Gaming Season Update 10

Oct 28, 2009 13:08

I've played a substantial amount of Borderlands in the last week. I've learned a lot about the game, but right now the most important thing I can say about the game is this: It will not win Game of the Year.

Borderlands set out to accomplish what so many have done poorly and so few have done well: marry the First Person Shooter and Role-Playing Game genres. Prior successful entries into this "Role-Playing Shooter" genre (such as Fallout 3 and Mass Effect) always put the role-playing elements first. The shooter elements didn't feel tacked on per se, but there was an obvious different between the gameplay in Mass Effect and, say, Halo 3. It's in this sense that Borderlands distinguishes itself; the game is a shooter first and an RPG second. Rather than filling each character with a myriad of skills and abilities, each "class" has one distinguishing skill to define its role in combat. The emphasis is placed on running and gunning, and the one skill is intended to provide some variety to the class experience. This priority shift has, remarkably, made the game more accessible to the North American market and, more importantly, created a very high demand for the title. Oh, and it's pretty fun.

The role-playing elements are more dungeon crawler than they are epic story. You go to some quest hub, complete a few tasks for someone, and in turn you're rewarded money, loot, and access to more quests. You rinse, you repeat. Much like Diablo and World of Warcraft, loot - various weapons, shields, or class MODs - is tiered based on quality: white is the most common, green uncommon, then blue, purple, and the exceedingly rare orange. Much like the aforementioned titles quest loot has no guarantee to be an improvement over your found equipment, and there are times where luck is the only determiner for whether or not your gear improves.

As the game lacks in substantial abilities, Gearbox provided options for customization in the form of three skill trees for each of the four classes. With a total of 45 points available there are a considerable number of possibilities and it's safe to say that this will be the subject of most debate between players. In the same way that WoW has numerous options for each player to build their class, so too do the classes of Borderlands allow for different playstyles even within the same class. I've seen the Siren class annihilate the Hunter class in battle, only to turn around and be destroyed by another Siren with a different skill build.

This brings me to the multiplayer, the best component of the game. It's no secret that dungeon crawlers tend to be on the repetitive side; when the primary focus of the AI is to KILL, KILL, KILL, there really isn't a lot of opportunity for variety. Most "encounters" embody the tank 'n spank approach, with most emphasis on the "spank" side of things, and when played by one's lonesome it tends to be a boring experience. Running around and murdering shit with your friends, however, is always a good time, and if you're a bastard (like I am) you won't mind getting your friends killed if it serves your purposes (ie: to amuse you). Looting is always a disaster; there's no means to filter who receives what kind of item, no chance to roll or pass on something. Items can be taken by whomever, and unless you're with a particularly diplomatic group of people there's no incentive to share. After all, what won't be used by you can be sold by you to purchase things that will be used by you. While this is an area of concern in "pickup groups" (quick-match style play), it shouldn't be a major issue when playing with a group of friends. Someone will always pick up a piece of gear you might be interested, but chances are good you can talk them into parting with it by convincing them you'll honestly use it. The other good news is that gear drops frequently, so even if they get something you want there are good odds you'll see something similar in the future.

I've been calling the game an introduction to the MMO, and I stand by that statement. The story isn't deep in any sense (it's barely even there and impossible to determine if you're accomplishing something to progress it forward), and while the art-style is a fresh break from the hyper-realism we experience so frequently in these RPG titles it's nothing groundbreaking. But when you're playing with other people - be they friends or unknown quantities - you don't notice these things. You're trying to figure out how to survive seemingly insurmountable odds as human raiders and giant creatures/monsters try to eat you. The answer lies in murder, and if you're good at it someone makes it through alive enough to pick everyone else back up.

I've been enjoying my time with the game, though I'm interested to see if we'll be playing it a second or third time through. On the one hand, there's always a new class to be learned, but at a certain point you're just pushing buttons in a different order to achieve the results you've already accomplished. I imagine my interest will wane as Dragon Age: Origins draws near, and my friends and I won't touch the title for months once Left 4 Dead 2 arrives. Considering that Mark and I have each put in about a day's worth of playing into the game (with no imminent signs of slowing down), I'd say I got my money's worth.
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