Do you ever want to be a treasure hunter on the planet of Pandora searching for a Vault filled with untold riches that everybody thinks is a myth? Have you ever wanted to have bazillions of different guns right at the tip of your fingers? What about being chased down, hunted, beaten, and constantly attacked by the most odd-ball people and creatures you’ve ever seen?
Well let your wants come alive in Borderlands . Borderlands is a first person RPS, or Role-Playing Shooter, where you run around fighting crazy creatures and look for a giant treasure while doing tons of mini quests along the way. You start off in a bus headed to the town of Fyrestone listening to “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” by Cage the Elephant, this opening scene serves as the character selection screen. You have a choice between 4 different characters. One is called a Siren, a female character that teleports into a different dimension, also called phasewalking, and deals damage to enemies. Next comes the Berserker, a giant male character who uses brute force, and big fists, to pummel enemies into puppy chow. Then there is the Soldier, a male character that uses deployable turrets and shields to effectively clear a room without taking damage. Last there is the Hunter who uses his pet bloodwing, nicknamed birdie by several players, to attack enemies.
Once you select your character and step off the bus into Fyrestone, the tutorial begins and you basically learn everything you need to know in about six or seven missions, give or take a few depending on personal learning curves. Now onto the weapons: there are a lot. It is physically impossible to name every gun, so if you want to know, play the game. There are five different weapon manufacturers, Hyperion, Tediore, Jakobs, Dahl and an alien made class called Eridian. Each manufacturer has the same sub class type of combat rifle, repeater, revolver, shotgun, sniper rifle, and launcher.
Common enemy types include: Psychos, a demented and suicidal human, and aliens that look human. The Bruiser, a buff giant man, uses machine guns to keep you under cover and take you out fast. There are other common creatures like Skags that look like a cross between a dog and something Sigourney Weaver would kill, and Spiderants which come out of the ground right when you think things couldn’t get worse. That barely touches upon the wide amount and variety of creatures and people in this game.
The game has three playthroughs, the first one is normal. The second playthrough makes every creature a level 30 or higher and then changes their names, i.e. Psychos become Maniacs. The third playthruogh boosts everything to level 50, the highest level possible for the player, and then bosses are 51 or 52. The game is Rated M, like most games now days, for blood and gore, intense violence, mature humor, and strong language (and they aren’t kidding here either). The game is a blast and you should buy it if you want a game just to goof around in or to play 4 player co-op with your friends on Xbox live or PSN.
