Borderlands Preview

Yet another hands-on preview of Gearbox Software’s Borderlands has made its way to the web, and this time it’s over at MSXbox-World.

With co-op play in mind, there’s an underlying MMO feel to the game in that enemies will drop desirable items as you work together as a team, sharing loot to upgrade your character. Those all important rare drops (Purple Epics) will feature meaning stiff arguments of some calculated bartering skills are going to be the order of the day. Think Phantasy Star Online and you get a picture of the kind of gameplay on offer here, albeit in first person. The world in which you play in is connected as one large area and we were shown a mission where the team had to reconnect a fast travel network – making navigating the terrain that little bit easier, although you’ll be able to hop into various vehicles and travel in a convoy of sorts.

You’re presented with shared mission objectives where working together is key to success, using each characters strengths and weaknesses to get the upper hand against troublesome foes. One such instance is the fact that the medic character is able to shoot healing bullets at team mates which is most useful (there is no friendly fire in the game) when the shit hits the fan. You will be able to duke it out though in a duel mode which is initiated by two players, but remember folks the idea is team work not who is the greatest fighter of them all. The game’s skill system does beg for bravado type antics, and with massive amounts of hours poured into the game, you’re going to want to show who’s boss from time to time, so duelling is a welcome addition to the game (alongside the competitive arenas that will feature). Boasting aside, the team of players demonstrated taking down a large creature called Skegzilla, luring it out of hiding using meat and then collectively pounding the hell out of it for seemed like 10 minutes of frantic shooting action. Yes you read that right, although maybe 10 minutes is an exaggeration. The creature did take a while to finally tumble and managed to take down a few in the process. It looked exciting, intense and full on and certainly something to get excited for.