Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Gearbox Software
Platform(s): Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC
Genre: Action RPG

ESRB Content Descriptors: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor, Strong Language

The Scoop: Borderlands takes an FPS RPG like Fallout 3, mixes it with the technology of the TV show Firefly and puts it with both an artistic style and soundtrack that makes me want to re-watch the Trigun saga.

The Setup: The story of Borderlands is simple. You land on a planet called Pandora, a dump being overrun by alien creatures and raiders, in search of “the vault.” It is said that this vault contains either a mass amount of wealth or alien technology. However, all those stupid enough to go look for it end up dead. So it’s up to you to kill the raiders and find the vault.

What’s Hot: The best feature of Borderlands is the selection of guns. There are over two hundred manufactured guns and a huge amount of modifications to choose from, resulting in a million different combinations of guns. Before a fallen enemy drops their weapon, the game’s AI will randomly pick a gun for you based on the same type the enemy was just using, the manufacturer, the name of the gun, and finally the quality of the gun based on your character level, the gun level, your weapon proficiencies, and the type of enemy that was just slain. This is also the same when you open up weapon crates and surplus crates.

To top it off, the more players you have in your party, the better chance you get at finding a rare or legendary gun. Each manufacture has their own sets of rare guns as part of their catalogue. However you are more likely to find a legendary gun near the beginning of the game with four other players than by yourself. Like other RPG’s as Diablo or World of Warcraft, Borderlands follows the color coded rarity chart.

And the computer droid Claptrap? Freaking hysterical!

What’s Not: Like every game, Borderlands does have its faults. On a rare occasion,  characters have a tendency to fall through the game environments, such as mountains or right through a bridge upon their death. Also, there is no way to share ammo or money like in other games, such as Resident Evil 5, or just about any other MMORPG. When money is picked up, every member in the current game receives the same amount, but if there just happens to be that one gun you want to buy, there’s no way to borrow some cash when you need it. Either a friend buys it for you and you pay him back with a gift later in the game, or you suffer and hope you’ll be able to find it again. Finally, the randomized weapons are a very interesting and good idea for an RPG, however it feels like most of the time you are being thrown poor weapons destined to be sold at the nearest shop. The anticipation of finding a great gun has turned into “Which guns do I sell this time?”

Final Verdict: Borderlands is a great game. It does offer a extended play through mode so you can restart your game with your same character, stats, and weapons which also give you better chances at rarer guns in the game. The online is smooth with four players and although those four have to be all on the same map, there is no restriction to how far apart they can be unlike other open-world games. All in all if you like Fallout 3, you’ll enjoy Borderlands.