Borderlands (Windows)

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Description

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.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Part of the Following Groups

• 3D Engine: UnrealEngine3
• Borderlands series
• BPjS / BPjM indexed games
• Gameplay feature: New Game+
• Japanese Xbox 360 game releases with full English support
• Physics Engine: PhysX
• Premium Games label
• Visual technique / style: Cel shaded

User Reviews

Boredomlands	Oleg Roschin (181727)
Take a spoonful of Diablo, pour a cup of Halo, pepper on some Fallout, stir in a pint of Left 4 Dead, and you have Borderlands.	Kaddy B. (791)

Critic Reviews

Total PC Gaming	2009	9.1 out of 10	91
2404.org PC Gaming	Nov 15, 2009	8.8 out of 10	88
GameSpot	Oct 30, 2009	8.5 out of 10	85
Gameplay (Benelux)	Oct 28, 2009	82 out of 100	82
Eurogamer.net (UK)	Oct 20, 2009	8 out of 10	80
Factornews	Nov 30, 2009	8 out of 10	80
Imperium Gier	Nov 30, 2009	8 out of 10	80
Cheat Happens	Nov 03, 2009	8 out of 10	80
Gaming since 198x	Jan 12, 2010	4 out of 5	80
GamesVault	Dec 13, 2009	8 out of 10	80

Forums

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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 Web Sites

• Borderlands (Entry in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
• Borderlands Wiki (A wiki-based database of the Borderlands series.)
• Demiurge Studios (Info regarding Demiurge's involvement.)
• Gearbox's official website for Borderlands (multi-lingual) (Gearbox's official website for Borderlands (multi-lingual).)
• PS3trophies.org (Trophy guide for Borderlands)
• X360A achievement guide (X360A's achievement guide for Borderlands.)