Life on the Edge- Borderlands Review



From Cormac McCarthy’s The Road to Mad Max, artists have often used a post-armageddon world to explore humankind’s nature. While interactive entertainment is still an emergent medium, the Fallout series has used an end of the world scenario to probe into existential matters typically left untouched in gaming. Recent release Borderlands, may not ponder on the savage nature of man, but its bleak setting makes a remarkable backdrop first-person shooter/role playing game hybrid.  The title also toys with a player’s drive for self-preservation, consistently pitting gamers against a parade of fearsome opponents. 

In Pandora, the lawless setting for Borderlands, death awaits around every corner. Traversing maps is consistently precarious, as players can stumble onto a hive of Spiderants, or into a pack of Skags, the title’s ubiquitous wolf-like enemies. Even though players can employ the assistance of up to three cooperative gamers, the game cleverly scales the difficulty level to match the expertise of the party, maintaining a skillful sense of peril throughout. This level of tension is maintained by clever deviations from FPS norms, like when gamers pick off a single opponent from a distant flock. This action will typically send the remaining mob furiously charging at the player. Expect to spend a good amount of time feverishly backpedaling, while pumping opponents with ample amounts of lead.


Fortunately, Borderlands gives gamers a boundless armory of tools to dispatch any opposition. The title’s 17 million weapon permutations means players will be carrying firearms of varying strength, recoil amount, firing speed and ammo capacity. Additionally, weapons may have scopes of varying power, and damage mods which can hit foes with additional explosive, corrosive, electrical, or fire-based effects. Unlike say, Fallout 3, the probability of any weapon hitting its target is based less on statistics, and more on the player’s reflexes. However, number crunching does come into play when calculating damage; shelling more experienced adversaries typically does a minimal amount of harm.

Borderland’s structure leans toward open-ended exploration, although an assortment of errands advances the game’s plotline. Players are tasked with the conventional fetch quests and assassinations, but a lack of any significant voice acting through many of the missions does little to elevate these errands. Forcing players to backtrack through the landscapes to collect payment seems like a way to artificially inflate the game's length. Periodically, players will encounter the obligatory boss fight, which usually consists of circle-strafing the antagonist until your ammunition depletes.


Beyond conventional boss battles and errand fatigue, Borderland’s faults are gratifyingly minor. While the title’s vehicles remove the tedium of protracted treks across the game maps, their relationship to the environment feel artificial. Small obstacles can bring the gargantuan cars to a complete stop, making maneuvering through villages feel cumbersome. While multiplayer games are lively, the lack of a trading system means the title neglects an opportunity to create an vibrant economy out of the selling and purchasing of salvaged materials.

Visually, Borderlands utilizes a hand-drawn appearance that evokes 2007’s Crackdown. While intense firefights can cause the framerate to tumble, and the textures sporadically load slowly, the game’s draw-distance is generally superior, allowing players to see across the game’s desolate vistas. Some of the title’s effects are remarkably simple, yet intensely satisfying. When the player shoots enemies with a caustic weapon, foes emit a residual stream of numbers indicating the amount of damage taken. Seeing foes perish in a number of ways- from eruptions produced by a well-placed snipe to incineration triggered by a conflagration-based weapon, is consistently amusing.


Those seeking a solitary-oriented experience with Borderlands should be warned- the single-player game can feel unmistakably grind-heavy at times. However, those who prefer more communal diversions will likely be absorbed into the title’s well-crafted world. Borderlands is the rare game that culls from a variety of sources, competently interweaving the elements into a cohesive and satisfying package.

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Posted by DesertEagle at 10/24/2009 12:00 PM
Categories: PS3,360,Reviews
 

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