Borderlands Review

There are classes, but they aren't strict.

Every class has certain weapons it's "encouraged" to use, through class mods or talent points, but any class can use whatever weapon they like. For example, my level 29 Soldier currently has 4 weapon slots: an SMG, shotgun, pistol, anda rocket launcher. I also have a sniper in his inventory for those moments when I feel like popping someones head off. Each class also has 3 skill trees to spend points in (similar to Diablo or Warcraft) with each tree focusing on a different area of expertise. You can respec anytime you want for a price. This makes for great customization and complimentary character builds if you are playing in co-op.

A truly dark environment.

Speaking of popping someones head off, this game is a lot more violent than I believed, and I love it. Sure Fallout's environment was dark and grimey, but it seems anywhere you look in this game there are either dead bodies on the ground, or hanging from something above you. Like Fallout and Grand Theft Auto, the game also has a dark sense of humor that is enough to keep you paying attention to every piece of audio. The graphics and areas are amazing by the way. I love the cell shaded look, it fits the game/environment perfectly. The different areas/zones in the game each look very unique.

Not a great story as a whole, but interesting series of small stories within.

I hear a lot about the story in Borderlands. Yes it's generic and not that great in the big picture, but there are plenty of more personal stories with one NPC that are great. The journal entries you sometimes have to scour around to find are very entertaining to listen to and mix a dark humor with just enough information to let you know there is something big happening on the planet of Pandora.

Loot, loot, and more loot!

There is tons of loot in this game. There is a chest of guns around almost every corner and it will not only keep you changing weapons but it will also keep you thinking about which ones you want to keep, and which you want to sell. The loot uses a color/rarity system very similar to World of Warcraft, white/green/blue/purple/orange (note: theres also yellow between purple and orange... just noticed that). As advertised there are a lot of guns in this game, and although you'll find a couple that you will keep with you for a long time, you are always switching guns which keeps the game interesting. The guns differ in the stats they have on them: +% damage, +% magazine capacity, etc. Items also have different companies that make them, and each company focuses on a different area.

Not a wide variety of enemies in the game.

The game borrows from Diablo in not having too many different enemies, but having different levels of enemies. You'll encounter "Badass" enemies in the game which are much, much harder than their normal counterpart. These seem to be randomly scattered about and again, keep the game interesting.

Fast-paced.

If there was any problem I had with Fallout (which I loved, mostly due to the story) was that it was extremely slow paced. Granted its predecessors were turn based, it was still very slow and had lots of empty areas. You won't find that in Borderlands. Obviously the biggest difference is that enemies respawn, which is awesome, but also it is not a chance based combat system (example: there is no "evade" or "miss" chances) it is a straight forward FPS where you need to aim to hit the enemy. There is also vehicle stations almost everywhere so you can get around quickly, along with "outposts" (like waypoints) that you can instantly travel between. When you finally run out of shields and health, you go into a mode similar to "Last Stand" in Call of Duty, or Left4Dead. During this time if you can kill an enemy you get a Second Wind which revives you with a small amount of health and full shields. If you don't kill an enemy in time you get revived back at the nearest New-U station and take a money penalty. Also enemies do not instantly respawn or heal when you die, so you can run back to where you were pretty quickly.

The Difficulty

The boss fights come in two flavours: either not hard at all and just come down to if you have enough ammo or not, or the holy crap instadeath flavour. I remember a fight with a giant boss Rakk that shot fire down at me constantly... I died until I found some cover and would just pop in/out of it while sniping the boss. For the normal enemies, I found it to be a good idea to keep weapons that had different types of elemental damage (or a really good normal gun) because some enemies can be extremely resistant to certain elements. The enemy AI really ramps up at the end when you face the main enemy, Crimson Lance, but even then the AI will sometimes just stand there, not firing (but yelling!) and they rarely take cover... though they do make a habit of running away which can be really annoying. I found that sniping could really ruin the experience because a lot of the times the enemies you snipe just continue to sit there.

The Co-Op.

Unfortunately I've mostly been playing single player as I don't have any friends with Borderlands, and would rather not play with random people since the item drops are not shared, rather wheover picks it up first gets it. I did join a game just to see how the connection was and I have to say it was pretty amazing. It's a pretty seamless experience and I can tell that with the right group of people it could be very fun, hopefully I'll be able to play up another character in the future on co-op.

Overall

This game was a great surprise. If you liked Diablo's lootfest you will love this game. The game is fast-paced and exciting enough to make you want to play through as each different class. If you have a couple dedicated friends for playing Co-Op this, in my opinion, is a must buy, but it is also a great single player experience.

Note: This is my first review. I know it's kind of all over the place and if you can leave any feedback please leave it in the comments below, thanks!