🐳 New! Moby v2023.06.02 update

Borderlands

aka: Pandora

Description official descriptions

The planet Pandora isn't much more than a desert filled with bandits, mercenaries and adventurers. Their goal: the legendary vault which is said to be filled with treasures beyond imagination hidden on the planet by an ancient highly advanced alien race. One of those fortune-seekers is the protagonist, who has one advantage: the guidance of the Guardian of the vault.

Borderlands is a mixture of a first-person shooter and a role-playing game, somewhat similar in concept to Hellgate: London. At the beginning of the game the player chooses between one of four characters:

  • Roland: A former soldier. He likes to play with rifles and shotguns and has a Scorpio-Turret at his disposal to keep his back clear.
  • Lilith: A Siren and Phasewalker. She can turn invisible and fights with extreme speed.
  • Mordecai: A hunter. He prefers to snipe enemies from a distance and has access to a bird of prey called Bloodwing.
  • Brick: A Berserker. He doesn't care much for guns and instead uses his fists to win all arguments.

Each of the four characters has three different skill trees available, filled with talents that e.g. increase bullet damage or allow the player to resurrect a friend in cooperative game. The player gets one skill point to spend at each level up, which is earned through gaining enough experience points by killing enemies and fulfilling quests for the various NPCs inhabiting the planet Pandora. To kill all those enemies and survive the journey, the protagonist will find weapons, ammunition, useful items like shields or medipacks, upgrades and money on the enemies he or she kills, in chests scattered around the landscape, or purchased at vending machines. Weapons and shields come in different types of quality, can have several different types of attributes and mostly come with a level requirement. The maximum level a character can reach is 50.

Since the protagonist has to travel around much, he or she has a buggy available armed with a machine gun and a rocket launcher or heavy machine gun at later levels. Since the game also features a drop in/drop out-coop-mode for up to four players, the buggies have enough room for two players with one using the mounted turret and the other driving around the vehicle.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (Xbox 360 version)

786 People (424 developers, 362 thanks) · View all

Executive Producers
Producers
Associate Producers
Art Directors
Game Design Director
Technical Director
Art Team Lead
Level Design Team Lead
Associate Creative Director
Director of Central Development
Environment Art Director
Technical Art Director
Outsourcing Producer
Character Modeler
Concept Artists
Artists
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Borderlands appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Development

The game was originally developed with a realistic look. The graphics were changed to cel-shading only six months before release.

German version

In the German version, many violent effects were removed. This includes blood effects for most enemies; splatter effects when driving over an enemy; cutting off limbs and animations for fire, acid and shock attacks.

Awards

  • 1UP
    • 2009 - The "Gun Porn" Award for Most Gratifying Gratuitous Violence (Editors' Choice)
    • 2009 - The "Gun Porn" Award for Most Gratifying Gratuitous Violence (Readers' Choice)* 4Players
    • 2009 – #2 Most Humorous Trailer of the Year
  • G4
    • 2009 - Best Original Game
  • Game Informer
    • 2009 - Best Co-Op Game (Editors' Choice)
    • 2009 - Best Co-Op Game (Readers' Choice)* GamePro
    • 2009 - Best New Series
  • GameSpy
    • 2009 - The Epic Loot Reward
    • 2009 - The Up the Creek Without a Patch Award
  • IGN
    • 2009 - Best PC Shooter

Related Games

The Pandora Directive
Released 1996 on DOS, 2009 on Windows, 2014 on Linux
Legendary
Released 2008 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows
Avatar: Pandora Rising
Released 2019 on iPad, iPhone, Android
Borderlands 3
Released 2019 on Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One...
Borderlands 3
Released 2019 on Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Borderlands 2
Released 2012 on Windows, 2012 on Xbox 360, 2014 on Linux...
Borderlands 2
Released 2014 on PS Vita
Borderlands: Legends
Released 2012 on iPhone, iPad
Talisman: Origins - The Legend of Pandora's Box
Released 2019 on Macintosh, Windows

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

Contribute

Know about this game? Add your expertise to help preserve this entry in video game history!

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Sicarius.

OnLive added by firefang9212. Xbox One added by MAT.

Additional contributors: formercontrib, Solid Flamingo, Big John WV, Patrick Bregger, Starbuck the Third, FatherJack, firefang9212, R3dn3ck3r.

Game added November 20th, 2009. Last modified April 14th, 2023.