Outside 'Lands
After 15 hours tooling around Pandora, we're ready to say it: Borderlands kicks ass. Extensive impressions await you inside.
Published: September 15, 2009
Most previews -- at least here at TotalPlayStation -- aim to stay on the more optimistic side of things. We've seen far too many games go from terrible to perfectly polished in the span of just a few weeks to ever try to make a call one way or the other on the final product from a slickly streamlined few-minute peek at what the developer is shooting for. There are exceptions, of course, and we'll point out issues where they exist if not to alert the consumer of potential potholes, than at least the developer where they likely already know things are slipping.
Here's the problem as we see it with Borderlands: it doesn't really seem to have any. Actually, scratch that. The preview build we have of the game, which appears to be the whole of the retail experience, is sort of artificially truncated by way of the removal of a key trigger point in one of the main story missions. Without being able to enter that character's den and clean it out, we couldn't progress and thus unlock the next major area.
And this is how we know the game is shaping up to be fantastic: greeted with what was for all intents and purposes the end of our play time, we just kept playing more. We explored new areas, uncovered an arena fight that was ultimately far too tough for our character to completely clear out, we fought random enemies, tooled around in our zippy little weapon-mounted ride, during what would be minor firefights into a half-second meeting of flesh and bumper.
For another four hours after the game was supposed to be over for us, we kept playing. We kept leveling up our character, kept messing with all of the various perks and abilities, spent time playing with one of the game's biggest bullet points, it's randomly-generated tsunami of weapons, and completed every side mission available. In short, we wanted more, and thanks to the game being fairly open and assaulting us with a raft of alternate options, we were still served something to do when the main storyline was halted.
If you read our earlier preview of the first hour or so of the game, you'll know how things started out. Once again, we opted to go with Lilith, the sneakiest of the four main character classes in the game. Gifted with the ability to Phasewalk (literally move into an alternate plane of reality where enemies can no longer see her and where she moves more quickly, ultimately bamfing back into our reality with a concussive blast that can hurt nearby enemies), Lilith is a disciple of multiple ranges and weapon types, which is why we stuck with her in this bigger build. For more info on the way all four classes are set up, be sure to read that earlier preview, as it details how those roles work in the game's drop-in/drop-out online multiplayer too.
For the purposes of this preview, though, we'll concentrate on the overall feel of things. One of the single coolest parts about Borderlands is that you aren't rigidly bound by your character's class. Sure, you would do well to play toward the innate affinities that class possesses, but weapon proficiencies level up as you use a particular weapon; off enough enemies and you'll eventually become a crack shot with anything -- even if you weren't originally created as a bruiser who doles out rocket launcher deliveries like an ice cream truck in 100 weather.
You'll notice that we didn't say a rocket launcher was necessarily firing rockets, though. One of the more unique outcomes of essentially letting the game (with a few base rules) create the myriad weapons drops that occur with startling frequency is that the randomness can lead to weapons that fire ordinance outside of their usual roles. Pistols can fire shotgun shells, or sniper rounds or... well, you get the idea. Better still, some weapons are imbued with elemental bonuses, allowing you to light a guy on fire from 20 yards out. Like most games that are rife with loot drops, there's an almost constant process of analyzing a weapon laying on the ground (made easier by a handy little pop-up that appears when you draw near, telling you in plain numbers and colors what the damage, rate of fire, capacity, status effects, unique bonuses and so on are available) -- within a second or two, you're able to tell if you want to swap things out or leave it be just by glancing at how much green or red there is on the little readout.
Here's the problem as we see it with Borderlands: it doesn't really seem to have any. Actually, scratch that. The preview build we have of the game, which appears to be the whole of the retail experience, is sort of artificially truncated by way of the removal of a key trigger point in one of the main story missions. Without being able to enter that character's den and clean it out, we couldn't progress and thus unlock the next major area.
And this is how we know the game is shaping up to be fantastic: greeted with what was for all intents and purposes the end of our play time, we just kept playing more. We explored new areas, uncovered an arena fight that was ultimately far too tough for our character to completely clear out, we fought random enemies, tooled around in our zippy little weapon-mounted ride, during what would be minor firefights into a half-second meeting of flesh and bumper.
For another four hours after the game was supposed to be over for us, we kept playing. We kept leveling up our character, kept messing with all of the various perks and abilities, spent time playing with one of the game's biggest bullet points, it's randomly-generated tsunami of weapons, and completed every side mission available. In short, we wanted more, and thanks to the game being fairly open and assaulting us with a raft of alternate options, we were still served something to do when the main storyline was halted.
If you read our earlier preview of the first hour or so of the game, you'll know how things started out. Once again, we opted to go with Lilith, the sneakiest of the four main character classes in the game. Gifted with the ability to Phasewalk (literally move into an alternate plane of reality where enemies can no longer see her and where she moves more quickly, ultimately bamfing back into our reality with a concussive blast that can hurt nearby enemies), Lilith is a disciple of multiple ranges and weapon types, which is why we stuck with her in this bigger build. For more info on the way all four classes are set up, be sure to read that earlier preview, as it details how those roles work in the game's drop-in/drop-out online multiplayer too.
For the purposes of this preview, though, we'll concentrate on the overall feel of things. One of the single coolest parts about Borderlands is that you aren't rigidly bound by your character's class. Sure, you would do well to play toward the innate affinities that class possesses, but weapon proficiencies level up as you use a particular weapon; off enough enemies and you'll eventually become a crack shot with anything -- even if you weren't originally created as a bruiser who doles out rocket launcher deliveries like an ice cream truck in 100 weather.
You'll notice that we didn't say a rocket launcher was necessarily firing rockets, though. One of the more unique outcomes of essentially letting the game (with a few base rules) create the myriad weapons drops that occur with startling frequency is that the randomness can lead to weapons that fire ordinance outside of their usual roles. Pistols can fire shotgun shells, or sniper rounds or... well, you get the idea. Better still, some weapons are imbued with elemental bonuses, allowing you to light a guy on fire from 20 yards out. Like most games that are rife with loot drops, there's an almost constant process of analyzing a weapon laying on the ground (made easier by a handy little pop-up that appears when you draw near, telling you in plain numbers and colors what the damage, rate of fire, capacity, status effects, unique bonuses and so on are available) -- within a second or two, you're able to tell if you want to swap things out or leave it be just by glancing at how much green or red there is on the little readout.
