Borderlands is a first person shooter with some different twists to it that make it a little more interesting than a war oriented military game. It is sort of like “Fallout Lite”. It isn’t as deep and complicated as Fallout 3 or as intense as Modern Warfare 2. For some people that can work out just fine. The entertainment in the game comes mainly from the wide variety of guns and customizable weapons. The game is a mash up no doubt, and maybe you can also play your own mini game of “Find the Derivative” as you recognize a bit of Bioshock or your other favorite RPG’s. Like Brutal Legend, which borrowed heavily from everywhere and made it feel as though it was new, Borderlands may not be innovative but it is top shelf fun. Sometimes a game can do everything right, but can’t get out of its own way, (cough, Resident Evil) this time Borderlands is a game that puts the fun first.

Nothing is perfect especially in video games, and Borderlands is far from it. The flaws in the game don’t take away from the game – play, that much. But do lead to frustration. They put in something called “fight for your life” that is a major glitch maker. The fight for your life thing practically breaks an otherwise great game. Don’t be fooled by all the glowing (cough, fake) reviews on the commercial websites. The scores of 9 and even 8 have to have been written subsidised by advertising. There are problems with the multiplayer, and there are more issues there than you should have to be bothered with these days. When your character gets hit enough for shields to be depleted or health points are low it goes into this strange black and white mode. It flashes “fight for your life” on the screen, and your character becomes stuck and unable to use weapons or skills, reload or move. It is useless, and beyond annoying. There are many known issues with the mode, and it should be taken out with successive updates.

For now, the work around is just to play better. Get behind cover, try not to take damage, don’t let your shields go down to nothing. It takes away the ability to go balls out and rush an enemy and win by the skin of your teeth. In missions where there is a boss to defeat, when you are down to your last few points instead of killing off the boss, you will get sent back to the beginning. It feels like having sex with a guy who has premature ejaculation. And when you return, he has all his points restored. But all the drops that were around, even the ones you didn’t need the first time, are gone.

It does have a playable female avatar. Only one though. There are three male avatars to choose from. The Siren has an invisibility skill which comes in handy. You can change the tint of her hair and clothing, but you can choose anything else for her. They did female voice overs for her, so at least she isn’t grunting and commenting with a male voice. But she doesn’t have much appeal one way or another. Mainly because of the next problem…

The camera is also a deal breaker on this game. We would like to see our character inside the game. It would also be helpful to be able to pull back to see and entire area. The map, while it functions ok, does not permit you to zoom it with the right stick either.

There isn’t a way to toggle first and third person view on the PS3 version. You’ll feel like you need it because of the limited camera in first person. It feels like you are nearsighted and lost your glasses. It only lets you see what is directly in front of you. If you could at least back it off a little you might be able to see the short little psychos or the skrags which come up and bite your character from underneath. You may be involved in a fire fight or sniping, and you could end up loosing due to enemies that you can’t see. The only way to get them is to back up quickly. That is so counter intuitive when you are used to playing aggressively. In MMO’s like D&D backing up weakens your character’s attack, so it is not something you would ever do voluntarily.

Then there is the split screen. Once again I’ll reiterate that split screen is a cheap – ass, lame and sloppy way to program. Stop it developers. Just. Stop. Nothing compares to the experience of being able to see both of your characters on the screen interacting with each other and the environment. With the first person only, on a split screen all you get is motion sickness and none of the immersion.

The art-style is a bit different. It might appeal to some. It looks like regular graphics, but it is also kind of cel shaded. Too bad they couldn’t make up their mind. But that could be said of everything about Borderlands. The graphics are not stunning, they aren’t even especially good. They didn’t seem to care much about how the game looks. The sound track is good. I found myself singing along to the opening theme.

“Oh there ain’t no rest for the wicked, Money don’t grown on trees, I’ve got bills to pay and mouths to feed and nothing in this world comes for free”.

Relateable and catchy. The lonesome violins appropriately accompany the empty, dry, monotonous environments.

It isn’t an open world, which is another disappointment. You are able to pick from one or two missions at a time. But each mission has a set difficulty level. You can’t set the game on Easy or Hard. The missions are Normal, Hard or Tough. So if the mission requires something you aren’t particularly good at, you will be stuck. In order to advance the game and the story line you have to solve them. You can’t just run and dodge enemies to get to see new territories.

In a direct rip off of Fallout 3 you are looking for a Vault. Which is a treasure area supposedly. The treasure may exist, but we aren’t going to have the patience to deal with this beast of a game to see the ending. But the guns, guns, guns are what make the journey of the game worth renting anyways. There a vehicle with a turret on top like the Halo warthog. They have funny names like the terrible shotgun, which it was. It didn’t shoot for shit. But there’s plenty more where that came from combat rifles, sub-machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and pistols, that they call repeaters. Some of them also spit fire too. Sweetly. The weapons are randomly generated. That makes it interesting. Borderlands is more like a shooting range than a video game.

It isn’t 100 percent linear, and it doesn’t have an involving drama. It has a boat load of flaws and it’s glitchy as all get out. Never the less I couldn’t stop playing it. That’s worth something. They did include a female avatar and did give her unique skills. That is worth something too. But it still isn’t enough to give it a high score. As a new IP it has plenty of potential to improve, and that’s something I’ll look forward to. Until then try before you buy, and if you have the choice to choose the PC version, that one seems to be getting better reviews, and you can toggle between first and third person perspective with a little hack. I give Borderlands 6 insta-health syringes out of 10.