I’m in gaming heaven is a phrase that I have heard from quite a few gamers that have played Borderlands and my reaction after playing the game for half an hour was pretty much the same.

During this quarter, on the run up to Christmas you expect all the strong franchises to show their muscle and in an environment where profit margins are lacking and publishers go with their standard franchises, 2K Games have pulled out all the stops to create something fresh and innovating.

Borderlands is based on the planet Pandora, a harsh, barren world where survival of the fittest is key.  The story of a mythical alien structure called the vault and filled with treasure is enough to entice many a hunter to this planet in search of untold wealth.  You are one of these hunters that is depicted at the beginning of the game as one of four character classes with varying abilities in their class to root out the clues, go looting for treasure, kill a shit load of animals, baddies, rabid midgets (I love it!) and endless mutants in search of the “holy grail”.

In a nice change of form, Borderlands mixes RPG and FPS gameplay genres into a silky smooth mix that will have you glued to your console and tv, racking up a bigger electricity bill than Tera Patrick on a night out to a sex shop.  Best described as an fps version of Diablo, you will plunder, loot and rank up your character and weapons to maximum effect.

The gameplay itself is great and rewarding with enough depth in your tasks to not go wanting and get bored easily.  Tasks are delivered within the storyline for you to pick and choose as you wish.  Each of the tasks also has a level attached to it as a guide to where you should be before you choose it.  The higher the level, the better the rewards but the more danger you ultimately face and trying one ahead of your time could prove very costly indeed.  Exploration of the barren wastelands is allowed and the meetings and shootouts of various monsters and bandits will inevitably allow you to gain experience, loot and cash a lot quicker for some crazy guns and weaponry that you can also buy and attach stuff to.

2K Games, in its trailers, have boasted a gazillion guns and while that may be slightly fabricated you can be sure that it has quite a few thousand to get your teeth into with different combinations of style, damage and special features to keep you occupied for a long time.  Some of the guns you will never use and some you will, but the array and depth of the weapons at hand and the limited amount of spaces for you to carry the weaponry will keep you looking into your inventory and deciding what is best for you at any given point.

The visual styling of the game looks beautiful and original in its task.  It looks like a living comic book and if anyone has ever played Crackdown you will understand the design a little more.  I must say that with this much bloodshed it is a great way of dumbing things down a little for the good to keep the BBFC from getting its grubby little fingers on it.  It is comical in its content a lot of the time and that has been represented well in its graphical design.  Borderlands plays at a steady frame rate for the best part of the game but there have been instances where I have seen and suffered drops when too much has been going on.  Luckily for me it has only been on one occasion at the moment and in one area so although it is an issue it does not distract from the gameplay.

Everybody publisher now seems to understand the importance of co-operative gameplay and Borderlands is no exception.  Borderlands is great fun single player but with the ability of being able to team up with 3 other people and drop in and out of games seamlessly, Borderlands adds another fun element to get your teeth into.  The more players that are involved, the more monsters turn up to give enough difficulty to make it enjoyable without being too easy.  The way the loot is distributed in co-operative is a little annoying as greedy gamers can run in and grab it as you fend off monsters and felt that perhaps it would be an idea to have a split distribution for ammo and cash.  As you can take your loot back to your single player game you may want to team up with friends rather than randoms as greed should not be a problem.

Overall, Borderlands bridges the FPS and RGP genres perfectly providing gamers who love each genre enough to sink their teeth into.  Although the RPG element is a little more weak than its competitors, there are enough skills and stats and additions to keep you blazing away into the early hours of the morning and completely forget that you have work in the morning.

Come award time over the next couple of months you may well see this popping up all over the show.  I for one feel that I have not had so much fun gaming for quite a while and if you purchase a copy I am sure you will thinking the same thing.