Borderlands

Borderlands is a science fiction first-person shooter game with RPG elements created by Gearbox Software for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was revealed in the September 2007 issue of Game Informer magazine. Borderlands is the first in a planned franchise and was released on October 20, 2009.

Gameplay
Borderlands features 4-player 'drop-in, drop-out' cooperative online play along with single-player and 2-player split screen co-op modes. In addition, players have access to customizable vehicles for vehicular combat. Deceased enemies drop random equipment, which is available for you to pick up.

Like traditional RPGs, much of the player's time will be taken up by quests. There will be 160 quests of varying length and complexity, 30 of these being part of the story and the other 130 as side quests. Many of these quests will not be mutually exclusive, and can be completed together. Gearbox wants to encourage the player to push themselves just a bit further to complete the next quest on their list. Each quest carries its own rewards, such as new weapons, or perhaps revealing a new piece of the story.

Randomization
The game will also have a unique feature similar to Diablo's random item generation system. This new system will generate over 17,000,000 weapons (as of PAX 2009). The system randomized the guns by changing nearly everything about the guns, including barrel length, round type, round size, ironsights/scope, color, building material, and even additional damage such as explosion and shock.

"We saw a ridiculous amount of guns, but perhaps the strangest was a revolver that fired shotgun shells. Gearbox is constantly surprised with what the system comes up with. They've seen rifles shoot everything from homing darts to rockets. 'One of the guns tracks onto something and locks, and after three seconds, [the target] suddenly explodes,' director Matthew Armstrong says."

Player vs. player
At any time, a player can melee another player to issue a challenge. When the melee is returned, a 1 vs 1 duel starts. Players can also travel to "arenas" located at various locations in the game world. These arenas are specifically made for competitive play, where players can face off in both Free-For-All games or team-based games.

Multiple Playthroughs
After completing the game, the player is free to roam the world and wrap up any side quests left unfinished, drop the vault key off at Tannis and collect their reward and wander around aimlessly. After returning to the title screen and choosing the character, however, the player can choose to begin Playthrough 2.

On the second playthrough, the character has all of the gear, skills, levels, and money that he or she ended the game with. All of the enemies scale up, with the bandits at the beginning at level 34, and going up from there. The names of enemies also change.

After beating the game again on Playthrough 2, all of the enemies scale again, ranging from 48-52 and dropping even better loot than before. The player can revisit and battle most of the bosses, since they respawn, and fight for better gear, participate in cooperative play, and fight in the arenas.

