Borderlands is an interesting game. A mix of FPS and RPG, this game is full of burning people, and blowing people's heads off. (Yes... There is a lot of blood, though the graphics are rendered in a cartoony style) Many things, other than the FPS/RPG setup make this game different from others. One thing is certain, don't expect anything realistic in this game.
Borderlands is a game with huge variety. Enemies have several different types among species, there are lots of diverse areas to explore, and many, many, MANY guns. Starting off with the weapons, some sources claim that there are enough weapons in the game to number in the double digit millions, while others claim that the game contains 10,000-20,000 (Possibly more) weapons. No matter which source is correct, one thing is true. Borderlands has a HUGE amount of firearms. There are also several different types of species that serve as your enemies, humans (Of course), spiderants (A cross between spiders and ants), and strange bird-bats creatures, and many more. There are certain specialization's inside the species like a spiderant "King" or a spiderant "Soldier" making the available enemies in the game count up to 50+ types. Borderlands comes with a lot of area that you can explore. Desert/wastelands maps are the most frequent, but the main thing that nags at me is the one major problem borderlands has. That problem is the similarity of the maps. Everything looks kind of the same in a desert wasteland. There are no trees, no real life (Except in cities) and all the terrain looks very alike. Tan sand in every direction with the scattering of bandits.
The enemies... what makes, and what ultimately can break a game. In Borderlands the enemies are funny (yelling random stuff at you while fighting), powerful (Later on into the game), and yet... very, very dumb. If standing beside a solid piece of cover, a bandit that is almost dead will probably not duck into cover. Most of the time they just stand in one place, and sometimes duck to the left or right. If some more thought would have been put into the AI smarts, the game would be much better in terms of combat. Still on the topic of AI's and enemies, I'm going to move to just characters. All the AI characters look completely a like except for the main characters. The people walking around town can be easily mistaken for each other, and it makes the game feel a little bit small. The cartoony art style works very well for a game like borderlands, but... The character graphics (Their faces, textures, and other graphical elements) look strangely out dated for a game of Borderlands release date, even if the graphics are cartoony in style.
Again, Borderlands brings something else that boosts it's gameplay value. It has one vehicle that you are able to use in the game. Though it would have been better to supply more than one vehicle, a car. Borderlands still does a good job on the vehicles, letting you either use rockets, or machine guns that are mounted on the car.
Lastly, Borderlands gives you four character classes to play with. The Hunter, the Gunner, the Siren, and the... Brick. Each lets you level up special skills unique to the class you're using. They all have weapon preferences that, for example, make the Hunter better with the sniper rifle. Each class looks different, has different animations, sound effects, and speech.
All in all, Borderlands is a game that is perfect for a FPS, RPG fanatic. The funny, random, and sometimes very addictive gameplay is great, and will please for a long time after the game is bought IF you are ready to sit through hordes of enemies, and loot. Even though the AI is utterly (Sometimes) worthless it is still entertaining to battle them, and is still a challenge if you don't get overpowered. For some people, this is the game to get, for others... Not so much.
Overall Score: 7.75
