With it's random weapon generator and huge questline, the only problem, is that you don't want to be alone.
~Story~
Welcome Pandora, Land of hillbillies,barren wastlands and of course guns, lots of guns.You have came here to chase the dream.. The dream of The Vault (not to be confused with Fallout 3, I mean, who WANTS to go to that vault anyways). A treasure hunter's shining star that they all pray to every night, said to contain riches,alien technology and apparently women too. Being dropped off by a rather rude busdriver, you are greeted by a little Robot who is locally called Claptrap, and sent on your way for glory.
~Gameplay~
Claiming ownership of being the first FPS RPG in existence, Borderlands delivers a solid Snatch and Grab questline and an amazing loot system that we can all enjoy. Controls are just like Call of Duty so we don't have to go into that (Because everyone has played Call of Duty.. Right?) and are easy to use and familiarize with. But instead of shooting someone and they twitch and eventually die from peppering shots at them, numbers pop up to let you know how much damage is being done.So you may have to dish out 4 headshots on a giant humanoid before they decide to take a dirt nap. Critical shots can be achieved by shooting key places on the anatomy of an enemy. Humans tend to have it as their head, insects have it as their abdomen, and the armored skag's weakpoint is in their mouth.
Enough about tactics, we all wanna know about this amazing weapon system. The weapon system generates random weapons like Too Human or Diablo 2 does, but it does it a little better. Things like elemental effects, 100% more damage or even replenshing ammo by 3 per sec is all options on what may appear on guns. You will be picking up guns and you will be replacing guns a lot, though at times you may have a level 22 gun when your 45 because nothing seems to be better than it. Guns vary from Handguns like auto mag pistols,revolvers and normal single shooters, Shotguns,Launchers,Sub Machine Guns,Combat Rifles,Alien Weapons and of course Sniper rifles. Each have their distinct looks and feel to them . At times you will encounter 'Artifacts'. These things will add effects like Corrosion,Fire,Shock or Explosion damage to your Action skill which is explained in the lower paragraph.
This is a RPG as well, so "Levelling Up" is a factor. Depending on your class (Hunter,Soldier,Siren,Berserker) you may allocate skill points(1 per level) to certain skill tree's. Each skill tree has their own specific job or idea behind them. One tree can give you more damage and accuracy with a Sniper Rifle, while another can revolve around your Action Skill. The Action Skill is the main skill of the character that is activated via Left Bumper. From deploying a turret,becoming invisible, or even throwing your hungry pet bird, these all are helpful if not valuable. Class mods can be purchased to empower your character even more, giving a class name like Assassin, Protector or Survivor can add things like 5% Loot Scavenge for the team or even 45%Team Accuracy. Everything empowers you and the party to do battle against the monsters of Pandora.
Questing is essential as it is the only logical thing to do. Quests follow the MMO way by being either, Snatch and grab,Kill the enemy,or Plant and run.At times you will take as many quests at once to do them all in the region it is in, so you can hand them all in at once to save time and effort (Because you making your virtual character backtrack is so hard).
~Visuals~
Cellshaded and a Prince of Persia look alike. The graphics may be what pushes gamers away from playing this game because it looks to 'Cartoony' but their is nothing Cartoony (That's not even a word) about it. Limbs being blown up, heads popping with blood spurting out is not cartoonish and childish. The cellshading helps in the telling of this bloody yet humorous story. The weapon skins all look amazing and you can tell each weapon has its own story to tell while listen to each bullet being pushed out by the firing pin.
~Multiplayer~
ONLY way to play the game! If you don't have a buddy to place this with , then make new friend over XBL because playing alone is a drag. The online is solid and friendly as people can play with a level 50 even if they are level 1, the level 50 would just get 1 xp for everything. No loot sharing system, so you better hope you find a decent group of people because loot could be stolen or hogged. Other than that, this is the only way to keep your sanity playing this game, or you will become no better than that human Psycho that you shot who was on fire wielding an axe.
~Summary~
Game is amazing with its shiny guns and funny dialogue.Though people will be put off by the graphics, this game is more graphic than Modern Warfare 2, so deal with it while you melt faces with incendiary weapons. Borderlands shows us that FPS RPG hybrids are amazingly fun, but you just need a side kick to traverse it's violent countryside.