Saying Borderlands is my favorite combination of first person shooter and role-playing game is like saying Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are my favorite mass market peanut butter and chocolate candy – sure there's not a lot of competition, but damn they're both really good.
Set on the a sci-fi western/post apocalyptic planet called Pandora, Borderlands puts you behind the gun sights of one of four different mercenaries trying to find an ancient alien Vault and the presumed techno-treasures sealed therein. Each character has a different specialty: Roland the soldier, Lilith the elementalist siren, Mordecai the hunter, and Brick the berserker. Each has unique skill trees giving them special powers that define a large part of how they play. For example, the siren can turn invisible for short periods of time, the hunter has a helpful and deadly hawk companion, the soldier can deploy auto-turrets, and the berserker can pound people to a pulp with his bare hands. All the characters and the world they inhabit are rendered in a striking, almost painterly style that gives Borderlands a look that helps it stand out among virtual worlds.
One thing all these characters have in common, the unifying force that ties all of Borderlands together into a giant, violent, explosive ball of fun is the panoply of guns. There are pistols, revolvers, SMGs, assault rifles, shotguns, rocket launchers, sniper rifles, grenades, and even alien weaponry. Within each category weapons vary by damage, elemental effects, clip size, rate of fire, accuracy, and other special features. Although the some characters specialize in some weapons, all of them are useful and most characters routinely run around with at least one or two of each type. Enemies and monsters drop guns when you kill them, boxes scattered around the landscape hold guns, vending machines sell guns, piles of trash have guns in them. The game advertises "Bazillions of Guns!" and they ain't lying. The constant quest for new weapons, something just a little better or a lot different or both drives you to keep playing, to keep shooting, to keep exploring It's every bit as addictive as it's meant to be.
This article appears in Nov 4-10, 2009.