Borderlands

Let me start by saying that I really love the Boarderland francise and am really anticipating the new games coming up
this fall. That said, I made a huge mistake- I played Borderlands 2 before I played the first game. So, I will do my best to
be fair, but I will note- the second game was a freaking fantastic follow-up and way better than the original.

Borderlands was as I expected it to be: a superb shoot-em-up FPS action game with a butt-ton of comedy. The main thing I love about these games is that they are pretty much made for co-op. Between the two games I never felt that the quality was diminished just to suit more than one player. (Screw you
"let's fit in some shitty multi-player mechanic and call it co-op *cough Dark Soul*" games.) Anyway... Borderlands review... back to it!

So, the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) references and flavour text in this game just tickles me. Though I'm all for blindly blasting through games, shooting up everything in sight, this is a game where I'd really recommend a slower initial play through. Taking time to read the quests and listen to the character stories really improved the overall entertainment factor of the game for me. This game also has some replay value since there are multiple players to choose from (though I'd still probably choose to play through BL2 if I was really getting into speed runs and such). 90% of this game was just fun and giggles, but there was one major flaw in the story- the lack of a real bad-ass antagonist. Once in a lifetime opportunity to open a vault and collect the alien treasures (or whatever mysterious thing is actually contained in a vault), makes sense- we're vault hunters. Very very occasionally a bitchy albino would send guys after us and steal vault key parts. I'd say more about her... but spoilers. I just couldn't stop thinking "What is this building to other than finding this vault and popping her open?" Sadly, not much. Oh except REDACTED and holy shit REDACTED. But seriously you guys have all probably played this and BL2 by now, so yeah Hyperion. Mmmm yes.

So, no great badguy on our ass, well, I can get past that, as Kuma and I had a fantaaastic time repairing Claptraps, killing bandits, and running stuff (and each other) over. We were able to build a lot of synergy between our chars to help boost the power of us as a team. Of course the FPS genre really benefits when playing with others. Making plans of attack, trying insane maneuvers, distracting the enemies so your partner can sneak around a tough area and leave you for dead- awesome times.

First run through I played the Siren- the option to have a melee build and a powerful weapon build was nice.

1. Phasewalk, explode enemies in the face.
2. Run behind enemy, leave Phasewalk, explode enemies in the face.
3. Punch enemy in the face.
4. Finish off enemy with SMG to the face.
5. Rinse and repeat.

This never got old.Kuma was playing Roland, I really enjoyed his ability to shoot me for heals. Free heals generally translates into me doing dumb things. So I did LOTS of dumb things. Run into the middle of a bandit camp and start shooting wildly? Sure. Incoming grenade, let's stand on top of it? You know it! Launch my vehicle off of tall outcrops and land onto an exploding barrel? Okay, he couldn't save me on that one. But it was still fun.

Kuma and I were playing with the LAN connection. This was sometimes problematic, only I could host a game. Whenever Kuma tried to host I could never connect.

PROS:

• Funny ass game.
• Ease of controls and remapping of keyboard. Being a left handed mouse user, this is critical for me.
• Graphics - so gritty, you either love them or hate them. I love them!
• Character skills have some good options. There is a class/skill combo to suit most everyone's preference.

CONS:

• Hosting a game could be problematic.
• Complications with co-op saving at points in the game. We would have to backtrack so Kuma could continue on the quests.
• I WANT MY BADGUY.