Borderlands
Preview
'Mad Max-ian'
by Sergio Brinkhuis
previewed on PC
Joining the fun (cntd.)
Borderlands features an insane amount of weapons. At the last count the game had over 650,000, all procedurally generated by the game. Weapons are based on a library of parts that were initially designed by the development team. Whenever the game generates a new weapon, it puts together these parts, randomly assigning it characteristics such as damage, reload speed and the type and amount of ammo it can carry. A weapon can also have one of three special properties for its ammo, firing corrosive, incendiary or lightning rounds. As a result every weapon looks and works completely unique. This carries over to your foes: they too use unique weapons and it would be a severe mistake to judge an enemy by its looks. Enemies drop the weapon that they were using upon dying so if an enemy was shredding you to pieces, you know his weapon is worth picking up.
Leveling
However, don’t assume you can pick up just any weapon and burrow its shells into your foes. Apart from its combat characteristics, weapons have one other characteristic that players should take note of and that is the minimum required level for using it. Characters level up and also gain experience in the weapon types that they use. A high skill level with a particular weapon type may allow you to use weapons that are normally not available to your character’s level.
The procedural generation system also applies to vehicles. The number of vehicle types and looks are much more limited than for weapons. Yet each time a vehicle spawns into the world, its weapons will have been procedurally generated. One dune buggy may end up being a lot more effective fighting machine than the next. A fun aspect of teaming up with someone else is that most vehicles are designed to be driven by two players. The buggy we were driving allowed one person to focus on steering while the other could fire the on-board weapon at enemies trying to overtake the vehicle. If you are unhappy with the seating arrangements, you can switch seats without having to stop. To depict the change, a smoothly animated transition shows the two players seamlessly ‘hop’ into the other’s seat.
Obviously the enormous amount of weapons will mean having to make choices of what to bring and what to leave behind. Gearbox has done away with the standard inventory pack and replaced it with something they call the ‘storage deck’. In it your items are stored in digital form, only to materialize when you take them out for use. The size of your inventory is based on the amount of ‘drive space’ that you have and it is expected that this can be upgraded over time.
Join the faith, brother
Borderlands impressed me with its wonderful ‘Mad Max-ian’ setting, dark ambiance and smooth animations. Gearbox promises a richly detailed story that is propelled by a compelling quests system and spiced up by numerous side-quests. Just spending half an hour with the game made me a believer. Take it from this old missionary that -in time- you will flock to the Borderlands-faith as well.
