Borderlands (Sony Playstation 3, 2009)

What do you get when you combine 1 part Halo with 1 part Diablo and a big bag of brilliant level design? What you get is one really fun and rewarding game. In the beginning you pick 1 of the 4 characters and you're thrown into the game world, a planet called "Pandora". Each of the characters in the game offer something unique with different action skills and innate abilities. The characters are balanced well. There is humor in the game as well and a very distinctive style to everything. When Borderlands decided to go with a semi-cellshaded look I protested... However, now I can't imagine the game any other way. The look of the game is both distinct and awesome. There are drivable vehicles with questionable physics (2 kinds). BUT what makes the game so awesome is the randomly generated guns and other loot that the planet Pandora is littered with. Opening a loot chest offers excitement every time that you do it. The developers claim there are 1.7 million guns in the game. The number of truly unique guns is less though. The levels are NOT randomly generated, instead they are made with lots of detail and thought. There are plenty of hidden treasures to which you have to jump to. You earn experience by killing enemies or by doing missions. The level cap in Borderlands is 50... (In Fallout 3 it was only 20, for me Borderlands > Fallout 3). The story in Borderlands is not the best but its NOT terrible either. What makes Borderlands so great is its gameplay. There is a co-op mode allowing player to join together to do quests on-line or through split screen. Borderlands is filled with variety that never fades. I could give Borderlands no less than 5 stars because I beat the game 3 times! I decided to play it over the other hundreds of games that I have :)

Borderlands is a very addictive shooter that will keep you entertained for a long time. I wasn't sure what to expect from a game advertised as an RPG / Shooter, but was very impressed with the way 2K combined the two genres. The 4 player co op really ramps up the excitement but it is also fun to play solo. The cartoon style graphics look good and work well for this type of game. The virtually endless variety of guns have great sound and feel and are very well balanced allowing you to play many different styles. The skill trees for the different characters also allow plenty of room to develop your own style. Whether you like to stay back and pick off enemies from afar or run into the action with guns blazing, there are lots of cool ways to develop your skills. Another great feature allows you to completely reset your skill points at any time.
The main drawback is the weak story and somewhat repetitive missions, which basically consist of the "go kill this guy and I'll give you this cool gun" type. But you'll have plenty of fun shooting up Pandora while trying to level up and upgrade your arsenal. Overall an excellent shooter and RPG experience.

So there are quite a few components to this game, so I will try to review ones I feel important.

Single Player: This is very fun even with no one playing with you. It is very often better to go single player on some quests because if you play with random people, they will often take the best loot, even if they don't need it. Another aspect is that many times it is laggy online, so obviously single player prevents this.

Online: This is extremely fun if you have friends that play the game as well! Just imagine going around killing endless things with awesome weapons and your friends. It is also more effective in gaining experience and more powerful weapons/items. The voice chat usually is bad, but can be solved by just using the Text Chat Rooms from the XMB.

Weapons: This is one of the most interesting aspects of the game. There are TONS of weapons, and I honestly have not seen the same one twice. They organize them with type of weapon (Shotgun, Combat Rifle, SMG, etc...) and manufacturer. They can also have elements added and different bonus stats, which is why I haven't seen a single repeat yet (with the exception of unique weapons).

FPS/RPG Blend: So this game looks and feels like an open world FPS. The RPG aspect comes into it almost entirely passively. You have one class skill that you use, and every other skill is more of an upgrade to either the class skill, weapons, or armor/health.

All in all, it is an excellent game that filled a very cool niche. As someone that loves both FPS and RPG's seperately, I felt the game did justice by combining the two. Get this game if you are on the fence, because you will thank me later. It has great replay value as well, with going through the game at a tougher and higher level setting, called Playthrough 2. This is where the best items come from. The replay also comes from playing online with others and helping them out or just simply going back to places and killing stuff.

Easily one of the best PS3 games out there. If you're big on the multiplayer co-op experience, then this is definitely your game. The graphics were hard to get used to at first, but a couple minutes into the game you realize its perfect with the atmosphere of the game. If you're not into FPS games or if youre looking for a hard core RPG, then this isn't your game.

Pros -
Awesome Multiplayer coop
Casual FPS/RPG
Game remains interesting until the end
Great music
Humoristic Dystopian Atmosphere

Cons -
Weak RPG and FPS for hard core players
Quite boring playing alone
Weapons could have used more variety and customization
$10 for DLC is a bit expensive especially when Mad Moxxi is crappy
Limited to 4 pre-set characters that differ slightly

Borderlands is one of those few games you should get that comes out only once a year or at the most twice a year and it is a real deal, I mean there are sh*t loads of games on ps3 that shouldn't be actually out and sold but this game combines RPG and FPS and gives it a twist in it's own way... For the graphics it reminds me of the game "XIII" but of course much much better, and the game in general reminds me of "Fallout" so if you liked "Fallout" a bit you will love this game... Definetly worth the money and the time, a bizillion of guns are waiting for you thats for sure...