Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Guilty pleasure"

Pandora is a wasteland plagued with vagabonds, radiation-ridden creatures, and bandits. However, this abysmal, arid planet is also home to the most valuable treasure in the universe - The Vault. Corporations, mercenaries, pirates, and arms dealers wish to discover the utopia of riches and technology held within the Vault, but cannot discern if it is an actual place or just local folklore spread by years of hearsay.

The unique and ruthless world of Pandora is not the most ambitious aspect of Gearbox's Borderlands. The fusion of role-playing (RPG) and first person shooter (FPS) games has never been done in an online based community. Current FPS trends favor large communities of player vs. player (PvP) or player kill player (PkP) online game modes. The leveling systems of these games are based on a scoring system for each match the player participates in and achievements with weapons.

Borderlands effectively challenges this "ideal" FPS community with a new formula for FPS games that is driven by an RPG based leveling system, co-op campaign online arrangement, difficulty balancing and adjustment on the fly, and no formal PvP/PkP game mode. The end result is the exact opposite from the failure current trends and rehashed sequels would lead us to believe. Instead, we are graced with an original game that showcases new intellectual property and concepts users are embracing and sinking hundreds of hours into with friends and strangers alike.

Each time the game is played through (similar to a New Game+ arrangement), the enemies become stronger and the equipment and guns dropped become better. When you play online, each person who enters your game increases the difficulty of the game as well as the chances of rare item drops. This further entices the online community to be the arena of choice for all players, where games support up to four co-op players either through public or arranged private games.

Controls are driven by the modern FPS layout, but can be customized to the tastes of the player. Menus are toggled by the start button and various tabs can be reviewed to show the spending of skill points achieved, current inventory, equipped items, missions outstanding, and the map of the area you are in with rally points marked by a green triangle. While nothing here is groundbreaking, it is executed better and more intuitive than most RPG's out there.

While you will not spend a ton of time in the menus like most RPG's, you will spend a lot of time picking up and selling weapons and items dropped by enemies at the various vending machines. Each type of machine will allow you to buy and sell specific sets of items. There are three machines in total: medical, arms, and ammunition. Each type of vending machine is strewn throughout the worlds, and not all three will be present at each location. These locations serve a critical function in keeping your ammo stocked and selling items back to pad your bank account for future purchases and unlocking trophies.

The music and themes are varied and favor a Southwestern/country/fusion influence. This is very acceptable since the player will see a variety of "Wild West" references. The sound effects of the game vary from lackluster (cap gun sounding machine guns) to extremely satisfying (rocket launcher and environmental explosions). You will soon forget the shortcomings of the lackluster effects, as they are usually overshadowed by combat conversation or the writhing screams of enemies.

Despite the hit or miss sound effects, voice acting is constantly superb. Every character in the game is voiced to perfection with a variety of lines and conversations. Each character's voice and personality is their own and varies depending on their role in the Borderlands universe. From the solemn Atlas war generals you rarely converse with to the crazy mechanic Scooter who seems to endlessly follow you, every character remains memorable in their own right. Gearbox piled on the effort and spared no expense in casting and capturing the right voices for all characters.

Replay value will vary on the player and their thirst for roaming the world of Pandora. There are 2.5 playthroughs available (2.5 is actually the third), and four character classes to choose from (Hunter, Soldier, Berserker, and Siren). Each character has an initial level cap of 50, which takes either a significant amount of time grinding in your first time through or a playthrough and a half. There are plenty of side missions (there are approximately 64 missions total) to keep a player busy, but full completion is not necessary to progress through the story. One of the nice features about the side missions is they do not suffer from the repetitiveness that has plagued many of the recently released games. Each has its own feel, and no matter how wacky they may seem… they all eventually fit into the storyline of the overall game.

Another ambitious and unusual aspect of the game is the large number of weapons and equipment for players to use. The developer touts there are thousands of each type of pistol, rifle, SMG, launcher, grenade, and player mods in the game. This offers more variety and customization among the classes to create a highly specialized character for your playing style and to exploit enemy weaknesses.

Additional content options exist in the form of DLC expansion packs. For a cost, users can purchase one or all of three expansion packs, each drastically different from the others. Gearbox has stated these will not be the final number of DLC packs available at the end of Borderlands' life cycle, as they are working on another one even after the most recent release of General Knoxx.

A player can easily burn through 100 or 200 hours in the game and never experience boredom, with or without the DLC packs. This is primarily due to the variety of characters, missions, downloadable content via online support, and gamer community that supports the Borderlands universe.

Borderlands and the world of Pandora possess something special, the sort of immeasurable charm and depth of a product the culinary world describes as "Umami" – or experiencing the surreal 6th sense. You will find yourself cognizant of the flaws Borderlands possesses, but you will continually come back to the world of Pandora, explore different cIasses, and the many DLC packs available. This is due to constantly wanting more content from Gearbox to prolong your experience on Pandora.

Borderlands is not a game heavily praised for production value, technical prowess, or an overly-hyped franchise tag… but still proves to be one of the guiltiest pleasures available on the current generation of consoles. You'll find yourself constantly repeating ridiculous lines muttered by the NPC's in the real world and waiting for newly found online friends to login so you can get back to looting the world of Pandora together.

Borderlands is not a perfect game, weighed down by a number of technical glitches and a chic approach that will prevent some FPS elitists from truly experiencing Pandora for what it is. Those who stay will be treated to one of the most engrossing and entertaining universes of creatures, locations, and NPC's in almost a decade. When you consider the overall experience and the bold directions and chances Gearbox took, the end product is beyond doubt amazing.

Borderlands is a true FPS that weaves role playing strategy and development into the gameplay, while seamlessly allowing players to switch between single and multiplayer modes without losing character progress. This all would seem like a recipe for disaster, but instead we have been treated to one of the most entertaining, purely fun experiences from any company in any genre in a long, long time.