Lets face it we all love open world games, that is unless you have the mental capacity of a slug. Open worlds make a game feel so much bigger even if they have nothing to do in them, but unlike them games Borderlands never runs out of stuff to do.....unless you complete all the quests and find all the collectables. Borderlands is an open world Shooter with RPG elements tied into the mix, or as the devs Gearbox (Half-life, Brothers in Arms, Duke Nukem) have coined it "Role Playing Shooter".The games story puts you as a treasure hunter on a hostile planet named Pandora, you are in search of a mystical vault which holds vast wealth, riches and fame. Dont expect the ride to be easy though as throughout the game you will encounter Bosses, increasingly powerful enemies, vehicle sections and of course that one impossible quest that you can never seem to accomplish.
Borderlands goes easy on you for the most part giving you a vast arsenal of weapons which include humble pistols right up to hulking Rocket launchers with Napalm Missiles. The game doesn’t like being taken seriously either with its cartoony arty style and comedic voice acting. You can also "customise your character" by changing the colour of their clothes and car. The enemy AI isn’t much good either, constantly getting stuck on scenery and having a really bad aim, whether this is trying to compensate for the sheer amount of enemies you will face in the game or whether this was a really bad design flaw is unknown to me.
The game itself (originally planned as a console MMO) centres around Co-op on Xbox Live, PSN or via Steam. The MMO plan was cut very early on due to consoles not being able to cope, so therefore a co-op game was created, this means that the single player is incredible boring, tedious and difficult at times making this a game for people with friends only.
The game itself offers roughly 30 hours without DLC and boosts it to nearly 50 with it making this game a long laster, the more people playing the more fun the game is, however the AI gets stronger (not smarter unfortunately) meaning more bullets needed and a better shield to protect against attacks. There is no competitive multiplayer but you can "drop in" to other people game sessions via the main menu. Rounding this up means that Borderlands is a game for people who love working together and it will be a guarantee life sapper for the best part of 2 weeks, not much replay value apart from increased challenge therefore only buy the game as a timefiller or the occasional co-op game with your buddies.
Borderlands – 8/10
+Amazing gameplay
-Poor story
