We went hands on with the single and co-op modes of Borderlands! Full impressions inside
Posted By: Alex Spiro Posted On: 07/28/09 (Viewed 4117 times)
Borderlands
Published By: 2K Games Developed By: Gearbox Software Release Date: 10/20/09 Genre: RPS Players: 1-4 ESRB Rating: RP more product info »
Thanks to 2K’s Borderlands BBQ event, I was able to log a significant amount of hands-on time with this hot new IP. Borderlands, developed by Gearbox Software (the team behind Brothers in Arms), is a first-person-shooter utilizing the Unreal 3 engine with a cel-shaded art style and Diablo-like character growth and depth. While it looks like a typical FPS, the detailed storyline, character development, and insane customization of guns (2K quotes there are over 15 million weapons in the game) have led some to coin a new genre for Borderlands- RPS (Role Playing Shooter).
The hands-on preview event in Brooklyn offered the complete Borderlands experience; there were several game stations downstairs each with four flat-screen TVs on a pedestal to try the 4-player co-op mode with three other journalists, and there was a lounge upstairs to play the single-player campaign. After a short wait, I was able to hop into a co-op match to take it for a spin. My initial impression of the graphics is that they looked fresh and vibrant, with large in-your-face characters and monsters. This post apocalyptic wasteland looked bright and colorful, thanks to the cel-shaded graphics that wrapped what would otherwise look like a typical FPS title. The other thing I noticed was that as my bullets sunk into this huge spider-like creature I was fighting, experience points floated out, like they would in a Final Fantasy title. This is not your typical FPS…
As I played the co-op mode with three complete strangers, I definitely felt a real sense of teamwork as we battled the monsters together. Some of those bastards took a lot of hits to go down, so we focused our fire on one creature at a time. Your health regenerates slowly when you are hurt, but when critically injured the screen start to black out and the words “Fight for your Life” pop up on the screen in a large, red font. Once you are in this mode, the screen starts to darken and sounds begin to dim increasingly as you get injured further. Your character is immobile- down on one knee but still able to fire your gun in any direction. If you successfully manage to kill something then you get a boost of adrenaline and regain your mobility. I liked the intensity that this feature added to the gameplay. You can also be healed by another player with medic attributes, so when one of us went down, someone else usually ran into harm’s way to heroically assist.
During the event, there were helpful reps walking around to assist us and take us through some of the finer points of the game. Steve Gibson, VP of Marketing at Gearbox, was kind enough to explain the story and show me some of the customization options. The experience points that you earn while battling monsters can be spent on any type of class you choose- not limiting you to build on only your initial class. Some of the classes include infantry, support, and medic.
You play as one of four bounty hunters who in the distant future have traveled to the planet of Pandora in search of a vault with alien technology that has made one American company very wealthy after plundering its secrets. Other colonists who have settled there discover that the planet does not contain valuable resources as thought, and leave if they can or devolve into lawlessness. As the planet rotates from winter to spring, all kinds of horrific monsters start to emerge.
Hope this guy has dental
I noticed while playing the co-op that there is no on-screen map, making it tough for me to find my teammates and objectives. I was told this was by design to make the HUD less cluttered, and there is a way to find them on the compass as well as visual arrows when you get near them. The co-op mode was definitely challenging- especially when you enter into the spider’s lair and three or four of those bad boys come at you at once.
After putting in some substantial time downstairs, I headed upstairs in the industrial style warehouse to check out the single player campaign. In the early level I played, these little robotic tour guides (they resemble mini-R2D2s) assist you; show you where to go, and open gates for you.
As tempting as it is to shoot the tour guides, you'll need them
Sometimes they will break down, sending you off on a side quest to find the missing parts to repair them. Things were fairly peaceful on this barren, sandy level, that is until the ‘bandits’ popped out of nowhere and attacked me with their pizza-cutter contraptions.
Avoid this guy's pizza cutter at all costs
Bandits are among the human enemies that you’ll encounter which look like native Indians and were spawned from the colonists that went haywire (kind of like Bioshock’s splicers). They were easy enough to put down with a few well placed shots of my revolver, but some aggressively charge at you and are tougher to kill.
As I was playing, I noticed the sun and moon set in real time which makes the experience more authentic, but also impacts the gameplay. Certain creatures will only come out during specific parts of the night or day, and some targets are actually easier to see at night. It was confirmed that there are 10-12 vehicles that you can pilot, although I didn’t come across any during my time with the game. I was told the developers initially randomized many aspects of the game, including the terrain, guns, and enemies but gamers kept getting lost in focus groups so they scrapped the randomized terrains. Another interesting tidbit was that while PS3, 360, and PC versions are being worked on simultaneously, the PS3 version will look slightly better than its 360 counterpart, thanks to the PS3’s powerful hardware.
The map I was playing was more about exploration, which is a central theme of Borderlands, but started out a bit slow for my taste. I talked to some type of warped doctor and was told to kill five mutant pups. I went out, accomplished the task and returned to him and was then told to kill seven bandits. I was hoping for more varied and interesting objectives, but it was early in the game so those were likely training missions. I also thought the enemies animated a bit stiffly and would hope they animate better in the final release.
The single player mode was said to be 15 hours in length if the missions are played back to back, but if you were to play though all the side missions it would take “dozens of hours” to complete. One of the coolest features of Borderlands is that the entire single player campaign can be played in co-op mode and other players can jump in and play alongside you at any time. There is an option that you can set if you want people to play with you or you want to go it alone. When you meet other players, you can ‘tap’ them and they have to tap you back to enter into a multiplayer game with them. There are also arenas that you can visit through the game to enter into Deathmatch games.
There are millions of guns that you can find or customize including sniper rifles that shoot rockets or a revolver that fires shotgun shells, physics be damned. Some of the rifles I came across looked comically like Super Soaker models, while the golden revolver I tried out was menacing and ultra powerful. Players who love to tinker with their in-game toys like cars and weapons will have a lot of fun with this game.
Borderlands is an intriguing game with a fresh look, deep storyline, and the first of the yet untested Role Playing Shooter genre. The build I played was nearly final and despite a few minor flaws, looks to be coming along nicely. Borderlands is carrying quite a bit of momentum with it from this year’s E3 show and from what I’ve seen, it looks like it will not disappoint when it launches on October 20th.
Comments
No Comments
Please login to post a comment. Not a member? Please register.
