Just a fun, pick up and play game. Be it solo or multiplayer. Co-op needed for the full experience though.
Some good things about the game:
The small character tree, color/name selection is just right for this type of game. It's not too deep where you will be worrying about what spec to choose, and it's not too shallow where you will feel it's tacked on and just throw points in randomly. Add to the fact you can respec at any time to see what another play style for your character will be like, and throw class mods into the mix, you have your self a pretty unique character. This is great, especially due to the fact this is an FPS first and a RPG second.
The combat is just fun. Shoot and loot. Your damage displays in real time, and the loot system is awesome. It might take a few minutes to get used to, but you will soon figure out all of the shortcuts of looting on the run. Strafe and E to pick up in combat, Hold E to pick up everything you can on screen, Hold E on a weapon to replace your current equip one, it's like a Sci-Fi, out door dungeon crawler, if that makes any sense.
Vehicles are fun. Can choose colors, makes getting around the somewhat big map a lot easier.
Random gun generator is awesome! You won't find the same gun twice, I haven't yet. You get elemental weapons (Weapons that deal fire, shock, poison, or explosive damage, but sacrifice some regular damage output usually), high fire rate weapons, fast reload time weapons, scoped smg's scoped pistols' scoped shotguns! It would take forever to even list some of the variants of all the guns. You get anywhere from a sniper rifle that sets people on fire, to a shotgun that fires rockets. It's really great to see that gun rise up out of a gun crate, or that hard enemy you just poured 200 bullets into drop a purple or orange (epic) upgrade for you. The upgrading of weapons and just fun to loot system is the best I've seen since Diablo II.
Also this game does all the little tiny details right, when your looking at 5 clips laying on the ground and you hold the loot button, the sound effect of the ammo crunching into your backpack, and your ammo counter filling up just gives you the feel your a mercenary that just stocked up for killing.
The grenade variants are awesome. From rubberized bouncy ones, to ones that explode into MORE grenades, to ones that steal health, teleport, damage shields, some even stick to enemies. There is a grenade style for any type of style you play.
I could keep going, but there are a ton of other reviews that list all of the small things that make this game just plain fricken fun to jump on and play. It's really easy to pick up and get into a co-op game, some people have been saying that since it's a p2p connection, with no real good server filters, it's been hard to find cool people to play with, but I haven't had that problem so far. After my first night I added about 10 people to my list who always invite me to game, and I do the same, there are going to be douches everywhere, I haven't experienced any that have effected my game play online though.
Here are some kind of annoying things about the game though:
P2P games online mean that hacking a character is only a .ini file edit away. This ISN'T as big of a deal as it sounds, Because I rarely every see it. So far I've only seen 2 people who have done this. One guy had 50k health, and the other was level 3000. They didn't talk in game, and just left after standing there for 10 minutes. One did duel a level 50 (He was level 30 with 50k health) but then everyone was making fun of him for just adding a value in his .ini file and thinking he was cool, so he just left.
The quest system is kind of strict on what you can, and can't do on online games. For instance if your not on the same quests, or even if your around the same quests as the other players, you will be ineligible to complete their quests for your own XP. This doesn't mean you can't help them do them though! For example if you have to go kill a certain npc, it will just say "Kill Jade:Ineligible" But you are still free to go, help your team kill Jade, he will be there and everything, you can shoot him, you will get xp for the KILL (Kill xp) but not quest reward XP. This whole thing isn't a huge deal though, I actually have a character who is still technically on the 1st story quest, but shes level 30 just by tagging along with a team getting kill xp and helping out. You won't really find it a big deal, and sometimes it's just easier and better if you just tag along while other people quest, because honestly, your there to kill, and you will kill, get loot, and get xp either way. You might get a TINY bit less then the quest doers, but this in no way hinders the fun or has you staring at your quest log scratching your head.
Another tiny annoying thing I found is the vehicle spawn system. I'm not sure how it works exactly yet, But from what I see, you can only have one vehicle from a spawn station out at a time. Now I've tried going to other spawn stations on the map, and sometimes it will let me spawn another, and sometimes it won't, I'm not sure why or what the system behind this is, so I cant really attest to it being a con. But this isn't really a huge deal, because a lot of the quests are divided into different maps and all it takes it one person to get to the next map entrance and everyone else is teleported with him/her.
In the end this game is just an awesome pick up and play game. Solo play is fun, but if you want the full experience hop online and jump into a game. The loot system and random gun generation is great, the real time damage and just deep enough talent trees keep you going, and the different classes give you a variety to play from. From the sniper, to the phase walker, to the in your face brawler. If you like to hang back and pick them off, or jump into the faces of the enemies of Pandora, there's a class/play style here for you.
Gameplay: 9. Great pick up and play, shoot and loot fun. Drop in an out of solo or co-op. Great loot system, awesome gun generation.
Graphics: 8. Different type of art style. Very interesting an different comic book, shaded cell design. Runs on the unreal engine, pop-in is almost nonexsistant, maybe for a split second when first loading a new map.
Sound 9: Awesome gun fights, light rattling of smgs, loud thunks of sniper rounds, whistling screams of tri-rockets whizzing into a "Bad Ass Psycho's" chest make you feel like your in a post apocalyptic war zone. Nice ambiance when traveling, picks up just the right amount for combat. You won't get an orchestra climax for one raider (I'm looking at you Oblivion, giving me the 1812 overture for a mudcrab...)
Difficulty 9: Awesome difficulty detection. Enemies gain/lose strength/numbers dependent on the amount of players in game, and the level of the players.
Online Game Joining/Creating 7.5: p2p networking may cause problems in the future. Filters are non-existent. Host based, so if host leaves, and you've been playing with people you like for hours, your back at the main menu... Easy to exploit a characters stats through save game/.ini file editing, although rare, still does happen once in a while.
Overall score 8.5