Borderlands

Players: 1-2 (Online 2-4)
Required Space: 2.7 GB
Supported HD Output: 1080p
DLC: Yes

Boderlands is certainly one of the most addictive RPGs ever created.

When I first started playing this game I was unimpressed. The line art style of graphics took a little getting used to, and frankly, the first few missions were so easy that I almost quit playing out of boredom.

After fifteen minutes I was hooked. The mission and level pacing is excellent, especially on single player mode. The bosses are tough enough to require some experience farming beforehand and the enemy AI seems to be constantly evolving according to the player levels and skill.

The game box boasts "BAZILLIONS OF GUNS", and they truly deliver. Every gun is unique in some way due to seemingly random values of stats and they are also color coded by rarity, allowing you to quickly identify items of interest among the plentiful drops and crates.

The multiplayer drop in/drop out interface automatically increases the difficulty of enemies and occurrence of valuable loot in random drops, encouraging cooperative play. All the money and experience earned during cooperative play is distributed to every player, but it is not divided among them, instead it is duplicated. While this is beneficial to most players, allowing them to level up quickly by joining another player's game, I found it a little too close to cheating. On my first play through there were several difficult parts of the game that I only conquered with the aid of other players, sometimes earning achievements based on their performance.

On my second play through I played mostly alone in order to experience the full game without help. The second play through is a lot more exciting because the enemies and items continue to level up to level 50 (if you have not purchased any expansions). You'll find much more valuable loot the second time around and the enemies are very challenging.

Here are a few tips that will help you get the most out of your gaming experience:

Weapons are plentiful, and they will be constantly increasing in level and effectiveness as your character levels. Because of this you shouldn't be concerned about holding onto to every weapon you come across. The vast majority of the weapons you'll find you'll end up selling, so keep a light inventory so that you have room to carry as much as you can. Generally, you'll find that your character will excel with a particular weapon type depending on how you choose to allocate your skill points, and which class mod is equipped. For example; A hunter with a gunslinger build will mostly be using pistols. It's a good idea to have at least one good short range weapon and one good long range weapon. As the game progresses you'll want to hold on to at least one good caustic weapon and one good static weapon due to late game enemy types. Aside from that, you can sell everything else that you're not using. If you're a pack rat and can't help yourself from collecting, keep in mind that you'll want at least one or two slots free at all times in case you need to quickly grab a rare item.

Weapon crates and enemies reset each time you load a game. For example; New Haven is a perfect place to harvest weapons. This area has five weapon crates scattered around the town that can be harvested before quitting and saving. Simply reload your game afterward and harvest them again. This can be done repeatedly and is best taken advantage of when you have an ally to join your game since chests tend to yield better equipment according to how many players are present.

Watch for weapons that have ammo regeneration listed among their attributes. From my experience, these are just as rare as eridian weapons and they are almost always gold coded rarities. Even if you come across one that is rather weak, you can equip it temporarily in order to restore ammunition. On my first play through I found a caustic revolver with ammo regeneration rather early on and I carried it through the entire game using it mostly to generate ammo for a better revolver I was carrying.

Power leveling is possible if you have a friend invite you to a game that is much farther along than your own. Although you will most likely be ineligible for the quests, you will still share in the cash and experience earned while you play. Even if you have not completed the first play through you can join a friend playing on their second play through and level very quickly. I wouldn't recommend this on your first play through, but if you're looking to level up a second character to experiment with you can even do this on split screen mode and just let the second player sit there gaining experience while you slay enemies.

Upon entering a multiplayer game you may be challenged to a duel. Players can strike one another with a melee attack to initiate a duel. Don't be afraid of dying, other players cannot kill you like enemies can. If you lose a duel you'll be near death but you will not have to respawn.

Arenas are very similar in that they are based on player versus player action. Although you may die in the arena, you do not have to pay for respawn like you would if an enemy had killed you.

Watch out for mods (not to be confused with class mods). Class mods are in game items that a player can equip one at a time to bestow the wearer with specified benefits. Class mods come in a great variety and are unique to each character type. A mod, on the other hand, is basically a hacked item. Programs exist where players can load their collected weapons and manipulate the values attributed to each item. Most of the time mods are easy to spot because they will be ridiculously over powered and may or may not show in your inventory in the correct category. For example; A few days ago I was given a shield called "Ironclad Ironclad". The item, when not equipped, appears in an unmarked category separate from other shields in my inventory. The shield can absorb several hundred thousand points of damage and can recharge almost instantly. While this sounds great, I assure you that the game gets very boring. Also, I don't know what the network's official position is, but I'm hoping that a patch comes out soon to prevent mods from appearing in online games.

All in all, Borderlands is a very entertaining game with tons of replay value and a simple, intuitive user interface very similar to other first person shooters. I highly recommend it!