Gaming by Miksa

Lewt me baby, one more time...

Grinding (that never ending cycle of repetitive actions for the sake of rewards) has recently flourished as a gameplay addition in almost all segments of gaming. Not that It wasn't present before (we had it portioned in tiny segments in almost all genres of games). However, with the enormous rise of the MMO culture in the past decade or so, some developers have started to develop games with griding encased in their essence.

Apart from MMORPG's which are prime promoters of the "quest/reputation/raid - grind" idea, this segment has started to implement itself in many other genres as well. RPG's are especially prone to it's "benevolence" and the last to have fallen to its seductive powers is Borderlands - the very game that will be the topic of this review. Now I must point out that I have nothing against games and genres (in particular) that base themselves around repetition with the promise of better loot. All that "grind talk" from early on was to introduce the healthy (or unhealthy) influence on the game itself which you might experience after you decided to try it out.

In essence, Borderlands is a first person shooter with roll playing elements and a grind system that will drive players forward by acquiring better items for their character. It's a well developed and pretty straight forward formula and it's proven many times over by its successful and very famous... uhm, "users" (Diablo and World of Warcraft come to mind). My own definition of Borderlands would be "Diablo with guns in a Mad Max setting." And it fits pretty well. There are tons of different items and equipment you get from doing quests or slain enemies (or hidden chests); the quests are given through a standard (yet humorous) texts and the enemies are pretty much a variation of road riders with baseball masks.

The story revolves around a mysterious, alien built "Vault" on the distant planet of Pandora which has been a target of many treasure ("vault") hunters, including the four main protagonists. You get to choose one of those "bastards" for the upcoming journey. There's the Hunter - a sniping specialist who has a birdy as his special ability; Lilith - a siren that is great with SMG's and has the power to phase walk; Brick - a self explanatory name for a 10 foot tall berserker who can bash the living hell out of enemies with his fists; Soldier - the most balanced class of all who can deploy a turret to mow down enemies. This is of course, the description given in the selection menu (well, more or less) and to be honest, there isn't a penality (or a bonus) for using just one class of weapons that will make you choose one class over the other. Well, OK, the special abilities do represent a certain... ehm, trait, in the whole gameplay process but I don't think it will matter that much once you find your first shotgun.

Once you've chosen your class you get this weird message from an "angel lady" who claims that the Vault is real and that she will guide you to it. Then you get off the bus, receive your brand new GUI and finally, you are ready to shoot things. That's not to say shooting is what you will always do. Quests are the integral driving force of the gameplay and the progression is bound to them. Quests give experience which you will (naturally) need for leveling up. Each level grants you more health and also, special points which you can use to upgrade your abilities. Each class has three skill trees with unique special abilities. Some special class items further complement skills and are very useful later on in the game. Back to quests-town, you will get a simple variety and some cleverly written texts that will usually make you got shoot someone for his possession, scavenge for missing parts, find the missing person, resolve a dispute (by shooting the other party) and a varietion between the three.

The main problem with quests is closely tied to the level up system. It's due to leveling up so fast that some quests quickly become obsolete and there's really no point of going back to complete them. Also, while some quests are truly inspiring with the whacky objectives and cleaver use of in-game mechanics, some are repeated far too often, while some will make you constantly go from one place to another just for the sake of one objective out of many. It gets tedious very fast. Another complaint I have with quests is their immortal opposition to be permanently abandoned. I finished the game with two level 40 characters yet I still have quests in my quest book from the early levels. To make matters worse, there's this little robot that constantly reminds you of the quests you have missed in a very irritating voice. I have left those damned quests with a reason: "stop reminding me, god damn it!"

