Borderlands. A half way point reveiw.
Mr Rob
I say "half way" but what I really mean is that I've reached level 25.
To get to level 50 you have to play through the game a second time,
much like Hellgate: London. Players usually reach the mid to high
thirties before finishing play through 1.
I'm finding this game to be an extremely enjoyable experience. In part
because it borrows several gameplay aspects from Hellgate: London, and
by default, Diablo 2.
Borderlands is a loot based game. It relies on the addictive nature of
the type of gamer that thrives on the quest for new and better gear.
There are guns by the truckload, all with different attributes that
are a clever mix of better and worse than the guns you already have.
As well as the weapons there are other complimentary items and
upgrades that make those weapons more powerful or versatile. There is
a skill points system that allows a player to further strengthen their
character's durability or firepower. Killing enemies and completing
quests awards experience points that increases a players level, which
in turn grants access to even more powerful and versatile weapons.
Money allows the player to buy ammunition, weapons, and upgrades.
There are a zillion different shield modules and grenade enhancements
to choose from, as well as clip size upgrades to waste your Pandoran
Dollars on.
This is all basic "RPG lite" stuff. But, to their credit, Gearbox has
taken these "safe" ingredients and made a very addictive and
entertaining game. This will be one of the few games this year that I
will actually finish. I will probably play it several times to
experience all of the content and play the different classes of
character.
There are downsides to this charming romp. The "fetch ten of these,
kill twenty of those" type of quests quickly get a little old. The
enemies are almost of the same appearance at the 2/3rd point in the
game as they are at the very start. Everything is just at a higher
level and a little harder to kill. Some of the wildlife is different,
which does help.
There are more plusses than minuses though. The environments of each
zone are of sufficiently different design to keep things feeling
fresh. Some of the areas are impressively expansive and take a long
time to get through. The bosses are challenging enough. But thankfully
they're not the tediously dull "hit point bricks" found in most other
games of this type.
Travel is handled well, primarily with grossly overpowered but
enormously fun off-road type vehicles. Each vehicle has a machine gun
or rocket launcher. But the best way of killing ambulatory objects in
this game is by running them over. There is some vehicular combat
which makes for some thrilling pandemonium. There is also "fast
travel" between waypoint beacons in each area.
There is no doubt in my mind that Borderlands is going to be GOTY for
an awful lot of people. Possibly including me now that I've played it
extensively. It falters a little in multi player though, which may
well put some people off.
The co-op play is great fun. But the lack of personal loot drops means
that playing with strangers will often result in loot hogging. There
is no elegant way of exchanging items or cash,and there is no player
stash, which takes the edge off of collecting loot somewhat. Duping
and "hexing" high end items is already rife unfortunately. It is also
possible to create money and alter the game files to give yourself
massive inventory space.
It is a fabulous game though. The co-op mode is definitely best played
with people that you know and trust. There is downloadable content
promised for the end of November and talk of a Borderlands 2 already.
Hopefully a second game can improve on the few shortcomings that this
game has.
8/10.
PW
Is this a single player or multiplayer review? I read a few reviews
and they all say that in SP you are on your own (unless I misread
them). Not Co-Op like with L4D or bots like in UT, etc...
-pw
MetalGuru
> There is no doubt in my mind that Borderlands is going to be GOTY for
> an awful lot of people. Possibly including me now that I've played it
> extensively. It falters a little in multi player though, which may
> well put some people off.
>
> It is a fabulous game though. The co-op mode is definitely best played
> with people that you know and trust. There is downloadable content
> promised for the end of November and talk of a Borderlands 2 already.
>
> 8/10.
Hmmm... wonder who wrote something strikingly similar some time ago...
Oh shit, wait -- it was me, almost four months ago! <EG>
And you, Mr Rob, wouldn't touch this game with a ten feet pole if I
remember correctly. <BFEG>
On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:11:39 -0400, "MetalGuru" <some...@mail.com>
wrote:
> I can understand people not liking this type of graphics, but I think
> it looks amazingly awesome (understandibly so coming from a comic book
> fan like myself).
>
> But with 4 player online co-op, shooter and RPG elements (RPS or Role
> Playing Shooter as they call it) and a badass post-Apocalyptic world
> in a game developed by GearBox chances are this is going to be GOTY
> material IMHO. And probably what Fallout 3 could have been like if
> it hadn't taken itself so seriously <EG>
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDSRdp6Ar3M
JAB
Play it through again you say ... nah that's one thing I won't be doing.
