As I ventured through the wastleland with my friend, one quite brutish vein popping out of his arms always peering down at me with lifeless eye, the other with a more standard build though still quite muscular whom draped in cameo so you know he had combat experience, I could see that tension was running high. We had been doing missions for all sorts of scum for as long as I could remember. So times I did not even remember what I was doing so I had to be reminded by companions and they usually did know half the time. The missions though, they did not really matter, we just wanted to get out into the world. We were addicted to the feeling, the excitement of battle and the exploration of new lands. Most of all, where were addicted to loot. Everybody we killed, every locker were encountered, every pile for root, we looted. The armor we wore was never good enough, we know there was always better and if we explored enough we could find better. Our guns, now we always wanted the next new toy. We need our bullets to catch on fire, we need our clips to be bigger, we just always needed more. And we would do this until our eyes were drying up. We did this until we needed to eat, sleep, or pee. Or until someone had class or had to go to bed to wake up early.
Borderlands is hard to get the time to play. To get the best experience you need to have all of your friends at about the same part of the game and everyone has to be available to play at the same time. When the stars do align, it is hard to find something that is better at scratching that looting itch. In Borderlands there is all ways a better weapon than the one you have you just have to be willing to spend the time to go find it. The RPG-like leveling in the game makes it so you can find challenges in the world or you can take your time and work your way up the chain. Within reason you can handle a lot of battles that are completely out of hand if you use caution and have go aim. The game is still a shooter at heart. Head shots will do a lot more that pumping your ammo into their gut. The game is not the best first person shooter and the game is not the best RPG. The gameplay is however infectious. This small element of collection carries the game so much.
The balance between cooperation and competition is the draw of the whole experience. When you are playing with more people the enemies get harder accordingly. You need to near your friends and help them out to survive. The abilities that each of the classes has enforces this. The solder doubles as a healing class and every person in your party that you fire upon gets healed by you bullets. A hunter can sit back and snipe all of the enemies attacking the close ranged, well armored berserker. You can upgrade your character to help out the team even more. The sniper can make it so the whole team gets extra experience when he gets head shots. These factors make it a joy to help your friends, but looting is where competition increases. You always want to have better gear, you’re always running to the next area to find the loot first. If your playing with good people (which I am) they will tell you when they find good items for you class and try to make it as even as possible. But shields and such, items that are good for every class, these start arguments. You will be trying to figure out who got them last great item or try to pick one up and hope no one see it. To be honest, I could do without this element sometimes. When I am with my friend I just want to have fun.
We are nowhere near done our time with Borderland, and I would suggest it to all whom have friends to play it with. Just make sure you are playing with friends or maybe you won’t be having a good time at all.
Jeff Silva
Pierce Arrow Blogger
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