Happy New Year + Borderlands Review

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year, and I hope that you continue to look towards each day as a ne beginning. Speaking of new beginning, let's begin this year with a review of Borderlands.

Borderlands Review - PC

Before I start off I would like to say that I have enjoyed Borderlands on the PS3 but I really like it on the pc more because I don't feel so squished when I play the game.

Borderlands for the most part is in my opinion one of the best games I've played in the action/RPG genre.

It has some disadvantages but these are mostly for people who like easier games and this isn't one of those games.

Borderlands is not one of those games where you can take it easy. YOU CAN AND WILL DIE more than once while playing this game.

Borderlands is a very fun and unique game with a variety of places to explore, people to meet, and things to shoot.

Weapons in the game can range from a regular generic weapon to elemental weapons like a Sniper Rifle that does 270 damage but has a fire elemental damage. Elemental weapons (depending on what your shooting at) can be more effective than a Rifle that does 360 damage because in the case of fire it can and will burn flesh targets like humans. The types of elemental weapons are as followed:

Incendiary, Shock, Explosive, and Corrosive. There are 4 Tiers to these elemental weapons. The more elemental damage it can do the better the weapon even if the damage doesn't look like it can.

A rifle with 240 damage and a base of 1 Incendiary damage is weaker than a rifle with 200 (or less damage) with a base Incendiary damage of 3 or more. This is because elements deal more damage overall, like fire burning or corrosive which can spread to more than one target.

There are many different types of weapons, like Revolvers, Repeaters, Sniper Rifles, Shotguns, Assault Rifles, etc. There are even different types of grenades that you can use like proximity mines, contact grenades that go around and when they touch an enemy it explodes, etc. My favorite mines are the Transfusion Grenades, after you throw one they explode and little white streams fly around. When they come into contact with an enemy it damages them and give you health.

To help you along with trying to survive as much as you can you can even have shields. Each shield is different, some can protect you from elemental damage like being protected from shock weapons which usually result in your shield being compromised easier than regular damage. Some shields even offer health regeneration  so as long as your not sustaining constant damage, you can regain your health back up to full.

The story of Borderlands is humans traveled to the World of Pandora. Not long after that they learned that a Vault might be on the planet. The vault is a mystery, some people believe that it exists but some are skeptical. What is know is that there are ancient text from an alien race that depicts a vault and that every 200 years the vault can be opened. That's where you come in, the game takes the place of one of 4 possible characters that you can use (Vault Hunters) that come to find the vault and reap it's benefits.

The gameplay is really well done, guns have recoil and seem more like firing a real weapon then something else. You have an easy to view HUD that displays everything you need in positions that don't get into your way. The weapons/skill tree/mission menu is really organized and simple. You can easily tell where enemies are because they all have a red health bar that displays on the screen when  you move your crosshairs onto them. Some enemies that have shields will display a blue bar above their red health bar. Spotting enemies is really simple, much easier than other games.

The sounds in the game are some of the best. From it's unmistakable song by Cage the Elephant called Ain't no rest for the wicked, to the sounds of the weapons firing to the sounds of killing enemies. Each sound is very well done, you can tell that they took the time and effort into making it sound as good as it can.

The graphics in the game are pretty good, some games are batter (Fallout 3 would be one of them) but the graphics that they have in this game fit the style of this game to a T. It has great details but some of the graphics make it feel comical as well.

The game has a comical feel to it which does lead to the overall experience of the game. Some of the characters are pretty funny and no character is funnier than the infamous CL4P-TP General Purpose Robots also know as Claptrap. He has some funny comments and even moves around and says check me out I'm dancing. For those who don't know Claptrap also means contrived but foolish talk, insincere and pretentious talk which is perfect for his character.

The game does have a co-op experience but I have yet to see ho it is. I do know that the more people in the game the more enemies and the better the loot of weapons that you can collect from killing enemies.

All in all this is a seriously addicting game that I've only recently stopped playing 4+ hours a day once Christmas came around because I had too much to do around.

I hope you give this game a try.

I give this game a 10 out of 10

This is without a doubt one of the best games I've played and I hope you at least give it a chance.