Borderlands

[WarBlade]

I've just started noticing a soon-to-be-released game called Borderlands that has begun to intrigue me. Reading up on information gleaned from interviews etc. I can't help but notice the word "Diablo" get mentioned quite liberally in descriptions on this game's background.

The idea sounds like a Diablo knock off with four character archetypes, each fielding their own unique capabilities and able to co-op in teams of up to four players. Talk of skill trees and increasing weapon power as characters level up sound eerily familiar. The environment by contrast is a post-apocalyptic future that reminds me of movies like the Mad Max series and Pitch Black and the game play will be first person perspective.

Official Website

Borderlands on Wikipedia

Borderlands: Claptrap Web Series ep. 1
(Parental Advisory: Violent and bloody black humour)

I'm actually wondering if I might buy this one.

[WarBlade]

There is some information about the skill trees here which offers a pretty good outline to the way characters might be built. Click the character names to view each.


Rough summary...

Brick - Brick

Primarily a front line melee slugger, this guy looks like he can be also specced very heavily into using rocket launchers. It could be interesting mixing those two roles on the one character.

Lilith - Siren

Looking more like Guild Wars' Assassin class every day, Lilith is geared to slip in and do a big load of melee damge, then maybe slip away when the mystical defences run dry. She has no particular weapon speciality like the others, but her damage upgrades look to cover any gun she feels like shooting.

Mordecai - Hunter

The hunter of the group and reported to utilise a pet "bloodwing" Mordecai seems like a copy of Guild Wars' Ranger class. His skill set gives him extra proficiency with sniper rifles.

Roland - Soldier

The soldier can go into offence or defence roles in a way that's starting to look a lot like Diablo II's Paladin at this stage. His deployable turrets are comparable to the Binding Rituals in Guild Wars and a little like the Druid's spirits of Diablo II. His skill set aligns well with assault rifle and shotgun type weapons.

Initially I was thinking the 4 player co-op might be a bit limited (after having played a few team games of the 8-player/team), but after reading through Roland's skill set I'm left thinking the power creep of the "All Paladin Team" could make a good case for keeping the player numbers small.

[KingOfPain]

Really cute trailers, I must say. But now I am worry, certainly, the mule-aholic alarm is screaming highest alert of epic proportion. They better have inventory/storage space to match.

According to wikipedia

Recently, in a preview of Borderlands, MTV Multiplayer claimed to have seen the debug menu for the game. According to them the Debug menu said that the total number of weapons in the game is 3,166,880.[8] However, the developers have stated that there are over 17 million guns that they have counted.

Have you seen any good game play vids that would show off each classes uniqueness, other than just shoot till you drop?

[cb-13]

the mule-aholic alarm is screaming highest alert of epic proportion.

That deserves to to be a QotM

CB-13

[WarBlade]

Really cute trailers, I must say. But now I am worry, certainly, the mule-aholic alarm is screaming highest alert of epic proportion. They better have inventory/storage space to match.

Heh. Yeah.

I think we'll see a limited number in the kinds of items available though, which should hopefully mitigate the need to squeeze the 2x8 item in vertically to fit it into the backpack alongside the Caromi Tengu Feathered Scalps, the spare set of Indoril Armor and a belt bag full of Stones of Jordan. I'm expecting to see the game offer a more basic armament akin to traditional FPS games.

Something like...

- Main Weapon.
- Alternate weapon for special circumstances.
- Weapon three, because we're told there are many, many guns.
- Another weapon, seeing as three is just never enough and we love blowing stuff up.
- Grenades.
- Personal shield.
- Several different types of ammunition (except for Roland who reportedly magics the stuff out of thin air).
- Possibly something medical in nature.

Anything else is probably just a quest item or vendor bait guns

Have you seen any good game play vids that would show off each classes uniqueness, other than just shoot till you drop?

Not yet. So far I've seen shooting, head shot criticals, shooting, shield depletion, shooting, punching, scope zoom mechanic, one video playing a fleeting look at Roland's Scorpio Turret, shooting, vehicular dog stomping and I think some shooting.

I might have glimpsed a phase walk, but I'm still waiting to have a good look all four "active abilities".

The skill set up is mimicked here.

Evidently there is a level cap at 50, 5 tiers to each skill and skill point allocation begins at character level 6 for a total of 45 skill points.

[WarBlade]

Interesting comments from the people behind Borderlands in this video

Productivity... Hehe.

[WarBlade]

There has been a substantial overhaul on the official website today.

[KingOfPain]

If it is like Hellgate: London, (I have not paid too much attention to Borderland but they look the same on the surface) it is worth the price especially w/o the fees HGL is a fun game even with all its flaws. But I am going to wait for the reviews on this one. But then again, without P2P, it's not that big a deal to just buy it and get a few months worth of enjoyment.. lets see how bored I am come that time.

[WarBlade]

Did Hellgate: London have FPS style aiming/twitch-gaming though? I thought it was closer to Guild Wars' third person target-and-hit-Space kind of aiming with some level of option on the Marksman. Never played it though, and can't recall what people were saying about the interface.

[WarBlade]

The Official Skill Trees are now online.


Brick

Lilith

Mordecai

Roland