Borderlands Review

Treasure Island Meets Mad Max.

If you tire of the relentless grind of the solo player combat (which is unlikely) there are always side missions to complete. The available side missions add a huge amount of extra gameplay to the title and are unique enough that boredom doesn’t set in easily. To engage a side mission, all you need do is talk to a secondary character or approach a Bounty Board. The missions on offer include killing random bosses, blowing shit up, retrieving items (including a case of poisonous cigars!) or acting as a fixer of sorts for the various NPCs problems. Repairing damaged Claptraps during side missions will also provide you with valuable upgrades that increase the space of your inventory which is invaluable if you intend to make any real money from loot.

As you progress through the main or side missions of the campaign you will accumulate skill points, which can be spent to upgrade your character in RPG style skill-tree progression. Like the main story, this area of the game is very simple. Every time you level up, you receive a single skill point. The first point must be spent to activate your character’s special skill, but after that you can choose which skill set to spend points on. Each character has a three-tiered skill set consisting of a series of steps, each of which requires five skill points before you can advance to the next. Whilst upgrading these skill sets will endow your character with vastly improved skills, the system is very minimal and players do not have a great deal of choice regarding the ultimate skill set of their character. In fact, the best way to achieve your desired skill set is to ensure that you pick the right character at the start of the game. Prefer to sneak around the game-world and engage in battle when you choose? Select Lilith. Prefer to bludgeon your way through every obstacle in the path? Choose Brick.

All four characters, regardless of skill sets, have access to vehicles. Whilst the vehicle selection is minimal, the vehicles do add tremendous fun to the game. Players can customise their vehicle’s colour and weapon attachments, and cruise around the borderlands landscape at will. The game isn’t a typical sandbox environment though, and transferring from one area to the next does mean that you will often have to leave a vehicle behind. Fast travel is the only other in-game travel option and allows players to teleport directly from one location to another. The teleport locations are restricted (players can only teleport to and from a New-U Station) although there is always a station to be found in the main areas. These stations also serve as DNA regeneration points should you be killed in combat.

Unfortunately, the excellent combat and in-game vehicles aren’t enough to save the single player game from feeling like a very lonely adventure. There are no accompanying NPCs like those found in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and the player is left to wander the world alone in search of the vault. Considering that the world is supposedly overrun by treasure seekers, I can’t help but feel that a motley crew of co-conspirators would have been a welcome addition.

Gearbox obviously had a similar thought: although you can’t play with NPC support in the solo missions, you can play through the solo missions with real buddies. Players can select to play co-operative with a second player in split-screen or head online and battle it out with up to four players. A LAN option is also available.

The multiplayer game responds to the inclusion of other players by increasing loot and enemy strength, and does a very satisfying job of recreating the combat thrills of the single player adventure. There are a few issues with the multiplayer, the most worthy of note being the restrictive friends system. At any one time, a small selection of your friends are made available, not your entire friends list, so it’s almost impossible to get into a game with online friends (apparently a patch will soon be made available). To add insult to injury, loot is picked up in a first-in-first served basis, so unless you play with friends it’s likely that you will miss out on some items of significant value.

The Borderlands multiplayer component is unique in that it allows you to take your single player character online, with all weapons, stats and equipment. Whilst online, your character will continue to level up in the normal manner, and when you return to the solo game all of your new skills and experience will transfer with your character. It’s a simple and effective system that we will no doubt see more of in the future.