E3 2009: Borderlands

There is only one word to describe my reaction to the Borderlands preview I was given by Take Two Interactive: Dynamic. Dynamic in it's vibrant new look, in the well designed co-op play and in the ever changing environment it presents. The new art style in particular really had me blown away. They decided to move away from a realistic color palette and character models, to a more "cell-shaded" look that makes the environments seem brighter and the characters pop out from their backgrounds in almost a comic book panel way. Add on top of that the thousands of dynamically created enemies that can appear in the open world of Pandora and you have a mix for a fantastic role-playing shooter that you and your friends can enjoy.

On the surface, the game plays like a standard third-person shooter in which you go around the world of Pandora performing different missions in order to gain money, experience and info; however, the game is much more than anything standard. First of all, there are four different main characters for you to choose from at the beginning of the game, each with their own style of play. You can play as Brick the front-line close-range combat tank, as Modecai the sniper, as Lilith the stealthy phase walker, orcas Roland the jack-of-all soldier trades. On top of those general roles, your character gains levels which allow you to customize their attributes and abilities in a variety of ways. Furthermore, each character as three skill trees that you can put points into to allow even more customization.

Another major feature of the game is the four-player co-op play that you can experience. You can work together with friends to play through the story of the game, explore the open world of Pandora, or just shoot the breeze and trade items that you have found in your own games. Seapking of items, the game boasts random item drops that can vary in rarity, much like the loot system seen in Diablo or World of Warcraft. Trading and teaming up with your friends will allow you play the game at a faster pace with as much, or as little help as you want. You can also battle your friends online through either dueling them in game, initiated by a slap to the face, or in arena based group matches.

One finally point to be made is that the art style of the game has been drastically changed from what it was over a year ago, with a more stylistic and vibrant color palette being used to color the world. I have to admit that the new art really sets the game apart from the other shooter games I've seen out there. It almost looks cell-shaded, but I was told in a length dialogue that it's more complex than that and is made to look more like art sketches with the bold outlining used on characters and creatures. How ever they did it, color me impressed.

The game itself will be launching on the PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 platforms; however, you'll only be able to play online with people using the same system type as yourself. With an indefinite launch time of Q3 2009, we can hopefully expect to be playing this game in the late fall if the art changes haven't pushed back the timetable any. I'm just hoping the game keeps up the positive new momentum it has going for itself now as it pushes the shooter and role playing borders and lines.