Borderlands review.

Borderlands leaves me with mix feelings. First, the makers of the game did a good choice by using Cell-Shading. The graphics are really well done, especially the characters and enemies. Everything is eye candies. The framerate is very decent for a middle class machine.

The sound is adequate, however in the long run, you will find that there is a lack of atmosphere in the game. It's mainly due to the fact that the levels have little to no sounds. You get the enemies screams and voices, but you barely ear anything else if any…Even for an apocalyptic time there is sure to be more sounds. Where is the wind, why is there no rain or snow ?

The story, well…this is where I think the game fault the most. It lacks a real deep story. You kind of feel it's a pretext for shooting at peoples and creature. But the lack of narrative and dialogues with characters made me unplug from the game. I didn't feel anything for the story. The story is deliver by a ghostly voice, you get some journals to find from here and there. There is no cutscenes or scripted events worth of mention. No NPC will try to talk to you. You are never sollicited into the story and if you make a RPG, it should be essential.

So really Borderlands is more a FPS then a RPG. Well done FPS. Shooting is fun and precise. Driving vehicules are a blast. You can level your skill, change your weapons and add/buy shields and mods, but your character has no armor or protection from clothing (Why?).

Overall Borderlands is a great game with some flaws. If you aren't badder by a game structure and narrative that rely solely on going from mission to mission, then I would recommend it. Otherwise, if you like being told a story like most of RPG (Like Fallout 3, Oblivion) I would say try it before buying…Because the game become repetitive very fast and very little breaks you from this pace.

Graphics: 9/10  Sounds: 7/10  Gameplay: 6.5/10 Overall: 7/10

Update (November 09): Just finish the game. The end sucked. Basically there is no end, and the one that is there is equal to the complete lack of a story. Big deception, I would have think there was some meat somewhere at the end…NO! One kudo: I didn't see any prevalent bug in the game, so it was well tested on PC. The game let you continue the sub quest after the credits…