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Borderlands Impressions


So, Borderlands. This is the latest game I've gotten hooked on, having played for over 50 hours on multiple playthroughs since I bought it last Saturday. Most of that has been co-op with my brother, which is a blast. Though it's kind of annoying, since he goes for the loot as soon as he can, and most of the time it's me fighting the enemies and him running for the weapons chests to get first pick. Sometimes I just want to kick him in the head for being so damn greedy. Whats worse is that whenever I do that, to prevent him from taking everything, he has a big sad about it! But whatever, most of the time the loot is crap anyway. But onwards to my impressions.

The game is great. No question about that. However there are a few issues I have with it. Most of them are small though. First up, the biggest, is the story and ending. Now I'm not going to spoil it, but I think both are crap. The story is really weak, and the ending is too. Next is that the game includes a lot of copy and pasting from other games. You buy your guns, ammo and health from vending machines. Bioshock. Not only that but the machines also look and sound like Bioshock's vending machines. The Spiderants, an enemy in the game, are straight from Half Life 2. Not only do they look like it, but one sound they make is the same sound the Antlion Guards (the big ones) make in HL2. The shield and health warning sound is taken from Halo 3. This might all sound like nitpicking, but it's there and it's noticeable. It's just a little disappointing, that's all. And finally - invisible walls. Now that's just cheap. Don't give us interesting looking places to go, then put an invisible wall there so we can't get to it! I guess after all the Fallout 3 I've played, I expect to be able to go places easily.

Besides those 3 small points I have no problems with the game. Sure the creatures drop weapons and ammo, which is totally illogical, but the game explains itself in a loading screen by saying that the creatures of Pandora eat everything. Good excuse. On to the good parts of the game then!

The art style is a refreshing change. It's not "Omg!!!" like I've heard many people say it is. It's just cell shaded. It's been done before, get over it. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't look nice, because it does. The guns are cool looking... I think the whole "No two guns are the same!!!" thing is cool, but not that special. Usually it's just a change in accuracy or power. Umm... besides that I can't really think of any stand out good things. It's one of those games where no one thing really stands out, but all together it adds up to be a great game. Totally recommend, though it doesn't have the replayability as some others.

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Okay, now that's done, as you may know I posted a blog on Gamespot recently. No, I am not going back. Basically it's just an advertisement for this blog. Yes, I am sneaky like that. What prompted me to do it was a comment from FlamingR1ft on my last blog. He was one of my buds on Gamespot, but he had no idea that I had moved, thanks the the abrupt nature of my departure. This made me think that there might be people on that site who might want to read this blog too. Now I'm not looking for an influx of readers, I'm not looking for any attention, I just wanted to promote this blog to people that already know me, and might not know of my move here. And on that note, I am out of things to write! See you next time!

8 comments:

Mystic_knight said...

Borderlands was ok, its not the greatest game i played last year.... especially after i played Demons Souls. That game was fantastic.

Kicking a bit into star ocean, as much as id love to get into that game, it possibly is the second weakest title by square enix this gen ( worst being last remnant).

TurboPhoenix said...

Yeah, The Last Remnant was pretty bad... too many glitches that should have been fixed, not to mention I just got totally stuck (the only thing I could do was a boss fight, and it was impossible to beat) and ended up giving up on it completely.

dynam3 said...

I found only me and Mjcowley are the only ones not liking borderlands.

Maybe I should actually give it a chance by playing it more...nahhh

TurboPhoenix said...

Out of curiosity, what don't you like about it Dynam3?

elektrixxx said...

Borderlands co-op is a lot of fun and among my most played games of 2009. The first DLC was good but I'm not feelin' The Underdome. I'm sure the rest will be pretty good.

dynam3 said...

As I said in my blog; the graphics are terrible, the gameplay is average and the story is "Meh".

I don't know maybe I'm being to harsh on it. :P

TurboPhoenix said...

Yeah maybe, but then again different people like different things. I know my friend hates Borderlands just because it's cell-shaded, and while I think that's unfair, he hates all cell-shaded games so I wasn't expecting otherwise. I do agree about the story though, totally bogus.

ScrawlKnight said...

I never tried Borderlands. All the reviews I heard were too mixed. I know what you mean about the graphics though. They're not even close to amazing and people seem to hype them up a lot.

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