Borderlands 1 Review

Introduction
Borderlands 1 has been released in 2009, eleven years ago as of writing. Borderlands 1 was a genre that was very unknown at that time and expanded the role-playing shooter looter genre. You will find many guns to kill your enemies.
The guns in Borderlands 1 are randomly generated, this means that every gun you find will have randomly selected parts in it. You can find two guns but they won’t be exactly the same, firepower and firing rate can be very different.
You can use shields to save you from incoming bullets and grenades. Beware of the psychos that commit suicide! Borderlands1 can be played together in couch co-op and online. In short words, this game is Diablo with guns.
You have four different classes that each have their own preference for guns and their own skills. In the game, you have to find the alien vault that holds unimaginable treasure. Claptrap the most annoying robot non-playable character that has ever made will help you in your journey. Please don’t kill claptrap he only wants to be your friend( you can’t). You will have to complete many sidequests along the main questline and find lots of loot explosions. You will also be able to use vehicles to drive around and perform tricks. For example: jumping over gaps.
You can also use the vehicles to drive over enemies and squash them. You get experience points from all killed enemies but the experience point gain is decreased when you drive over them.
I won’t cover the DLC of Borderlands 1 in this review. I will only review the main game but if you have the coin I recommend that you purchase and play them. In Borderlands 1 the DLC is a great addition to the story.

Spoilers!

Story
Pandora is a planet set in the distant future where bandits roam free and everybody shoots everyone for no apparent reason. Pandora is said to house an ancient vault with unimaginable wealth and weapons.
Many vault hunters have come to Pandora to try and loot the vault but none have lived to tell the tale or find the vault. Now four new vault hunters arrive in search of the vault. Brick, Mordecai, Lilith, and Roland arrive on the bus at firestone. They quickly meet up with Claptrap, Doctor Zed, and a strange woman that talks only through the echo net. Doctor Zed wants the vault hunters to kill bandit leaders so they can establish a reputation on Pandora. After killing the bandit leaders around firestone the vault hunters find the first piece of a key. The key can open the vault but there are other key pieces hidden on Pandora. The vault hunters get instructions from the mysterious woman to find Patricia Tannis who is still on Pandora left by the Dahl Corporation that has stopped their mining procedures and left suddenly. Patricia Tannis reveals that the vault can only be opened every 200 years. You will need to present the key to the vault since the 200-year mark will happen soon according to Patricia Tannis’s calculations. You get instructions from the mysterious woman on where you can find the other pieces of the vault key. The Atlas Corporation, led by Commandant Steele demands you hand over the pieces of the vault key insisting she owns them. The vault hunters ignore the warning of Commandant Steele. The vault hunters follow the instructions given by Patricia Tannis and gain the second and third pieces of the vault key. The final piece is in possession of a bandit named Baron Flynt. The vault hunters make short work of Baron Flynt but find no vault key piece in his possession. The Commandant Steele reveals there are only three pieces for the vault key and she is now in possession of the complete vault key. Commandant Steele then disables the echo network that severs your connection with the mysterious woman. Now you have no connection to receive further instructions from the mysterious woman. You find out that Patricia Tannis has betrayed you and has given the vault key to Commandant Steele. The vault hunters decide to find the main control unit to re-activate the echo net.

The vault hunters infiltrate the crimson lance hideout. The crimson lance troops are led by Commandant Steele. The vault hunters kill all crimson lance members in the way and find Patricia Tannis locked up in a cell.  Patrica Tannis explains she was forced by Commandant Steele to betray you and tells you where the main control unit in the crimson lance hideout is. When the vault hunters reach and re-activate the echo net the mysterious woman contacts you again to tell you where commandant Steele and the vault key are. The vault hunters immediately set course to the vault and find the crimson lance fighting aliens that are guarding the vault. The vault hunters fight their way through the aliens and the crimson lance members to finally reach the vault but unfortunately, they are too late at the scene. Commandant Steele uses the vault key and opens the vault. A giant monster comes out of the vault and eats Commandant Steele. The giant monster quickly destroys what is left of Commandant Steele’s troops after killing the troops points its attention to the vault hunters.
The mysterious woman tells the vault hunters that the monster is called the destroyer and he was imprisoned by the eridians long ago. The vault hunters fight the destroyer and manage to drive it back into the vault sealing the vault once again for 200 years. The mysterious woman tells the vault hunter she needed vault hunters that were strong enough to stop the destroyer from eating all of the worlds. That is why she could not tell the whole truth in the beginning. The game zooms out to reveal the mysterious woman is broadcasting from a Hyperion satellite.

