Ain't No Rest for the Wicked
Money don't grow on trees in Borderlands it's found on the hundreds of bodies of those you've killed. Probably with friends. Also, in about 82 bajillion storage lockers.
Published: October 22, 2009
The game's visual appeal really isn't a secret; fairly late in the project, a few art guys at Gearbox worked in semi-secrecy to completely overhaul the look of things to make it fall more in line with the concept art they'd been doing all along. The shift, clearly, was the right one to make, as Borderlands is one of the prettiest damn games I've played in a long time. It's not that there's a ton of detail, but every rock shaded with a couple hashes or building sculpted from heavy pencil-like lines just feels like part of the world. All the minutia builds atop itself to create this world that feels incredible comfortable in its look and feel and because it starts at the per-rock level, everything has that cohesive feel. I'm frankly stunned that this is an Unreal Engine 3 game because it sure as hell doesn't look it.
Boderlands is also remarkably adept at doling out a lot of information at a glance. Come across a weapon and you can simply point at it to bring up a list of basic stats and info on its rarity or bonus stats, right down to simple arrows that tell you if it's more powerful in an particular stat than what you've got mapped to any of your quickslots (which eventually grow to take over all four directions on the d-pad). The game's framerate isn't always consistent, but for the most part it manages to approach 30 and stay there well enough to not mess with one's aim. Given that things like accuracy are measured in the stats anyway, it usually pays to close the distance to a target anyway.
I loved this game's soundtrack, there's just no way around it. Though I felt things peaked pretty much in the Fyrestone, the first town you'll explore, the sliding guitar, echoing refains and rolling ambient notes just set the tone of things: desolate, downtrodden and yet rich with possibility. When the game drops into battle music, the starting area of Skag Gulch again provides some of the most compelling tunes, with a haunting bit of throat singing layering on top of a driving beat. The game never really seems to capture these feelings of almost Spaghetti Western-meets-tribal moods again, but there's certainly no lack of good stuff to hear -- I particularly dug the copious use of a shrill kind of build during the various bits of battle music that you often hear during bit action movie trailer climaxes.
And it's certainly not like the rest of the sound effects are a slouch either. The voice acting across the board is fantastic, with nary a bad performance in the bunch. Most tend to have a kind of backwater twang to their voice, and the lines from Scooter, the purveyor of rides on Pandora, are absolutely hilarious. Likewise, the weapons tend to have a high-tech feel to them, something that might lead one to thing they're a little weak-sounding, but I had no real issues with the meatiness of stuff like the shotgun or rocket launcher, and the controlled spray of an uzi or SMG is just... satisfying.
It's rare that a game comes around that keeps me so utterly engrossed that I end up pouring in enough time to earn a Platinum Trophy -- and even more rare that it takes a good four dozen hours to get to that point. I absolutely marathoned Borderlands, though, spending as much as 12 hours playing the damn thing because I just couldn't stop. Once I'd reached the endgame twice, I was more or less done, but by then the game had paid off more than enough to feel I'd gotten my fill. And hell, who knows. Maybe once the Holiday rush has died down, I'll start up a new character and go exploring Pandora again... even if I'll never learn anything more about that character.
