Borderlands. Review

Wow what a fun game. Okay so this is kinda gonna be a not so formal review of the game borderlands. I love FPS and most shooters, I also love simple RPG's that are easy to get into without dedicating tons of hours to them in cut-scenes and tutorials so for me borderlands was a great mix of two great genre's. The accessibility of an FPS but also the depth of an RPG.

First off in the way of story like most of the non-story heavy games of today it gives you a small chunk of the story at the start (e.g: motivations) and leaves the rest to right around the end. Basically your a treasure hunter on a mysterious, interesting desert world but what sets it apart from most desert world games (e.g: Red Fraction) is its comic book style hand-drawn shading which looks great.

Secondly gameplay. At the start of the game you choose between 4 classes. The Beserker: A heavy that can use strong melee attacks and explosives weapons. The Siren: A stealth type that excels in special effect weapon types such as pyro, corrosive and static. The Solider: An all-rounder with proficiency in combat rifles and shotguns and finally The Hunter: A sniper class who uses.....snipers and most scoped weapons. The FPS elements in this game all work very well and fighting is engaging but what makes it the most fun is action skills. Action skills are special abilities that you may use in combat (or not). Each class and has a unique skill: The Beserker may go into a frenzy were he may only use his fists for massive damage, The Hunter may call upon his bird "Bloodwing" to attack foes, The Siren may go into another dimension for a short time, in this dimension enemies move really slowly, when she calls upon this state a pulse of energy is released damaging foes and again when the phase completes and lastly The Solider may place a turret for cover and support fire. All of these skills are balanced and work very well especially when your with a team of 4 playing as all different classes.

Level Gaining. Killing enemies gives you experience points. If you kill an enemy with a vehicle you gain less exp. and this also counts for substantially weaker foes. You increase a level when you earn enough exp. and at Level 5 you begin gaining skill points in which you can use to increase your health or add special abilities to your action skills.

In conclusions Borderlands is a great game. It offers a great solo and co-op experience but is better in co-op like most other games. Co-op is the way Borderlands is meant to be played so do it. For price it released at a substantially lower price to most games that have less gameplay hours and is a great buy. The option to go back and play through the game with stronger enemies and more loot is an added bonus adding tons of replay value.

Gameplay: 9.0 - A nice original take on two genre's that plays to both of their best sides.
Graphics: 9.5 - A great comic book style look.
Sound: 8.5 - Engaging music if a little over used as you continue playing.
Worth: 9.0 - Well worth it with hours of exciting gameplay.
Overall: 9.0 - An original game done really well.