Second Impressions VS First impressions

User Rating: 7.5 | Borderlands X360
By Warningx13 | Review Date:
I will readily admit that up until very recently I had never played through and beaten an FPS game. Honestly in the past they weren't my bag of chips, for a console that is. Earlier this year I got my hands on my first real deal gaming PC, for most of my life I have in fact been a PC gamer having played World of Warcraft heavily back in the days of "Vanilla" and the online Ladders for Warcraft 3. However, for some reason I had never thought to try a first person shooter on my PC up until recently and once I did it completely changed my opinion on the genre as a whole. It also in large part was the catalyst that recharged my love of gaming that I had long since lost. The game that changed everything was Borderlands.

Borderlands takes place on Pandora, a planet that feels a lot like the old west. To me those are two clashing themes but somehow I never noticed that this game was a mix of Syfy and Western while playing because I was to busy having fun killing skags and bandits. This was the first FPS that I had seen that used a gear system similar to an MMO and I loved the idea. The characters you interact with throughout the game are very colorful, a strong point when compared to any in the history of gaming. As for the positives that is about it but all of those are very strong for any game. The amount of fun I had was undeniable, I was always on the hunt for better guns and characters such as Scooter and DR. Zed never disappoint and that is what makes Borderlands a very good game.

It's looking back, after you've beat the game, that the issues appear. They are glaring to me because I went from Borderlands to Borderlands 2 without delay and its easy to see the problems with the first installment while going through the better updated version. First of all the player controlled character is to dry to be called bland. No dialog, while this is still an issue in the second game they have began to address it in DLC, but your character has zero personality when compared to other FPS characters forget RPG. That's a problem to me. The "plot" of the story is only slightly better. The game is not plot driven its gear and leveling driven. Advancing through the talent tree and loot whoring may be fun but its no substitute for the driving force that is Handsome Jack in two. Customization is literally non existent as well. Which is the formula for a truly uninspired effort from the development team.

In conclusion, even with all of those major problems I simply had to much fun playing this game to look at it negatively. It's so entertaining and addictive that fixing the problems only make it one step closer to being a perfect video game. Some of these issues have been addressed in Borderlands 2 making the first game seem even more plain but that being said there is enough room for improvement in a Borderlands 3 to have as all saying the same thing when comparing it to two.

Other Helpful Reviews for Borderlands

Load Comments (0)