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Borderlands is the new Hellgate: London
Borderlands is a lot like Hellgate: London. I hated Hellgate: London. It was a terrible game and an example of how to do almost everything wrong. I quite like Borderlands. In every way it's like Hellgate: London, it's also better than Hellgate: London. It's what Hellgate: London should have been: the finest variation on the action RPG since Diablo invented the genre.
Read about it after the jump.
Both games have the same basic agenda: an action RPG inspired by Diablo, but without Diablo's god's-eye overhead view of the action. Both games are based on character development that's a combination of a limited skill tree and constantly upgrading loot. Both games move you pretty linearly through certain areas, quests, and boss battles, with a healthy helping of optional side quests. But both games let you grind, replaying areas to farm experience and treasure. Both games are better when you group with other players, either with different classes complementing each other's powers or the same classes compounding their strengths.
So far, so good. Two peas in a pod. But Borderlands understands a few important things that were lost on Hellgate London.
* Men in armor loitering around subway tunnels aren't interesting. A cel-shaded cartoon version of Fallout is.
* The circle of loot doesn't have to involve a slide rule. Hellgate has all sorts of upgradable craftable slottable gear festooned with stats and requirements. Borderlands has guns. Many of them have unique twists. They have unique artwork and animation. They sound and feel different from each other. But they're just guns. Guns with character.
By way of example, I'd like to show you something a friend of mine named Moore posted while he was playing Borderlands.I found a new sniper rifle. 3x elec , with red text modifier I do not understand, 97 accuracy, 250 damage (not that great at first glance) 16 ammo count, 4.5x zoom, 3.somethnig firing rate. The red text says 'a hunter lives among the stars'. It shoots as fast as I can pull the trigger, and the elect effects is HUGE and appears to be 3 shots, and it has a giant shockwave looking air ripple effect. It fills the damn screen everytime I fire! this thing is CRAZY. Item name color is a deep red orange.
About an hour later he posts again:Sweet mother of god the bullets f***ing bounce too, I can snipe around corners now, sorta
I can't imagine finding anything in Hellgate: London to engender that sort of excitement, much less the sense of discovery as you use it. Borderlands knows how to give its weapons personality above and beyond the numbers. The gear in Borderlands transcends math.
* You need wheels in a post-apocalypse. Do you hear that, Fallout 3? The vehicles in Borderlands are nothing to write home about, but they're vehicles, and they have mounted machine guns and rocket launchers. I would probably have hated Hellgate: London 5% less if it had vehicles. Not that it needed them. Borderlands doesn't need vehicles either. But it has them.
* If you're going to look like an action game, you should probably play like an action game. Hellgate was a confused mish-mash of player skill and character skills. And even though Borderlands' guns have an accuracy rating, it's very much a skill-based shooter. How good you are (or aren't!) matters. Borderlands is a shooter that rewards you for using cover, managing ammo, and getting headshots. Hellgate was just a bad RPG.
* The best kind of decision is a decision that matters. Hellgate: London was full of decisions, almost all of them trivial. But Borderlands teases you with the occasional meaningful decision just around the corner. If you just play a little longer, you'll get another skill point. You might find a better gun. Some new bargain will be posted at the vending machines. A new quest area will open up. You might unlock a new gameplay mechanic or find out what that last weird equipment slot is for.
* Leave being an MMO to the MMOs. Hellgate was a confusing grab bag of ways for the developer to try to get money from you. Borderlands is a game you buy and get a lot of mileage out of. And when the downloadable content for Borderlands is put up for sale later this year, I'll be first in line to buy it. Form an orderly queue behind me.
By Neuromancer at 11:37 AM ON 10/29/09
I agree 110%, this is a great game. Gearbox really did a good job this time around.
By Sephus at 12:23 PM ON 10/29/09
I really liked the weapon customization of Hellgate: London - it's a feature that I wish Borderlands had. That said, it's the only feature of Hellgate: London worth copying.
By mtthwcmpbll at 12:37 PM ON 10/29/09
Thanks Tom, this is exactly what I've been waiting for someone to lay out. I'm loving Borderlands, but never having played Hellgate and seeing all of the offhand comparisons between the two, I've been wondering what exactly I missed out on.
