Borderlands - More like boring..er..lands.

[Sceptic]

I just beat the game so decided to thank those who answered my questions 2 pages back and post some impressions.

Overall I liked the game, maybe because I had pretty low expectations. It's good fun, the weapon diversity is just stunning and it's not just in the numbers: even within the same category handling differs so much from one weapon to the other. I ended up with a sniper rifle that I'm using as a shotgun (low accuracy, high damage), a pistol I use as an SMG (high damage, very high rate of fire), an SMG I snipe with (great scope and high accuracy)... This is also one of a few shooters where I am constantly switching weapons because most are much more effective in specific situations or against specific enemies.

The game has a certain charm. Graphic style is pretty original and the area design sometimes takes advantage of it to create some memorable locales. Music is forgettable but not repetitive or annoying and works well as background. The writing really surprised me; the game's full of self-parody and takes every cliche it can and runs with it. I found myself laughing out loud a few times. Not taking itself seriously scores points in my book.

The scaling didn't bother me. I did all the sidequests (some were surprisingly clever) so I was always at a level where the game's not too hard nor too easy. I noticed some level scaling with enemies but it's pretty limited (the ranges seem to be about 5 levels) so not too bad.

The DLCs were very disappointing though. Zombie Island has some good humor but the endless wave of zombies eventually made me give up. There's also only one place to save (at the very beginning) and I don't feel like constantly having to fight through the same areas to get back to where I left off. Underdome is just shit. I'm giving Knoxx a try now, so far it seems to be better than the others. If it stays at this level I'll finish it.

 

[MaskedMartyr]

I just beat the game so decided to thank those who answered my questions 2 pages back and post some impressions.

Overall I liked the game, maybe because I had pretty low expectations. It's good fun, the weapon diversity is just stunning and it's not just in the numbers: even within the same category handling differs so much from one weapon to the other. I ended up with a sniper rifle that I'm using as a shotgun (low accuracy, high damage), a pistol I use as an SMG (high damage, very high rate of fire), an SMG I snipe with (great scope and high accuracy)... This is also one of a few shooters where I am constantly switching weapons because most are much more effective in specific situations or against specific enemies.

The game has a certain charm. Graphic style is pretty original and the area design sometimes takes advantage of it to create some memorable locales. Music is forgettable but not repetitive or annoying and works well as background. The writing really surprised me; the game's full of self-parody and takes every cliche it can and runs with it. I found myself laughing out loud a few times. Not taking itself seriously scores points in my book.

The scaling didn't bother me. I did all the sidequests (some were surprisingly clever) so I was always at a level where the game's not too hard nor too easy. I noticed some level scaling with enemies but it's pretty limited (the ranges seem to be about 5 levels) so not too bad.

The DLCs were very disappointing though. Zombie Island has some good humor but the endless wave of zombies eventually made me give up. There's also only one place to save (at the very beginning) and I don't feel like constantly having to fight through the same areas to get back to where I left off. Underdome is just shit. I'm giving Knoxx a try now, so far it seems to be better than the others. If it stays at this level I'll finish it.

Huh, I'd only switch weapons because I'd be running out of ammunition layin waste to everything.

I never tried the DLC, did they add any new weapon classes? I know they added new "charms" (i guess thats what youd call them), for all the classes. And I remember the vehicles were supposed to have more parts, even different chassis but oh well.

Idk I was disappointed with the game. The RPG aspects are kind of shit, no real difference between weapons and theres only 20 uniques in the game. The game pales in comparison to D2 and thats an understatement.

 

[Topher]

I'm playing it right now with a friend in co-op but it's too damn easy if you do all the quests. It feels like the enemies reach level 20 really fast but then linger there for ever while you pass them by. The first zone it a blast because every fight feels like a challenge, my SP char is level 15 and I was trying to take on a a bandit camp of 16-17+, fun stuff. If it didn't get so damn easy later on it would be a fun enough FPS romp but without an option to raise the difficulty it's not going to see much more play from me.

All of this reminds me that I've been wanting to play through D2 again but I need to find a way to start a new character on a harder difficulty, the first one really is piss easy.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I never tried the DLC, did they add any new weapon classes? I know they added new "charms" (i guess thats what youd call them), for all the classes. And I remember the vehicles were supposed to have more parts, even different chassis but oh well.

