Borderlands has been the bright spot in an otherwise extremely bad week for me; this wasteland-themed (think Mad Max and Fallout) FPS provided a very fun, accessible co-op game that cheered me up quite well. Borderlands puts you in control of one of four gunslingers, each with their own special ability, tasked with finding a vault full of wonderful riches but that plot is really just a thin justification for a game revolving around blasting all kinds of enemies in a wasteland setting but it gets away with that because Borderlands is pretty fun.

At its heart, Borderlands mixes typical FPS play with the quest and loot structure that you might find in games like Diablo or many MMORPGs. You start off with very basic weapons (and a basic tutorial to go with it), but as you complete more missions you’ll find a mix of guns; as quest rewards, random drops from killed enemies, and bought in shops. Quest weapons usually have set parameters, but the others are much more diverse, with different damage, firing rates, zoom/scope levels, and even the ability to add an element (such as fire or acid) to your bullets. A huge part of Borderlands’ appeal is finding the gun that suits you perfectly, as each player will likely find they favor different traits in any given weapon.

Your choice of weaponry is varied, but most of them fall into typical categories such as pistols, sniper rifles, shotguns, and so on. This isn’t entirely a bad thing, since it makes it easy to tell what a weapon is for; shotguns provides an excellent example because it’s very intuitive to use them both for close-range fighting and to deal with flying monsters (yes, ’flying monsters’; the wastelands of this game are populated by both humans and various creatures). Likewise, sniper rifles and revolvers are for precision work, and general purpose fighting is best left to combat rifles, sub machine guns, and pistols. Most weapons can even be further divided into ’sub-types’, such as pistols that fire quickly and thus serve as inexpensive sub machine gun equivalents or pistols with scopes, thus acting as a cheap ’sniper pistol.’ These are just examples, as there is even more variety to be had.

You get four characters to pick from as well, each with their preferred type of weapon and unique abilities that you can develop. This is where the RPG aspects of Borderlands come in; it’s not just a shooter, you gain experience levels as you go and can spend the resulting points on new abilities. These can range from improving your character’s inherent ability (such as being able to drop a gun turret, or go berserk and do more melee damage, etc.) to improving your durability or firing rate, so there is plenty of room to customize your character. The decent character variety combined with the abilities to develop, and the sheer number of guns, ensure that each player will have something different about them.

While you can play this on your own, Borderlands offers excellent online play and this may well be the most enjoyable part. The co-op aspect lets two to four players team up to deal with missions, and allows them to trade weapons with one another if you’re willing to trust the other players. While vehicles are also present in solo play, they become much more practical in co-op since there is usually room for passengers/gunners. And if you’d rather not work together, you can challenge one another to duels out in the open, or go to arenas where specially made battlefields are offered for the express purpose of fighting your friends. There do not seem to be any major penalties for killing one another (and friendly fire is disabled unless you go out of your way to pick fights with another player), so this all works well enough.

This game’s presentation is worth touching on. Despite a ’wasteland frontier’ theme, Borderlands isn’t dark and depressing. It’s a little gritty and worn down, but playful; most of the characters have some kind of witty remark (or insane laughter) to make as they go about their killing sprees, and most NPCs you meet are similarly quirky. An ammo vendor in particular stands out, as he informs the player that "You don’t need to be a better shot, you just need to fire more bullets!" Combined with a fairly vibrant art style, genuinely solid weapon sound effects, and music that fits the genre, Borderlands presents itself very well.

The only noteworthy flaws I can find in Borderlands are its jumping physics, and loading times. The jumping is odd, as it’s very ’floaty’ (like Halo) and yet there are occasions where your character will not land on a surface they should be easily clearing. These situations are fairly rare and don’t take away too much from the game, but it’s odd to be unable to climb certain surfaces because of what almost seem to be invisible walls. The other issue is the load times, as they can easily get upward of twenty seconds per map. This is justified however, as most maps are huge and there is no additional loading as you go through an area. So while these problems are worth noting, neither of them cripples this game.

Borderlands is a pretty accessible romp, keeping all of its components (RPG aspects, co-op play, and FPS action) simple but not brainless. Combined with the sheer amount of content available, I think you’ll get your money’s worth out of this one. And after a very bad week, I have to say this: playing Borderlands made me genuinely happier. If you’re into loot-driven games, this might be okay as a singleplayer adventure, but it really comes into its own when played with at least one friend. With these things in mind, I heartily recommend Borderlands for purchase!