Borderlands (quite the diversion)

[Vexx]

Borderlands is a 1-4 player co-op game that plays over LAN or Internet.

http://www.borderlandsthegame.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderl...8video_game%29

Set in a punk post-apocalyptic alien world.... rather hip and sardonic, nice choice of music, kind of graphic novel look to it. (Yes, the robot is annoying very quickly and you wish that you could shoot it).

My eldest son and I have been marathon'ing it and its been rather fun. The storyline hides the "kill task grindy" and "postman time sink" quests quite nicely under a lot of action and plot. There are four main classes with 3 skill trees each. Unlike L4D, you can mix and match any class in a game. There's no "player AI" and the game scales to the number of players. The enemy AI is fairly sophisticated (they duck, cover, work together, provide support for their forwards, etc).

The UI is a little odd because its designed for either console or keyboard/mouse but it doesn't twist your head the way the FF MMO did when you try to keybd/mouse that one.

So far, I've found it to be a solid hit - combining elements of GhostRecon, L4D, MMOs, RPGs, and a lot of homage in a "Mad Max" sort of planet.

Main downside was that the network configuration files require tweaking because "idiots" didn't properly test how the ports were assigned. (default is 7777... for LAN play we found problems all went away when all the computers not hosting would alter that to something else (7778, 7779, etc). Internet play also has some issues if more than one person is going through the same router - same fix and you have to portforward some ports if your router isn't robust enough. These are *really stupid* bits of network bogosity that were solved by game designers 10+ years ago and whoever was their networking team should be flayed for it.

The bug list shows there are some problems with gains, items, and points being lost in co-op games versus single play.... so at the moment I advise saving often (finding respawn points and executing a 'store DNA' at them).

[Dist]

The only thing that I disagree you with is ; The robot isn't annoying. If anything, it's rather funny. Especially the New Haven's white robot. ( Well unless, you're shopping at the Health Station and taking your time while you have to listen to his blabbling for ages )

YouTube - Borderlands Claptrap Web Series Episode 1 Trailer [HD]
YouTube - Borderlands Claptrap Web Series Episode 2 Trailer [HD]


Anyway.. I've completed the game now once, and we're on our second playthrough with my friend. It's been pretty fun, but the first playthrough is way too easy. Especially after level 25+ it's just so easy that it isn't even really fun anymore.

The '' Over 100+ hours of gameplay '' was rather false advertising too. It took about 30 hours at most to complete the first gameplay. What the 100 hours actually referred to, is that if you complete the game thrice, when each playthrough is significantly harder than the previous one, it adds up to 100 hours.

Finally, I've no idea what you mean by plot. Simply, there isn't much of a plot in the first place. Of course, all the quests have some kind of '' plot '' in them, but the main plot is just plainly stupid.

Spoiler for The end of the game:

You go look for the vault, you find the vault, you fight the big last boss ... And what, where's the Vault ? You didn't even get to go inside the Vault to get all the '' riches of the vault '', and alot of other things were just left open like that .. Who was the '' Guardian Angel '' that helped you through your adventure ?

All in all, it was good game to kill some time, but I doubt I can even finish the second playthrough as it's not really worth of replaying. If you could change your character while playing second playthrough with harder enemies, then it would be another story.

Conclusion : Not worth of the money I spent on it, especially because you didn't need to buy it in the first place unless you really wanted to '' support Gearbox ''.

Edit : Note about the AI. It sucks, literally. I mean come on, if you hide behind something, they still see you sometimes which is unrealistic. Plus, if you snipe a guy from far away there are two scenarios : The guy magically knows you shoot him and avoids the bullet by turning his head. OR, he indeed dies, but all the other guys IMMEDIATELY shoot the way I am at, with 0.1ms delay, as if they knew in the first place where I was at ... pff..

[ZODDGUTS]

If you have the PC version you can play the game in third person view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HAiBMnp3hE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8jxVuDSkhw

[Dist]

And why on earth anyone would want to play a game like this in 3rd person view ? ...

[Kyero Fox]

Originally Posted by Dist

And why on earth anyone would want to play a game like this in 3rd person view ? ...

because its a FPS/RPG not RPG/FPS... plus its not like your character's appearance changes, there are no armor or anything.

[Dist]

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

because its a FPS/RPG not RPG/FPS... plus its not like your character's appearance changes, there are no armor or anything.

That makes no sense. If it's FIRST PERSON SHOOTER / RPG then why on earth would you want to play it as 3rd person ? If it was RPG/FPS, what difference would that even make either way ? It's still first person shooter with RPG elements.

And exactly, if no armor changes or anything, why play it as 3rd person ? 1. The game is much harder that way, and 2. It just doesn't work, not in a game like this. Most RPG's are 3rd person view ( or some other view ), but not FO3 / Oblivion. And the game's producer said he was huge fan of FO3 which inspired him to make this game lol...

I don't really care if you play it as 3rd person, but it makes no sense to me. If the game is really good, I can put up with 3rd person, but I could never voluntarily play with 3rd person view.

