Borderlands Updated Hands-On - Exclusive Look at Shooting, Gaining Levels, and Exploring the Wasteland
We finally got our hands on this desert wasteland-based role-playing/shooter hybrid. After blasting some bandits, gaining some levels, and picking up a whole bunch of ammo, we have much to report.
Gearbox Software's Borderlands will combine the aiming and shooting of an arcade-style shooter with the hacking, slashing, experience levels, and loot of a traditional Western role-playing game. And we've finally played it from the perspective of two of the game's four character classes. While we weren't able to run through the game's list of some 30 different primary quests (and 140 side quests), we did get a chance to play through an early portion of the game and get a look at multiplayer. We have much to report, but please be advised that this story may contain minor spoilers.
Borderlands begins with a bus ride where you choose your character class from either the soldier (a standard class that specializes in assault rifles and shotguns), the siren (which tends to acquire weapons with alternative properties, such as incendiary bullets), the hunter (a sniper profession), or the berserker (a close-combat profession that uses short-range weapons and fisticuffs). You then get dropped off at the starting town of Fyrestone to be guided by a smart-mouthed robot that never seems to run out of things to say. Though the reason your character is on the abandoned mining world of Pandora to track down a mysterious "vault" that's said to house powerful and valuable alien technology, your first order of business is to figure out the interface. The robot walks you through the game's onscreen interface, which displays your character's health and ammo supply, which is standard stuff for a shooter. Your character's experience bar and minimap will also be displayed, which is standard stuff for an RPG and a good sign you won't be playing your average, everyday arcade shooter.
As a soldier, your experience will be a pretty standard one if you've played a first-person shooter before. This profession seems best equipped with automatic assault rifles and shotguns and eventually learns the ability to deploy stationary turrets, which can take on different properties as the soldier gains levels (either spitting out regular fire to fill your enemies full or holes or to actually distribute healing or other support features to yourself and any nearby teammates).
Sirens, on the other hand, have the "phasewalk" ability, which shifts them in and out of this dimension, essentially cloaking them for a few moments. Phasewalking also gives you a short speed boost and the ability to perform powerful melee attacks and cause damage to nearby enemies when shifting. Because special abilities have a cooldown time, it seems best to save your character's special powers for when you really need them. Like the soldier, the siren can also learn additional skill trees. In this case, the controller, elemental, and assassin paths help you regenerate health or daze enemies; add elemental damage, such as fire or corrosion, to your attacks; and increase your melee or critical hit damage, respectively. While you gain upgrade points by earning experience levels, you won't be able gain enough points to max out every single skill tree in any single play-through, so you'll want to choose those skills that best fit your own playing style.
Things start off easy while you get used to the game's premise, and the first few missions involve flushing out a few pesky bandits and killing the local wildlife: skags. Skags are hideous doglike creatures that live in packs. While the pups make for some basic target practice and their lunging attacks are a great way for you to practice doing some melee pistol-whipping, it's not long before you discover the larger whelps and some that are the size of a small rhino.
In any case, the early mission structure seems to do a good job of leading you around as you gradually restore the ruined town of Fyrestone and blast randomly generated hordes of enemies to kingdom come. These low-pressure encounters are a good way to get used to the shooting mechanics, which, at least in solo play, will absolutely require you to make smart use of cover. Early on in the game, you'll pick up your first regenerating personal energy shield, which works the same way as the shields in Halo do--they absorb damage until they run out, and unless you duck behind cover, you'll then start taking health damage.
Borderlands Quick Links
Summary | Reviews | News | Previews & Features | Images | Videos | Downloads | Answers | Hints & Cheats | Forum | Check Prices
- GameSpot Score8.5great
Check Prices: $44.99 – 49.99
| GameStop | $49.99 | SHOP › |
| Amazon.com | $44.99 | SHOP › |
| RadioShack.com | $49.99 | SHOP › |
Content you might like…
-
Borderlands Updated Hands-On - High-Level Gameplay
We get our hands on some of the later stages of Borderlands, including deserted towns, alien invasions, and...snowstorms?
- Oct 8, 2009
Users who looked at this article also looked at these content items.
Related Content
Matches based on text similarity.
Images
Related Unions
- 2K Games
- Gearbox Software
- Sci-Fi First-Person...
- Release: Oct 26, 2009 »
- ESRB: Mature
Games you may like…
-
Torchlight
(PC) -
Left 4 Dead 2
(PC) -
Machinarium
(PC) -
Aliens vs. Predator
(PC) -
Left 4 Dead
(PC)
Users who looked at content for this game also looked at these games.
See More Similar Games
238 Comments