappy dog) will come up to you, you shoot it, and money and weapons fall out. Why would an animal be carrying money? My quick-to-answer roommate told me it was because they ate it. I guess that makes sense. Either way, money is found so often that it’s hardly enjoyable finding any. In other games, you might be excited when your character finds $200. In Borderlands, it’s not that special. Accruing enough money to do anything exciting means a while of looting.
The graphics are worth mentioning. Yes, they’re smooth and terribly interesting to look at, but what sets this apart from other games is the cartoonish style it employs. It looks great. It’s not just the look; it’s the feel. I feel like the developers really just wanted us to have a good time. It strays from the super-realism that other games might employ. Not to bash those games — realism is wonderful — but the cartoonish look of Borderlands envokes a more cheerful attitude, something that a lot of darker games sometimes lack.
The expansive desert planet that is Pandora could have been more fun to navigate. It’s not the size that bothers me; it’s the lack of locations. It’s boring to look at. I didn’t care for the look of the map the game gives you to navigate, or how annoying it was to go from point A to point B. At least the creators thought about us enough to put vehicles in the game. Without those, getting around would take seemingly forever.
The enemies respawn, too. That’s cool and all, especially since it helps you level up, which is obviously necessary, but it gets repetitive. The repetitiveness isn’t helped by the fact that the enemy variety is seriously lacking. There are a few different classes of human-type bandits, then a few different four-legged animals to make dead ... but that’s about it. And an annoying flying creature that becomes more than nettlesome. Also, the enemies respawn in the exact same place. So their locations become familiar, which means surprises and suspense are rarely built. It becomes purely perfunctory having to dispense enemies.
The amount of guns in Borderlands is unparalleled in any other. The game’s advertisement says “billions” of guns. That’s a stretch, but not by far. There are vending machines scattered throughout Pandora, where you can buy guns, meds and other goodies. I don’t like the vending machine system or the weapon/backpack slot system the game provides. Maybe I’m dense, but I thought it was a little confusing, and I often found it sort of a hassle to switch guns, sell guns, buy guns, etc. Every gun is different in that it has slightly different characteristics, including elemental-type specs, like fire or electric. Once you find a gun you love, it’s hard to stray away, but eventually you have to find a new gun because your old gun isn’t strong enough for the enemies that continue to get harder to kill as the game progresses, and you level up.
The action is more thinned out than its high-octane first-person shooter cousins, but what Borderlands lacks in intensity, it makes up for in an array of optional side quests, leveling up and a vast, desert world you can dominate and pillage to no end. I bet a lot of fun was had when the developers designed Borderlands. Like many games, it offers plenty of killing of bad guys. You’ll be serving up a death sandwiches over and over again, and the enemies always seem hungry for more. If you enjoy FPSs, you will enjoy this, because as the history of FPSs shows, shooting guns at bad guys is fun. I’ve said the repetition of baddies is a little overbearing, but still, I felt a slight tinge of joy every time I made a successful headshot. One death sandwich, comin’ up!