I quite like the game but my 15 hours, or so, of play so far is just
about enough. It was a blast while it lasted but now there are no new
guns, no new enemies and no new looking areas. It's not a bad game but
it does have enough variety to keep me interested in playing or want to
play sections again. Now back to playing Dragon Age ...
Nostromo
23:40:26 +0000, Anno Domini:
>
>I say "half way" but what I really mean is that I've reached level 25.
>To get to level 50 you have to play through the game a second time,
>much like Hellgate: London. Players usually reach the mid to high
>thirties before finishing play through 1.
<snip>
>It is a fabulous game though. The co-op mode is definitely best played
>with people that you know and trust. There is downloadable content
>promised for the end of November and talk of a Borderlands 2 already.
>
>Hopefully a second game can improve on the few shortcomings that this
>game has.
>
>8/10.
Cheers Rob. Might take a look-see if DAO bores me soon enough.
--
Nostromo
Mr Rob
wrote:
>>Mr Rob wrote:
>> It is a fabulous game though. The co-op mode is definitely best played
>> with people that you know and trust. There is downloadable content
>> promised for the end of November and talk of a Borderlands 2 already.
>>
>> 8/10.
>
>Hmmm... wonder who wrote something strikingly similar some time ago...
>Oh shit, wait -- it was me, almost four months ago! <EG>
>And you, Mr Rob, wouldn't touch this game with a ten feet pole if I
>remember correctly. <BFEG>
I more or less got over my little hissy fit about the change in
artistic direction. I haven't changed my opinion about that aspect of
the game though. I still believe it to be a needless indulgence on the
part of the developers rather than an enhancement for their audience.
I'd give the game 9/10 if the graphics were more Rage and less Dennis
The Menace.
--
Rob
Werner Spahl
> There are a zillion different shield modules and grenade enhancements to
> choose from, as well as clip size upgrades to waste your Pandoran
> Dollars on.
I have a question regarding this: With all those thousands of different
weapons, won't you loose your upgrades very fast? Or are these valid for
all weapons of one type?
--
Dr. Werner Spahl (sp...@cup.uni-muenchen.de) Freedom for
Wesp5 @ Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Vorlonships
Mr Rob
<sp...@cup.uni-muenchen.de> wrote:
>On Tue, 17 Nov 2009, Mr Rob wrote:
>
>> There are a zillion different shield modules and grenade enhancements to
>> choose from, as well as clip size upgrades to waste your Pandoran
>> Dollars on.
>
>I have a question regarding this: With all those thousands of different
>weapons, won't you loose your upgrades very fast? Or are these valid for
>all weapons of one type?
The upgrades are equipped in your inventory rather than into a weapon
and therefore apply to whatever weapon of that type that you currently
have equipped. For instance, an SMG clip size upgrade will apply to
any SMG that you wield.
The real difference is in the special attributes and affixes built
into the weapons themselves. One rifle may deal 192 points of damage
per shot, fire 2 rounds per second and have an accuracy of 87.5
Another rifle that you find may deal 175 points of damage per round
but have a firing rate of 2.5 rounds per second and an accuracy of 95.
Then there are special affixes like 150% critical chance, +3% damage
increase, +% chance to ignite, poison, electrocute, or detonate an
enemy.
You have to weigh the pro's and con's of each weapon. There are lots
of them to choose from too. Automatic rifles, semi's, SMG's,
revolvers, pistols, rocket launchers, shotties and sniper rifles.
Depending on which class you choose when you start you character,
different weapons will work slightly more or less in your favour
because of the different complimentary skill trees. All weapons work
with all classes though. I chose Soldier over Hunter but I use mainly
sniper rifles (which favour the Hunter skills) and shotties.
In this respect Borderlands is extremely similar to Hellgate: London.
--
Rob
Sleepy
"Mr Rob" <noemail...@jsjsaiiowppw.com> wrote in message
news:3bm7g5tfa6cle6snk...@4ax.com...
I've just stumbled on a Utility in the Gearbox forums by a French guy (Obli)
that allows a lot of tweaking. Bind a FOV change to the sprint key - disable
the 'outline' shader etc. It a 400kb utility that does more for the game
than Gearbox' 180mb patch.
