Borderlands for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC
Release dates for consoles: Oct 20 (NA) and Oct 23 (PAL)
Release dates for PC: Oct 26 (NA) and Oct 30 (PAL)
The Story
In the distant future, several colonization ships journey to Pandora, a planet on the edge of the galaxy. The colonists are drawn to the planet in search of a better life and the prospect of striking it rich by claiming the vast deposits of mineral resources rumored to be there. After finally arriving, the colonists discover that the planet is barren of anything of significant value other than deteriorated alien ruins scattered across the land. Those who can afford to do so leave Pandora, and those who remain revolve around chaos and lawlessness. Some of the settlers seek to get rich quick by discovering alien technology, but most others are just trying to survive. After seven Earth years, Pandora's orbit brings it to the transition from winter to spring, and many horrifying creatures emerge from hibernation.
4 Characters/4 Classes
Once a human, Lilith at one point was turned into a siren. One of only six Sirens, they are a group of people with unbelievable powers, but no way to control them. She comes to Pandora in search of another Siren, in an effort to find out more about herself. Lilith's most iconic ability is called "Phase Walk", where she will teleport herself into another dimension where Lilith becomes invisible and can sneak around enemies with massively increased speed. Upon revealing herself, she detonates a shock-wave that can do area effect damage to all enemies. Her skill trees are Controller, which makes Lilith's Phasewalk and melee attacks more powerful; Elemental, which makes her more powerful with guns by increasing their rate of fire and making the elemental effects of weapons have a higher chance of happening; and The Assassin tree makes her critical chances become higher, and increases her Phasewalk melee attack.
Weapons of Choice: Incendiary, shock and corrosive guns.
Starting skill, Phasewalk: Simultaneously turn invisible and become faster, allowing you to move behind enemies and attack them when they least expect it.
Skill Tree (http://www.borderlandsthegame.com/skilltree/lilith/#20000000000000000000000)
3 Skill branches
Controller Focuses on improving your chatacter's survivability and dazing enemies.
Elemental Adds elemental damage to your shots and improving your rate of fire.
Assassin Emphasizes melee damage and faster ways to kill enemies.
Roland is a former soldier of the Crimson Lance, a sort of highly trained private military that disregards law and order. A decade-old vendetta is rekindled when Roland learns that the leader of the Brigadiers has a suspiciously similar name to a man he has sworn to kill. Roland's class specific skill is a turret. It can be specialized to deal damage, heal teammates, or spawn ammo. His other skills involve increasing the damage he can inflict to making his bullets heal teammates.His skill trees are: Medical which specializes him in healing himself and teammates, Support which improves the effectiveness of his turret, and Infantry which improves his damage with weapons.
Weapons of Choice: Combat rifles and shotguns.
Starting skill, Scorpid turret: Deploy a turret that automatically fires at enemies and has a shield for some protection too.
Skill tree (http://www.borderlandsthegame.com/skilltree/roland/#00000000000000000000000)
3 skill branches
Infantry Put your points into weapon increasing weapon efficiency.
Support Makes the soldier a walking supply depot, improves shields and grenades.
Medic Become a healer in this branch.
Mordecai came to Pandora in search of a man from his past named Demosthenes. Upon learning that Demosthenes has died, Mordecai sets off to learn how he died and what he was carrying. Mordecai is most proficient with pistols and sniper rifles. His class specific skill is the ability to release a deadly pet Bloodwing which can be trained to kill multiple people at one time. Mordecai's gunslinger skills benefit his proficiency with pistols (specifically, revolvers). His sniper tree adds damage bonuses to sniper rifle and makes him a more proficient sniper, and his rogue tree serves to improve his pet Bloodwing.
Weapons of Choice: Sniper rifles and revolvers.
Starting skill, Bloodwing: Summon a pet bird to attack the enemy.
Skill tree (http://www.borderlandsthegame.com/skilltree/mordecai/#10000000000000000000000)
3 skill branches
Sniper Imprive sniping in various ways.
Rogue Improves pet damage, loot and reload speed.
Gunslinger Inceases damage in various ways and speeds up killing.
A massive specimen of a man who likes to use his fists to smash the enemy above all else. He wears a necklace adorned with the paw of his beloved deceased dog. He fills in the tank niche and can take quite a beating. His class specific skill is being able to go into a state called "berserker" which makes him invulnerable for a short period and makes his melee attacks extremely potent. His Brawler tree increases the power and duration time of Berserker, and also adds damage to his melee attacks. His Blaster tree increases his proficiency with weapons, mainly explosives. The Tank tree increases his maximum health and affects how fast his shield will recharge, and how much damage it can take.
Weapons of choice: Explosive weapons and fists
Starting skillg, Berserk: Use your fists instead of guns while increasing damage resistance and health regeneration
Skill Tree (http://www.borderlandsthegame.com/skilltree/brick/#30000000000000000000000)
3 skill branches
Brawler Increases melee damage and benefits.
