Some time in 2010, three of my mates drove to my home, every with a duplicate of Borderlands, a PlayStation 3, and a TV. This was earlier than flat screens had been widespread, so the logistics concerned a good bit of sweat. We linked every part collectively and sat cross-legged or on footstools on my lounge ground, sipping beer and loot-shooting throughout Pandora collectively. It was sensible, and stays one in all my favorite gaming recollections.
We made numerous progress however didn’t end, and after I picked it up solo within the following weeks, the distinction was profound. Without mates or a mild buzz to assist the humour alongside, I discovered Borderlands fairly boring. Pandora is a bleak and unvarying planet, and with out three folks to share the eye of its hostile, bullet-sponge inhabitants, fights turned far tougher and laborious.
I clearly recall Brick’s weary sigh – “drive on, drive on” – as he clambers right into a car. Isolated, mournful guitar chords twang with limitless vibrato as if echoing by way of Pandora’s empty canyons. All round me is desert and wasteland, peppered with forts manufactured from junk, populated with an identical bandit clans. What was first atmospheric has turn out to be overfamiliar and lonely after dozens of hours. I’m as uninterested in all of it as Brick.
I skipped Borderlands 2 and the Pre-Sequel due to this, however I solely should recall that co-op session to suppose fondly of Borderlands as a sequence. As such, it didn’t take a lot to get me prepared – even excited – to leap again in with Borderlands 3. As an additional level of context: I’ve performed a hell of lots of Destiny since 2010, and certainly went straight from a prolonged session in Bungie’s loot shooter to beginning my first character in Gearbox’s. Borderlands is rightly viewed as a catalytic influence on its style, however that style has moved on. Has Borderlands?
Borderlands Three has some particular benefits – over Destiny, over its predecessors, and typically. Playing alone is much less painful than I bear in mind within the unique, due to FL4K – a towering robotic whose pets can draw enemy aggro. As Ali says, he’s a far better solo class than even the tanky Brick in Borderlands 1, and up to now I’ve had no irritating fights during which I do nothing however change cowl and ‘fight for my life’.
That’s additionally because of that important ingredient of a loot shooter: the loot. I’ve discovered an superior ‘turtle shield’ that may soak an inordinate quantity of harm at the price of decreasing my well being – a commerce I’m completely satisfied to make. If I crouch, I can even challenge it as a barrier in entrance of me, like Overwatch’s Reinhardt. I even have a really cool carbine that capabilities as both an assault rifle or a shotgun relying on the firing mode I select. By distinction the loot is criminally boring in each Destiny and Anthem till the endgame – weapons and armour are simply icons that signpost your acquisition of substances rating. Borderlands’ gear is filled with persona all through the game, and tactile, too, with in-game fashions that clatter across the surroundings.
If something, there’s an excessive amount of of it. Having been conditioned by enjoying ‘90s shooters and strategy games on harder difficulties, I am compulsive in my search for both loot and optimisation. I will pick up loot like a kleptomaniac magpie, regularly filling Borderlands 3’s meagre stock allowance, after which, in order to not waste a penny, I’ll backtrack to the final merchandising machine to promote all of it. It means I can at all times afford to purchase cool discoveries like my turtle defend, but it surely kills the game’s pacing lifeless. The deluge of loot additionally implies that mentioned cool discoveries are shortly out of date – however even after just a few hours of play it’s clear that I’ll quickly discover one other. It’s been fairly an train in letting go.
However tiresomely ‘extra’ it’s, Borderlands continues to be distinctive in its style
Borderlands’ humour has been much-maligned on-line, and sure, I roll my eyes when opening a portaloo door causes a faecal geyser to erupt from the bathroom inside. (My response is similar when it occurs within the game, too.) But among the many grating tryhard puerility and Claptrap being a whiny little prick, there’s the odd sparkle. The mechanic Ellie explains {that a} “Pandora flat” is a euphemism in your automotive exploding. When a bandit declares “this is our planet!”, FL4K’s response is: “I like your enthusiasm! Let’s see if my knife fits in your skull.”
I grate my enamel as an NPC tells me repeatedly the best way to advance a quest – I’m fairly intentionally not doing so, whereas scavenging – after which crack a smile after they rattle the fourth wall with their subsequent nag: “you can either help me, or I’ll yell at you every 15 seconds.” Granted, it’s extra ‘cracking a smile’ than really laughing, however that’s greater than will be mentioned for Anthem or Destiny, particularly since Cayde-6 has departed.
None of that is new. It’s refined in locations, certain, however the humour is because it ever was, as are the twangy vibrato guitars, as is Pandora, as is the deluge of loot and the satisfying click on and whir of the chests that current it to you on an unfolding platter. I’ve been right here. I’ve completed this. Some of it raises a comforting, nostalgic smile; some attracts a groan.
I’m raiding the baddies’ propaganda centre. It’s a few hours in and I already suppose I’ve seen every part I have to see – however then I come up in opposition to the boss of the world. He can assault by blowing a wall of audio system, Marty McFly-style, or by capturing musical notes at you. His defend is a pulsating equaliser. His battlecries are delivered like a DJ priming the gang for a beat drop: “My. Will. Is… LAW!” The soundtrack to the battle is one in all fizzing magenta electro-trance. It’s sensible. It’s distinctively Borderlands. It’s sufficient to maintain me enjoying, for now.
One of my mates from that co-op session freely admits Borderlands Three is extra of the identical, however says he isn’t in search of something greater than that. Early sales and user numbers counsel that loads of others aren’t both. And it’s value remembering that, nonetheless tiresomely ‘extra’ it typically is, it’s nonetheless distinctive among the many style it helped create. When all of that’s true, why would Gearbox change the method?
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