It's likely gonna be a spoiler free review for two reasons, initally only 1, but now 2. You can't stop the reasoning. 1: FBM hasn't finished it yet, and since this is for his benifit, there's no reason to include them. 2: NMRNOMG has them in the post below.
Off we go then. (Please bear in mind, IGN I am not. I'm just aiming for better than Gamespot's shitty reviews here)
Borderlands, claims the back of the case, is an RPS - Role Playing Shooter, a mix of the main elements of character progression from RPG's like Fallout 3; and the main elements of FPS's like... well... shooting things. With the emphasis rather on the latter than the former. You'll spend most of your time shooting things than staring at a stat screen.
I have no problem with this, I'll admit that I own far more shooters than I do true RPG's. But I far from hate them. So Borderlands comes as a nice blend of the two. The levelling system is simple, (you gain XP from kills, missions etc.) and anyone familiar to RPG's will feel right at home.
On the flip side, anyone not familiar to RPG's may struggle a bit at the start, what with the slightly overwhelming amount of things you need to take into account, and compare before making choices. For example, skill point, class mods, grenade mods, shields, guns, gun damage, fire rate, reload speed, accuracy... the list goes on. And to make the most of the game, you need to learn whats what.
Thankfully though, a simple tutorial takes you through the ropes, teaching you the controls (thankfully similar to other shooters like CoD4, so any shooter player feels immiediately at home) and the basics of comparing the paltry piece of bullet-spraying crap you have currently against any one of countless millions (the lastest count brought it in in excess of 16 Mill) guns you find on the floor, and in weapons crates.
Comparing guns is very simple thanks to an onscreen display of the gun-you're-looking-at's stats with little coloured arrows indicating whether each stat is better or worse than the one you are holding, and you soon get into the swing of after every firefight, pausing to loot the ground around you.
When you start a new game and watched the intro cutscene, you are asked to select 1 out of 4 characters to play the story as. These choices are your basic Soldier class, the slightly cliché Big Burly but Slightly Stupid Guy, the Sniper, and the Siren (read: Mage).
Each character is made different by their Action Skill, the Soldier's is a Turret/Shield combo, the Berserker (big but Stupid guy)'s is to basically punch the SHIT out of everything, the Sniper's is to send a little bat/bird/dragon out to attack things, and the Siren's is to turn invisible/invincible.
Once you've made your choice, you're run throught the tutorial by a little robot called Claptrap (which is not unlike the moon/fridge/robot from Wallace and Gromit's A Grand Day Out) and eventually sent out on missions.
When you inevitably reach level 5 (it doesn't take long), you gain the ability to use your Action Skill. And for every subsequent level, you gain another Skill Point with which to level it up until you reach the (current) level cap of 50.
One thing I'm happy about with this game is that you actually need to think about how you spend your skill points; because there are 3 skill "trees" full of a variety of power-ups to your Action Skill; and you only have enough points to complete 2 of them at the most. So it doesn't turn into something Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Oblivion are both guilty of, your character becomes ultimately overpowered and undefeatable.
The Borderlands story is composed much like Far Cry 2's "story", as in, there isn't really one. Set on the desolate planet Pandora, you are given lots of missions to complete to ultimately find and claim a supposedly hidden "Vault" full of alien weapons and technology. The characters also apparently have a backstory as to why they are looking for the Vault in the first place, but this is never so much as hinted on in the story.
Personally, I'm not too bothered by the lack of story for 2 possible reasons, 1: I've finished Far Cry 2, so I'm probably used to a lack of story in sandbox-type games, 2: I personally feel that if there were a deep story to this, it would be more likely to get repetitive, but as it stands (since I haven't reached level 50 yet), this game isn't very repetitve at all, there are plenty of missions (over 120 if I recall) to keep you entertained, with a fair few location changes to keep things fresh.
Gameplay wise, it is very smooth and acts just like any other "Tactical" shooter (ie, not run-n-gun), there is only one section where framerate drops, and even then, that section is over quickly. The RPG elements are integrated almost flawlessly into the game, the only gripe hardcore shooter fans could have with it is that headshots don't normally kill (but do score you critical hit damage).
Graphically, it is a very recognisable game, since being overhauled from ultra-realistic, it is now cel-shaded to add more character and atmosphere to the game, and in my opinion, it works. The humour of the game is only benefited by the visuals.
Multiplayer used well in the form of drop-in, drop-out, up-to-4-player co-op play, either through Xbox Live, split-screen and system link. Online, it works very well, with little to bring it down. Except one glaring flaw. No split-screen online. Or, so I'm told, no split-screen system link either. So, if you want to do a local 4-player game. You'll need nothing short of 4 consoles, 4 TVs and 4 copies of Borderlands.
It is rumoured that this is going to be fixed... but I'm not sure it will...
Ultimately, Borderlands is a visually appealling, fun, and long-lasting game with a fair bit of replay value (there are, after all, over 16 million guns, as I've mentioned), and with promises of DLC, this game could, and probably will, last a very long time.
If I were into the whole "scoring" thing, I'd probably rate this a 8.7/10, since the game is very good, but is let down by its lack of story, and multiplayer hinderances. but this is really a very good game. See NMRNOMG's post below for opinions on the ending.
So there you have it FBM, I don't care that you already have this and have no doubt formulated your own opinion, here is mine. Enjoy.
Brick? Stupid? Nnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
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