Class mods, not charms. And General Knoxx added a new loot class but not weapon type. Pearlescent/cyan, rarest and most powerful.
The new vehicles only exist in the Knoxx DLC and can't be used outside of it, but it's a somewhat vehicle heavy DLC anyway.
Knoxx is easily the best of the 3 DLC. Still somewhat annoying that it doesn't have any fast travel, but since it has vehicles it isn't as much of a pain in the ass as Zombie Island to get around in.

This is my current baby. I like these fully auto combat rifles since they seem the most well rounded to my playstyle/soldier character. Reasonable damage, reasonable RoF, reasonable accuracy, and huge fucking clip. It's at 112 bullets with my current class mod.

 

[Sceptic]

Knoxx is easily the best of the 3 DLC.

Yeah that was my impression too. Zombie Island could've been fun if they'd just added fast travel, but the endless respawning hordes AND lack of fast travel combine to make it tedious. Knoxx is pretty entertaining actually and is the only one I completed, though I didn't bother with Crawmerax as taking him on at anything less than level 60 is impossible and I didn't feel like grinding for days.

Nice rifle you have. I was using a similar one, slightly higher ROF but smaller clip (50-something without mods/skills, higher with it). Come to think of it I never found any cyan/perlescent weapon.

 

[Metro]

I'm playing it right now with a friend in co-op but it's too damn easy if you do all the quests.

That's the biggest problem. The more you side-quest the further you get above the curve and the more trivial the enemies become. It isn't mildly challenging until you get to level cap and the enemies are 2-3 levels higher by default.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Knoxx is easily the best of the 3 DLC.

Come to think of it I never found any cyan/perlescent weapon.

I think they only drop off badasses, chests, and Craw during playthrough 2 in Knoxx. Apparently they also can drop off Craw during playthrough 1, who is still level 60+ but is apparently weaker than his playthrough 2 counterpart and still has a chance to drop the best guns.

Since I'm not really big on farming for the sake of farming I'll likely just try to kill him just to see if I can, then if I want to keep playing I'd just try a different class.

 

[Sceptic]

I think they only drop off badasses, chests, and Craw during playthrough 2 in Knoxx. Apparently they also can drop off Craw during playthrough 1, who is still level 60+ but is apparently weaker than his playthrough 2 counterpart and still has a chance to drop the best guns.

That explains it. I never tried playthrough 2. One playthrough was enough for me. The game's fun and I enjoyed it, but not enough to replay it.

Since I'm not really big on farming for the sake of farming I'll likely just try to kill him just to see if I can, then if I want to keep playing I'd just try a different class.

You could try, but if you're anything less than 50 (which you will be if you're on playthrough 1 and weren't farming in other areas) there's not much point. You will simply not inflict any damage to him (and by "no damage" I mean "zero points of damage", literally). I don't mind being able to inflict more or less damage to enemies, but a difference of 5 or 6 levels making the enemies completely immune to damage was an annoying design decision.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I AM STILL PLAYING THIS FUCKING GAME AND I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO THE SOON TO BE RELEASED PATCH THAT RAISES LEVEL CAP AND REBALANCES GAME HELP ME BROS LOLOKLOKOKOKOLOLO

Played the whole game 4 times so far, playthrough 1 and 2 with a solo Roland and playthrough 1 and 2 co-op with a buddy Brick. When the patch is released I'm gonna probably make a Mordecai.
Haven't bought Robot Revolution yet, sounds kinda lame like Zombie Island. If/when a Steam sale rolls around and it's $3 I'll grab it like the rest, though.
Did kill Crawmerax, but I used the exploit like the little babyman I am. Even then I still got killed many times.
Played through all short tournaments in Underdome co-op which was fun mainly because the level scaling and random perks made the enemies more of a challenge, no way in hell I'll do the long arenas.

Uhhhhh, what else. Oh yeah, I found a nidhogg! I went from never ever using rocket launchers to using this fucker NON-STOP with my Brick once I found it. It's a wonderful piece of death dealing machinery and if any of you bros still play keep your eyes peeled for them because they're cool as hell. The rocket breaks apart at a certain range and scatters something like 4-7 full rockets at many angles. Once you get good at judging the range, you shoot over the heads of your enemies and a few rockets are bound to hit them for big damage. Very cool weapon.

So any of you bros looking forward to the patch too?

 

[Gerrard]

Don't get your hopes up, just look at the fixes in the previous patches versus the amount of shit that should be corrected.

 

[Mangoose]

Wow MHC you're such a sheeple. I played the game and was entertained enough to actually buy it but couldn't arse myself to play more after the game actually came in.

 

[markec]

Decent game with good voice acting and messed up loot system, on my lvl 20 I got SMG that does 4x60 dmg with 54 clip size that slaughtered anything on my path and I used it until I ended Knoxx dlc.

