Game hits, misses
Richard Kummer
Issue date: 11/13/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment
In the wake of midterms week comes "Borderlands," a nice treat for stressed students.
"Borderlands" was released on October 20 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, and October 26 for the PC. The game was developed by Gearbox Studios, who also developed some games in the seminal FPS series, "Half Life." "Borderlands" successfully combines the FPS genre with elements of RPGs, such as customizable talents and leveling.
"Borderlands" brings the player to Pandora, a planet teeming with fortune hunters searching for the mythic "Vault." Your character is lucky enough to come into contact with the guardian of the Vault, who enlists your aid. From there, you meet a bunch of zany side characters, but the plot does not progress beyond an excuse to get from point A to point B. Gearbox is fully aware that the story is superficial and adds humor to keep things from becoming too bland.
"Borderlands" will not go up for a literary award, but the gameplay is where it truly shines. Running and gunning is fast and fun. The enemies are delightfully whacky and the game boasts an unimaginable amount of guns, consisting of an endless combination of types, stats, scopes and elemental properties. Your tactics will change whenever you get a new gun, but this presents a double edged sword. On the one hand, you will get to mix things up, but if your character build effects shotguns and you do not pick up any for 10 levels, you're out of luck.
Like most modern shooters, the game comes complete with vehicle segments reminiscent of "Halo."
Much of the game is driven by loot-seeking, similar to Blizzard's "Diablo" series. Each of the four character types in Borderlands (Hunter, Siren, Brick and Soldier) has a unique play style and three talent trees, similar to "World of Warcraft." The trees do not have the depth of the "World of Warcraft" ones and sometimes the changes are unnoticeable until you max them, but each build offers a unique play style once you get into the higher levels. In addition, you only have so many options at any one time. You have your guns, grenades and a single action skill, but not much else. You'll be dependant on changing weapons, grenade mods and talents to add variety.
"Borderlands" was released on October 20 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, and October 26 for the PC. The game was developed by Gearbox Studios, who also developed some games in the seminal FPS series, "Half Life." "Borderlands" successfully combines the FPS genre with elements of RPGs, such as customizable talents and leveling.
"Borderlands" brings the player to Pandora, a planet teeming with fortune hunters searching for the mythic "Vault." Your character is lucky enough to come into contact with the guardian of the Vault, who enlists your aid. From there, you meet a bunch of zany side characters, but the plot does not progress beyond an excuse to get from point A to point B. Gearbox is fully aware that the story is superficial and adds humor to keep things from becoming too bland.
"Borderlands" will not go up for a literary award, but the gameplay is where it truly shines. Running and gunning is fast and fun. The enemies are delightfully whacky and the game boasts an unimaginable amount of guns, consisting of an endless combination of types, stats, scopes and elemental properties. Your tactics will change whenever you get a new gun, but this presents a double edged sword. On the one hand, you will get to mix things up, but if your character build effects shotguns and you do not pick up any for 10 levels, you're out of luck.
Like most modern shooters, the game comes complete with vehicle segments reminiscent of "Halo."
Much of the game is driven by loot-seeking, similar to Blizzard's "Diablo" series. Each of the four character types in Borderlands (Hunter, Siren, Brick and Soldier) has a unique play style and three talent trees, similar to "World of Warcraft." The trees do not have the depth of the "World of Warcraft" ones and sometimes the changes are unnoticeable until you max them, but each build offers a unique play style once you get into the higher levels. In addition, you only have so many options at any one time. You have your guns, grenades and a single action skill, but not much else. You'll be dependant on changing weapons, grenade mods and talents to add variety.
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