Borderlands - Best Game Ever Made?
Have you ever played a game that is the offspring of a Role-Playing Game and a First Person Shooter? Then you must play Borderlands. Borderlands is by far the best game this reviewer has ever played. With enemies matching your level, it shall be a formidable challenge. With drops and loot also matching your level, as guns and upgrades will be better. If you are also low on health, enemies have a greater chance of dropping health.
As for the characters that you can play on Borderlands have their own unique abilities and stats.
The first character we will look at is the Hunter, whos name is Mordecai. The Hunter is probably the best character if you want to stay back and not run-n-gun. The Hunter is mostly for sniping, sitting back and shooting off faces. The Hunter also befriends an alien character that looks alot like a bird, the aliens name is Bloodwing. The Hunter sends out Bloodwing to fly at a specific enemy and rip the enemy to shreds. The Hunter also has a sword, so incase if you are the Hunter and an enemy comes up behind you and ends up in close-range combat, no problem, whip out your sword and slice the baddy diagnolly in half. A bad part of the Hunter is that he will have the lowest health as he levels up, as his Skill-Tree doesn't have any health-boosting, which makes perfect since as the Hunter is not made for close combat. Of course the Hunter can use other weapons, but the Hunter's primarily for sniping. If you enjoy staying back and watching skulls explode in bloody gore, then the Hunter character is for you.
The next character is the Siren, whos name is Lilith. The Siren is the sexy badass of the group, like Zoey was in the Left 4 Dead game. She can pretty much use any weapon, but she also has low health like the Hunter. The positive aspects of the Siren is that she is the fastest of the group, and nimble. The Siren also has the ability known as PhaseWalk, in which she turns invisible for a certain amount of time. The PhaseWalk is a great way to escape enemy fire, or to even go up behind enemies and backstab them. As the Hunter has a sword melee attack, the Siren has the psion melee attack, in which she does an open palm slap upon the enemy. If the Siren combines the PhaseWalk with the psion melee attack, the hit does up to four times the normal damage. Another advantage of using PhaseWalk is that it creates a shockwave that damages enemies in a certain radius after PhaseWalk has ended. If you like to rush-in beside or behind enemies completely undetected, then the Siren character is for you.
The next character is the Combat Soldier, whos name is Roland. The Combat Soldier is basically the medic of the group. He can heal his partners if they are in a radius around him, and his Skill-Tree has an ability that can use his own bullets to heal his partners; so he shoots his partners, and the damage he would normally do to enemies is added to the partner's health. The Combat Soldier has an ability that sends out a turret with a barrier, the turret shoots enemies up. The bullet healing ability also applies to the turret, so the bullets from the turret could also heal your partners. Another ability for the Combat Soldier is that he can regenerate bullets. The main weapons that the Combat Soldier uses are shotguns and assault rifles. The Combat Soldier's melee attack is that he has a Combat Knife. If you like hardcore characters and are usually the medic of the group of you and your friends, then the Combat Soldier is your best bet.
The last character in this review is Brick, whos name is also Brick. Brick is the massively strong member of the group, who is loves weapons that go "BOOM!" Brick also has somewhat of a sensitive side; he wears a necklace that holds the paw of his beloved dog. Brick's ability is Berserker, in which he becomes invulnerable to attacks for a certain period of time, and his attack becomes extremely high. Brick's Skill-Tree can upgrade the duration of Brick's Berserker ability. Brick also has an ability that if his health is low, his defense becomes as great as he is massive. Brick is the person to take the lead and to take most of the bullets. If you like to take command, attract most of the attention and run up to enemies and "knock their blocks off," then Brick is the perfect character for you.
Borderlands has a wide variety of guns, strageties, and enemies. As this is a more skillful game, as you don't have really good aim-assist like you do in Fallout 3, so you actually need to aim for heads yourself in this game. Most critical hits are done by shooting your enemies in the head.
Ever play a game in which your friend took a gun or piece of equipment that you claim was yours? Well in Borderlands, you can start up duels, in which you and one of your partners battle in a small area made instantly for two. In order to start up the duel, all you must do is use your melee attack your buddy, and your buddy must use his/her melee attack on you as well. You and your buddy will battle it out until one is the winner.
Borderlands is mostly for multiplayer. In the game, people share money with the people they are playing online with. If one person picks up $41, then everyone else you are playing with will also pick up $41. People can also join other people during mid-game quests. If there are more people with you, the enemies will get harder, and if there are less people with you, the enemies will not get stronger. The more people there are in the game with you, the better chances of good loot dropping from the enemies.
The customization in Borderlands works beautifully as well. You can call up to get a vehicle. While calling up the vehicle, you can customize what weapon it has on it and what it's primary color is. It works kind of the same for character customization, only you may change primary and secondary colors on the character.
As much as this game is fun, it has a really similar Diablo-like feel to it, only its a First Person Shooter. This game certainly succeeds and excels as other games that made a Diablo-like video game has failed.
One bad thing about Borderlands is when you play online with other people you do not know, they may not agree with you, or go in duels with you. Which is the smallest of prices to pay for this amazing game.
This review has been brought to you by xCGxFalcon.
