Borderlands (and the 3 expansions)

PUBLISHER: 2k Games
DEVELOPER: 2k Games
Played on: PC
Initial impression: FPSRPG.

Liked:
- Story (Main/Exp 1: Dr. Ned)
- Environment
- Art Style

Disliked:
- Randomized Weapons
- Expansion #2: (Mad Moxxi)

On The Fence:
- Expansion #3: (General Knoxx)

Main story has you take the role of one of four mercenary treasure hunters. Recently landing on the planet of Pandora, you're greeted by a little obnoxious robot and a whole lot of enemies. You fight your way to the first town and gain a few quests... Rinse and repeat. You're eventually bestowed with the need to find the legendary "Vault" - which most claim is full of untold riches and equipment. The ending was somewhat of a let down, but at least the game didn't have to end there.

Expansion #1: Island of Dr. Ned has an interesting and funny tale about a zombie outbreak. I can't go into detail or else there's not much point in playing. Let me just say it was entertaining, sometimes even more so than the main game.

There's not a whole lot to the mechanics of this game. If you've played a First Person Shooter, you're half-way there. If you've ever played any Role-Playing Game where you allocate points to improve your stats, you get the gist of this game. The four roles are essentially Fighter, Cleric, Mage and Ranger from D&D, except you use guns and the skills are tailored around guns.


The guns are a bit of a love/hate relationship. There's a bit of a randomization with them, in that the stats of the gun could be better or worse even for one named the same. There are a number of different manufacturers, and each has their own personal perks (and color/design schemes). The part that bugs me is that they claim your chances of finding better gear INCREASE when you play along with 3 other real people -- and they don't. We've found nothing but crap while going as a four-person group, while one guy found significantly better weapons playing solo.

Expansion #2 pretty much sucks other than the addition of a storage box. Now the guns you don't want to sell off but dont need to carry all the time can go in a box. This is best for those rare weapons you get where you aren't high enough level yet. Other than that you're looking at arena combat. Wave after wave of enemies come at you, topping off with a "boss" fight which revives a former end boss from various missions in the main game. It's rather boring after a while.

Expansion #3 - we're in the middle of it right now - is OK so far but seems to be way too vehicle heavy. I'm not a fan of when you're forced into any sort of single game mechanic, and so far Knoxx seems to be all about the cars. Granted, the cars are awesome, but I'm kind of shrugging at the insistance of us using 2-3 different car types based on the mission. If it does it more often it'll just be annoying.

This game gets the following ratings:

Main: 8/10
Exp 1: 8/10
Exp 2: 4/10
Exp 3: 7/10 (so far)

Biggest tip: Don't play this game alone. It'll be dull and get difficult very fast. You may or may not get better loot.