No one in video games ever visits the planet of tea and earthly delights. On the planet Pandora, colonists have found naught but misery and the type of hardships that normally occur in post-apocalyptic hellholes. Borderlands, a first-person shooter with role-playing game features, drops players on Pandora, giving them the opportunity to loot an alien archive or drop dead (repeatedly) trying. Borderlands offers three playable characters, and each has a special skill or talent. The magically inclined Lilith can alter time; Roland, a soldier, can use his leadership abilities to augment the fighting prowess of his allies; and Mordecai can access an alien ally. Each of the characters will have his own storyline, too, and can have his skill sets modified after gaining sufficient experience.
Gameplay here blends shooting with lots of vehicle-based mayhem, and players will be offered lots of quests. Along the way, they'll have access to a great wealth of weapons; developer Gearbox promises a random weapon generator allowing for millions of lethal combinations. It should be a delightful trip down the highway to hell, with lots of good reasons to visit and, hey! here are six of them:
- Mad Max-style vehicular combat
- No loading screens
- The opportunity to find a revolver that fires shotgun shells
- Cooperative play for four people
- Multiplayer slaughters
- Mutants, aliens, and alien mutants