 

[Topher]

I'm playing it right now with a friend in co-op but it's too damn easy if you do all the quests.

That's the biggest problem. The more you side-quest the further you get above the curve and the more trivial the enemies become. It isn't mildly challenging until you get to level cap and the enemies are 2-3 levels higher by default.

...but by then it's already gotten boring.

I've beaten the game, I've played on the 2.5 difficulty all the way through and all the way through the DLC and come to the conclusion that co-op is Borderlands only redeeming feature. The random weapon system is just awful and constantly produced boring weapons with little to no interesting variation; looking at the wiki page reveals just how shallow the feature really is. The vehicles were boring and the enemies weren't challenging or fun in the least bit they were just made artificially hard bullet sponges. The only real fun I had was the first time I went to the new haven part of town (it's a bunch of abandoned buildings and whatnot) where you fight the crimson lance for the first time. They were the perfect challenge level for my character at the time and I really had to be sure to use a gun that had the acid effect to take them down. The level was tense and hectic with them coming at me from all sides. It was a blast and a real shame that no other part of the game even came close.

* I didn't even really like the humor all that much but I'll admit that the general was a pretty great character.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

"millions" of guns and only the rifles were any good.

 

[Sceptic]

Haven't bought Robot Revolution yet, sounds kinda lame like Zombie Island.

It's much more fun. No endless hordes, you can play it in short bursts without having to redo 3 areas in a row because of the lack os transit points, only problem is that unlike the other DLC's the enemies don't scale fully, so if you're already over level 45 everything will be way too easy.

So any of you bros looking forward to the patch too?

No. Unless they release a new DLC I'm done with the game. I had quite a bit of fun with it but I don't intend to replay it.

 

[Metro]

So any of you bros looking forward to the patch too?

Can't say that I am. Don't get me wrong, the game was decent enough and I put around a hundred hours into it but I doubt I'll play until the Claptrap DLC is down to $3 or so. It's been hashed and rehashed in this thread but, again, my major critiques are that the game just fails horribly with the implementation of the ARPG elements so you're just left with a mediocre shooter.

I don't see the point in leveling once you've done the DLC. Even at the original level cap of 50 characters are already grossly overpowered to the extent that dipping even further into the talent trees (which are pretty lame in and of themselves) doesn't really make you feel anymore powerful. It's just sort of leveling for leveling sake and finding more and more weapons. Granted for whatever reason I found this fun in Torchlight but not so much in Borderlands. Probably because the loot in Borderlands is pretty shallow outside of the guns and unlike Torchlight you can't really have significantly different character builds. Even the different character classes play pretty much the same.

Shame, too, the game could have been really great if they weren't so lazy with the ARPG aspect. If Borderlands 2 (I'm sure they'll do a sequel) doesn't greatly improve on that I wouldn't even buy it for $10. Firefall will probably be better and it's going to be free to play with microtransactions.

 

[Rabidredneck]

I've got all the DLC and I agree with most people here. Personally I like the zombie islands DLC because Ned always cracks me up "If I have to get out of bed to kill ya, I sure as hell will!" Knoxx is a great DLC that adds a lot to the game, and knoxx himself is hilarious. Moxxie is 'meh', the bank is ok I guess, but they really needed to rework the arena system, it just gets damn tedious and is pretty my impossible to solo. The Robolution has as much humor as Knoxx and although it doesn't have fast travel either, everythings close enough together that running around on foot isn't a big deal.

The level boost/scaling patch for me is something that will be nice to have, but I'm not letting it affect how often I play, too many people I talk to say they're not playing borderlands until the patch comes out.

Personally I'd like gearbox to focus on patching out those damn modded guns. It apparently amazes people that I like to actually FIGHT a boss or tough group of enemies instead of pulling out a 32,000x5 damage pistol and just pulling the trigger. It seems to confuse people as to why I kick them out of one of my games when they pop in and the first words out of their mouths are "do you have any modded guns?"

 

[Sceptic]

Personally I like the zombie islands DLC because Ned always cracks me up "If I have to get out of bed to kill ya, I sure as hell will!" Knoxx is a great DLC that adds a lot to the game, and knoxx himself is hilarious. Moxxie is 'meh', the bank is ok I guess, but they really needed to rework the arena system, it just gets damn tedious and is pretty my impossible to solo. The Robolution has as much humor as Knoxx and although it doesn't have fast travel either, everythings close enough together that running around on foot isn't a big deal.

