[9.25]

Borderlands
2K Games
Gearbox Software
Sci-Fi First-Person Shooter/RPG
Release: Oct 20, 2009
ESRB: Mature

Concept
Take the shooting mechanics of games like Call of Duty and blend them together with exciting role-playing game elements such as leveling up and endless looting. 

Graphics
The visuals may not please everyone as Borderlands was meant to have a very unique art style which is outstanding. You won’t find state of the art graphics here but rest assured the graphics and art style fit the game perfectly. 

Sound
Voice work fits the characters and enemies just right. Environment music is usually relaxing but gets more intense as the action does. 

Playability
Perfect shooter elements come together with the rpg elements to make one of the most unique and fun experiences on the market. 

Entertainment
Endless looting and gun combinations ensures plenty of reason to continue exploring hours after the storyline has ended. Played alone its an experience but Borderlands played cooperatively will be sure to please any coop enthusiast and is by far one of the best 4 player cooperative games to date. 

The Good
RPG elements make for character customization, Gun generator ensures thousands of unique guns, plenty of quests to take on, 4 player co-op(online support), Amazing environments to explore, great art style. 

The Bad
Occasional glitches can occur, The split screen mode has a weird inventory screen, The storyline has little plot to it. 

It’s astonishing that a game like this has never came to be until now. Shooting mechanics mixed perfectly with rpg elements has come together to make something no other game has and does it with a hilarious sense of humor to boot. There are many aspects of Borderlands that set it apart from other games out there. For starters its a role-playing shooter, almost a whole new genre in its self. With 4 classes to choose from their is just enough variety to please just about anyone. Hunters take the role of long range shooting while Berserkers get up close and personal with shotguns and even their own fists. The Siren is a ninja in the sense and she uses light but quick weapons and has the ability to Phasewalk which lets you become invisible to enemies and run incredibly fast allowing for great tactical advantages. The Soldier is a well rounded character with the ability to throw out a support turret to assist your team and even has the ability to heal team mates. Aside from the main story of borderlands which has you searching for a legendary alien vault their is hundreds of side quests to take up to keep you entertained for hours. If the questing doesn’t do it for you then one of the biggest strong points of borderlands, the Looting, should do the trick. Borderlands engine allows for hundreds of thousands of guns to be created randomly and inserted into the game as if the developers made it themselves. Their are several aspects of all guns that will have you making tough decisions as to which gun you should use and ensures plenty of variety to fit all gunplay styles. Do you swap out you SMG shooting fire bullets for a Shotgun that shoots acid? These are the kinda decisions you’ll be forced to make throughout your play time. What so great about the random weapon generations is that when you believe your weapon just cant get any better the truth of the matter is that their is always something better to be found allowing for hours of searching. Other random generations include grenade mods, Class mods, and Shields which act as the games “armor”. 

While Borderlands is missing  a lot of things and doesn’t feel like each element of the game is to its fullest, the elements that did make it to the game are amazing in their own sense and are sure to make Borderlands one of the most entertaining game for months maybe even years to come.