Borderlands Spolier alert, the last paragraph or so reveals the ending somewhat, so if you want to experience that for yourself, don't read it. On a side note, I'm tired of fitting my reviews into structure so from this point it's gunna be one giant jumbled mess, deal with it. Okay, so with the initial release of this game I was skeptical, it looked okay and I figured I might rent it some time and try it out. But my friends wouldn't shut the hell up and I ended up buying it. The game is like a weird combo of WoW and Fallout 3. If you take WoW's loot system and level up talent tree spec process and throw it into a Fallout first person shooter You'd assume you'd get a product like this. You'd also have to assume it'd be one gigantic boring grind-fest. It turns out that this isn't the case, not at all. Okay sure, at first it feels that way because your fighting enemies that die in 1-2 shots. But once you hit around level 5 the game definately starts to pick up the pace. At level five you gain your class's special ability. Whether you be the Berserker, Soldier, Siren or Hunter they're all pretty awesome. With maybe the exception of the Hunter, he seems to get the short end of the stick when it comes to special abilities. (Haven't really tried one, but from watching it looks pretty lame) The Siren (my main character) has the ability to travel temporarily through another universe, which is pretty awesome in itself, but at around level15 you get your first elemental artifact which adds elemental damage to your special ability, needless to say, exploding in and out of existence is pretty sweet. The Berserker can drop their weapon and go into a fist pumping rage dealing out knuckle-sandwiches to anyone they see fit. No to mention to "Falco-"s that happen when they get the elemental artifact. The Soldier can summon a turret that, depending on how you spend your talent points, can grow health or bullets for nearby allies. And the Hunter can summon a tiny bird to attack his enemies. (told you it was lame) Regardless of that the game is set up like a giant game of Firefight. You just kill other guys continuously until you reach a boss, who has some sort of special move to watch out for and a weak spot to focus on. The whole time you do this you focus on getting yourself some 'phat loots'. The whole game's goal is basically to get your character some awesome gear, and trust me, you'll never see every weapon in the game. The game has THOUSANDS of guns to loot. And they all have some unique quality, Shotguns that shoot rockets, bullets that cause spontaneous combustion. You name it, it exists, and experimenting with different weapon types is only half the fun. Half the game feels like a fast paced FPS, and the other half a stat builder. Although it is pretty hard to loose, in fact it might be impossible, if you shield is depleted and you actually manage to die, you just fall to the ground and have a short while to kill someone and receive a 'Second Wind' or a respawn I guess, but if you fail to murder someone as your insides are spilling out onto the ground you simply are teleported back to the nearest "New-U" station (for a fee of course) which, might I add, are numerous throughout the wasteland. I guess it's the game makers way of justifying setting one person against mobs of enemies at the same time, and it seems to work alright so I don't see any problem with it. Now, where I start to really see flaws are in the games storyline. The game does fine in setting you up in the same situation again and again without getting boring or dull. But it's where story is concerned that the game gets a bit... odd. The game starts off with a bit of background story -- the planet, "Pandora", was used by gun manufacturers to test weapons, or wage war, I don't know, it never really states exactly. All you know is that the planet has been made into a giant wasteland, and there have been tales of a "Vault" on the planet placed by a race of Aliens known as the Eridians. Some people claim to have seen a guardian angel while on the planet, guiding them to the vault. And guess who you're contacted by when you arrive?! So you're contacted by this, "angel" and have to do various jobs to earn the trust of the people of Pandora. And nothing in the game is ever explained really well, the game is left with a ton of holes in the plot that are never really filled. Like, "Why is there an angel?" or "What's in the Vault?" or, more importantly, "Why are there a bunch of bandits murdering people on sight, what's THEIR motive?" The whole game is just kinda thrown together with bits and pieces of gameplay, which is I guess okay since the gameplay is absolutely amazing, but it's still a bit disappointing to have no storyline whatsoever. Regardless of the gaps in storyline you roll with the punches until you get towards the end. -SPOILERS- At the end of the game, after gathering the three Eridian Artifacts required to open the Vault (along with most