Firstly: Best. Screenshot. Ever. (click for better details. you KNOW you want to.)
Secondly, Guns, guns, guns, and did I mention guns? If there’s one thing abundant in plenty in Pandora, it’s guns. It’s like that rhyme goes:
Old MacDonald had a farm, eeya eeya yo.
And on that farm he had a lot of guns, eeya eeya yo.
With a bang bang here, and a bang bang there,
Here a bang, there a bang, everywhere a bang bang,
Old MacDonald had a farm, eeya eeya yo.
Borderlands, before anything and everything else, before taking on bounty quests from the bulletin boards around the place, before collecting skulls from a raider’s barricade, before trekking long distance around the place- Borderlands is about killing people. Oh, and it’s also about finding the best gun out there for your killing needs.
Pandora is on the distant edge of the galaxy, a planet that colonists had hoped would be a better life, or at least would make them rich thanks to various mineral deposits. No mineral deposits though, just old, old alien technology scattered around. Those with enough cash in their pockets leave Pandora for good, otherwise the settlers struggle to survive in a harsh environment of scrags and bandits barely profiting from the meager availability of alien technology.
The story goes that there is a vault somewhere in Pandora, filled with riches and vast amounts of alien technology. In short, jackpot. And that’s what you’re looking for.
There are four characters to choose from:
Brick, a massive probably-man who focusing more on founding his enemies than shooting. Lilith, human turned into a Siren, with the ability to phase walk into and out of another dimension invisible to enemy eyes, doing shock-based area damage at the transitions. Mordecai, a Hunter, proficient in the use of revolvers and sniper rifles and able to summon a deadly pet. And there’s Roland, a Soldier, with a multipurpose turret, and his skill trees focuses on healing himself and his team, support ability of his turret, and general improvements to his weapon damage.
One of the fun parts of playing the game is that little thrill of finding a better gun. Will ya lookit that? A revolver with 95 damage, 90% accuracy and 3 shots per second! That is goo- Oh my lord, there’s ANOTHER revolver here, and, OH DAMN, it’s got a whooping 150 points of damage, with 93% accuracy! 2 shorts per second, but it’s one shot I won’t need anyway.
Rarity of items are distinguished by color codes. Like so: White <>
It’s played from a First-person view with a nifty looking HUD reminiscent of Fallout 3 (In fact, the game WAS inspired by Fallout 3), showing your EXP status, your Health, and of course ammunition, and a compass with a pointer for quest objectives.
Your backpack can only hold so many guns until you’d have to decide which guns to take and which to drop. Limit however can be increased with the aid of Backpack upgrade mods, allowing you carry more items as you progress through the game. Similarly you can only have 2 weapons equipped in the beginning, but as your character grows, you unlock two more slots, making it easier to switch to a weapon of your choice.
Other mods include grenade mods and character class mods, which gives bonuses to your character skills and/or other abilities. Adding a Transfusion grenade mod for example steals life from your enemies and heals you, while a Sticky, sticks to surfaces, and so on forth. Character class mods increase character abilities and so on.
Borderlands is kinda like Diablo with guns. Just like Diablo, weapons have prefixes and suffixes that determine a lot of the guns’ abilities. Along with that there’s the bit about manufacturers. Certain manufactures make more accurate weapons, while others make more elemental weapon, some makes their guns look high-tech, others make them look modern-ish? And so on forth. There are unique weapons, unique weapons that unique enemies drop, but are by no means worth keeping, weapons that makes you go “Holy Wowzer”, and weapons that make you go, “Are you freaking kidding me? This late in the game? Fug that!”
Taking cover is a healthy aspect of the game, as unless you’re rushing into low-level enemy territory with a really powerful gun, you’re likely to get pummeled by a multitude of psychos, and bandits and bruisers, not to mention alpha scrags. It’s always fun to be crouched behind a few crates, arm yourself with your favorite sniper rifle, stand, scope, shoot (critical hit), crouch. Rinse, repeat and awesomeness.
Seriously, Borderlands is kinda like a paradise for a quasi-Gun nuts. I’m not sure if actual real life gun freaks would enjoy seeing so many weird and unlikely renditions of weaponries. But who cares about them. Diablo with guns. So many guns… Oh, so many guns… Now, THAT’s awesome.
