Borderlands

Borderlands
Studio	Gearbox software
Publisher	2K Games
Erstveröffent- lichung	Xbox 360, PlayStation 3: October 20, 2009 October 23, 2009 Windows: October 26, 2009 October 30, 2009 Mac OS X: December 3, 2010 Nintendo Switch: May 29, 2020
platform	Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3 , Microsoft Windows , Mac OS X , Nintendo Switch
Game engine	Unreal Engine 3
genre	Ego shooter
Subject	Science fiction , space western
Game mode	Single player , multiplayer
control	Gamepad , keyboard , mouse
system advantages preconditions	CPU : 2.4 GHz RAM : 1 GB XP (2 GB Vista) Graphics card : Geforce 7 or Radeon HD 2400 with 256 MB VRAM HDD: 8 GB
language	English , French , German , Italian , Spanish
copy protection	SecuROM
Age rating	USK PEGI
information	German version censored. Uncut version indexed up to March 2018 (List A).

Borderlands is a first person shooter in the space western scenario by the development studio Gearbox Software .

The game was released by 2K Games on October 20, 2009 in the US and October 23, 2009 in Europe for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 . The Windows version followed on October 26, 2009 and October 30, 2009. The macOS version developed by Feral Interactive was finally released on December 3, 2010. The theme song in the cinematic opening is Ain't No Rest for the Wicked by Cage the Elephant .

Game world

Borderlands is characterized by a dark and dirty graphic style reminiscent of cel-shading with strong contrasts and many effects, which makes for a slightly surreal look. Since the game contains drastic depictions of violence in the original version, it was cut accordingly for the German market. Despite the comic-like graphic, this defused version received the classification “No youth release” from the USK and may therefore not be sold to young people under the age of 18 in Germany.

Pandora is a desolate planet with cynical inhabitants who eke out their existence in the midst of deserts, destruction, monsters and mountains of rubbish. The game world and the characters living in it are deliberately exaggerated and clichéd, black and crude humor are predominant.

The story leads the player from the village of Fyrestone across vast wastelands, dusty deserts and rugged mountain regions towards the chamber . He also visits the capital of the planet, New Haven , and later even attacks an outpost of the Crimson Lance , a heavily armed special unit.

action

The game begins with a brief introduction to the four playable characters: Brick, Lilith, Roland and Mordecai. These four so-called "exterminators" take a bus to Fyrestone. As soon as you have chosen your character, Angel appears. She introduces herself as the protector of the chamber. She guides you through the game by advancing the story and helping you find the key to the chamber. It charges by itself every 200 years, so time is short to find the parts. After you have received the individual parts after various boss fights, you have to bring them to the chamber. The key opens this, but there is no treasure or other riches hidden in it, but a tentacle monster called "Destroyer". After this is defeated the game ends. The actual treasure that comes with opening the chamber will only become known as the plot of Borderlands 2 progresses.

Game mechanics

Borderlands is a first-person shooter with a class system and abilities, so-called skills , which are increased in a talent tree after leveling up. The player has the choice between four playable characters, which function as different classes: Roland ( soldier ), Mordecai ( hunter ), Lilith ( siren ) and Brick ( berserker ). The abilities of the characters vary greatly, so the choice has a strong influence on the way you play. Missions, background story and the personality of the four characters remain untouched.

From level 5 onwards, each character also receives a special ability, called an action skill , which can be individually improved by assigning skill points and coupling them with artifacts. All action skills are effective for a set period of time and can only be used again after a certain period of time.

The soldier's action skill consists of an automatic turret with energy shields. The hunter can set his falcon Bloodwing on the enemy. The siren uses the " phase walk ", which enables it to switch to another dimension, allowing it to move at lightning speed and without being seen by opponents. When activated and deactivated, it deals damage to nearby enemies. The berserker goes into a frenzy with his special ability, while no weapons can be used, but the speed and melee damage increase massively.

