The Tech Pod

If you read my previous article about Borderlands you’d know that I was really looking forward to this game, and unfortunetly it doesn’t fail to disappoint.

There are four characters to try your hand at, Roland, Mordecai, Lilith and Brick, each character has a different action skill, a temperary power up. I’ll explain each one in more detail.

Roland is the soldier class, he is good with shotguns and assault rifles. His action skill gives him a turret that comes with a small energy shield.
Brick is the heavy class, he’s good with explosive weapons. His action skill makes him move faster, take less damage and deal more, called Beserker.
Lilith is the special class, she is good with weapons that fire incendiary, corrosive and shock bullets. Her action skill, called Phase Walking, allows her to turn invisible and appear next to the enemy, dealing damage when she does.
Finally Mordecai is the sniper, he’s good with, believe it or not, snipers and revolvers. His action skill calls a hawk to attack enemys behind cover.
Where I say the character is good with a weapon it’s all subject to change, all you do is find the type of weapon you want and use it alot to get good at it, for example my soldier is level 2 proficiency with a sniper. And under each character there are three skill trees, my soldier is also a medic, when I shoot team mates I heal them and my turret heals people standing near it, including me. But I could of easily become more on the offence and made my turret do more damage, it’s another level of customization.

Roland's skill tree

Talking about guns… Borderlands boasts “8 gazillion guns,” their words not mine. Although this seems like a hard task for the developers to do, they don’t have too. What the game does is randomly generate guns on the fly, and you end up with a gun with some added extras. For some reason my computer decided to give me a shotgun with a scope, not sure how it helps. But what you could end up with is a sniper with +53% critical damage, or a light machine gun with -34% reload speed. Guns can also make bullets; set people on fire, electrocute them, put acid on them or explode.

Which leads me onto my next part, e-penis envy. My sniper sets people on fire when I shoot them, reloads in about 3 seconds, carrys 11 shots per clip and most importently, is yellow. I’m highly proud of this sniper and often find myself thinking about it at school and around my house (sad I know).
On the rare occasion I go online, I start stealing glances at other peoples guns and off-handly complimenting them hoping they’ll notice my yellow sniper (which has a matching assault rifle I should add). But because the stats are randomized then fine tuned, the chances of me getting the same gun as that level 26 who’s gun fires rockets in a shotgun spread, then sets the enemys on fire, is next to none, I have to keep reassuring myself that my penis I mean gun, is fine.

Yes, this is my yellow penis

Of course with any game, story is a factor in how good the game is, and this is the only place Borderlands is let down, it’s about an adventurer (you) who goes to Pandora, (the planet where the game is set,) to find “The Vault.” A fabled place containing objects of great wealth. Not exactly gripping is it? But let’s be honest, when you’ve got a shotgun that electrocutes people, do you really care?

Another thing to add is the look, it is very cartoony, and looks brillient, even on my low-spec computer, all people or creatures are outlined in black giving them a bold look. Overall no complaints what so ever in the visual department.

The humor is this game is also top-notch, weather it’s Gearbox’s info about Nine-Toes (he also has three balls,) Claptrap’s (your robot helper) cries of “Look at me! I’m dancing, I’m dancing!” The signs outside enemy bases reading “Piss off” or just Scooter who’s friend Lucky “Wrecked my mum’s lady parts.” There have been several times I laughed out loud.

The health and safety inspector would have a fit

When you get a little way into the game you unlock a car to play around with, this is hard to drive at first, the car drives towards where your mouse is pointing, but soon becomes easy, you’ll be jumping ‘Piss Gorge’ in no time. There is two weapons to have, rocket launcher and machine gun. But most fun is the fact that these cars can be used in multiplayer, on person driving with another in the turret on top. Those skags don’t stand a chance.

This guy was shouting "I'm going to kill you!" He's a bit confused

The final bit I want to talk about is the multiplayer, where four people can team up to tackle the quests, this is good if everyone is a similar level, because otherwise it gets to hard for the lower level as enemys increase in difficulty the more players there are, but with a good team of similar levels it really is enjoyable, although I personly prefer to plough through it alone.

Overall I think Borderlands is a extremely good game, which is why I’m giving it 4.8/5

Heres a crappy video, the game normally runs faster but Fraps lags it:

Borderlands #1