Need a little help from your (gaming) friends
By Ben Salter
Borderlands is a fantastic shooter – when it’s played in co-op. As a single player title something just doesn’t sit right. Imagine a world inspired by World of Warcraft a little by Fallout 3, a bit by Diablo 2 and slightly by Mad Max, presented in gorgeous cel-shaded visuals. Include RPG elements with more of a traditional FPS than most hybrids and you’ve got Borderlands. However, if you’re looking for a strictly solo experience Borderlands is by far not the game for you. I normally wouldn’t crush spirits so early on, but almost everyone who hasn’t been enjoying Borderlands has been playing in single player, and that’s because it’s a multiplayer game. If you’re wiling to grab a headset, and jump online, or split screen, then onward!
The game opens in style, and requires you to choose from one of four characters – the Soldier, Berzerker, Hunter or Siren (aka stealth chick). Each character has their own special abilities, and weapon customisations, so choose carefully depending on your style of play. The fairly limited script is full of humour, most of which can be attributed to the graphical style (but more on that later). It’s great to see an RPG that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it doesn’t go over the top and keeps things in a post-apocalyptic world. Set on the planet Pandora a mysterious alien vault is rumoured to contain more wealth and power than you could possibly imagine. The entire planet is mesmerised by what is inside, including which ever character you choose. Like any good adventure, Borderlands is more about the journey than the final destination. The story does it’s job, but is really only there to give you a reason to kill things.
After you’ve selected your character you must guide them through an epic journey full of quests, missions and dungeons. Simply put, most of the game is either “go to point A and kill the bad guy and/or collect item X” or travelling for ages throughout the vast landscape. Unlike similar games, like Fallout 3, the shooting elements are more like a traditional FPS. Whereas in Fallout 3 shooting an opponent was all based on stats, and to a degree luck, here it’s all about shoot and hit. If you aim for an opponent’s chest you’re going to hit them, which is sure to please FPS fans. Being an RPG how much damage you do will come down to the weapon’s stats as well as your character’s. The trade-off, however, is the inability to be rewarded for targeting certain areas. You can’t disable an enemy by shooting their arm or legs. A headshot will dish out more damage, and if you’re not a diehard RPG shooter fan you’ll quite possibly enjoy this system a lot more.
Borderlands is still primary an RPG, and takes a giant leaf out of World of Warcraft’s book in its levelling up system. It’s become stock standard in RPGs these days, and levelling up is almost what the game is all about. Starting at level 1 your character will earn experience for almost everything they do (although, killing things is all they really do) to obtain a maximum level of 50. The game is very unforgiving when it comes to level differences, when it comes to single player. If you come across a foe 1-2 levels higher than you prepare for a challenge. Depending on how many side quests you do, Borderlands will take anywhere between 20-35 hours to complete. However, if these are bypassed in favour of the main quests you won’t level up enough. Toiling through side quests isn’t for everyone and the tight level differences makes it increasingly difficult when playing alone. The more side action that is missed, the harder it becomes to defeat enemies, and the more likely you are to try and avoid them.
The specific skill upgrades are also influenced by WoW as well as Diablo 2. Each character has three separate areas to apply skills to: damage, support and medical. Playing as the super buff solider, Roland, we liked to increase his damage abilities to create a machine of a warrior. The disadvantage was that he became a little weak late on, and wasn’t as supportive to other characters in co-op as he should have been. You earn skill points regularly, and it’s quite easy to make either a balance or top-heavy character in one department. If you do completely ruin the stats you can, for a rather large cost, rearrange specs during the game, a nice feature for trigger heavy, or novice, RPG players. If you’re going to be playing with the same mates throughout most of the game it may well be worth tactically deciding how you should craft your character early on. And that brings us to the most important aspect of Borderlands; the co-op.
Borderlands is a multiplayer game. Yes, you can go it lonesome, but it’s nowhere near as good, and easily becomes repetitive and boring. It’s been designed for 4 players, and without at least 2 it just doesn’t work anywhere near as well. As you add more players the game compensates by introducing new, stronger, enemies. Playing with more people also eradicates the problem of 1-2 levels making a battle extremely lopsided that you’ll have in single player. Although, bear in mind, that it’s not recommended playing as a level 35 with a friend stuck on level 1; it has disaster written all over it. For best results you want to play with people as close to you skill-wise as possible. If you have the time Borderlands would be best played over a few days from start to finish with the same 3 mates. Oh, what a world it would be if we could drop everything and do that as we pleased.
Once you’ve played co-op it’s near impossible to go back. The story seems worse, you’ll realise it’s just a weird woman telling you to find a random vault, and the gameplay feels bland. The A.I. are idiots; almost every single one of them will elect for the N64 style run in guns blazing. You’ll be inclined to do the same after a while, and either shot gun them to the face, or die. Playing with 3 mates suddenly makes it interesting. Swarm vs. swarm is actually fun, especially if you can send in a stealth character first, with some long-range snipper support and the Calvary taking the fire in between. Playing it solo won’t keep you hooked as the multiplayer does. The gameplay just feels half-baked, and not yet done. If you’re having doubts about the game, but have only experienced it solo, do yourself a favour and jump online to at least test it out.
Dying isn’t the end of the world; as you’ll be given the chance to bring yourself back to good health (or at least not dead) by killing an enemy when you’re down within a brief time limit. Once again this works much better in co-op. Your mates can come to your aid and help you get that all-important kill. It’s easier just to respawn and start again when playing solo, as chances are you either won’t make the kill, or will revive yourself just to be cut down again by another enemy.
The vehicle combat is fun, but you really need a second player to get the most out of it. Your badass buggy has two seats, which is questionable considering it’s a four-player game, and that really becomes awkward in single player. With either unlimited rockets, or giant machine gun ammo. It’s a little overpowered, but presents a solution to enemies that are of a higher level than you. It’s easy to take down almost anyone when you can shoot them with as many rockets as you please, or just run them over.
Even for such a great 4-player co-op game it isn’t without it’s flaws. Playing the PS3 version, the loading screens really killed the mood taking just that little bit too long. We also had trouble getting into games on the public server, less of an issue on the 360 and presumably PC, but it's a massive issue for a co-op game. Great online play is useless if you can't get a game online. In saying that, at the end of the day you really want to be playing with mates anyway. There’s also no type of storage system. For a game that boasts a million weapons it’s really annoying not having any way to store all of your loot. You’ll constantly have to sell, or discard items, to make room for new bits and pieces.
The visual are stunning, but certainly not for everyone. I love what Gearbox have done with their comic-inspired cel-shaded world. Realism is thrown out the window, a risky move with a game of this nature, but it’s payed dividends. Most of the world is a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and the bold colours and lines really make that standout, in a comedic fashion. The soundtrack is decent, as is the voice acting, but honestly you won’t remember it. It’s a co-op headset game, so you’re far too busy talking trash to pay much attention to the background noise.
The Final Verdict
I’m going to finish on the note that I began on. Borderlands is a fantastic FPS RPG – when playing co-op. It’s almost a different game when playing with 3 mates, as that same gameplay, which became bland and repetitive alone just works. The RPG elements are designed for more than one player, as is the combat. If you’re looking for a solo experience then stay away, on the contrary if you’re after a co-op RPG/FPS hybrid then Borderlands is right up there as one of the best of the year.