[Vexx]

The handiest part of 3rd person POV is that 1st person point of view has no peripheral vision. You can dork around with the field-of-view... but there are instances where it'd be REALLY NICE to be able to catch movement outside of the tunnel vision that 1st person has. In Ghost Recon it was pretty important to be able to switch back and forth at times. Just saying...

And I take it back a bit about the robot.... the punk bad-attitude robot you meet later in the game is absolutely hilarious. Some of the best lines of dialog in the game...

[ZODDGUTS]

Well those videos clearly shows that the game works well as 3rd person shooter. Anyways plan on getting this game soon will play it in 1st person in my first playthrough then in my 2nd playthrough in 3rd person.

[Kyero Fox]

Originally Posted by Dist

That makes no sense. If it's FIRST PERSON SHOOTER / RPG then why on earth would you want to play it as 3rd person ? If it was RPG/FPS, what difference would that even make either way ? It's still first person shooter with RPG elements.

And exactly, if no armor changes or anything, why play it as 3rd person ? 1. The game is much harder that way, and 2. It just doesn't work, not in a game like this. Most RPG's are 3rd person view ( or some other view ), but not FO3 / Oblivion. And the game's producer said he was huge fan of FO3 which inspired him to make this game lol...

I don't really care if you play it as 3rd person, but it makes no sense to me. If the game is really good, I can put up with 3rd person, but I could never voluntarily play with 3rd person view.

OH! XD I'm so sorry, I got the two mixed up (1st and 3rd person)

[Excorsism]

Originally Posted by Dist

The only thing that I disagree you with is ; The robot isn't annoying. If anything, it's rather funny. Especially the New Haven's white robot. ( Well unless, you're shopping at the Health Station and taking your time while you have to listen to his blabbling for ages )

YouTube - Borderlands Claptrap Web Series Episode 1 Trailer [HD]
YouTube - Borderlands Claptrap Web Series Episode 2 Trailer [HD]


Anyway.. I've completed the game now once, and we're on our second playthrough with my friend. It's been pretty fun, but the first playthrough is way too easy. Especially after level 25+ it's just so easy that it isn't even really fun anymore.

The '' Over 100+ hours of gameplay '' was rather false advertising too. It took about 30 hours at most to complete the first gameplay. What the 100 hours actually referred to, is that if you complete the game thrice, when each playthrough is significantly harder than the previous one, it adds up to 100 hours.

Finally, I've no idea what you mean by plot. Simply, there isn't much of a plot in the first place. Of course, all the quests have some kind of '' plot '' in them, but the main plot is just plainly stupid.

Spoiler for The end of the game:

You go look for the vault, you find the vault, you fight the big last boss ... And what, where's the Vault ? You didn't even get to go inside the Vault to get all the '' riches of the vault '', and alot of other things were just left open like that .. Who was the '' Guardian Angel '' that helped you through your adventure ?

All in all, it was good game to kill some time, but I doubt I can even finish the second playthrough as it's not really worth of replaying. If you could change your character while playing second playthrough with harder enemies, then it would be another story.

Conclusion : Not worth of the money I spent on it, especially because you didn't need to buy it in the first place unless you really wanted to '' support Gearbox ''.

Edit : Note about the AI. It sucks, literally. I mean come on, if you hide behind something, they still see you sometimes which is unrealistic. Plus, if you snipe a guy from far away there are two scenarios : The guy magically knows you shoot him and avoids the bullet by turning his head. OR, he indeed dies, but all the other guys IMMEDIATELY shoot the way I am at, with 0.1ms delay, as if they knew in the first place where I was at ... pff..

I just got the PC version today and it was pretty hard even with experienced friends. It was me and two other players and according to a PROTIP on the loading screen, it gets harder with more players.

[Dist]

Well, of course it's harder with more players, otherwise it'd be too easy. The start may be somewhat hard, but once you reach level 20 it'll be way too easy. ( Unless, you have super hyper bad luck with weapon boxes and won't get anything good at all... But even then you can just farm them at New Haven )

[Beruko08]

The game will be harder (play with 2 of my friends and die a lot) if you're playing on middle-second playthrough. But of course after lvl 48 (or a bit lower level with your current super weapon & armor & skill), things will be easier,imo.

The Spiderpants (especially the Badmutha ones) are really annoying when you're traveling around the map since they always appear non-stop and try to hit my car.

[Dist]

Spiderpants ? Rofl... And they're really easy though because if you're on your car, you can just drive over them obviously. But even when not in car, they're still too easy. Two bullets from my revolver to their Critical Hit spot and they're dead.

But dunno what you mean by '' dying alot ''. I've never died on the game yet. Well okay, I died once on first playthrough but that was only because I went to the Bonehead when I was too low level, and I couldn't kill him. So as result, he kept following me no matter how far I ran >.<.

Of course I get downed often but I'll get up very quickly .. If I am playing with my friend then he can just resurrect me, but even if not .. well with these kind of weapons, the enemies go down way too easily >.<.

[Vexx]

Some problems (for the xbox crowd? or pc? a bit unclear).

http://www.my360.com.au/NewsDetail.aspx?id=2380

Apparently there's a glitch that can wipe all your skill points (though it seems to happen when switching back and forth between single-player and co-op and makes me wonder if people are just assuming the system saves progress rather than explicitly saving at the respawn/travel devices). Gearbox is working on it... but their remarks make me think they're having trouble reliably replicating the problem.

