Borderlands Hands-on: GamePro Roundtable

GamePro editors Andy Burt, Travis Moses, Tae Kim and Sid Shuman cover the finer points of the futuristic FPS-RPG Borderlands.

READ: Q&A with Randy Pitchford of Gearbox Software
READ: Borderlands first-look preview
READ: Borderlands weapons news
READ: GameGirl's Borderlands E3 impressions
WATCH: Borderlands hands-on demo walkthrough

Borderlands is Gearbox Software's latest opus, combining swift FPS action, deep RPG character development and the ever-popular "loot-collecting" mechanic. Promising over 1 million unique guns as well as various pieces of armor and usable items, the game will grant players a virtually limitless smorgasbord of weapons and upgrades. With an expansive open world and a slick cell-shaded art style, Borderlands is one FPS-RPG to keep both eyes peeled for when it releases this October. Read on for GamePro's roundtable discussion of all things Borderlands!

Borderlands Hands-on: GamePro Roundtable

Sid Shuman: (follow me on Twitter!) So after an hour or two of Borderlands hands-on time, I feel it's safe to say that I've found the online game I'll be playing most this fall.

Andy Burt: (follow me on Twitter!) I do think it will be fun to play online (the four-player co-op was really fun) but I can see myself sinking hours into the single-player game; I'm interested to see just how big the world of Borderlands turns out to be. Fallout 3 big?

Travis Moses: (follow me on Twitter!) I agree that it will be best played online with friends, but it's one of those games you are going to play offline, too. I plan to sink hours into offline play collecting all the weapons I can to show off to my friends. I might even share if you're nice.

Tae Kim: (follow me on Twitter!) I thought the multi was pretty cool. I had a tough time figuring out my character but once I got into the role (I was Roland, the soldier, with a support role skill set) it started to click for me. Instead of trying to kill enemies, I concentrated on laying down auto turrets that not only damaged the enemy but healed nearby teammates.

Travis Moses: Oh, that's cool. I was Lilith the phase walker. She could turn on an invisible Predator-like cloak and sneak up behind enemies. When she exits the phase walking state, she fires a damaging pulse (AoE). Other than that, she felt pretty weak and took heavy damage when I tried fighting in the front lines with Sid's Brick tank character.

Sid Shuman: That's different than the original plan for Lilith -- I think she was originally going to cast spells that slowed down enemies in temporal fields.

Borderlands Hands-on: GamePro Roundtable

Andy Burt: The influence of Call of Duty 4 and 5 controls (both of which really nailed the FPS control scheme) is there, and Gearbox was wise to follow in their stead. As far as weapons go, I feel like Borderlands will start feeding you standard weapons in the beginning, but as you progress in levels, you'll find odder (and cooler) weapons.

Tae Kim: I thought the weapons were varied and awesome but what I didn't like was the fact that it was so hard to differentiate between them. I remember picking up like ten different guns over the course of my single-player time and I had no idea what was what. The controls were pretty damn slick though.

Andy Burt: When we first jumped into co-op I chose the tank-like character Brick. Man, that guy has awesome strength, but I realized while playing that I'll definitely have to figure out some kind of plan of attack using him. Oftentimes I'd run up to enemies to try and bash the crap out of them with my fists, only to find myself dying on the ground while stronger enemies swarmed.

Travis Moses: I really like the comic-book style graphics. Every object has a hard outline that gives the world a graphic-novel look and feel. The graphics make the game less intimidating for how deep and involved it truly is.

Sid Shuman: I also hope we get to see more inventive looking enemies later in the game. Some of the humanoids were pretty entertaining -- the vicious midgets and the deformed raiders looked cool -- but many of the enemies seemed a little generic. I've seen concept art of other enormous aliens, so I've got my fingers crossed for some epic boss encounters.

Comments [8]

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ilovetehgamez

borderlends beter not be another falout three clone, or else i'm not asking for iit for my birthday in octover.// LOL

assassin323

I heard that they have snowy locales later in the game and it has vehicles.

Akontheorc

I hate the art -.- Still a must buy for me. Looks like there is a lot to do.

warriororc

This looks very cool. I will Rent it at Blockbuster before I pay sixty bucks. This still looks interesting I wonder what kind of creatures will be in the game.

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