Tank Become a bullet sponge, absorbing much more damage.
Blaster Focuses on increasing explosive and weapon damage.
Gameplay
The gameplay mixes the accuracy of FPS and the looting, skills, quests and leveling from RPGs. There will be 160 quests (30 of which are from the main story). Each character represents a class with unique skills, abilities and emphasis on specific type of weapons.
There will be a New Game+, after you beat the game you may start again and everything will be raised to your leveled and you start with all your abilities, skills and gear intact.
Loot, enemies and objects in the game are mostly randomly generated. There are specific pieces of loot dropping from specific enemies and locations. Towers, caves and bunkers will randomly appear across zones when you enter them.
The game's biggest selling point is 4 player online co-op where a player can drop in or out of a game whenever they want. The game scales to the number of players and their levels.
There are over 17 million weapons that drop in the game. This does not mean that every gun looks brand new or has completely different stats. Think of Diablo as a reference for loot, lots of loot with minor differences, but some of it is specific and a large improvement (dropped from bosses and such).
You can customize your character's name, equipment and hair colors.
Screenshots
from 1up.com
Impressions:
Barozi said:
I really like the game although it definitely has its flaws.
- The game is sometimes VERY hard. The first "boss" will give you a headache. Many overpowered enemies. Be sure to have a higher level than them or you're finished.
- respawning enemies after you left an area. You will face them constantly
- almost no friendly NPCs. The area looks more dead than in Fallout 3....
- everytime you finish a quest you have to go back to that place where you accepted the quest. MEH....
- Action skill is pretty useless (at least at the beginning)
- no "game over"- screen; you get the chance to receive new strength if you can defeat an enemy while you're slowly lose your consciousness. If not you will respawn at checkpoints. In co-op you can revive your buddy instantly.
- You always have plenty to do. About 5 active quests suited to your current level. (although you must complete them all to stand a chance....or you're doing a lot of grinding)
- if you play in co-op there will be more enemies to face.
The selection of weapons is truly awesome and it's fun to get the best. Although that can become a problem in co-op.
I used Game Informer and the Borderlands Official site for info.
VG Chartz Co-op
If you are buying the game on PS3 or 360 and want to play co-op with VG Chartz members post your PSN ID or Xbox Live gamertag and I will add you to thist list.
Xbox 360 (vgc username / XBL)
ckmlb / ckmlb
themanwithnoname / tkul815
heruamon / Hiruu Amon
Zucas / ZUCAS
Strategyking92 / strategykinq92 (Rent)
Ari_Gold / Loko Moi MX
Grahamhsu / oXTooShortXo
MrBubbles / TheRedMessiah
PS3 (vgc username / PSN)
ShadowSoldier / LegendaryAim
Vetteman94 / BIG_Daddy_99
Boutros / oXTooShortXo
pic414 / PIC414
Feylic / Feylic
Reviews (Metacritic currently at 85%)
Game Informer: 9.25/10, 9.5/10 (http://gameinformer.com/games/borderlands/b/xbox360/archive/2009/10/19/borderlands-review.aspx)
Gearbox's first stab at a role-playing shooter is a resounding success. Borderlands takes the best gameplay aspects of RPGs (leveling up your character, unlocking new skills, and amassing endless mountains of loot) and marries them with spot-on FPS controls. The ridiculous arsenal cache is everything you want it to be (save for customization), and taking down overly powerful enemies has never been more gratifying.
Gamepro: 9/10 (http://reviews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1787/Borderlands/p1/)
IGN.com: 8.8/10 (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/103/1035922p1.html)
Gearbox's Borderlands is without a doubt a slick, satisfying hybrid title for those who know what to expect. With the opportunity for up to four to join together for co-operative play, four character classes, a dizzying array of firearms, around 20 or so hours of content for a single playthrough and the option to restart with stronger enemies and loot, there's plenty of content here.
OXM: 8.5 (http://www.oxmonline.com/article/reviews/xbox-360/a-f/borderlands)
Gametrailers: 8.4/10 (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-hd-borderlands/57869)
1UP: B+ (http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3176535&p=4)
Call it a first-person Diablo, an evolution of Resistance 2's co-op mode, Monster Hunter for the west, or a party game for FPS gamers. Call it the best example of the transformative power of multiplayer. Whatever you designate it, Borderlands is a decent single-player FPS/RPG that simply becomes great.
Giantbomb: 4/5 (http://www.giantbomb.com/borderlands/61-20487/reviews/)
The structure of Borderlands makes it feel like an MMO game that doesn't require you to rely on groups of other players to enjoy. Though it's probably better when you're playing online with friends, playing alone is still perfectly fine. It's also one of those games that's so strong in parts that its shortcomings become almost glaring by comparison. But when you're frantically trying to stay alive while getting swarmed by an angry horde of gigantic spiderants, chances are you won't care much about that other stuff. Borderlands strongly succeeds where plenty of other Diablo-inspired games have failed miserably.
Thanks to Blacksaber for the sig!
