Review for Borderlands. Game for Mac, PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the video game was released on 20/10/2009 The version for PC came out on 30/10/2009
A legend is told ... many people know it. The legend of the Crypt. Unintentionally, Gearbox Software made a bet years ago. A bet he's not aware of, because it's about one of your humble, trusted reviewers, but one that Randy Pitchford and his boys will be happy to hear they won: to please shooters to those who just can't digest them. She managed to create, in 2009, a comic and light-hearted video game that took what she wanted from the shooter and RPG genres and created her own unique niche. Soulslike exist but borderlandslike (or borderslike) don't exist, that is to say no one besides Gearbox has taken the right to try even remotely to replicate the Borderlands formula, which to date is perhaps the most shining example of a looter shooter and one of the best cooperative games of the 2s. It was Borderlands 2009 that crowned the series, either for natural evolutions or for its antagonist, Handsome Jack, but it all started in 4 with Borderlands, which ten years later lives off its Game of the Year version on PlayStation XNUMX, Xbox One and PC.
The Crypt and its first Hunters
The characters we have grown fond of, who in addition to giving the gameplay a boost of novelty have also helped Borderlands to be so energetic (today more than ever with the announcement of Borderlands 3), make their big debut here, in a bus ramshackle in the dry lands of Pandora. Alien planet that is said to hide the Crypt, and in it wealth and fame, has seen thousands of people arrive en masse in search of it, so much so as to populate the planet warming up in shelters built in the best possible way. These unwanted inhabitants call themselves Crypt hunters and they have only one rule: there are no rules. The game itself is not taken seriously: they are all loons or profiteers, but they have become our loons and our profiteers.
Like Marcus, the weapons seller who only thinks of his own profit but who nevertheless accompanies the four Vault Hunters designated for this adventure: Roland (the Soldier), Lilith (the Mermaid), Brick (the Berserker) and Mordecai (the Hunter) they are now at home, with their unique skills and phrases. With Roland having ammunition will be a walk, while with the other characters we will enrich Marcus more; Brick will be able to rely on his fists, Mordecai on his sniper rifle and his faithful companion Bloodwing while Lilith - who is part of an elite and distinguishable race of women, the Sirens - has a power called "phase gait", with which she can disappear and reappear with an explosion of energy. The builds, the RPG component of the title, are less varied than Borderlands 2 simply because of the smaller number of skills, but no less fun. Even more Claptrap specimens appear in this chapter, before Handsome Jack turned off all but one of the nagging robots in Borderlands 2. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, we leave it to you to decide.
The Game of the Year version of Borderlands, offered only digitally and even free to PC friends (for those who own the original Borderlands) revitalizes a chapter of the series destined for twilight because of the older brother. Switching from PlayStation 3 to PlayStation 4 Pro is a real time jump into modernity: on PS3 Borderlands suffered from unstable frame rates and rough, barely detailed, almost confused models. All of this on PS4 disappears, coming to one remaster that supports 4K, with sharper and more colorful scenery and that runs like a marvel at 60 fps. Loading times are halved: From a series of tests, moving quickly to and from the same places on both consoles (Arid Badlands and Headstone Mine) the result was that if the PS3 took an average of 20 seconds, the PS4 took 10 seconds. it is a general improvement of the experience that does not turn back with nostalgia, but forward with satisfaction. However, a sometimes quite slow texture loading when the character (s) is nearby and that during the choice of characters, since it is no longer a separate menu but superimposed with Claptrap in the background walking here and there, the game is heavily lagging, only to recover like nothing had happened once the game started.
Borderlandsdueization (partial)
Another big change is a re-framing of the inventory and the total overhaul of the HUD, among which theinclusion of a minimap at the top right and the possibility of inserting a custom indicator. The compass, which was the main method of orientation in Borderlands, has not been replaced, but integrated with the minimap, so there is no longer a need to open the menu specifically for that (even if in co-op mode it appears to be too small and almost disorientante). What stands out is that in this Borderlands operation yes (pass the term) "Borderlandsdueizzi", that is to say that while maintaining the original imprint it becomes akin to Borderlands 2 with elements now considered obvious such as the minimap and the pickup car, that is, automatically taking from the ground the remains, ammunition and money released by the enemies. Add us a weapon management that allows you to divide favorites and discards to be sold en masse to the distributors of Marcus and Doctor Zed scattered around Pandora and you will understand how much everything is designed to include these improvements - already present in the second chapter of the saga - also in the parent title.
