Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Review: Borderlands (and expansions)

Genre: FPS, RPG hybrid.
System: XBox 360, PS3, IBM PC (XBox 360 version reviewed, single player only)
Reviewer: Rich Hutnik

Summary: Players single player or coop storm the planet Pandora (not to be confused with the moon from the movie Avatar) for loot an obscenely large number of procedurally generated weapons. Graphic of the game are done in a cell shaded manner.

Pros:
* Fun cross between an FPS and an RPG ("hack and slash" loot hunt variety like Diablo, but with guns).
* Colorful and offbeat characters, with an off-kilter satirical look at life.
* Outside of stock weapons in game, never likely to find the same weapon twice.
* Pandora is a pretty large place to explore with the expansions. Quick navigation helps cut the time down.
* Hour and hours of play, with the expansions. Also replayable at a higher difficulty setting.
* Interesting cell shading style graphics the reviewer believes works for the game, and gives it longevity (In other words, years from now, people can still return to play the game and it holds up).
* No Rest for the Wicked (song) that kicks off the game, really sets the tone. The sniper character spinning his knife in the intro video to that song is just awesome.
* Four different character classes that play different, but aren't so restrictive that you are limited from using all weapons in the game. Some classes use different weapons better. The reviewer gout hours of play out of the Solider class and his turret he would drop down.

Final Score:
11/10 (Note: This game is arguably the reviewer's favorite game on this generation's consoles).