The game starts in the small town of Fyrestone on the planet Pandora. The player is first introduced to the basic game mechanics as part of the main quest. In the further course there are also numerous optional side quests open, which are given on notice boards or by NPCs . The game has an open game world divided into individual areas. Individual areas only become accessible during the course of the game.

By defeating opponents and completing missions, the player receives new items, money and experience points , as in similar games (e.g. Diablo ) . The latter lead to automatic level climbing. From level 5 the player receives one skill point per level, which enables him to acquire new skills and improve existing skills.

At the beginning of the game, the player can distribute two weapons on so-called quick selection slots. This enables the desired weapon to be selected directly at the touch of a button. The control pad is used for selection in the console sockets . In the further course, the player receives two additional slots.

To improve resistance, the characters have a variety of energy shields at their disposal, which in addition to the actual protective function have various additional attributes (e.g. resistance to fire damage). In addition to the usable weapons ( shotguns , revolvers , machine guns , pistols , rocket launchers from various fictional manufacturers), grenades can also be used. Equipped modifications can add this elemental damage and changed explosion properties (e.g. contact explosion, division into several small grenades).

One of the main attractions of the game is the so-called collecting spiral . The player tries to continuously improve his character by constantly collecting experience points, money and weapons or equipment. Following the story or individual mission descriptions take a back seat.

By a random generator, such as B. in Diablo II , weapons and items are generated from a variety of possible combinations during the game. There are around 17.8 million different weapons available in the game. The weapons differ in the attributes of accuracy, magazine size, reload speed and rate of fire . Additional functions such as elemental damage (fire, electrical, acid and explosive damage are possible), telescopic sights (for zoom ) and attached blades (higher melee damage) are also available. Depending on the frequency, the names of the objects and weapons are shown in different colors. According to increasing rarity these are: white, green, blue, purple, orange and light blue ( pearl ).

Surplus items can be sold for money at one of the numerous machines. These replace the traders of classic games and are divided into three categories: ammunition / grenades, weapons and shields / medi-packs / class mods. A total of around 500 different weapons and items can be found in the game.

Co-op mode

If you are playing online, other players can join your own game at any time. The entering players can use their own character and basically have all the options of the game master. However, the status of the available missions as well as the play area are tied to the host .

Everyone involved in the game receives the experience points and money found by each individual player. Weapons and other items are only given to those who pick them up.

The level and number of opponents (and thus the amount of experience points gained) and the items found increase with each participant. A maximum of four players (including the host) can take part in a game. The classes or characters can be combined in any way, so that a class can be played by several players in parallel.

Add-ons

The following add-ons (additional content) have been released for the game:

• Doctor Ned's zombie island
• Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot
• The Secret Armory of General Knoxx
• Claptrap's New Robot Revolution

The DLCs are also legally downloadable from the manufacturer's website.

The additional content is included in the "Game of the Year Edition" on a second DVD, as in the "Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition". The German USK versions of the add-ons (no matter whether download or expansion DVD) are not compatible with the PEGI import version of the game. With the free patch 1.4.1, which was released on November 3, 2010, the level limit for all players is increased by 8, i.e. H. the original game then has the level limit 58 and if the DLC The Secret Armory of General Knoxx is installed, the level limit increases from 61 to 69.

On October 15, 2010, the Game of the Year Edition of Borderlands was released, which contains the main game and the four add-ons on a second DVD. Edition buyers will also receive access to the Duke Nukem Forever demo . Developer Gearbox has since 2010 Developer of the famous vaporware -Shooters.

The demo for Duke Nukem Forever has been available for download to all owners of the Borderlands GOTY Edition access code since June 3, 2011, whereby the preferred game system can be selected, e.g. B. PC or PS3.

criticism

PC Games wrote that Borderlands offered a "no-nonsense, entertaining action experience that had just the right amount of the collecting aspect of a Diablo". Anyone who “expects exactly that and no more” receives a “motivating experience”. But if you approach Borderlands as an action role-playing game fan, you will find it “clearly lacking game depth”, whereby both types of gamer will get upset about the “brittle story and the monotony”. However, "everyone together [...] would love the wacky humor".

