Borderlands (video game)

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Borderlands (video game)
"So you want to hear a story, eh....."
Protagonist(s):
Vault Hunters (Classes)
Roland
Lilith
Brick
Mordecai
Genre(s): First-person shooter
Action role-playing
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows
macOS
Linux
PlayStation 3
Xbox 360
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Nivida Shield
Nintendo Switch
Release Date: NA:October 20, 2009
EU:October 23, 2009
PlayStation 4, Xbox One (Game of the Year Edition): April 3, 2019
Switch: May 29, 2020
Engine: Unreal Engine 3
Developer(s): Gearbox Software
Publisher(s): 2K Games
Country: United States
Series: Borderlands
Successor: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (Chronologically)
Borderlands 2 (Release Date)

Borderlands is an open world, action role-playing first-person shooter video game that was developed by Gearbox Software for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, macOS and Shield Android TV. It later got a remaster for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and for the PC, titled Borderlands Game of the Year edition. It is the first installment of the Borderlands franchise.

Plot

Borderlands takes place on Pandora, a planet that was mined by various corporations in hopes of finding Eridian technology that is scattered throughout the planet, particularly a structure known as the "Vault". The corporations failed to find the Vault, believing it to not actually exist until Patricia Tannis, a xenoarchaeologist, discovered proof that the Vault does exist. This leads to a group of four Vault Hunters traveling to Pandora in hopes of finding the Vault. As they arrive, a mysterious AI-like woman contacts them and instructs them on how to find and open the vault. The Vault Hunters will need to fight through multiple bandit gangs, as well as a militia known as the "Crimson Lance" in order to access the Vault.

The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned

The Vault Hunters travel to Jakobs Cove to deal with a zombie outbreak in the area with the help of Dr. Ned. However, the Vault Hunters and Jakobs Corporation become suspicious of Dr. Ned, and investigates his work while dealing with the outbreak.

The Secret Armory of General Knoxx

Following the Crimson Lance's defeat at the hands of the Vault Hunters, the Crimson Lance place a bounty on the Vault Hunters and try to seize all control of the Eridian technology on the planet. The Vault Hunters are tasked with finding a former Crimson Lance assassin who can help them in defeating the militia again.

Claptrap's New Robot Revolution

After getting struck by lightning at the end of the base game's story, Claptrap's AI goes haywire and becomes the "Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap" (INAC for short). INAC rallies Pandora's Claptrap units to unite and start a revolution to get revenge on all who have ever wronged their product line. It is up to the vault hunters to stop the revolution, and restore INAC back to his normal self.

Why It Borderline Rocks

  1. It is a clever mix of first person shooter and RPG elements, instead of the standard shooting gameplay. (Though the idea dates back all the way to Strife: Quest For The Sigil and Deus Ex.)
  2. The combat is pretty challenging and action packed, with players often finding themselves fighting their way though hordes of enemies. If the player loses all of their health, they will enter "Fight For Your Life" mode instead of outright dying, where they have a short amount of time to kill an enemy in order to revive themselves.
  3. There is lots of loot and weapons to be found all around in the game world.
  4. You get to choose from 4 characters or "classes"; each one offers a different gameplay style and have their own unique skills and abilities. This adds to the replay value.
    • Mordecai specializes in pistols and sniper rifles, and can send his bird after enemies to attack them.
    • Lilith specializes in SMGs and elemental weapons, and can become invisible and invulnerable for a short amount of time.
    • Roland specializes in shotguns and assault rifles, and can deploy a turret that will shoot at enemies.
    • Brick specializes in explosives and melee combat, and can enter a berserk mode where he deals more damage with his fists while healing faster.
  5. It has stunning cel-shaded, cartoon-like graphics which makes it stand out from other games, taking inspiration from the short film "Codehunters".
  6. Most characters have their own comic-book style intro, which goes well with the cartoon-like graphics, and adds to the game's charm.
  7. An awesome soundtrack composed by Jesper Kyd, Sascha Dikiciyan, and Cris Velasco.
    • The intro song, Ain't No Rest for the Wicked, is not only a catchy and memorable intro theme, but it also does a good job at setting up the game's tone.
  8. The weapons and items are manufactured by different companies, with each brand sporting a definite characteristic.
  9. The game's RNG mechanics generates different weapons, items, etc on every gaming cycle, so it's nearly impossible to see the same weapons or items on a new playthrough, unless the items' parts are fixed.
  10. There is a lot of funny dialogue, so this game doesn't take itself seriously. This is especially the case for The Secret Armory of General Knoxx and Claptrap's New Robot Revolution DLC.
    • This game also relies less on pop-culture references than the future Borderlands games.
  11. You can explore several dungeons and locations to fulfill storyline and optional missions.
  12. Over 100 missions to complete. With the DLC missions you can get almost 200.
  13. There is over 40 hours of gameplay of doing the side quests as well as having access to "Playthrough 2", which unlocks after completing the story for the first time.
  14. While most New Game+ modes tend to be easier due to the player being much more powerful than before, the enemies in this game become much more difficult to defeat, making the second playthrough feel much more difficult as it should be.
  15. An enormous and vast post-apocalyptic world to explore on foot or on vehicle.
  16. Hundreds of challenges can be completed, such as buying or selling certain amount of items, killing certain enemies, etc; also, each challenge offers lots of EXP, which helps to level up faster.
  17. Awesome multiplayer, where you can either play the story together, fight each other in the arena or pick a car and race each other, you can do any of these anytime you want, you can also play it offline or online.