When it comes to shooting, Borderlands really shines. There's this "unhealthy" amount of guns, rifles, snipers, shotguns, revolvers, rocket launchers, SMG's, alien weaponry, grenades and shields which is a real treat if you are in for the loot. Each weapon looks different and handles different. Revolvers are powerful but slow; repeater pistols are fast but drain ammo instantly and aren't that precise; SMG's are fast and carry lots of ammo but their punch isn't that strong; combat rifles are well balanced and can offer both accuracy and high amount of damage; shot-guns can be either fast or slow but either way they deal massive damage on expense of their poor accuracy; alien weapons, rocket launchers and snipers do massive damage but are limited to slow reload time and (apart snipers) poor aiming. Add up variations of different aiming mods, firing speed and reloading speed, as well as elemental damage (fire, electricity, corrosive or explosive) and you get an arsenal that will satisfy even the greediest loot lovers in the universe.

The rest of the equipment doesn't come in short supply either. Shields for instance, are integral part of the arsenal and provide a "punching bag bar" for your character. Each shield can have a variety of additions, depending on the quality (slow health regeneration, resistance to elemental damage, etc). There's also this cleaver mechanic which makes shields essential in firefights, and it's called Second Chance. Each time you get pinned down by a larger number of enemies (or a grenade form a cowardly bandit) you go in a prone mode in which you have to kill an enemy for a short period of time. If successful, you are given a second chance and your shields are up to 100 %. Should you fail, you are given a trip to that reassembly station for another go... oh, yeah, you pay a fine each time you die, and it gets greedier with each level.

And you will die, at least early on in the game. Higher level enemies will be your usual judicators, as well as grenades launched by enemies that happen to own a friggin satellite navigation system that can spot your puny little vehicle from 10 miles away. The latter becomes a real problem since during the majority of the missions you will be driving from one part of the map to the next (and did I mention that the maps are quite big). So, you will have no other choice than to drive fast (squeezing the last tip of juice from the nitro boost), praying that you will just squish couple of bad guys and run the hell out. Though the vehicle isn't badly equipped (comes either with a rocket launcher or a gatling gun) the main problem I had with it it's the weird controls. You are using your mouse to steer (and shoot at the same time) and your keyboard to speed it up. It's weird and it handles pretty badly. Oh, it also cripples the experience rate from killing enemies by half so... yeah.

Not that you will have problem finding enemies of course. The damned buggers respawn each time you enter a zone (and I wouldn't have it any other way - Diablo style!). As for the variety, you will get plenty of those  Bandits and Psychos which are particularly fond of getting shot mainly because the game is freaking full of them. Seriously, if you can find one game that has a Bandit on every square kilometer, then it's gotta be Borderlands. From start to finish, you will be shooting at lots and lots of them: either for a quest or loot, or just for the plain fun of squishing their bodies with your vehicle. They came in all shapes and sizes (literally) and mainly deviate between melee attackers (Psychos) and ranged ones (Brutes, Raiders, etc). The rest of the enemies are the usual mix of wildlife (Skags, Mutated Ants) as well as some militaristic units which join the frail later on in the game. The game is also filled with Boss (or Badass) types of enemies which serve as tougher challenges which, you might think offer a better variety of loot, but similarly to that randomized system seen in Diablo, tougher enemies don't always drop the shines you all so crave for. Overall, enemies do offer some kind of resistance and some can even prove to be a bit tough to crack at first (due to their natural resistances to elemental damage) but with the proper combination of grenades and weapons, they won't stand for long.


From a purely artistic stand point, Borderlands presents itself through an interesting graphic-like filter through which the world and all it's inhabitants feel like a comic book come alive. The animation is superb though there are some minor glitches with fallen enemies over-clipping with terrain textures and a small variety of invisible walls. The sounds and audio commentaries you will come across while playing are with excellent quality, especially the audio logs which easily stand out as both humorous and well written.

I wanted to include the first DLC for Borderlands, The Zombie Island of Dr.Ned with this review but I just realized how different these two "incarnations" of the game are. That's why I will make this as my closing statement, saying that Borderlands is indeed a treat for every loot lower out there that shines with it's presentation and variety of weapons and enemies, while being troubled by mild repetition and some small technical hick ups. As for the DLC, stick around for I plan to review it in the upcoming period.