Critical Reception: Borderlands
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Tyler Wilde at Games Radar rates Borderlands at 8 out of 10. "Borderlands lacks the charm of Fallout 3, Mass Effect, or Half-Life 2, but it does offer a crap-ton of 'roided-out bandits, effed-up dog things, giant spider demons, and screeching pterodactyl beasts to shoot with a crap-ton of guns," he writes. "And that's really what it's about finding weapons and shooting things with them."
Wilde warns that those expecting a complex narrative from Borderlands may be disappointed. "After the character selection and gameplay introduction are over," he writes, "the once promising characters are reduced to a few catch phrases, your robotic guide quickly becomes annoying (and thankfully leaves you alone, mostly), and the devious Doctor Zed, who is introduced with great style, turns out to be a cardboard cutout (and so do the rest of the NPCs you'll meet)."
Borderlands also occasionally suffers from repetitive gameplay objectives, though Wilde feels that its focus on varied combat keeps things interesting. "Most importantly, the combat is fun," he assures. "Shotgunning, detonating, and knifing waves of 'roid-raging bandits, squashing skags in rocket launcher equipped buggies, bringing down absurdly massive bosses with bouncing grenades and rocket launchers - it's all enjoyable enough that the repetition is forgivable."