Meme/Movie/Pop culture references
There is a great deal of references in the game, that not everybody may get. It appears that those served as inspiration for the game, or were just added 'for the fun of it'..For example: Mad Mel, is of course, Mel Gibson, aka Mad Max, from the Mad Max movie series.
 * Bruce McClane refers to Bruce Willis, aka Sgt.det. John McLane from the Die Hard series.
 * The side quest "Schemin' That Sabotage" seems to be a reference to the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage."
 * Chuck Durden refers to Fight Club. Chuck Palahniuk wrote the book, and his main character is Tyler Durden.
 * The hidden 'on a boat' achievement refers to the Lonely Island hit ft. T-Pain 'on a boat'.
 * The Righteous Man, Great Vengeance and Furious Anger. The boats you destroy to complete the mission "I've got a sinking feeling" are references to the movie Pulp Fiction where Samuel L. Jackson's character reads Ezekiel 25:17.
 * A room depicting "A Christmas Story" is found in New Haven.
 * The racetrack, Ludicrous Speedway, in Dahl Headlands is a reference to the movie "Space Balls" where, at one point, Lord Dark Helmet jumps to ludicrous speed.
 * A quest called "Dumpster Diving For Great Justice" refers to the infamous meme from Zero Wing.
 * The Rakk unique enemy named "Rakkinishu" is a reference to the Diablo 2 mini-boss Rakanishu, that you face before entering Tristram. Rakkinishu also drops a belt called "Cracked Sash," a common item from Diablo 2.
 * The unique Rakk "Mothrakk" is a reference to Mothra of the Godzilla franchise
 * Likewise, Skagzilla...Godzilla. Enough said.
 * Lucky Zaford. His last name is a reference to "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" characters, Zaphod Beeblebrox and Ford Prefect.
 * In the opening cinematic, Marcus explains that Pandora is not a planet of 'Peace and Love', a reference to the catch phrase 'love and peace' of the character Vash the Stampede in the anime Trigun. The world in which Trigun is set bares many similarities to Pandora
 * Jaynis Kobb is a reference to Adam Baldwin's character Jayne Cobb from the TV series Firefly. The town of Jaynistown is a also a reference to an episode where there is a town named Jaynetown after Jayne.
 * The "My Brother is an Italian Plumber" achievement is clearly a reference to the Super Mario Bros. franchise. To get the achievement, you must kill an enemy by stomping on its head, something Mario commonly does to kill enemies.
 * The challenge "Hot! Too Hot!", is a reference to the "Space Balls" scene where Dark Helmet is drinking coffee and exclaims "HOT!  TOO HOT!"
 * The challenge "Who Made That Man A Gunner?", is a reference to the "Space Balls" scene where a gunner should "fire across her nose, not up it!"
 * The title of the achievement "Can't We Get BEYOND Thunderdome?" is a reference to a joke told by the robot Tom Servo in Mystery Science Theater 3000, episode 706 with the punchline: "Come on, can't we just get beyond Thunderdome?" (Cheat Code Central also makes a mention of the achievement referring to Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. --www.cheatcc.com/xbox360/borderlandscheatscodes.html)
 * The challenge "Get off my lawn" which is achieved by gaining a number of shotgun kills, is a reference to Clint Eastwood movie "Gran Torino", in which he says the aforementioned quote.
 * The challenge "Whats in here", gained by opening x amount of chests, may be a reference to the boss fight against GladOs in Portal. When one of her heads falls off, as you open the fire pit to through it into, it says "whats in heeeere".
 * The name of the runner color "Blaster Master" is in reference to a character named "Master Blaster" from the Mad Max movie "Beyond Thunderdome."
 * The quest “Well There's Your Problem Right There” is a reference to the show “Mythbusters” on Discovery channel. The saying is a catchphrase of presenter Jamie Hyneman, typically exclaimed when looking at the wreckage of something they have just blown up.
 * The soldiers name "Roland" and Mordecai's skill tree, "Gunslinger" are references to Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

[I suggest this section be given its own page]

Character Classes
Borderlands includes four character classes, each with unique skills, abilities and back stories. As your character levels up, you can increase basic stats such as health totals, ammo capacity and accuracy. Each class also has three unique focus skill trees to develop. There is also an accessory item type specific to each class. The four classes are:


 * Brick (Berserker)
 * Lilith (Siren)
 * Mordecai (Hunter)
 * Roland (Soldier)

Story
In the distant future, several colonization ships head to Pandora, a planet on the edge of the galaxy. The colonists are drawn there in search of a better life as well as vast mineral resources said to be on the planet, free for anyone's taking, akin to a futuristic gold rush. Some time after settling the colonists discover that there is little the planet offers, aside from some decrepit alien ruins. When the companies mining the planet leave they let loose the criminals they had employed as forced labor and left any other colonists there. Some of the settlers seek to get rich quick by discovering alien technology. Most others are just trying to survive. After seven earth years, the planet's slow orbit brings a transition from winter to spring, and many horrifying creatures emerge from hibernation. All of the creatures are randomly generated as you play the game, so no two playthroughs will ever be the same.

A beacon of hope for the remaining colonists emerges in the form of a mysterious Alien Vault carved in the side of a mountain. This vault is said to contain vast stores of alien technology and secrets. The only problem is that the people who discovered the vault were completely wiped out by some sort of protective force. The only evidence of their discovery is a scattered radio transmission, proclaiming the vault's majesty, but not its location.

Reviews

 * See Article: Reviews

External link

 * Official Borderlands Website
 * BorderlandsForums.com