Bad Qualities

  1. Expect to look at the map every so often since there's no map radar, which will become very tedious rather soon. This is fixed in the remaster of the game with the addition of a minimap.
    • The issue is also absent from later games in the franchise.
  2. Although interesting on paper, the main story is pretty uneventful and predictable until towards the end of the game where the players arrive in the Salt Flats.
  3. A disappointing ending since the Vault didn't contain any Eridian technology, and the rewards are very underwhelming.
    • The remastered version fixes the poor rewards by adding seven chests that have a fairly high chance of containing legendary gear.
  4. The game may suffer from frame rate slowdowns, especially with many enemies on screen.
  5. Although the game offers millions of weapons, some are simply recolors from other weapons, but with different attributes, stats and values.
  6. The level curve for the main story tends to be too steep, forcing players to complete optional missions, which reward heavy amounts of EXP.
  7. The game suffers from a special variant of Checkpoint Starvation: while there are numerous New-U stations that serve as checkpoints for the player to respawn after death, those who quit the game will spawn at the nearest Fast Travel station - usually there's only one of them per region and it's usually placed near the entrance of a region. This can be very frustrating for those who have to quit just before finishing a long mission.
    • This issue was only partially resolved in Borderlands 3.
  8. Playthough 2's difficulty has a tendency to be on the cheap side, with even common enemies being able to quickly defeat the player unless they use specific builds and gear.
  9. The Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot DLC quickly gets repetitive due to the limited enemy variety as well as the tournaments taking far too long to complete.
    • Moxxi's commentary during the tournaments also becomes repetitive and annoying rather fast.
    • The game will crash on the around wave 18 or the so in the DLC on the game of the year edition on PS4 and Xbox One.
  10. The Game of the Year edition remaster on PS4 and Xbox One is riddled with bugs and still contained bugs in the original that were never addressed, and removed LAN Mode.

Reception

Borderlands was met with mostly positive reception among critics and players alike. On Metacritic, the game has a Metascore of 83/100 for the PS3, an 84/100 for the Xbox 360, and an 81/100 for Windows. The user scores were slightly lower, with a user score of 7.8/10 on the PS3, an 8.1/10 for the Xbox 360, and a 7.6/10 for Windows.[1][2][3]

The remastered version was met with mixed to positive reception. On Metacritic, the remastered versions have a Metascore of 80/100 for the Xbox One port, and a 76/100 for the PS4 port, while the user scores were a 6.8/10 and a 6.3/10 for the Xbox One and PS4 ports respectively.[4][5]

The game was a commercial success, having sold around 4.5 million copies by the end of August 2011.[6]

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References

  1. ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/borderlands
  2. ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/borderlands
  3. ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/borderlands
  4. ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-one/borderlands-game-of-the-year-edition
  5. ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/borderlands-game-of-the-year-edition
  6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110920141214/http://www.gamespot.com/news/6327818/take-two-sales-sink-12-in-june-quarter

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