XBox 360

Borderlands

Genre: Action , RPG
Publisher: 2K Games Developer: Gearbox Software

Release Date(s): US: 2009-10-20

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Roaming the Borderlands

by Jeff Haynes - IGN.com | 01 September 2009 12:00

We gear up our posse, explore caves and blow monsters to pieces.

If someone wanted me to attempt to describe Borderlands in about a sentence, the easiest thing that comes to mind is "Mad Max meets Diablo meets science fiction set on a distant planet akin to the Wild West." As odd as that description might be, it's strangely appropriate given the upcoming hybridized first person shooter/action RPG game from Gearbox. Blending genres and influences, Borderlands takes the traditional shooter twitch mechanics and throws the character specialization and development of an RPG into the mix, creating a unique game that will appeal to fans of both genres. At a recent demo in Texas, I had a chance to explore the Borderlands during an extended multiplayer session, discovering some additional details about the world and the characters themselves.

The four player co-op demo that I played started at the beginning of the game, but excluded the intro movie and beginning details of the characters. Instead, I was presented with the choice of any one of the four characters. While I selected Roland, the soldier, because of his balanced skill with weaponry and turrets, I discovered that just because I made that decision didn't mean that other players in my party couldn't select him. In fact, if I and the other journalists wanted to field an entire squad of Rolands, we'd all have the option to do so, and would be given the chance to differentiate between characters thanks to our skills (which I'll get to in a bit). Of course, the other three characters had unique abilities that would help out in battle. Brick was the Berserker, a mountain of a man who favored heavy weaponry and could charge into combat to perform melee strikes on enemies for large amounts of damage. Lilith was the Siren, a lithe, scout like attacker who had the ability to cloak herself to perform strikes and detonate a shockwave once she re-appeared. Finally, Mordecai was the Hunter, the sniper of the group, who also packed a pet known as Bloodwing that could also attack targeted enemies.

Check out the latest gameplay here (HD available).Fielding a squad of all four characters would ensure a relatively balanced party, making adventures somewhat easier, but by no means guaranteed success. In fact, as more players joined a party, the game would instantly scale the difficulty and adjust the location of some enemies to even out the odds, making a session much more treacherous when all four players were fighting side by side. (It would also scale down if a player dropped out for any particular reason, say if they decided they wanted to choose a completely different character or leap into a new game). Fortunately, there are some things during gameplay that can make exploring the Borderlands much easier. First of all, the game is designed to help you share the myriad loot drops from fallen enemies. I was told that during a co-op session, the ammunition and money that is collected by one player is shared within the party, allowing everyone a chance to equip any firearm that they come across with rounds, shells or whatever projectiles it fires.

What's more, the more you use a particular weapon, the higher your proficiency with that firearm becomes, making you more capable of using it in the field. Collecting ammo and cash was easy, as hitting the X button on a 360 controller allowed me to collect everything from a searchable area (which was highlighted in green) or red chests, which contained weapons and armor. It was always possible to check or compare the items that were around before you picked up the item as the game would compare its stats against the newly "acquired" spoil of war. However, health pick-ups, weapons and armor are not shared, so that can turn into a first come, first serve competition. In fact, Borderlands also allows for competitive play in the form of duels that can be instantly set up by one or more characters. If one player runs up to a party member and melee attacks them, the victim has a few seconds to strike back. If they land a blow, an energy shield is erected around the two players within the duel (and anyone trapped within its radius).

Watch where you're looking, you bucket of bolts.

Once a duel is on, players can wield any firearms they own to "kill" their friends, landing as many strikes as possible. While the barrier can prevent monsters and other enemies from intruding in your face-off, enemies and colleagues within the barrier can attack at will. Although you won't die during a match like this, it will weaken the loser significantly, allowing an enemy to easily whittle away a character's life, bringing them to the damaged "last stand" state where they can either wait to be resuscitated or can kill enemies to regain their health. During friendlier sessions, however, it allows some players to turn into a pack mule, gathering items up and taking them back to a machine to be sold for extra money. Players can also pick up and drop these elements for those players that really need them. Anyway, the game starts off in the small town of Fyrestone, and as I and the other party members explored the town, a small droid called Claptrap ran us through a short tutorial. As Charles mentioned in his preview from a month ago, this covered the basics of moving and shooting through the world, but also introduced us to the first quest giver, a doctor who seemed to be doing more bloody experimentation than surgery on his "patient".

