Borderlands Previews and Trailer

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Written by BuckGB on September 11th, 2009

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Loot still plays an important part in sustaining the addiction and satisfaction of the game however, with over 16 million different weapons to loot. Yes, you read right, over 16 million. Borderlands uses a loot AI system, which randomly generates weapons of all kinds, all with different stats. It works much like Diablo or more recently Too Human, where the amount of loot and weaponry available is ridiculous, and they also drop in random intervals, so one day you might just get a legendary item (orange coloured) drop and you'll suddenly be a walking powerhouse. It's a system that works exceptionally well for a game such as Borderlands. It not only keeps you playing, but also encourages you to take on the quests involving bosses, which drop the really good stuff.

Bosses are not just in quests however, but in caves and other secluded areas as well, which are basically the same as instances in many MMO's. Here you can blast through elite mobs (which are named '˜badasses' in this game), pick up loot and take down the bigger and badder bosses so you can get the ultimate kinds of loot. And if you're struggling with taking down some guys, your buddies can instantly join in with the press of an invite, with up to 4 players being able to join. The build we played was on the Xbox 360, and suffice to say multiplayer was seamless and fantastic.

World of Warcraft has Elites, Borderlands has Badasses, and my first Badass encounter was against a bandit called Nine toes, who reportedly also has three balls. He stood in the middle of his lair soaking up my bullets and throwing plenty back at me, and then eventually throwing a pair of pet Skags (dog like creatures) at me. It was a tough encounter, and if all badass encounters play out with the same frantic difficulty, you can definitely see the value in having some buddies there to support you.

Before you accept a quest you are told what level is recommended for the quest, and how difficult it will be for your level. It was something that was worth noting, but something I unfortunately ignored. Once I finished up with the Doctor's tasks, I took a quest to kill some guy called Bone-Head off the bounty board, a board that provides various side-quests. I was level 6, had a few quests under my belt, and thanks to the skill points you receive after you reach level 5 had the ability to summon a turret, so I was feeling confident. So I approached Bone Heads camp and after seeing him approaching him I threw down my turret. Suddenly I was dead. Puzzled, I set out towards the camp again. Again I only got a few shots off, which weren't even enough to penetrate his shield before I found myself dead. I'm sad to admit it took me four deaths to realize the 11 next to his name stood for his level, and was there to represent the fact that he could and would kick my ass.

Missions range from resource gathering to taking down targets - standard RPG fare. What happens during the missions, though, is what differentiates Borderlands from the other shooters you've played. Considering the staggering number of weapons in the game - somewhere in the range of millions - you'll be seeing new weapons pretty regularly. Between my personal playing and the panel, I saw a shotgun that outright melted a guy. There's always going to be a weapon that fits your playstyle, I'm sure.

I got to play a bit of co-op, and I can see how the loot drops can cause a bit of friction. If someone takes your loot, melee them to start a duel! If they melee you back, you get a dome that surrounds the two of you and you can duke it out until one of you is down. Then, you revive them & keep it moving. The funniest part is that when you melee someone, a status update pops up saying something to the like of (Deejay Knight demands satisfaction!) That's classic.

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