likely 1,000,000lbs. of Weaponry) you head there only to be greeted by some gigantic squid looking thing, named "The Destroyer", that doesn't seem to have any place in the game at all. It just kind of shows up from the gate of the Vault. And murders Commander Steele of the Atlas Corporation (one of the gun manufacturers) and then commences to try and murder YOU. You defend yourself appropriately from his miscellaneous attacks which, might I add, are not very hard. And he's basically just a gigantic Bullet Sponge, he takes a while to kill, but he's not difficult at all, which is disappointing after killing the harder bosses earlier in the game. On top of that, when he dies, you don't get in the vault either, it closes up, the angel thanks you, and informs you that the vault wont open for another 200 years. I know, major let down. Not to mention, that when it shows a sattalite in the end, which you hear/see the voice of the angel coming from, it has another gun manufacturers logo on the side of it. So you've been a pawn of one of the companies the whole game. And, the worst part, during the credits in the end, you are treated to ONE SONG, repeating over and over again. That's right, the only put two songs in the game, the one from the intro cut scene, and one for the credits. -END SPOILERS- But I'm not one to let one aspect of a game ruin it for me, and although this whole game is just a rip off of other games thrown together, the online co-op is stimulating, and fun. And even solo the game is interesting to play at all times, regardless of the repetivity. I give this game a 9.5/10, for overall awesomeness, and the amount of enjoyability you get while playing it. If you're not into RPGs/FPSs then it might not be as fun and I'd recommend renting it first. But if you ask me, this is a definite buy. Copy/Pasted from City14.com
good review, I haven't beat the game but I feel the same way. You are especially correct about the WoW/ Fallout 3 thing. The one thing I love about this game are the vast amount of options to go about leveling up and earning loot. I've used the soldier and the Berserker and I like the berserker better. His special ability dominates beyond imagination once you have added a lot of stat points to it. I like your little Falco punch thing too cause its true when you get the flame artifact.
Great review, sums up the games good and bad aspects pretty well. But I'd say it's more like a Cod 4/ Diablo II mix-up, because the FPS part plays similarly to CoD, and the loot/skill trees/ and a few other aspects originally come from Diablo II, not WoW. I have a level 25 Soldier (specializing in DPS with Combat Rifles) and a 26 Hunter (Sniper) and I don't think the Hunter's ability is that bad. All the abilities become average if you don't spend skill points on them (which i have barely done for both). The turret provides decent cover, and a good distraction, while the bird lays down 1 HARD hit on an enemy, so I guess it's really only useful for boss fights. Another feature with some issue's is dueling other players. Let's just put it this way; Beserker + Fists = Game Over, unless they can get a good headshot with a powerful weapon...or four.
I did write the review, I'm a mod on City14, and post reviews to pass time, and just thought I'd post that in case someone found it randomly and didn't think I wrote it... it's pretty obvious... did you even click the link?
You remind me of my friend Shikaze, the day I bought he came over and we hung out and played this for a good 12hours, and by the end he was yelling about how much he hated Midgets, I love the midgets, lol.
Every time there's a midget, I start yelling at them. The people I play with think it's hilarious, but I hate those things. Same with the Psycho guys. They always pop out of nowhere.
Good review, but does anybody know what level or whatever you have to do to do the side quest. "two wrongs make a right" cause I have read somewhere you get when you do the quest." Earl needs food.....badly ".
You first have to do the "Missing Persons" mission from the New Haven Bounty Board. When you find the guy, you unlock "Two wrongs make a right." And, yes, both quests are in Krom's canyon, although they are different sides. However, you can get the Skag Meat for "Earl needs food...badly" while making your way through the left side of the canyon for "The Next Piece" mission.
Actually it does explain why there are a load of murdering bandits on the planet. The quest (2 quests, if you wanna get technical) when you're getting the journals for Tannis, she explains that the planet is good for mining something (I forgot what now) and that one of the weapon companies (I forgot which one ) hired criminals to do the mining - This same company also funded her research. At some point, this company abandons the mining effort and they let all the criminals go free, bada-bing bada-boom, planet full of convicts = the bandits. Also Tannis loses her funding, silly *****.