Review: Borderlands (PS3)

The word of Borderlands is really quite striking. Graphically excellent, it has this weird cartoon like look to it, as if it’s stepped straight out of a graphic novel. Wonderful vistas stretch out before you and the characters that inhabit it all have their unique feel and traits. The world in question is called Pandora and the ultimate goal is, as one of the characters you choose at the start, to find a hidden vault that contains alien technology. The characters you get to choose from are your generic bunch of rag tag folk who have the usual pro’s and con’s, one is a sniper expert while another is best suited to heavy artillery for example. As you choose your character and are treated to a long winded tutorial section, the first area you encounter will be Fyrestone. A small, almost deserted outpost where you can stock up on your weapons or medical supplies. It’s from here that your adventure truly begins.

As you venture out from Fyrestone you soon discover your main irritating distraction. They’re called Skags and they’re quite frankly, everywhere. Dog like creatures that come in all sizes from fairly harmless “pup’s” to the more ferocious “Alpha’s”. We can understand they’re added to give the impression that is a wilderness like environment, but having dozens of them come endlessly out of holes in the ground does begin to grate. Unfortunately this is why unless you really put a good few hours into the game then you’ll feel disappointed. It is the very definition of a slow burner. Until you really start to get the higher end weapons and raise your level you’ll be left wondering what the big deal is.

When the world starts to open up you gain access to not just new weaponry and devices, but also vehicles. It makes dealing with the Skags a much less painful experience. Unfortunately when the world does open up more and you start to revisit the same areas the illusion of a real world starts to waver slightly. For instance, just outside of Fyrestone you’ll come under fire from bandits to the right. This happened the first couple of times and we thought nothing of it, until we exited the area for about the twentieth time and were greeted by them every single time. A bit of randomness wouldn’t have gone amiss. There also appear to be a few bugs, which show the game could’ve done with a bit more polishing time. One moment when attacking a bandit village we thought we cleared everyone until we heard shots and saw out shield being depleted. Looking around bemused, we eventually found the culprit. It was an arm that was actually coming through the door despite it being closed.

These could be considered nitpicks though when you consider the adventures that can be had in Pandora and how well Gearbox understand the genre and the common complaints aimed towards it. Death can be considered only a minor inconvenience as you’ll respawn at a point not far away and really there’s no chance of you taking on a quest that is out of your league. Each one says how difficult they are, from easy all the way up to impossible. But what fun is had in single player is automatically doubled when you tackle each mission in co-op. Questing together has never been so fun, providing you play with some decent individuals of course. Though it is better with friends, like most things really, that’s taking nothing away from the single player experience, which is also entertaining in its own way.

With a few more tweaks Borderlands could’ve been an essential purchase, as it stands though it may be a great game, but outside of that niche of gamers that enjoy the genre, it may find it difficult converting others. Shame really. If you invest the time then it’s one of the most rewarding experiences on the PS3.

Rating: 8 / 10

Words by Adam Gulliver