That's pretty much my opinion as well. Though Zombie Island score gets a notch off for the level-scaled hordes becoming very annoying long before you reach the end (I had to go back to it in small bursts to manage the boredom) and the last leg to Ned through several areas in a row being horribly painful if you have to stop (which I had to do, of course... and pretty close to the end). Moxxie's is fucking awful in SP, it's pretty much impossible, fully level-scaled, and you gain NOTHING from it... except a handful of useless items and a skill point. That's the one I never bothered to finish. The bank is extra-useful though. Moxxie herself is a fun NPC though, wish they'd done more than this stupid arena with her. Knoxx the character is hilarious and the DLC is not bad, only problem is the interminable roadblock (which you have to go through more than once of cuorse) and the buggy Circle of Duty (that made me rage). Getting lots of use out the vehicles was a nice touch. Robolution is fun and is the best one in terms of travel layout, also good that they limited the scaling... but unfortunately they limited it on the last DLC, so if you've done everything else first chances are the whole thing will be a cakewalk. Final boss is the most fun in the whole game IMO.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

"millions" of guns and only the rifles were any good.

Bullshit. Variations of Volcano took me around the game with 1-hit kills on most faggots (all of them when I got the Hunter skill that always ignores shields at max level).

 

[Mangoose]

Hmmm I'd be willing to boot the game up for and only for 4-player co-op. I guess that'd also mean everyone starting with level 1 characters.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

"millions" of guns and only the rifles were any good.

Bullshit. Variations of Volcano took me around the game with 1-hit kills on most faggots (all of them when I got the Hunter skill that always ignores shields at max level).

Volcanoes are good as shit. Hellfires are particularly good too. Pretty much every gun type has the chance of being good, but I don't think I've ever met a volcano or a hellfire I didn't like.

This is my best volcano. Bit less damage than yours, but pretty fast firing rate for a sniper rifle and super quick reload.

 

[JrK]

Pretty much every gun type has the chance of being good

The only type of weapons I find to consistently underperform are the launchers. Only the roaster seems to do it for me, but only because of the fire damage over time. Otherwise:
Eridians - the shotgun types kick ass
combat rifles - Ogres are some of the most powerful weapons ingame. Otherwise a good glorious havoc will do.
pistols - firehawks deal more fire damage than hellfires, but shoot slower to compensate. Thanatos machine pistols rip right through everything.
revolvers - the best weapons imo. Elemental guns always go off, revolvers are accurate and they have awesome variants like mashers, defilers and chimeras.
shotguns - you need either a 70+ acc shotgun with plenty damage or one of the oranges (crux or hammer). If you are brick with die hard, you can afford to take the highest damage shotty you can find.
snipers - the hyperion 'lance' types are awesome, as are the orange Orions, Volcanoes and Skullmashers.
SMG - double anarchies, hellfires and bitches are some of the best weapons in the game.

 

[BLOBERT]

but by then it's already gotten boring.

I've beaten the game, I've played on the 2.5 difficulty all the way through and all the way through the DLC and come to the conclusion that co-op is Borderlands only redeeming feature. The random weapon system is just awful and constantly produced boring weapons with little to no interesting variation; looking at the wiki page reveals just how shallow the feature really is. The vehicles were boring and the enemies weren't challenging or fun in the least bit they were just made artificially hard bullet sponges. The only real fun I had was the first time I went to the new haven part of town (it's a bunch of abandoned buildings and whatnot) where you fight the crimson lance for the first time. They were the perfect challenge level for my character at the time and I really had to be sure to use a gun that had the acid effect to take them down. The level was tense and hectic with them coming at me from all sides. It was a blast and a real shame that no other part of the game even came close.

BRO COME CLOSER I WILL HOLD YOU I GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO STOP PLAYING GAMES YOU DISLIKE

 

[MetalCraze]

Bro, what about your retarded "you can't criticize game until you've played it" and "you can't criticize game because you haven't played it enough"? The current statement kinda contradicts them? Or did somebody showed you some new funney joke that you'll repeat for 50 more times?

 

[Mangoose]

Hmmm I'd be willing to boot the game up for and only for 4-player co-op. I guess that'd also mean everyone starting with level 1 characters.

Anyone?

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

I'm up for it if I loose enough brain cells to purchase this game once I get my paycheck this month.

Heh... but then again, why both wasting 49.99 euro on Borderlands only to play 4 player co-op which might not last? And don't tell me that co-op with randoms is worth getting the game for, because that is clearly not the case.