By Chijts at 12:53 PM ON 10/29/09
Your friends excited gun rant has got me tempted to get this... Curse all these new games!
By Tom Chick at 1:13 PM ON 10/29/09
Sephus, at first, I agreed with you about the gun customization. I would get a really decent gun, but it had too small a clip, or the base damage was low, or I wanted something that I could use to snipe. So I wanted some way to modify and customize the guns I found.
But thinking back to Hellgate, there were scads of cusomization options that they ultimately dragged the game down with too many small choices. I know some folks appreciated this, but I felt it took up too much gameplay. It seems like the clear intention in Borderlands is to force you into fewer but more meaningful -- and therefore more difficult! -- choices.
But, yeah, I have a rockin' assault rifle now that only holds 12 rounds. Good lord, do I wish I could somehow fit it with a bigger magazine. :)
By Felipe 058 at 1:18 PM ON 10/29/09
A friend of mine got this around the day it came out and was raving about it, so I convinced him to let me borrow it (alas for only one day). This is one of the most fun games I've played in quite a while, and I think it's convinced me to stave off getting MW2 for at least a month or two.
Oh and your friend's post describes very well my reaction to the first awesome gun I found, which isn't nearly as impressive sounding as that one!
By Poopy at 2:00 PM ON 10/29/09
The worst thing about borderlands (on the 360) is the match making. Once you're over lvl 15 you'll never find an available match around your level and no one will ever be able to join your game... the interface simply doesn't allow it. The second worst thing is the split screen, that is god awful.
By mutait at 3:40 PM ON 10/29/09
I love how the random loot shapes your play style and combat strategies in unexpected ways. I was playing the Hunter and was developing a skulking / sniping / fleeing strategy. Then, at about level 6 I found this ridiculous incendiary SMG. Suddenly, I was much more of a threat at close to medium than at long, and it completely changed how I play. The game's buggy, and the repetitive spawning gets old, but boy those guns are fun.
By Erez at 3:48 PM ON 10/29/09
"the finest variation on the action RPG since Diablo invented the genre"
That would be Telengard.
By Andy Bates at 5:22 PM ON 10/29/09
Tom, I’m glad you’re excited about this game (after your initial doubtfulness)! In nearly every preview I’ve seen, people say the game seems simplistic or boring or grindy on paper, but once they start playing, they are hooked! I would much rather have a great game that looks bad on paper, than the other way around.
By solomani at 7:58 PM ON 10/29/09
I am looking forward to playing this tonight. Though I just want to \"dip\" into it until I finish off Majesty 2 (3 more missions). Then Torchlight.
D3 has put me back into a Diablo-game mood.
By malkav11 at 8:41 PM ON 10/29/09
I liked Hellgate: London a fair bit and felt like the pseudo-MMO bull was the game's biggest failing.
On a more directly relevant note - Borderlands on PC is rife with terrible design decisions, from multiplayer that is stupidly difficult to get working, to plenty of user settings that are not exposed in the actual game (you have to hunt through .ini files for them), to completely unskippable logo videos and attract reel, to forcing you to go five full levels before you get to see any difference between character types or spend points (it takes about this long to start getting guns that are interesting or useful, also)....
Ergh. Once you get past all that, though, it's quite fun. And it has one of the -best- design decisions I've encountered, too - the grenade mod slot. Instead of picking up specialized grenades, you simply slot a mod, and -all- your grenades are sticky. Or throw off smaller grenades when they explode. Or steal health. Or...
By Anonymous at 2:56 PM ON 10/30/09
@Erez: Ooh, old-schooler in the house!
While I did love me some Telengard back in the day (on tape, no less), it's no more Diablo than speed chess is an RTS.
By Solomani at 1:02 PM ON 10/31/09
Just spent sometime with Borderlands. This is one fun game. I agree with what Tom said in the linked review. But I would add that this is how I would have liked Fallout to look - less voice acting, more FPS style combat and it looks great. The game reminds me a lot of Firefly. Its got the music and style of the wild-west in space setup.
I'd love some entrepreneurial fellow to redo Fallout 1 or 2 in this engine.
And the guns. Man, lots of guns and some cool effects like shotguns that cook things by setting them on fire.
Solomani:
Just spent sometime with Borderlands. This is one fun game. I agree with what Tom said in the linked review. But...More »