This GOTY version also adds the mechanics of golden keys, keys that open special chests that have become a prerogative in the sequels, ei SHiFT codes, codes that users can enter to obtain other golden keys; another addition is finally the bar with which we can adjust the field of view. Even the Angel, a character that will be deepened in the sequel, has undergone changes in this version, being inexplicably computerized. The face of the actress (the beautiful Britanni Johnson) and her hair in the wind are in fact a distant memory, replaced by a heavy digital and unnecessary effect. In the midst of all these tweaks we would have liked to see (but it will remain a utopia) a change in the management of the “fight for life” mechanics, in which unlike Borderlands 2 it is still impossible to move when we fall to the ground.
On the other hand, the exclusive novelties of this newfound Borderlands consist of six new legendary weapons and a previously unforeseen possibility of customization, through six headgear for each Vault Hunter. Nothing to tear your hair out of and nothing that upsets the character as happens in Borderlands 2 (which could count on real skins): Borderlands simply lets you choose the shade of the original dress from a color palette. For the occasion Gearbox has decided to also retouch the final boss of the main campaign, changing its difficulty because considered too simple by the community even if, unfortunately, they have not similarly touched the main antagonist of the title, one of the weaknesses of the original game because it was underdeveloped.
The heart of Borderlands was (and remains) the cooperative experience, which is confirmed also on this occasion the fundamental element to elevate this irreverent hybrid video game. Pandora simply doesn't offer the same fun to lone wolves and the split-screen (console prerogative) it can only come out of this if strengthened by an increase in performance. However, we would like to point out some small things that left us dazed, especially in light of the borderlandsdueizzazione of the title. We do not explain ourselves as the developers have not included a way for a player to join an ongoing local game (you have to go back to the initial menu and log in together) or how in two players the initial cut-scene, where the story is introduced and the characters are presented and then chosen, is completely missing, having the protagonists choose from the initial menu (blindly) and taking them instantly to the Arid Badlands. We didn't understand this singular choice, as in the PS3 version both players seamlessly chose characters on the bus during the regular cut-scene.
The biggest problem with the cooperative adventure is a bug affecting the implementation in the system favorites / discard menu. The problem arises when both players are in the menu and a player trespasses in the companion's menu: by pressing the key used for the aforementioned function (the analogue) you end up blocking or stacking your discards in those of others, with consequent apologies and ran for cover. It goes without saying that at least for now, pending a patch, only one player at a time can do this spring cleaning. The game is not free from some minor bugs, as per Gearbox tradition, which disappears by reloading the game, but which demonstrates how the company, perhaps taken from the whirlwind of Borderlands 3 (advertised in a rather tacky way in the initial menu) has made a borderlandsdueizzazione partial, in the sense that he did not have the same care for all the (many) details that make up Borderlands.
It's like Christmas
The first Borderlands, in short, had then and now has several merits that make it worthy of being appreciated as the second most successful, starting with the contents. DLC, conveniently included in this edition decennial: theDr. Ned's Zombie Island (which is definitely not Dr. Zed with a mustache), contained in zombie and werewolf sauce, Mad Moxxi arenas, The secret armory of General Knoxx, which has the task of introducing the figure of Athena, which we will see again in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and the first raid boss of the series; finally there is The new Claptrap robolution, which is an official continuation of the main adventure, in which the enemy is none other than a Claptrap!
In addition to the additional content, which has now become an integral part of Borderlands, there are some of the most fascinating areas ever to appear in the series such as Old Haven, an old abandoned city now prey to the Crimson Rider, the Eridian promontories that you will cross with the aim of reaching the Crypt itself and all the foundations that have cemented the Gearbox series and that today make up Pandora as we know it. All embellished with a dubbing perhaps even higher than the original one, which contributes to making a senseless game even more stoned and hilarious. As the timeless Roland says, “It's like Christmas”: Borderlands Game of the Year Edition is a small Christmas present ahead of the roadmap, unexpected but welcome.
With ten years on its shoulders (which is quite a few, in the medium) Borderlands returns to current-gen in its Game of the Year Edition and appears not to have aged a day, modernized to be closer to Gearbox Software's most fruitful title, Borderlands 2, offering unforgettable moments and characters as well as longevity and thousands of weapons available, with news that today we can take for granted as a minimap. From various tests carried out it is clear how the sun as the first Borderlands needed an increase in resolution and fluidity. Provided along with small bonuses, the good old Borderlands brings with it a few problems, first of all for the co-op, the core of the title, but it remains the important progenitor of a unique series of its kind. The only ones, true “borderslike”.
► Borderlands is an RPG-Shooter game developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games Feral Interactive Take-two for Mac, PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the video game was released on 20/10/2009 The version for PC came out on 30/10/2009
