I have one thing to say to everyone doing that. Stop it.
In fact, stop comparing Borderlands to anything else. Because it's not like anything else. It's a whole new thing.
Gearbox tells us that an RPG and an FPS had a baby. Everyone rolls their eyes and mutters something about Fallout 3. Shut your face. Fallout 3 was an RPG with guns that was played from a rather clunky first person perspective. It didn't have nearly enough shooter elements to be considered a hybrid.
Borderlands, on the other hand, plays like a shooter. If you walked into a room where someone was playing Borderlands, and you didn't know what it was, it would look like a shooter. But then BAM! Experience points? Levels? Skill trees?
But then everyone gripes about the graphics. Cel-shading? What is this, Wind Waker? A kiddie game? Lame. Shut your face. It might not look like Crysis, but Crysis sucked anyway, and the slightly comic-esque visual styling of the game fits it well.
Various characters within the game add a light touch to the barren planet of Pandora, such as the little Claptrap robots who help you out in various ways. "Hey everybody, check me out. I'm dancin'. I'm dancin'!" or T.K. Baha, the blind man who always makes jokes about seeing you later.
But, what review of this game could possibly be complete without mention of one of the game's biggest claims to fame. Borderlands has more guns than every other Xbox360 and PlayStation3 game... combined. A random weapon generator with hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of possible unique combinations. There are a handful of arms manufacturers on Pandora, each with their own specific trademarks. Vladof weapons have a higher rate of fire. Dahl weapons have lower recoil. S&S Munitions made weapons have larger magazines, etc.
Now, onto the gameplay and story and all that jazz.
Pandora is a desolate desert planet, populated by criminals and dangerous animals with huge mouths where their heads should be. But legends tell of the Vault, a storage place filled with valuable alien technology. You play as one of four people hunting for the Vault, each with unique abilities.
The Soldier is your basic jack-of-all-combat guy. He has a pretty versatile skillset, deploys a turret as his active skill, and seems at home with almost any weapon in the game.
The Hunter is your long range fighter. Less suited for solo play, the Hunter is a master of sniper rifles and revolvers, making him amazing at getting rid of problems from a long way away, but without backup to keep things out of his face, he becomes less effective. His active skill is a hawk that flies out and attacks one enemy before returning. Skill upgrades later can increase the number of enemies the hawk attacks.
The Siren is, well, I'm not quite sure. Her weapon affinities are for elemental weapons, rather than specific classes of firearms. Her active skill is planewalk, which makes her invisible for a short period, and causes damage to nearby enemies when initially activated.
The Berserker, well, is exactly what he sounds like. His weapon affinity is for anything that explodes, and his fists. However, he can only use his fists when he activates his active skill, berserk. Many of his other skills upgrade berserk, making it last longer, give him health boosts, etc.
Due to their increased solo survivability, the soldier and berserker are better choices for solo play, however, in co-op, every class has its chance to really shine by working together.
The usual distinction between story missions and side missions is almost completely non-existent, as almost every mission you do moves you towards your ultimate goal in some way.
This is a game I can't see myself being finished playing for a very, very long time.
The Bottom Line: get it now.
