Borderlands
Gearbox are putting the finishing touches to their "FPS slash RPG" Borderlands due out in October. We checked it out at Gamescom.
If you've ever been given the choice of Cake or ice cream you have probably asked yourself, why not cake and ice cream? I imagine that line of thinking prevailed as Randy Pitchford and his team at Gearbox Software thought of the concept for Borderlands. A first person shooter set in distant frontier world complete with addictive co-operative play, classes much like a role-playing game, skill trees and plenty of loot as well as insane amounts of weapons (over 16 million!). Cake and ice-cream, and lots of it!
Borderlands has been in production for quite a while now and I have followed the progress intensely ever since it was announced. When a game has been previewed over and over again for years, I sometimes feel like I have already played the game when it finally arrives. I've seen so much of it, screenshots and trailers, played the preview code, and when I finally get the full game in my hands I'm not that excited to play it anymore. Perhaps this would have been the case with Borderlands if not for a major visual overhaul that took place midway through production.
The artists at Gearbox had watched on as the game moved from their initial slightly cartoony concept sketches to a more realistic look and they wanted to bring back the look from the concept drawings. They managed to prove that it was possible to achieve the transformation without having to scrap too much of Borderlands and the publisher 2K Games also agreed to it. A wonderful decision in my view as Borderlands is a game players will spend dozens of hours on and a visual style that stands out and feels fresh is key to making that journey a feast for the eyes.
The co-operative element of Borderlands is what really gets my attention. Talking to my German colleague Christian, a fellow Phantasy Star Online addict from back in the Dreamcast days, we both agreed that Borderlands reminded us of those days with its premise. Of course it also ads the shooting element and vast environments as well as vehicles to traverse the wastelands. Joining a friend in one of the sandy buggies lets you either man the turret och handle the wheels, you can switched positions at any time on the fly.
I have seen Borderlands several times, but at Gamescom Gearbox showed of a mission chain that will be part of the main story (made up of a total of 30 mission chains or 15-20 hours of gameplay). It started out as a mission to take out a beast called Skagzilla (not the one I met last Saturday). First the Gearbox crew had to rescue a fellow called Lucky in order to gain information about the area. A few bandits attacked them as they closed in, but they were quickly taken out.
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- System:PC, PS3, Xbox 360
- Genre:Action
- Developer:Gearbox Software
- Publisher:2K Games
- Offline players:1-4
- Online players:1-4
- Age limit:From 18 years
- Release date:24 November 2009
- Hellgate: London PC
- Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Gamecube/Xbox
- Borderworlds Multi
- Resistance: Fall of Man PS3
- Prey PC/Xbox 360
- Auto Assault PC
- The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay PC/Xbox
- Monster Hunter Freedom 3 PSP
- Far Cry 3 Multi
- Borderlands 2 Multi
- Guild Wars 2 PC
- Phantasy Star Portable 2 PSP
- Halo 3 Xbox 360
- Monster Hunter Tri Wii
- Too Human Xbox 360
Did Blizzard get a bad deal over DOTA naming rights?
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