Thursday, February 4, 2010

Played Lately: Borderlands

  • Back during the holiday Steam sale, I mentioned that I was waiting for Borderlands to drop to 50% off before I would buy it. 2K held their ground at 33% off and, by the end, my resolve crumbled. And I'm glad I did. Borderlands ends up being a lot of fun.

  • Even though everyone suggests playing a soldier, I rolled up a siren. What can I say? I prefer to play female characters even when you play in a first person view! The way she laughs when I pull off a head shot always makes me smile. It doesn't really matter that her gender is tied to a specific character class. I play the game with the skills handed to me and enjoy myself.

  • And I am enjoying myself. The comparisons with Diablo are for more than surface similarities. While Borderlands shares its colored rarity scale, skill trees, and randomized loot with that series, it also shares the design philosophy of stripping the game down to the barest essentials. It points you in a direction, hands you a weapon, and gets out of your way. Because the simple experience of shooting bad guys is so enjoyable here, they can build the rest of the game on the firm foundation.

  • I'm also, amazingly enough, enjoying the game solo. Everywhere you turn you hear about how you should only play the game co-op, and I understand that sentiment. They said the same thing about Diablo. But no matter how much people protest, it works just fine for a single player. Even if I do have to exploit the boss AI to get through some battles.

  • For the time being Mass Effect 2 has eaten my life, so it will be a while before I come back to Borderlands. But I will come back. There is still a lot of fun here to be found.

7 comments:

  1. I'm looking forward to playing ME2, but I'm obsessing more about STO right now so I haven't even picked up a copy. Especially odd considering ME1 was why I bought an Xbox 360.

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  2. @ Blue Kae - It's funny that you say that. Mass Effect was the reason I wanted a 360 also. ME2 had to be a day one purchase for me.

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  3. I've been tempted a couple of times to go ahead and buy ME2, but I know it would end up sitting on my desk for a couple of weeks anyway.

    One question though, how does the tone compare to the first game? It looks quite a bit darker and after playing Dragon Age, I'm not sure that's something I'm interested in. Or is it more like a Star Wars vs. Empire Strikes Back thing?

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  4. Wow, same here. Bought a 360 largely for ME1. And to stream Netflix to my TV.

    I actually want to finish out some activities in ME1 before I purchase ME2. There are still a lot of side missions I never completed.

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  5. @Blue
    ME 2 is more or less like ME1 in tone. The main difference will be a few of the team members you can pick up, they are a bit more colorful than the first game.

    ME2 is great so far, and I think it's a much better experience if you have played ME1 first.

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  6. Thanks, Jaye. I did finish ME1 and did all of the side missions. I didn't play through multiple times to get the achievements or see the other ending. I did manage to finish and keep Wrex alive though.

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  7. @ Blue Kae - Jayedub hit it right. It still feels like Mass Effect, just more

    @ Yeebo - Definitely finish up before starting ME2. I can't imagine playing the game without carrying over a character.

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