Gameplay
At the beginning of the game, you can choose one of the four vault hunters, each vault hunter has different health point’s value depending on their class role. You can find shields that will protect you from harm and each shield works differently. Each vault hunter has their own preference in guns and their own skills. All the vault hunters have their own skill trees and powers they can use. Roland can use the Scorpio turret and deploy it for cover and killing bandits. Brick can use the berserk power, he will put away his guns and punch enemies in the face. Mordecai can summon Bloodwing his trusted bird to attack the bandits. Lilith can use her siren power to phase walk to teleport from one location to another and surprise the bandits. You can use the skill trees to make the build that fits your play style. There are also class mods you can find to complement your build or create your own build. There are also elemental artifacts you can use to change the elemental attacks from your skill. You are able to change some color schemes of your characters at the new you station. When you progress in the game you can use the new you station to fast travel to locations you have already visited. The maximum level you can reach in Borderlands1 is 69. Using specific guns will upgrade the proficiency level of that type increasing your damage and accuracy among other things. There are certain enemies that drop specific weapons which means you will need to hunt them if you want the weapon or shield you desire. You will also find grenade mods that modify how your grenade works, meaning you can blow enemies up the way you like it! If you can’t find the weapon, shield, class mod, or grenade you want you can always check the vendor shops for the items you are looking for. When you die from getting shot you can get a second wind by killing an enemy before you bleed out.

Borderlands 1 is a first-person looter shooter role-playing game in which you kill enemies that are mainly bandits and take their guns. For every enemy, you kill you will gain experience points that you need to level up. The guns that you find are randomly generated parts mashed together in a fishbowl. There are many different weapon types that you can find to shoot with. You can fill a total of four weapon slots. You can switch from a sniper to a pistol in a flash. You cannot hold unlimited inventory so you need to sell weapons that you don’t want to keep otherwise your inventory is going to get clogged. Luckily there is a way to upgrade your inventory. All you need to do is find a defunct claptrap unit and repair it for more inventory slots. The max inventory slots you can have is 45. You will need to play the game multiple times or visit the DLC to reach the maximum inventory slots. In one of the DLC, you can unlock a bank to store your favorite items. There are many quests you will need to complete in Borderlands1. These can be given by non-playable characters or by finding a bounty board. After completing the game you can start playthrough2 that acts as a new game+. You will start over from the beginning with all your super strong equipment but the enemies will also be stronger. You can use vehicles in this game as a means of getting around the map quickly. Driving over stuff is fun as well. You can complete challenges in Borderlands1 that will grant you extra experience points.

Borderlands 1 can be played co-op on the couch and with four players online. When you die in co-op the other player can revive you. Playing together means you will find better loot but the enemies will also be stronger. There will also be more enemies for you to find.

Weapon rarity
Guns are the most important thing in Borderlands 1. There are eight categories of weapons to find. Some will be easy to find and others are so elusive you might hunt 100 hours and not even find it!

Tier 1: White

Tier 2: Green

Tier 3: Blue

Tier 4: Purple

Tier 5: Yellow this is an in-between category and you most likely will never encounter it.

Tier 6: Orange

Tier 7 Dark orange this is a stronger version of the orange weapon but not per se a separate category.

Tier 8 Pearlescent this weapon is so elusive that finding it is almost impossible to do. For the most chance to find a pearlescent weapon you will need to fight the DLC boss called Crawlermax.

Pros:
– One of the best First-person shooter games I have played.
– It is Diablo with guns, I never expected this would happen.
– The cell-shaded graphics look very cartoony and are fun.
– There are many different guns you can find because of the randomizer in Borderlands 1
– The quest system works very well.
– You can upgrade your inventory slots.
– Borderlands 1 is one of the best co-op games I have played
– I always keep coming back to this game.
– Claptrap

Cons
– Claptrap
– It is close to impossible to find a pearlescent weapon*
– Claptraps’s voice

* In all our hours of playing Borderlands 1 on Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, Xbox One, and PC we have only found two pearlescent weapons.

I give the game a …drumroll…

8!

Thank you for reading this review on Borderlands 1. I hope you enjoyed it! You can leave your comments or rate the game yourself.
Thank you for requesting this game Dimytro and Facundo.