Reviews// Borderlands

The key to the level of customisation is the direct effect it has on combat. Some of the zones will be littered with Skags (a beast I can only compare to a vicious dog suffering from a unique and ferocious strand of vampirism); small colonies of Bandits, and hives of bugs. But as you begin a quest, and battle through large complexes, the fights start to get a lot harder.

There are only a small number of ‘mobs’ in borderlands, but each enemy has varying types. Bruisers are strong brutish Bandits, usually carrying a punchy assault rifle or ghastly launcher. Then there’s the Badass Bruiser, essentially the same only he has a terrible habit of absorbing bullets. Spraying aimlessly will diminish his health at a rate that will do you absolutely no favours at all. Hanging back, taking cover and attempting to snipe his head for critical hits is the way forward here. But then you’ll have some Bandits in the distance doing the same, only to you instead.

Then there are the Psychos, or the Burning Psychos, and as their name suggests, they have little time or patience for combat etiquette. They charge and swing, literally windmilling in at you. One big hit will drop your shield almost instantly, leaving you incredibly vulnerable to grenade blasts and gunfire.

It’s at this point you’re probably dead. Well, kind of. In Modern Warfare/Left4Dead fashion, you enter a 'Last Stand' position on the floor. The world around you closes in, and the aim is to pick off any nearby enemy in order to gain your Second Wind, pop back up and continue with the fight. Failing that, your partner/s have the opportunity of reviving you, offering the same results.

In the unfortunate event of you dying, you will spawn at the nearest NU-U station - a name that is fairly self explanatory and also acts as a save point in zones - at a cost to your pocket. Something, if you’re a proper treasure hunting scavenger of Pandora, you won’t want to happen too often.

And here lies the crux of this game: treasure hunting. Business is treasure, and business is good. Life as a treasure hunter is fairly easy on Pandora, minus all the peril of course. Lockers and chests and bins and crates are everywhere; all full of stuff. Enemies drop ammo, weapons, upgrades and health vials like they’re loose change, and hidden in most areas are huge containers affording items on a range of naff to epic. Again, fighting through the mobs is the hustle and grind; the treasure, for all intents and purposes, is practically thrown at you.

Despite this, you’ll never lose the craving for more. You’d think having items gifted to you would lessen the urge to find more, but it doesn’t. And primarily this is attributable to the itemisation in the game, particularly for weapons. Gearbox has a “weapons ‘manufacturing' engine” that randomises items based on many, many factors.

First you have different manufacturing companies. Jakobs are your All American, whisky drinking Texans, offering a high max damage but low rate of fire. Quite ideal for my sniper, really.

Tediore specialise in fast reloading, my scoped magnum was practically unrivalled as a secondary weapon. Maliwans have high elemental effects, it was an orange ranked Maliwan sniper that would often leave enemies in an incendiary heap.

There are eleven manufactures in total, and each weapon is ranked from level one to seven, or alternatively as: White, Green, Blue, Yellow, Light Orange, Orange and Dark Orange. I’m sure the highest I’d got was Orange, though I did play the vast majority with just two players. More players = better drops!

There are many varying attributes to a weapon; some have scopes with different levels of zoom, some have bonuses to magazine size, and some of the special weapons have very interesting and unique features. A shotgun that fires six rounds in about a second, and kills not only any enemy directly in front of you but sometimes yourself due to the recoil and blast? Yes please!

All of these factors combined offer over 600,000 different weapons (so Gearbox tells us), but I’m in absolutely no position to doubt them. And that range, that scope for bigger and better keeps you ploughing on.

The plotline is pretty feeble as far as RPGs go. I had no desire to help any of the people for reasons other than personal gain. The closest I got to caring about anyone other than myself was when aiding a claptrap robot (an example of some of the side-quests available) – but even then, all I really wanted was the backpack upgrade. However I have no problem with this lack of emotional tie, move over Molyneux and your bloody love games!

Whilst it’s quite nice advancing through, taking on new bosses and finishing all the quests on offer, the addiction and will to continue stems from getting new loot and chasing the ultimate glory of opening the vault.