Dec 19, 2007

Guns: lots and lots of guns. Millions of them, in fact. That’s the banner feature of Borderlands that’s going to embarrass all those other first-person shooters. Borderlands is a mix of open desert buggy-driving and fast-paced shooting that’s coming in 2008. You and three friends bomb around a ruined landscape in souped-up dune buggies, chased by angry mercenaries while protecting threatened colonies from cracked-rhino-hide aliens - the Kraytt. You do so with this: an epic selection of randomly generated weaponry.

Remember how Diablo dropped an almost constant stream of items into your world, for you to coo over, or sell? That’s what Borderlands is attempting, in a fast-paced shooter.

After every gun fight, you’ll find yourself rummaging through dropped weaponry, scouting for that one special sidearm, the pistol you’ll be proud to wear, the rifle you can sling on your back with a scope the length of your arm. Brilliantly, you can see without even picking it up just how powerful and useful a gun might be. Got a long barrel? Then it’s accurate. Got an underslung grenade launcher? It’s right there. Old, rusted, liable to break? You’ll see the wear and tear. What’s the size of the clip? What ammo does it take? Do the go-faster stripes along the barrel match your vest?

It transforms your ownership of the experience. In the four-player co-op mode your roles change depending on your choice of gun, rather than any specific character class. Do you sport a sniper rifle? Then you stay at the back, spotting targets and taking out hidden threats. Or maybe you want to lug around a rapid-fire sub-machinegun? Your team will want you up front, getting up close and personal. The choices even cement relationships: no one likes a ninja looter. But everyone loves a bigger gun.