Borderlands E3 Preview

AtomicGamer continues their E3 coverage with a hands-on look at Gearbox Software’s open-world shooter/RPG, Borderlands.

The biggest connection between these two games is their fusion of first-person shooter action along with a Diablo-style loot system as well as cooperative play between people in a game world that combines just as many RPG elements as it does twitch-based moments of action. Of course, it is hard to see any similarity at first if you have seen recent screenshots or videos. First, it’s got a slick visual style that the developers insist make the game look more like the original concept art than a cel-shaded cartoon like many are calling it, and in motion I have to say it does generally look like much more than just cel-shading since there’s a lot of texture work in between the black outlines as well. But there’s also the open world environments complete with Mad Max-style vehicles and a general post-apocalyptic science fiction atmosphere, and while it’s not like this setting is brand new, we’ve never had the RPG/action elements coming together in an open world like this.

The first impression I got was that Borderlands is a half-decent shooter with some cool visuals, interesting cooperative play, but not a lot else. But the first time a boss took a dirtnap and randomly-created guns showered out like a multicolored fountain, I started feeling those addictive Diablo-style tendrils grabbing hold as the developers poked through the selection to search for the perfect gun. And these guns, while they are procedurally built, look and act like real FPS guns, not just the same non-reloading gun with a couple of useless variations in it. Fun examples were sniper rifles with impressive revolver-style loading mechanisms and acid-effect guns that melted away troublesome enemy body parts. Guns can have different reloading styles complete with their own animations, unique upsides and downsides, special properties applied, and so on. While other shooters have dabbled with randomly creating guns (Hellgate London does come to mind), none have quite gotten to this level of detail. No, you won’t quite be building your own guns out of distinct pieces, but the game itself is doing exactly that whenever a new one is created, and those classic World of Warcraft item colors – green for uncommon, blue for rare, purple for epic – are all here to denote the quality of the weapon. None of this is going to revolutionize the FPS genre, but I really like the level of detail that has gone into every procedurally-created gun included so far and I think it can be an important part of keeping people coming back to Borderlands.