While Im charitable to the fact that this game has First Draft Syndrome, its impossible to ignore how the ugly Brown Aesthetic of late 2000s video games merged with this austere desert looter shooter to form the most rancid vibes known to man. It is so mind-numbingly bare that it almost feels like a surrealist project, some David Lynch psyop where theres just an uncomfortable amount of dead air.

And in some ways thats interesting, its like Borderlands 1 is a peek into an alternate reality. Its a much more dismal, less successful reality to be clear, and this is something that can only be appreciated retrospectively; its difficult to regard Borderlands as the “starting point” of the series when its such a distant relative to what the series is at this point (and really its estranged relationship with the series is the only worthwhile thing about it worth talking about)

Written September 17, 2011

For the past 9 months I have been playing Borderlands. After acquainting myself with its niches and quirks, playing through all of the Downloadable content, searching for the best guns, grenade mods, shields, abilities, fighting through every boss, and doing the best I can to defeat the single most difficult enemy in the entire game (it's impossible to do it on your own), I can now comfortably review Borderlands in its entirety. Though it can be played as a single-player game, Borderlands is best enjoyed with at least one other person. Playing by yourself is the least interesting way to play Borderlands and is not recommended at all. Part of the fun of the game comes with dicking around with teammates and making wise cracks at your friends about how much they suck at the game. I'm serious.

Gameplay
I have been known to describe Borderlands as the inverse of Fallout. While Fallout is mostly an RPG with Shooter elements, Borderlands and mostly a Shooter with RPG elements. And that's where the comparisons to Fallout end. Borderlands is quite unique in its execution of gameplay. It's a fast paced Shooter with a fair share of explosions, vehicles, alien creature things, Challenges for killing X alien creature things or killing X enemies with X type of guns, class-specific skills, leveling, and Critical Hits. The game controls much like a Call of Duty title, in terms of button layout on the XBOX 360 controller (and yes, I only reviewed the XBOX 360 version. Owning multiple copies of the same exact game on different systems is for people who hate having fun), and needless to say it works. The only thing that would be new to a CoD player would be the Action Skill, which is Class-specific and bound to the Left Bumper, and the D-Pad used for weapon swapping between (up to) 4 equipped weapons.

Each class has his or her own Action Skill. The Soldier deploys a turret that, with upgrades can shoot a barrage of bullets, shoot rockets, heal players, regenerate ammo, and help up a downed ally. The Siren's Action Skill turns her invisible, allowing her to move at an incredible speed through enemies. She can also use the skill to attack an enemy with a Force Push-like melee attack. The Hunter summons a Bloodwing (which is a very deadly bird) that attacks an enemy by basically mauling their face off. The Berserker's Action Skill will not only heal him, but cause him to -- you know, go berserk. In Berserk mode, you can run up to people and punch them in the face repeatedly until they go plop. Each action skill can also be upgraded to have elemental effects from Artifacts.

Guns can also have elemental damage. Every gun you find in the game is randomly generated on the spot (except for a few key weapons, but even then those have variations). In addition to the random chance for certain guns to have scopes, or large magazines, or low recoil, they also have a chance of doing elemental damage. Every gun has their own manufacturer and each manufacturer has their own special rules to their guns. For example, Maliwan only manufactures elemental guns, while Jakobs never manufactures elemental weapons. Certain manufacturers will have certain styles, like white guns from Atlas, or red guns from Hyperion. Often times I simply can't find the a gun with the specs I'm looking for, but once I do, I never let go... Until of course I find a better one.

Grenades and shields also have their own traits based on the manufacturer. There are various grenade types, though Transfusions are very helpful in stealing enemy health to replenish your own. Additionally, healing shields are good, but often times have low amounts of actual shielding. There are also class mods that can add to your Class' skills depending on the type of Class Mod.

Story
The story is nothing special and isn't really necessary to enjoy the game, but I could never feel like I was actually part of the Borderlands universe. Missions are given and you can accept them, but any backstory is written in text, and this being a fast paced shooter and all, I simply couldn't be bothered to do that. All I ever really did was go to where the checkpoint told me to go, finish the checklist, return to the quest giver, and collect my rewards. I never even knew why I was doing the missions or for what reason they needed to be done, I just did them. No, I will not go so far as to say that it's a social commentary on how people will take any job so long as there is a reward. I will not excuse Gearbox for not including a "Read This Text To Me Because I'm a Lazy Bum" option.