We were initially tasked with killing a number of indigenous animals that were scattered outside of the city walls, but also discovered that some of these encounters could be relatively randomized based on the number of players. During separate play throughs, I encountered both doglike creatures fighting each other and mask wearing little people wielding weapons and attacking my kneecaps. After taking care of some of the doctor's requirements, I was provided access to my first vending machine, something that might sound trivial, but is actually vital within Borderlands.

Vending machines are essentially like stores within any RPG town; they provide you with a way to sell your equipment while gaining new items with a minimal amount of hassle. Players are provided everything from instant specials based on a specific item to armor and health refills. Unfortunately, instant specials seem to act like armor or weapons, because if one player picks the item, it's gone for quite some time until the game replenishes it with a like powered or stronger item. Anyway, shortly after unlocking the vending machines of the world for use by our party, we discovered the Bounty Board, a location where players could travel and accept side missions and plot driven main quests. While you would still have to talk to specific characters to trigger certain events, the Bounty Board was an easy way to earn extra experience and build out a character's skills, allowing you to customize your character based on your play style. Players could also queue up multiple missions with this board, taking on as many tasks at one time as they wished and returning for a bounty once everything was finished. Finally, players could also get a quick glimpse at the recommended level strength for each mission by checking the objectives they'd chosen from the board. This was an easy way to determine if you needed to level up by fighting monsters in the wilderness, or if you could risk going on a mission and survive the odds stacked against you.

Give me one more second and you're dead.

As I mentioned before, part of the tweak to the game for each player was determining your character's skills. This could only be done once you reached level 5, you were provided with a skill point, which, for the soldier, allowed you to determine the specific method that your turrets deployed. Support turrets provide additional ammo, while infantry provided additional firepower and Medic allowed players to put down turrets that also projected a regenerative health aura. Pouring skill points into this feature was extremely useful, particularly because it allowed me to perform direct attacks alongside the Brick character while at the same time healing damage for the whole party when things got rough.

While taking on some of the missions and destroying the first boss was amusing, I also managed to get a sense of vehicular combat, which expands gameplay shortly after you defeat Nine Toes in battle. See, at one point, you're tasked with getting from the town of Fyrestone to another location, but you discover that your path is blocked by a large barricade that has been erected by marauding bands of enemies. The solution, of course, is your vehicle, a mix between a dune buggy, tank and the Batmobile. It has a rocket boost which allows you to leap directly over chasms or barricades, as well as punch directly into enemy vehicles to flip them over. For more direct assaults on groups of enemies, vehicles or structures, the vehicle also had a rocket turret that could be aimed and fired. While I never found out the specific name of the machine, I couldn't help but liken the machine to a Warthog from the Halo series; it felt like it had the same kind of control and suspension, but the rocket turrets allowed the gunner to cause more destruction.

Surrounded? Not a problem.

Apart from the earlier missions and the vehicular combat, one of the last things that I was shown was a later section within an area known as the Lost Caves. Set with characters that were at least level 20, my party was tasked with clearing out the caves and collecting fifty crystals that grew throughout the cavern. Of course, this was easier said than done, as there were a number of dangerous monsters that swarmed the caves, like corrosive spiders, fire beasts and extremely powerful raiders known simply as Badasses. During this mission, I selected Brick, whose berserk charges were extremely useful as I tried to clear out enemies for my allies by battering and punching enemies in the face. While the attacks were particularly effective against enemies, I also discovered that Brick's power, and the abilities of every character, could be augmented if you managed to find elemental artifacts attuned to their personalities. For example, an earth item strengthened Brick's defense, but also added power to his charge, letting him inflict more damage during berserk charges.

The art style of Borderlands really makes the game stand out, particularly now that it's been redesigned earlier this year with the cel shading-influenced look. However, one thing that was unexpected was the improvement in visual fidelity on the PC. Thanks to DirectX 10, improved resolution that supports 1920x1200 and better shading and texture work, the PC version really appears to leap off the screen. That's not to say that the console versions aren't eye-catching, because they are; however, put side by side, the PC version appeared to be the clear visual standout. We'll have much more on Borderlands soon, but for now, check out the latest clips of the game in action.

Supplied by IGN.com

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