Throwback Thursday - Borderlands (series)

Welcome to another Throwback Thursday, our weekly look into my Top 100 games and general nostalgia.  While this blog is rated E for everyone's safe and enjoyable viewing, I should mention this week's throwback is rated M for Mature.  Parental discretion is advised for playing this game series.

Speaking of which, accepting the mission this week: The game of tons of loot and psychos to boot that is the Borderlands series.

Released in the US on October 20th, 2009, Borderlands was a unique fusion of the action first-person shooter (FPS) genre combined with rogue-like, RPG elements.  The main gameplay loop would be to kill bad guys for experience and gain new skills / abilities, all the while finding an increasing variety and rarity of loot, from guns to shields to grenades and more.  It's a simple, but addictive and satisfying cycle.  And the variety of weapon types and attributes keep the experience fresh and encourage plenty of experimentation.  In fact, the game boasts its use of a "procedural content creation system" could generate over millions of varied weapons.  There is a good chance players would never be able to see every piece of gear there is to be found in the game.



What may stand out even more though than this creative gameplay combo is the fantastic sense of style and art direction this game displays.  There is a captivating mix of gritty roughness and colorful vibrant cel-shaded visuals, coupled with an entrancing and ambient soundtrack.  This use of art direction allowed for bright cartoon-like action effects, but helped retain the rich detail of the environments and weapons, which is important with the closer viewpoint that comes with FPS territory.  Lastly, to further cement the game's desire to have a unique and stand-out identity, it features a wonderfully colorful cast of characters, each with distinct personalities and a rich sense of humor.  And best of all, everything that has been described can be enjoyed and played together in up to 4-player cooperative fun.

Screenshot of starting area in Borderlands 2.

There were a number of DLC packs to then be enjoyed.  But it wasn't until 2013 though that Gearbox Software and 2K Games released the now much anticipated sequel that was Borderlands 2.  Much of the same elements are carried over, but further refined in this sequel.  The game includes new enemy and weapon types, new areas to explore, more customization and co-op elements.  But where this sequel truly doubles-down in is providing more structure to the story and world-building, and of course much, much more humor.  This sense of humor and confidence is carried even into the gameplay elements, such as the addition of the "Bad@%# Rank" system, in which players can earn points for completing certain in-game challenges to level up stats.

Since then, there have been numerous more DLC packs and a small semi-sequel that was Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.  However, fans eagerly await to see where the series can go from here.  During the 2017 Game Developers Conference, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford presented a tech demo for what could be the next Borderlands, using the Unreal Engine 4.  And it really is amazing to see the advances they are able to make in art direction while retaining the stylized look that is Borderlands.  Whatever it ends up shaping to be, the gameplay loop of finding loot and wacky weapons to shoot will remain as compelling as ever.

Fun Fact: The character Brick in the first Borderlands has many skills that are named in reference to many famous action movies, such as "Master Blaster" to Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, as well as "Bloodsport", "Unbreakable", and "Die Hard".