Downloadable Content
There are 4 pieces of DLC for Borderlands. The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, and Claptrap's New Robot Revolution. A main issue I have with the DLCs is the pure lack of a Fast Travel system I had grown accustomed to using throughout the main game. Monotony is an understatement here. There is nothing I enjoy less than traveling for 15 minutes in a video game to pick up a quest, only so I can travel 15 minutes back to do the quest, and then another 15 minutes to hand it in. Then there's Mad Moxxi's lack of a save feature, forcing you to either complete the round, or be forced to restart that entire Colosseum. Not to mention that an entire Colosseum play through of just 5 rounds can last a good 3-4 hours. And the "It Stopped Being Cool 50 minutes ago" Moxxi theme song doesn't help. To be entirely honest, the only reason I bought Moxxi was because of the Bank feature which lets you store some of your items. Oh, and you get no experience for killing enemies either, so if you thought Moxxi would be a good, easy way of leveling up, you were wrong.

Verdict
As long as you have someone else to play with and go 50-50 on the DLC (unless you're not like me and waited for the Game of the Year Edition, and in that case I hate you), I recommend Borderlands and most of its DLC. The game can be fun if played with others and is satisfying when your weapons don't suck.

borderlands 1 absolutely nails a complete and utter sense of dread and carries that into its very bleak atmosphere perfectly. every character feels like someone thats gone insane from living in a world where theyre lonely and have to fear for their life every single day. i honestly adore the way the game sometimes makes you take long drives across the maps with the ost setting the tone in the background. driving through both of the rust commons is a very memorable experience. some of the side quest content is also genuinely haunting (is tk ok? and tannis' echo logs primarily). unfortunately this game is kinda crushed under the weight of its own ambitions. the gunplay - while extremely satisfying - is also extremely basic, and despite the large amount of weapons in the game, most of them kinda feel the same to use. the balancing is also really wack with how weapons are more about parts than level. a level 25 double anarchy will still do you very well at level 50, its a little goofy. nothing's ever stopping you from using the sledge's shotgun or a double anarchy for the entire duration of the game. the story is also rather minimal, and while i partly do enjoy its wordless minimalistic nature, its hard not to feel like the game is using its atmosphere as a cover for the lack of any substance. the sense of balance is especially made goofy by the fact that two out of four vault hunters are significantly worse than the rest. there is very little reason to run anyone but lilith and brick on high level play. regardless of all of this, i still absolutely love this game. its absolutely something special and nails such a specific niche in my heart that i just cant help being in love with it (a little like dark souls 1, except that game is still actually amazing). all in all, i'd say this game is definitely worth experiencing, and it makes me sad that this game's poor reception when it came out from gamer dudebros who just called it boring resulted in them developing borderlands 2 as the opposite of everything borderlands 1 was (especially on the sense of humour lmao)

As the starting series for Borderlands that came out in 2009, I gotta give it due credit. It's a fun fps with interesting characters, cool and interesting weapons and bosses, and lots of side quests to partake in to take a break from following the main story. I will say I wish there was more dialogue from the characters you interact with, and sometimes the shooting and driving mechanics feel really janky. The leveling up system can feel harsh at times too but otherwise this was really fun, don't think I'd ever replay it though.

it's a decent starting point to like, a really well known and popular franchise at this point but it's got a lot of issues. Mainly the story and quest structure is awful and it feels like it's lacking a lot of it's charm that made the other games fun to play.

There's a couple of good highlights but it almost feels like you're doing a lot more busy work than needed and it gets to a point where it feels like you're going through the motions in a bland way, it's a very ugly game that I think would've been made even worse if they stuck with the original art style they had from the beginning. (I'm sorry but the realistic look would've killed this game but that's just how I feel.)

The gameplay shines and there is a somewhat decent amount of enemy variety when going through different places. For the most part you fight bandits but there's other alien creatures that help break up some of the monotony and bosses are a good highlight, but also kinda whatever a lot of the times.

Vehicles are kinda alright but the vehicle combat isn't fun to go through, I'm not sure if it's me or just the fact that I'm not always great with aiming but some of this gets a bit annoying when trying to go through certain areas. And it's more annoying in side quests trying to take out vehicles and then having yours being destroyed cause 3 enemy cars were circling you.

The biggest issue I have is that for some odd reason the Fov sucks ass, it feels like you're in a tunnel and it's incredibly hard to gauge enemy distance and how far you are between some of them. I used a mod to fix it but that's more of a patch job.

I kinda dug how the weapons felt, they're ugly but they aren't gimmicky like the other games. This has a much more grounded feel to it that I actually don't mind so much, it feels a little barren but that helps it's atmosphere, and I think in a way does kinda make it stand out just slightly from the other games more comedic edge to it.

I played the OG version mainly cause I'm having issues with the remastered release on PC. I have played it before on PS4 and if anything it's best to get the remastered since it fixes the FOV and I think adds a couple more things. Just don't expect anything grand or spectacular.

7/10 Lilith is best girl.