Your car a-splode!

I know it’s too easy to draw comparisons between Gearbox’s RPG shooter Borderlands and Flagship Studio’s first and last title Hellgate: London, so I will. Both are different takes on the action RPG loot-hoarding template, both are distributed by IAHGames, and both are set in post-apocalyptic settings. The major difference is that Borderlands succeeds where Hellgate failed. Here’s why:

(i) Eye Candy. Which would you rather see: a drab underground subway tunnel or a cel-shaded, brightly-lit version of Fallout 3 filled with psychopathic midgets and mutants?

(ii) Bazillion Guns. No, really. Hellgate’s weapons are all about the math. Borderlands has guns. Lots of guns that somehow have varying effects. An SMG could have god-like reloading time and deal 104 points of damage per shot. A sniper rifle could make things explode, set their target on fire, AND have up to 30 bullets in its magazine AND with a firing rate the equivalent of an assault rifle. A revolver that makes things explode and have “bouncing bullets”. A shotgun that shoots rocket launchers. Yes, there’s probably a ton more guns I haven’t found yet, but the point is: guns beat tedious calculations any day. Best of all, you can replay the game via a Second Playthrough mode and get better level 40+ loot.

(iii) No Identity Crisis. Hellgate wanted to be half an MMO and half an action RPG, but ended up failing on both counts. Borderlands knows that it’s a shooter with split-screen/online co-op. When you shoot your gun onto something in Borderlands, you will hit it. Shoot it in the head, and you’ll score critical hits. As it follows shooter conventions, you will go far in Borderlands if you take cover often and learn how to conserve ammo and try out different types of weapons.

(iv) Death animations. When something dies in Borderlands, they die in style. Be it a guy fizzling away from fire damage screaming, to getting shocked screaming, seeing the end results of your shotgun “gibbing” something or your rocket launcher clearing a sway of skags is pretty satisfying. Yep, I’m demented just like that.

(v) The more, the merrier. It’s not fun playing the game alone. As long as you get to go online, just do a random search for people to play with or round up your friends. Not only it gets a lot more challenging (difficulty and enemy HP scales according to your party size), but you get better purple and orange drops. And remember what I said about the Second Playthrough mode and how you can get better stuff with friends?

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