Borderlands is a ‘Mad Max’ style post apocalyptic shooter based in the barren wasteland of Pandora, with 4 different adventurers searching for the mysterious treasures of the Vault.

Being a Warcraft fan, when I checked out the previews and the shape the game was taking, naturally I got excited after having been waiting for Huxley to come out for some years now I thought maybe this could be my chance to see if RPG’s and shooter’s can live peacefully together on the gaming front.

You are on a bus heading into Pandora’s wastelands while on this bus you will have to make some pretty important decisions on how you are going to play the game as on the bus 4 characters are waiting hoping you will take one of out into the open, solo play is good but to get the most of out Borderlands get 4 friends to play together online and work as a team. You will get the best experience from this, and the more friends that join, the tougher Pandora becomes.

All characters you control through the wastelands have different play styles and each is as impressive to play as they have unique abilities and powers and you have the chance to level your character in the way you want, so with the solider for example you can go all guns blazing and turn him into a killing machine or you can turn into a aggressive Florence Nightingale with healing powers for you and your team.

Make your choice from the hunter, siren, solider or the berserker you’ll get off the bus and start your merry adventure tracking down the vault, straight away you notice the cell shade style graphics bold very bright and colourful its very different to the norm but it works really well and makes Pandora a beautiful place to explore , the bad guys are all well drawn and animated but my only gripe with them is they don’t change they just look the same but in different places once you have seen the first 3 guys you have seen them all.

As mentioned before Warcraft took many hours of my life with partly to do with its fantastic loot system gearbox have opted for a similar system here and its really impressive with over half a million+ guns and shields to choose from all have different stats sights and special abilities all colour coded to let you know what kind of beast you are carrying , white and green are at the lower end of the spectrum , blues are decent and what you should have as standard then we move onto the purple (EPIXXXX) and orange for the top end , these can be obtained from crates and cupboards from around the world or even drops from enemies you kill on route to the vault , so don’t forget to loot those bosses and these guys carry the bad boys and if you are playing with 4 friends the guns drop will be more powerful than if you were playing solo these drops are all random so each time you play through the gear will be different making the games lifespan longer as you try and complete a character of Rambo portions.

Borderlands is primarily a FPS , if you liked fallout you will love this if you didn’t like fallout there is a big chance you will still love this as it is all geared for action with lite rpg elements which are simple and easy to use , its never complicated its all straight forward .

As mentioned before getting 4 pals extends the games lifespan, playing solo after playing with your mates just doesn’t feel the same but its an exciting adventure none the less , Borderlands is all about the journey and the loot which is fantasic but when you get to the end you’ll feel slightly dissapointed with the ending but never the less you can start from the beginning with your level intact fighting tougher baddies the second time round as the game scales with your character on every playthrough.

It will be a great addition to your collection and you will have hours exploring Panadora but to get the most out of Borderlands, get online .

Warcraft
With
Guns

8/10

Developers: Gearbox Software.
Publisher: 2k Games.
Genre: RPG/FPS.
Platform: PC/Xbox 360/PS3.
Release date: 23/10/2009.
Reviewer: Guest Reviewer, Karl Smith.