We at FULLSYNC love Borderlands and with the release of the third game fastly approaching we thought it would be good to give a little refresher on where it all began, after all, it is a Thursday and we love a good throwback. As we are lucky sons of guns, we are privileged to have been invited to Insomnia 65 where we can explore the new game weeks ahead of its official release on September 13th (unlucky for some, but not us… maybe the bandits though!).
Due to this excitement, we will be releasing articles for all the past games during the run-up to the event and we will report back our thoughts on the new game at the end of the month! So for those who have never played the game before be warned SPOILER ALERT!
So Borderlands baby…Let’s first give the game a bit of context, so what exactly is Borderlands? Well, it’s a delightful addition to my PlayStation from the guys at Gearbox Software (also available on other platforms) delighting us with an RPG, first-person shooter, multiplayer, outlaw style looting game of awesomeness, set on the strange but wonderful planet of Pandora.
So the way it works in the original game; you have a choice of four playable characters. With these guys comes a unique class and action skill to use, this is developed through gameplay as you level up you become more powerful, you can increase their max health, unlock different level weapons and acquire bonus damage points.
The four classes/characters are;
- Roland the Soldier
- Action Skill; Scorpio Turret; Roland throws a turret which automatically targets foes and also provides protection in the form of a shield. Once upgraded this can also provide health and ammo regeneration.
- Mordecai the Hunter
- Action Skill; Bloodwing; Mordecai can send his little bird friend Bloodwing to swoop down from the skies to attack enemies, upgrading can increase damage and speed for Bloodwing.
- Brick the Berserker
- Action Skill; Berserk; Brick, when in his action skill will essentially see red and go ‘crazy ‘ and attack enemies with his fists, this is controlled using the analogue stick and ‘shoot’ trigger to throw a right hook blow and ‘aim’ trigger to deal more damage with a left hook.
- Lilith the Siren
- Action Skill; Phasewalk; Lilith has the ability to turn invisible to enemies, during this time she can regenerate health. She can also deal damage when going in and out of phasewalk dependant on which elemental effects she has equipped through her chosen artefact. (Yaaas queen! My personal favourite, I quite often use her ability to run very fast and beat my teammates to areas or missions…..ROTTEN EGGS).
Each class has different types of weapons which are more effective to them such as elemental for a Siren and sniper/long range for the Hunter. I feel they cover all bases on the type of player you could want to be, whether it be run in and fight and ask questions later, sit back and hunt or run straight past somebody without them seeing you to avoid death. Possibilities are endless!
Borderlands has a traditional single play mode but also features a four-player mode through online coop play, along with a split-screen two-player mode.
Features;
- Story progressing missions (these vary in complexity, dude they get hard);
- Side missions (fun little side jobs);
- Giant raid bosses (RIP Crawmerax);
- LOOT (weapons, grenades, relics, artefacts);
- Character customizations;
- Vehicles with varying skin customizations (catch a RIDDDEEEEEE);
- And EXPANSIONS (YAAAAAS).
Let’s throw ourselves into the future; the planet of Pandora is invaded for its resources. Once the resources have been extorted the planet is left, now inhabited by criminals (bandits) and some people who stayed to seek alien technology to make some moolah. As time rolls on, Pandoras dangerous creatures which call it home come out of hibernation and prowl the planet. Which provides for some interesting gameplay (Daym skags).
A mystifying vault is discovered which attracts the attention of many corporations and treasure hunters (cue our vault hunters). While trying to invade the vault you’re faced with huge creatures, bandits and just generally rude people. Also, an annoying little robot called Clap-Trap, and his weird way of trying to help you by being utterly useless.
Not only is this game highly addictive it also comes with the best kinds of loot, especially elemental weapons (my personal fave being a fire SMG, bang bang go boom boom wooooosh!). It is a light-hearted savage rampage, providing the players with a fun and humoured experience.
Ok, guys, I am going to stop rambling and say goodbye, catch you next week for Borderlands 2, in the meantime I suggest you get picking your character for the 3rd instalment as they’re all just too awesome!
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