Pandora's Class Of 20XX, Master of Blasting Arts

This week, we’re proud to bring you readers a bit of an exclusive with a Take Two title that’s sure to accentuate the “L” in “Loothoarding”: Gearbox’s upcoming first person shooter Borderlands. The gist is this: you are an adventurer who is somehow crazy enough to travel to the barren and near-dead planet of Pandora in search of The Vault, which is the equivalent of the Lost Ark which would make millions for you if you found and sold it to some rich buyer. The problem come twofolds:

(i) You have no idea where to start looking

(ii) Many other bandits, mutants, and aliens are in your way

Never fear, for you may come off lacking armaments when you start, but pretty soon you’ll be packing heat with all the killing and looting you’ll be doing throughout the four huge expanses of Pandora (Fyrestone, New Haven, and two other undisclosed locations; we suspect one to be a frozen thundra and the other to be some alien-crafted landscape). Also, Borderlands lets you have three other people in your team, either through offline split-screen co-op or the usual online co-op play. Today, let’s check out who you get to play and what they bring to the table.

Hunter – Your Friendly Neighborhood Death-dealer From Miles Away

With a scrawny disposition, aviator goggles, and a bit too many straps on his leggings and chest, you would mistaken the Hunter for being a stand-in for an S&M club. He starts the game off with a sniper rifle, because he excels at shooting people from a distance. He’s tailor-made for picking off enemies from a distance and being a team’s long-range support. One of his later-level abilities lets his bullets bypass enemy shields and also deal more damage if you kill an enemy first.

The kicker is that he’ll end up with the least health as you level up, since his skill trees don’t have any health-boosting abilities. Luckily, he’s got an ace up his sleeve, in the form of his special ability to summon a Bloodwing. As soon as you reach level 5, you get access to his flying pet which lets you sic him/her/it onto any enemy nearby. He’s also got the shortest cooldown rate for his special ability among all the four characters, meaning that if you take into account his skill tree abilities that can reduce the cooldown period of his Bloodwing, you can keep spamming that attack continuously as you get to a higher level.

Our Take: If “camping from afar” and “painting target” are keywords most prominent to you when you play FPSs, the Hunter’s for you. Plus, his Bloodwing can be handy in a pinch. Just keep him at a distance picking off enemies.

Siren – She’s Got Your Back

She looks just about as frail as the Hunter, but don’t be deceived. This blue-tatooed sole female of the group is fast, nimble, and comes equipped with the Phasewalk ability which lets her turn invisible for a few seconds, either to escape from a losing battle or to sneak up on people and backstab them with her psion melee attack. When she melees someone while in Phasewalk, she deals three or four times the damage to an unsuspecting foe, at the cost of leaving Phasewalk.

The best part about her Phasewalk is that it creates an area of effect shockwave that can hurt enemies surrounding her as she enters or leaves Phasewalk. Also, her passive skills can bolster her shield just as high as the sky, and also has the chance to stun foes with her bullets and melee. As far as a mage-style character goes, she’s like a hybrid between that and a thief.

Our Take: Use her like you would a thief back in your D&D tabletop/computer gaming days, only she’s packing an SMG. She should act as a saboteur to a group, entering into battle undetected, hitting a big foe from the back, running away and letting her team go in for the kill.

Combat Soldier – Medic? Medic? MEDIC!!!

Where’s a healer when you seriously need one? Luckily, the Combat Soldier fills in that niche well. One of his skill tree abilities actually make his bullets heal nearby allies.

He’s not just relegated to being a healer; he also helps in being a good support character as well as a frontlines-type combateer. His Special Ability is to lay down a Scorpio Turret which lasts for a few seconds shooting anything that’s hostile and that moves. He and any one of his teammates can also use the Scorpio Turret as backup cover thanks to its blue shield that covers both sides of the turret. As you level up and use up your skill points on your skill tree, you can bolster the turret to either heal allies nearby or even regenerate bullets, provided they stay within the range of the turret. The only bad thing is that his ability takes the longest to cool down, so think and analyze the situation and map layout before you start placing your turret.

At the frontlines, he’s not too shabby with a shotgun and assault rifle, and has decent health upgrades from his skill tree. His weapon skill upgrades are more towards assault rifles.

Our Take: The perfect beginner character, he can double as an offensive and a defensive fighter. Hell, he might remind hardcore MMO players of the Paladin class in that other game from Blizzard.

Berserker – Clobberin’ Time

The Berserker character doesn’t rely on subtlety. From his buff look to his gruff voice, you know he’ll wring your neck up-close and personal when the gloves are off. In addition for having a penchant with the shotgun and weapons that go “BOOM!”, he also has the special ability to go Berserk. Activating that ability makes all your attacks melee and incredibly powerful, your health regenerating at a staggering rate, and your defenses toughened up.

His skill tree is all offensive-based. One of them makes his Health go up at a staggering rate and his shields tougher to drain, while later on he gets really high shield regeneration, making him essentially indestructible when combined with the Berserk ability. He’s also got the chance to toughen up his Explosive weapons handling, from extra rockets in the rocket magazine to even regenerating rocket ammo and rocket bonus damage if he kills an enemy first.

Our Take: The resident shock trooper who can take it and dish it out. Use him if you wish to be the main distraction to a group of foes.

Tune in tomorrow for an expanded look at the character’s skill tree. Betcha you’re curious, aren’t ya?