Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K Games
Rating Guide: How I Review Games

Video Recap: Click for the Controller Banged Video

Review (Prik-n-Lex Controller Bang Borderlands)

To say that putting together this review hasn’t been a task would be an understatement.  Irish and I have put some hours into the game and into thinking about how we are going at it on paper.  The wait however is finally over and Prik-n-Lex can officially call this game “controller banged”.

Borderlands has morphed itself into a solid GOTY candidate in our opinion.  Why you ask?  Support is the answer.  With a title update in the first week after release, the guys at Gearbox decimated my cons list leaving only two points left for me to make.  While Irish has several as well, most of our cons are nitpicky and low level beefs at any point in the gameplay.  The pro’s however may be too many to list without some form of spreadsheet or index system.  Anybody know how to apply the Dewey decimal system?

Gameplay, Graphics and Sound

The game itself takes place on Pandora.  A wasteland with scarcely populated outposts.  They have been further run down through the presence of a slew of nasty NPC’s and more weird looking creatures than you can hope to smear on a wall.  Don’t worry though the immense number of weapons available throughout the badlands will give you plenty of opportunity to decorate the scenery with the body parts of random baddies. Your goal…a mythical vault packed solid with alien garb that should feed even the worst of you greedy treasure junkies.

The graphics, gameplay, and sound work well together at all points creating a beautiful landscape to play in. Celshading and comic book based coloring give it the feel of a Quentin Tarantino flick that only lacks slightly in the edginess and vulgarity department.  Garnishing an M rating may call for a few more expletives to be thrown around but don’t worry these guys aren’t angels.  The sound and NPC voiceover work is never overpowering and allows for fluid gameplay and swift mood changes when it’s time to throw down.  Graphics A+, Gameplay A+, Sound A.

So onto the good and bad.

Pro’s – Weapons, Graphics(textures and cel-shading), 4 Player COOP, Carrot on a stick loot/weapons/leveling, Mission Depth, Gore/Blood Effects, RPG element simple yet rewarding, Drop in/out coop, Seamless arena style duels, Characters and Specialties, Customizable vehicles, and the most important FUN.  Score +12

Con’s on the other hand are a little tougher to blow through. We racked our brains and came up with – Lack of a trading system (items must be dropped), Cant drop ammo for friends, No off character storage system for items that are unusable (higher level weapons/mods), No health hot keying, slower menu navigation, and the Character customization is a bit lacking. I know, I know makes it sound like a bunch right?

None of these truly hamper gameplay and the guys and gals of gearbox fixed the actual bugs and beefs we had with a lack of mission control by multiplayer partners, an inability to view coop players discovered points in the map, and phantom bounty boards that were appearing throughout the badlands before we had a chance to really critique the problems.   Score Gearbox 3 – Prik-n-Lex 6 but keep in mind it should be 9-0 us.

Now we get to a fun addition to our review we call the “Inside Five”.   Five things to look for inside the game to help you on your journey.

1. Shields – everyone will know about these, but pay attention to the difference between shield regeneration time and the ability of the shield to actually regenerate health.

2. Claptraps – repairing these little boxes of joy will earn you extra space in your backpack, and robots everywhere will love you.

3. Map Location – mental or written notes on your locations/teleport stations will allow you to navigate quickly without unwanted beastie encounters.

4. Green means go – If it’s green check it out, loot awaits.

5. WGBPO – White – Green – Blue – Purple – Orange – Weapons, mods and shields are ranked on a color scale. Orange is popsicles yo.

Conclusion

Overall 3 A’s,15 pro’s, 6 cons and a rating of 9.1.

Numbers, ratings and grades really mean nothing to us in the world of game ratings. We find play through hours, replay value, and fun factor to be much more of an influence on whether or not we want to purchase a game.  Using these criteria we can conclude that Borderlands is a great game and well worth the sixty bucks.

The time it would take to level all 4 characters to 50 (max) would alone get you your money’s worth.  Mix that with online play (both coop and duels) and the future expansion that will be available through Xbox Live (price currently unknown) and this game may never end.  We can only hope.