MageMaster
> I say "half way" but what I really mean is that I've reached level 25.
> To get to level 50 you have to play through the game a second time,
> much like Hellgate: London. Players usually reach the mid to high
> thirties before finishing play through 1.
>
Snip for brevity...
> Travel is handled well, primarily with grossly overpowered but
> enormously fun off-road type vehicles. Each vehicle has a machine gun
> or rocket launcher. But the best way of killing ambulatory objects in
> this game is by running them over. There is some vehicular combat
> which makes for some thrilling pandemonium. There is also "fast
> travel" between waypoint beacons in each area.
>
> There is no doubt in my mind that Borderlands is going to be GOTY for
> an awful lot of people. Possibly including me now that I've played it
> extensively. It falters a little in multi player though, which may
> well put some people off.
>
Snip for brevity...
> 8/10.
My score, 9/10
2K & Gearbox prove you can publish a very good game that does NOT need
a Super Computer to run, runs very smoothly.
My rig:
- WinXP SP3
- 2gb RAM
- Pentium 4 3GHz Hyper-Threading (multi-processor, logical)
- 720+ gb total HD capacity (7 Logical Drives)
- GeForce 7600 GS 512mb
One thing I really, really like is HOW you steer vehicles, WITH THE
MOUSE! This is how all games with vehicles should work, NOT with arrow-
keys.
The other thing I like is the Journal (?) {Quest Log, Map, Inventory,
etc.}. The Quest Log including WHERE you have to go (area in Pandora)
next on non-completed missions. The icon for Active Missions on the
map, sometimes not accurate but this is good IMHO because you may
still have to do some searching in the area of the icon to find your
goal. Also like the "Compare" option for Inventory.
Borderlands has my vote for GOTY.
CJM
I'm at the early stages of the game, which I understand is the least
interesting bit (judging by others' opinions and reviews), but it's not
particularly impressive as yet.
I didn't like the idea of the cell-shading, at least not this
implementation, and although I wouldn't like to see it on too many games, i
don't mind too much.
Missions are a bit repetitive and linear at the moment, and if there is one
thing I hate it is choice, or lack thereof.
On the other hand, I knew all this and was prepared to give it a shot (where
else would my MW2 money go?), and I'll persevere. In fact, I'll probably
'complete' the game quite happily, but I don't think I'll be replaying as
another character afterwards, and it won't be my GOTY.
Mr Rob
>I've just stumbled on a Utility in the Gearbox forums by a French guy (Obli)
>that allows a lot of tweaking. Bind a FOV change to the sprint key - disable
>the 'outline' shader etc. It a 400kb utility that does more for the game
>than Gearbox' 180mb patch.
>
>http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=85874
That's absolutely brilliant. Thanks Sleepy.
Getting rid of that Nvidia/Claptrap movie every time I start the game
is such a relief. I'm also pleased to able to change the crouch to
crouch hold instead of crouch toggle.
I will also disable the line shading before I play the game again.
--
Rob
Unknown
Please explain more about co-op play. My experience with online play
is mostly limited to doom and quakefest play on private servers
amongst people who made the maps, and weapons. So mostly in a close
knit family, where DM is "co-op" in a way -- but I'm almost totally
ignorant of what happens on modern public servers, esp. w.r.t. co-op
action games.
Unknown
e.g. I'm interested in a difference between Borderlands and L4D2.
Do you get snaggled into something like "steam powered forums" if you
decide to play Borderlands? When schemes get overly commercial it
acts like a field of repulsion, on me.
Antonio Huerta
in Stalker or Fallout 3 ?
The matter is that in those games, it was soul-wrecking for me to
throw away weapons and armour as the inventory was full already. I
prefer the games where I can put an indefinite amount of weapons and
armour and food into my inventory. Othervise I would not buy the game.
Please answer my question; this will alow me to decide whether to buy
the game or not.
Mr Rob
The game only allows for a limited amount of inventory space. You can
sell items on to make space again. It is actually quite a small
inventory too, even after you have found inventory upgrades.
It is also possible to "cheat" and make your inventory space massive.
You can either use a hex editor or (I believe) make some changes to an
.ini file.
--
Rob