The trade magazine GameStar criticized u. a. that Borderlands always runs according to the same pattern: "Accept the quest, run to the destination, deal with the number X of enemies, collect the number Y of items, occasionally knock down Boss Z, submit the quest". For a role-playing game, the “character development” would be far too short, for a shooter the game lacks “leadership, staging and story” because this is only a “barely visible thread in the wilderness” and the game is reduced “after a while on its addictive effect ”.

Metacritic.com calculated a rating of 81% for the PC version, 84% for the Xbox 360 version and 83% for the PS3 version.

Sequels

Borderlands 2

→ Main article : Borderlands 2

Borderlands 2 was released in America on September 18 and internationally on September 21, 2012. In contrast to its predecessor, this part was also completely uncut in Germany. The successor received significantly better ratings than the first part. Metacritic.com calculated a rating of 89% for the PC version, a rating of 90% for the Xbox 360 version and 91% for the PS3 version.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

On April 9, 2014 Gearbox Software announced another Borderlands installment called Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel . The game was developed by 2K Australia in collaboration with Gearbox and was released on October 17, 2014 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. The game takes place on Pandora's moon and is located between part 1 and part 2. The player can choose from four new characters.

Borderlands 3

→ Main article : Borderlands 3

At the Epic Games keynote at GDC 2017, Randy Pitchford presented the first screenshots and a tech video for Borderlands 3 . A trailer for the third part was published in March 2019. The game was released on September 13, 2019 for Windows, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 .

Web links

• Official website
• Borderlands at MobyGames (English)
• Borderlands Wiki - detailed documentation of all items and skills
• Official forum for Borderlands 1 and 2

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.schnittberichte.com/news.php?ID=13167
2. ^ Borderlands sectional report. Schnittberichte.com. November 15, 2009, accessed May 14, 2016.
3. ↑ USK classification of Borderlands. USK.de. Retrieved May 14, 2016.
4. ↑ Gearbox interview: Randy Pitchford on Borderlands' 17 million guns. In: ComputerAndVideoGames.com. July 28, 2009, accessed July 23, 2010 . 
5. ↑ DLC1: (1.1GB) ( Memento of the original from November 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , DLC2: (0.5GB) ( Memento of the original from November 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , DLC3: (2GB) ( Memento of the original from November 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , DLC4: (1.5GB) ( Memento of the original from November 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
6. ↑ Hanno Neuhaus: Duke Nukem Forever - Borderlands GOTY Edition with demo access. Gamestar. October 6, 2010, accessed May 14, 2016.
7. ↑ Christian Schlueter: Borderlands in the test: Diablo in first person shooter guise - It's addicting! PC Games. October 26, 2009, accessed May 14, 2016.
8. ^ Fabian Siegismund: Borderlands Test (PC). Exciting mix of genres. Gamestar. October 28, 2009, accessed May 14, 2016.
9. ↑ Borderlands (PC) on metacritic. Retrieved May 14, 2016.
10. ↑ Borderlands (XBOX 360) on metacritic. Retrieved May 14, 2016.
11. ↑ Borderlands (PS3) on metacritic. Retrieved May 14, 2016.
12. ↑ Borderlands 2 (PC) on metacritic. Retrieved May 14, 2016.
13. Jump up ↑ Borderlands 2 (XBOX 360) on metacritic. Retrieved May 14, 2016.
14. ↑ Borderlands 2 (PS3) on metacritic. Retrieved May 14, 2016.
15. ^ Announcing Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Gearbox software. April 9, 2014, accessed May 14, 2016.
16. ↑ Borderlands 3 - First screenshots and tech video from GDC. Retrieved March 2, 2017 .