The sole problem I've encountered is sometimes when starting a new character, the storyline hangs just as Claptrap goes to knock on Dr. Zed's door. He just stands there. Eventually I relog/restart, but end up having to run the starting story segment a couple of times before he decides to converse with Zed. A bit weird but its the only game mechanical bug I've run into.

I've gone all the way through the storyline (me- elemental siren, my son- infantry soldier) and I was a bit disappointed in the "climax" and the amount of unresolved threads, unexplained aspects, etc. Mostly I'm a bit peeved that you have to play through the storyline twice to actually end-cap your character (we were level 36 at the end). You start the storyline over though the first zone is now lvl 35ish and up.

I hear there's an expansion pack called "The Island of Dr. Zed" or something coming out at year's end?

We've started a new pair (me-medic/support soldier, son- gunslinger hunter) and will see how that plays. I also have a sniper hunter and a stealth siren I'm tinkering with.

[Beruko08]

Originally Posted by Dist

Spiderpants ? Rofl... And they're really easy though because if you're on your car, you can just drive over them obviously. But even when not in car, they're still too easy. Two bullets from my revolver to their Critical Hit spot and they're dead.

But dunno what you mean by '' dying alot ''. I've never died on the game yet. Well okay, I died once on first playthrough but that was only because I went to the Bonehead when I was too low level, and I couldn't kill him. So as result, he kept following me no matter how far I ran >.<.

Of course I get downed often but I'll get up very quickly .. If I am playing with my friend then he can just resurrect me, but even if not .. well with these kind of weapons, the enemies go down way too easily >.<.

Since I really hate those spiders so I decided to make fun of their name a bit
Those spiders on the first playthrough are easy but on the second? I'd say they're not really that easy. I sure fired at their Critical Hit spot but Omfg they were still alive with their 9/10 HP bars (the small fries don't count) and killed off my comrades (my shotgun's damage is about 196x12).
Especially be careful of the Badmutha ones around "Rust common" map, I once tried to hit a green one with my car still in full HP bar (around 1600) and *BOOM* => Result: I died along with my car and that monster was still alive with his 4/5 HP bar. I guess it happens when I play along with 2 other guys

[Dist]

Well true, I play with only one friend. Although the difference in monsters shouldn't be that great with one less or more .. But I was actually talking about Badmutha ones, the other ones can't even be called monsters as they die way too fast .. 1-2 bullets from my revolver and they're dead ( Unless it's Corrosive Badmutha ). My main revolver has about 7x113 damage and other one with 4x Corrosive Element and around 650 dmg. ( Each bullet triggers the corrosion ).

With shotguns the problem is that even if it has 12x198 damage, there's no way all the bullets will hit, although I would imagine atleast 6 hit so I can't see why it would take more than couple shots with insane shotgun like that o.o.

Even if they manage to down me as they sometimes do since I'm not very good at aiming ( lol ), it's actually easy to shoot them after that as they just stand in front of you and you'll get up really fast.

But about the car thing, I noticed that too but you shouldn't lose HP when you drive over people/monsters though - Only if they manage to attack you too. ( usually you lose hp if they are preparing attack as you drive over them.. meh )

[Beruko08]

From what I've seen the corrosive ones are hardest with large amount of HP, lower are the red ones. Just 2,3 of them appear at same time are enough to piss me off already (especially some of my friends like to battle with them lol)... It was quite annoying at times when I was shopping in the vending machine's menu and killed by those spiders that you didn't even know were there (since they could chew through my shield easily).

The shotgun problem I think I was sure that most of bullets hit their critical hit spot because I was just standing very close behind their stomach. One of my friends thinks that because we were out of their level so that was pretty obvious (our level were just around 40-42 and those badmutha were around 44-46 at that time).

[Dist]

Yea that might be also. But I'm like your friends, I like to fight them . Mainly because they give good exp especially if you kill one on your own when you're in a game with other people.

( Though I haven't investigated yet how the EXP is distributed, and is there difference regarding the EXP that both of us gets if I kill a monster solely only or with my friend while on co-op .. )

[FlareKnight]

Well I've had fun with this game so far. Has been good fun to play with my friend who moved a couple years back. Not sure about the other character types but enjoyed using the Hunter. Like just unleashing bloodwing (especially after some skill points are distributed) and having him mow down a large group of enemies .

[MushroomSamba]

Originally Posted by Excorsism

I just got the PC version today and it was pretty hard even with experienced friends. It was me and two other players and according to a PROTIP on the loading screen, it gets harder with more players.

It gets tougher but not necessarily for the reasons you think. First off, the mobs get stronger, and secondly, more players does not necessarily correlate with more help, lol. I've played with plenty who had no idea what they were doing, and they ended up being more of a liability (constantly dying and making you have to go out in danger to heal them) than doing anything actually useful.

There's only a handful of people I know who I can play with in an organized manner. Everytime else seems to be a chaotic mess. So yeah, more often than not it's easier on your own, but a different kind of fun if you play with others.