October is always a busy time for the games industry as the years blockbusters fill shop shelves and try to tempt us to part with our hard earned cash. This year in the same release window as Forza, Fifa and PES comes Borderlands, the latest game from Gearbox, published by 2K Games, which is trying to jostle for a place in the collection of hardcore gamers everywhere.

Set on the planet Pandora the basic premise of the game is that, playing as one of four different character classes (either Brick the berserker, Roland the soldier, Lilith the siren or Mordecia the hunter) you are searching for the mythical Vault, rumoured to be the location of alien technology that is only accessible once every 200 years. The Atlas Corporation, having harnessed such power found on another planet, is the ruling power of Pandora and is your main opposition in the search for the Vault. The world of Pandora itself is stunning, presented in a cell shaded style; and the world is full of life and energy. The comic book like presentation makes the graphic, bloody violence very enjoyable due to how unrealistic it is. I had great fun in choosing the right weapon to create the goriest scenes possible.



Initially coming across as a first person shooter, how Borderlands attempts to stand out from the mass back catalogue of FPS games is in the way it combines elements from role play style game play to create a unique experience on the Xbox 360. Describing itself as a RPS (role play shooter) Borderlands gives the player the opportunity to level up their character through the accumulation of experience points. These can be used for upgrades and skills unique to each character class with the player choosing which abilities to level up and which areas they are happy to neglect. As you increase in level there is also a wider selection of weapons and equipment available to your character. Indeed it is when it comes to the issue of weaponry that this game really tries to set itself apart from other games with the use of a random weapon generator. This ensures that no two weapons in the game are ever the same, each weapon differs slightly in terms of its firepower, the damage it does or which type of enemy it would excel at killing. With an alleged eighteen million different weapon possibilities this truly is a unique gaming experience. Initially you will find yourself spending hours deciding which weapons to keep and which to sell or discard, and although this is very daunting at first, it some becomes a lot easier to select the best weapons for each situation.

Once you have completed the game you have the option to start the game over with your levelled up player, with the enemies themselves being at a much higher skill level. This provides a good challenge to players who are able to get through the game and also gives you the opportunity to reach the highest skill level of the game. This in turn makes weapons available that are far more powerful than those you can find on your first play through the game.

The game itself is set around discovering and carrying out a number of missions from different characters that you meet throughout the game, in a way that will be very familiar to anybody who has played a RPG before. There is a vast variety in the roughly 150 missions that can be found throughout the game that take you throughout the vast world that is Pandora. These missions can range from simple search for an object missions, a kill someone mission or can be much more complicated objective based missions that take you right across the gaming environment. If you complete all these missions there is roughly about 35 to 40 hours of game play available on your first run through the game. The vast majority of these missions are optional side quest, though if you choose the option not to complete them, you will find that your character is not of a high enough level to progress through the main story arc and complete any of the main boss battles. Though why you would not want to explore these side missions is beyond me. The sheer variety of the missions on offer, the rewards for completing said missions and the chance to explore the massive gaming environment is truly breathtaking at times. Unfortunately the main story itself is barely existent, serving merely as a thread to progress you from one area to another. In fact, when this game tries to focus solely on the story in the latter stages of the game, it is the main time that this game falters, becoming a very confusing and action driven game.

However, with the incentive to replay this game over again and to use each of the four available character classes, there is possibly hundreds of hours of game play to be got from this game. There is also the promise of a steady stream of downloadable content being made available for this game to extend the life of it. The first batch of DLC – The Zombie Island of Dr Ned – having been announced before the games actual release.

Where this game really comes into its own is in its use of cooperative game play for up to four players. You basically have the options to complete the whole game in single player, with two player using split screen or up to four players cooperatively playing over Xbox Live. However, you can change between these game play options whenever you want during the same campaign and this is done really well. The game options give you the ability to have your friends join in the game whenever you want them to over Xbox Live or via split screen on the same console, so you can have them there with you throughout the whole game, or simply call in some support when you need help with a particular mission or boss battle. To make sure that the challenge of the game is not diminished by more playable characters being involved, the game instantly changes the difficulty, and volume of the enemies you come across dependent on how many people are currently playing. You can also leave your game set to joinable so at any time either any of your friends , or anyone else playing the game can jump right in beside you. In the same way you can browse Live enabled games that are currently in progress so you can select a suitable game to jump into based on their character level and current mission selection. All the Xbox Live features on this game work really well and the menus and lobby system are very easy to understand and navigate, making these options very accessible to all experience levels of gamer. This game is a game that you will revisit again and again if you fully explore the Xbox Live features. It really brings the whole game to life having other people playing along side you and you will be retelling stories of particular missions and boss battles long after the Pandora sun has set. The only criticism I would level at the game in this area is that in the heat of battle it can be a bit confusing where your team mates are in relation to your position. If you are playing with people who are not communicating you can find that you all end up in different corners of the map very quickly which can be frustrating as you will be facing very tough enemies on your own.



The game could be accused of being repetitive as you will find in each area that you are fighting vast numbers of the same enemy type. The grinding fashion of the game play has also drawn comments of its similarity to MMO games such as World of Warcraft. However, I feel that the rewards available to your character for grinding though the levelling up progress really do provide a satisfying reward.

I think this game really is a must own game for every Xbox 360 owner out there. It is a vast, beautifully presented game with a clever humorous streak running through it. The games presentation and role playing style may be off putting for some gamers who like their games to fit more clearly in one genre or another. But the way that Gearbox have managed to combine these elements in Borderlands has really produced a unique gaming experience and one that you will struggle to match in terms of pure gaming enjoyment on the current generation of consoles. I urge people to try this game, and try it with friends over Live and you will struggle not to find something about this game that you enjoy. It clearly is a game that could have been improved upon but I am willing to forgive any short comings it has for the sheer mass of great game play that it offers. Overall I would give it 9 out of 10 and I will be very surprised if this is not my game of the year.