Review
Played on: Xbox Series X
Released: 2019
Original release: 2009 (360/PS3/PC)
I have to honest and admit I've never played any Borderlands games before. With the hype of the, rather badly reviewed, movie and a Xbox sale featuring the Pandora's Box collection of all the Borderlands titles, I decided to give the franchise a go!
Borderlands was originally released back in 2009, inspired by the then recent post-apocalyptic titles Fallout 3 and Rage, review of the latter here. Running on Unreal Engine 3, the de facto shooter engine of it's era, sporting a cell shaded art style. A last minute, but wise, decision at the end of the development time, making it stand out from other shooters more prominently.
Although the original Xbox 360 versions is backwards compatible on my current Xbox Series X setup, I received the Game of the Year Edition in the Pandora's Box package. Compared to the old 360/PS3 versions, we see a large visual update in textures, 60fps with a FOV slider, a rotating map instead of a compass, change of end boss and all DLCs included. Neat upgrades across the board!
Let's dig into the cell shaded post-apocalypse and shoot our way out!
The main story of Borderlands surrounds the rumours about a secret treasure vault on the planet Pandora. Which many people have tried to find before you. As you arrive on bus to the area near the vault, you're given the choice of picking one of four characters.
I went for Soldier, called Crimson, the normal shooter styled character. However, there are more tactical options like Brick, who is a Berserker which is basically a tank character. Mordecai, which is marksman and Lilith who's a Siren. The latter interestingly focuses on alien abilities, utilising fire, shock and acid. She's a more advanced character to use, probably best suited for a second playthrough.
Each character has a speciality, for instance Soldier has a handy turret to place out when tons of enemies attack, keeping them occupied as you get some breathing room. Through leveling, this speciality, and stats like life and shield regen, can by upgraded through ability points. Weapons are based in classes like shotgun, combat rifle, snipers etc., but uniquely their attributes and hit points are randomised. Same goes for shields and enhancements. You'll spend time sifting through tons of loot you pick up, trying to find the perfect gun that matches your current level!
Regardless of your character choice, the aim is to level up you abilities and thus unlocking the level required for increasingly powerful guns and equipment you pick up. A looter shooter with light RPG elements in other words.
Once you arrive at the first town settlement, you're called upon through a blue hologram woman. Only her face is shown in pixelated graphics, she's the mysterious "Guardian Angel", which apparently only seems to talk to you. This is where the plot has an intriguing twist; with her encouragement and helpful guidance, she urges you to find the vault.
Traversal is done swiftly through fast paced walking, with the overall open world structured into bite sized areas, divided by loading doors. Probably a trait of the hardware limitations from 2009, but it helps divide the world into more clear cut portions to roam. Each main area has sets of side missions to delve into too. To aid traversal there are fast travel spots, but also cars! These vehicles have weaponry and are fun to speed across the vast, dry lands of the wasteland!
Although Borderlands prominently entices cooperative play, supporting up to four players, it's absolutely fine to play alone as it adjusts the enemies according to amount of players. However, to have any chance against the high level enemies that roam the wastelands, you'll have to shoot, kill, pick up loot and level up, then repeat. It's clearly grind based, but I never felt it was tedious or too padded. Dying results in a respawn at a checkpoint, scattered all over the wasteland, but will deduct an increasing amount of money depending on your level!
Enemies respawn everywhere, and come in two main categories: humans and monsters. The humans sport this wild punk appearance, complementing the overall anarchy of the wasteland, often residing near buildings and structures They come in various forms too. From midget psychos storming you, to snipers shooting from afar. Later in the story they turn up with shields and armour for increased challenge.
Monsters roam the wastelands too, inhabiting the open deserts and canyons. They come in various monster types, with lots of alterations within each type. Like acid, electrical and fire based versions, as well as massive ones too.
Boss fights play a large role in the story progression, as you'll have to beat one in each main area of the map. Be it human or monster bosses, they'll be a significant challenge if you haven't properly levelled up before attempting them. Bosses usually turn up in arena like rooms, where there's no escape or hiding from them. In general, most of the game otherwise is spent outdoors, with a few select indoor locations.
This remaster of Borderlands runs at a smooth and responsive 60fps with a truly welcome field of view slider, perfect for the shooter focused gameplay! There's clearly been a strong focus on getting the controls right for a shooter, as it feels and sounds great to fire away weapons.
Visually, Borderlands is quite unique and perhaps why I was sceptical back on the Xbox 360. As I played, I realised the cell shading put an extra spark into the massive amount of desert and mountain locations, giving it a more unique look in comparison with the many other wasteland titles of that era. Thanks to a dynamic day and night cycle, combined with clean artistic texture design and subtle colour pallet, it shines best when you spend time with it and appreciate the finer detail.
That said, there's a ton of rock and sand wasteland here, like endless of it. Variation between segments of the open world isn't great, basically a lot of similar looking areas. Beauty lies in appreciating this kind of environment, but you won't find tons of colour, distinct bio domes and diverse visuals here. Gotta say it's held up well and the cell shaded aesthetic lends itself nicely to the remaster, years after the initial release.
I get the humour and cool character designs, improved massively in the sequels, but there's a clear lack of depth to story. Most of it is simple conveyed through chats up in the corner of your screen with the main cast. Although the intriguing messages by the mysterious "Guardian Angel" are interesting, it never results in something truly special. It lacks polish to the presentation and the ending is underwhelming. Although the fundamentals of something unique are here, with it's story and wild set of characters, the presentation and storytelling is the obvious weakest point.
Enemy types are fairly varied, although the repetition of certain monsters becomes quite apparent. The predictable attack patterns of the enemies are obvious, not requiring much skill to outsmart them. Comparing weapons and equipment stats is clumsy and I feel their designs could've been more distinct. There's a quite a bit repetition going on in mission structure too, with back tracking to the same areas, although this is a typical trait of open world side missions in general.
That said, I was never bored in my playthrough. It kept me at my toes with increasingly high level enemies, I felt the difficulty was well balanced and the variation in gameplay was large enough to keep me interested throughout.
The art style and gameplay layout holds itself fairly unique and fresh even today, while the enemy types and post-apocalyptic wasteland has been seen often in other titles. Gameplay holds itself fresh, although the actual point of it all feels a little less appealing with the simple story, presentation and lack of proper character interaction.
It's a super fun playthrough if you want to play the entire franchise, but do so mostly for the gameplay, rather than a necessity of the developing story in Borderlands 2!
