Gearbox Software has found a comfortable niche in the ever-more-presently-popular line of games based around foreign realms. While on the surface the game may look like a recent post-apocalyptic role-playing game, Borderlands takes players to a totally different planet, detailing the struggle of humans to survive on what was supposed to be a promising new world. Utilizing randomly-generated weapons and levels as well as numerous online mechanics, Borderlands is setting up to be a both a retreat from and a daring combination of standard first-person, action, and role-playing games.

Taking place in the distant future, Borderlands tells the story of a group of humans who have left their home planet in hopes of finding a new world rich in resources. That planet is Pandora, rumored to be a resource-abundant planet full of hope and promise. The cast of the game quickly find out that Pandora is basically a wasteland long abandoned by an alien race. After many years spent on the surface of the planet, vicious fiends start emerging from the planets surface. The only hope for survival is the rumor of an ancient vault supposedly filled with advanced alien technology.

The immediate draw to Borderlands is its unique graphics. As sort of a hand-painted aesthetic, the overall visual feel is somewhat like an interactive painting. Of course, combined with the first-person action of the title, this striking sense of artistry is an unexpected turn from the usual dark and gritty textures.

Taking unexpected turns is another thing that Borderlands does differently than many titles in recent times. According to official sources, the game features hundreds of thousands of different weapons. That’s right, hundreds of thousands. Borderlands is big on randomly-generated content, see, and that even applies to the available weapons. Of course, weapons can be upgraded and replaced as players advance to keep up with the ever-growing hordes of enemies. Upgrades will also be available for the variety of vehicles available in-game, increasing stats such as speed for world traversal and firepower for combat.

Random generation is most heavily applied to the various levels and environments within the game. Using a Diablo-esque creation system, Borderlands ensures that each play through the title can be very much visually and structurally different than the last — especially considering that out of the so-far announced 160 quests, only 30 are directly related to the game’s storyline.

Four player types are available within the game. Each different player type has its own unique abilities and attributes, and can further be customized throughout the course of the game. Lilith is a Siren, and uses speed and stealth to take down her foes. Brick is the tank type who deals and can receive large amounts of damage. Mordecai, classified as Hunter, actually distances himself from enemies by using guns and his trained-to-kill pet Bloodwing. Lastly, Roland is a standard soldier with engineer-type skills, deploying turrets and adding abilities to ammunition.

Skills for each character can be taken from a given skill tree, allowing the already specialized character classes to focus more on what a player or group finds to be most beneficial. I suppose the premise here is to keep the basic group - Brick, Lilith, Roland, and Mordecai - totally intact, while giving the option for the same group controlled by other players to have a largely different skill set. While many of the enemies will be thematically similar, their skill sets will be generated randomly in order to make brawling the same foes more unpredictable.

Borderlands can be played through in a single-player only campaign, but the game has been designed to be experienced by different users simultaneously. Players can literally drop in to another’s game, helping with quests or just killing fiends for loot. Also available is the option for player versus player interaction such as duels, which can take place at different arena settings scattered across the planet.

In an effort to get the jump on players ready to dive into their game, Gearbox Software has already announced the first DLC pack for Borderlands. Titled “The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned“, this mission pack will task players in removing a zombie infestation from Jakob’s Cove. The Zombie Island DLC will be available at a yet-unannounced time after the game’s retail release.

Borderlands is set to release on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in America on October 20th of this year. PC users will be able to get their FPS/RPG hybrid fix on October 26th.

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Tags: 2K Games, Borderlands, FPS, Gearbox Software, RPG

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 11:38 pm and is filed under News, PC, PlayStation 3, Previews, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.