Borderlands

FPS RPGs are not very common, but can be very exciting to play. Most of you have probably played, or heard good words, about Fallout 3. Borderlands (released in 2009) is also an FPS RPG which focusses a bit more on your weapons and armor which can be found in treasure chests, or looted from your enemies. The game is very visually unique, as objects looks like 2d cardboard cutouts (kind of)

The storyline is quite basic. You are a mercenary in a desolate planet and you are given missions to kill bandits and monsters. There are several NPC characters with unique personalities, and several types of monsters (with different weaknesses), which makes the repetitiveness of the kill-loot-kill bearable. There are 4 classes to choose from, depending on your weapon preference and playstyle:

• Berserker - Super tanky and stronk at melee combat
• Siren - Assassin, can deal large damage as you exit Phase Walk (invisibility)
• Soldier - Auto-Turrets and support abilities (health and ammo regeneration)
• Hunter - Excels with sniper rifles and pets

Berserker Skill Tree: Brawler, Tank, Blaster

Unfortunately, there is little visual character customisation. But there are specialisations within each class, like a 'talent tree'



However, what makes this game addictive is the amount of customizability on your guns, as the stats on all of the guns are randomly generated. Each gun will have its own unique zoom power, melee damage, reload speed and some will have elemental damage or other effects. There is always a hunt to find weapon and shield upgrades.

There is also multiplayer game mode where monsters are stronger and teamwork is good. Borderlands 2 should be hitting the shelves some time later this year.

tl;dr
+ high customizability
+ >100 hours of unique gameplay with expansion packs
+ unique graphics
- sometimes too repetitve
8/10

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