I’ve never seen the Borderlands franchise advertised as anything but an FPS Looter. So a first person Diablo 2, with guns. Skipping quest text is how you make a game’s story seem flat and un-interesting, though I agree the ending was bland. Also, don’t let your experience with Borderlands 1 stop you from considering 2 or the Pre-Sequel, both of which feel more engaging to me, and have their mechanics better balanced. They also have more varied scenery. The one caveat I’d give for 2 is that the DLC is where a lot of the interesting stuff in the setting lives.

I started to play Borderlands for some hours after playing a bunch of new good and other not so good or new games, and I had fun with the other games that I picked the Borderlands box and put in on the xbox, lets give a try I said.
Ok, I was playing about 4 hours when I realized I was not having any fun!
Go here, go there, kill that guy, go again with that blind guy, return again with the Doctor. Yeah I got some guns updates and everything, money, etcetera, but this was absolutely robotic, following orders like an slave with no sense at all. So I found myself bored! I said, wait a second, Im not having fun at all, what am I doing? So I put the game dvd back on the shelf and put my Modern Warfare 2 for some instant and desintoxicating gaming.

I’m going to assume you did not go on to finish the game, otherwise you probably would have ranted about it ;)

So if you happen to think about doing so, I don’t recommend it, It is quite anticlimactic. I still finished the game after I watched my husband play the ending, mostly because I wanted the achievement points, but also because I did somewhat enjoy the game.

@ k00pa:

The cell shaded look is fairly neat but IMHO it was mostly wasted on rendering endless brown desert. It’s like playing a very, very boring version of Fallout 3 with all the fun taken out of it.

@ Zel:

I picked the hunter and was a bit dissapointed with the bird’s path finding ability. I would unleash it from behind cover only to watch it flop around for like 5 minutes before deciding to swoop down and kill something. :P

Respawning killed the game for me completely.

@ JKjoker:

I know, right? I was like:

“Am… Am I supposed to shot… You?” followed by “Man, this thing is annoying. I’m shooting it”

Also, every instance of “I’m dancing” was as met with a burst of automatic fire or a grenade toss. I wasted so much ammo on that guy it is not even funny.

@ Liudvikas:

Psst, I actually tried Eve once. I got bored with it before my trial ran out.

@ copperfish:

That’s true. But I usually find it hard to get into the game if I don’t like the setting or the story. Borderlands seemed bland, generic and unoriginal to me.

@ Alex Ion:

See my comment to Liudvikas. I got bored with Eve within a week. :)

I second Liudvikas: you should try Eve Online – playing for the last 3 months and enjoying it. On Borderlands… MEH

I liked it. And I only played single player. Yes the story was crap and uninspired and the ending and final boss weren’t great, but the FPS mechanics were spot on. And sadly I did get attached to some of the guns ;)

Sometimes a bad game can still be fun. *Disclaimer* I played the Xbox360 version.

I liked Borderlands, but i think it was mainly because i had no other games to play at the time. I usually played solo, sometimes with another friend, but rarely with more than that.

With your list of games, i can see why borderlands wasn’t very appealing. After reading past articles of yours i think i may go back and replay the witcher. A game which i really liked and put a lot of hours into, but never finished.

Thanks for the informative posts, they all seem to be related to my interests and i will definitely frequent this blog now =D

i absolutely agree, the second paragraph specially, ive never liked multiplayer, i play sp almost exclusively and it pains me to see how brute forcing multiplayer into games complete destroy any fun i could have with them (Resident Evil 5 is the worst offender i can think of) and game genres other than straight action do not work well as multiplayer, you cant buy stuff or check out skills, read descriptions on items/spells/etc or upgrade or meet characters or take in any kind of story when there are one or more ppl screaming at you to move on.

ah, Claptrap, that freaking thing and its equals in other games, features some dev was so enamored with he just had to FORCE the player to “enjoy”… many, many times …. are among the things i hate most in this world, Splinter Cell Conviction has those damn “questioning” scenes, it has like 15 in a 5 hour game, they all play out the same and by the second one you cant take it anymore…

and btw, be honest with me, you fired up Borderlands for the very first time, you get your first gun, the whole place is a wasteland, the only moving target is Claptrap… what did you test your weapon with ? how many of us did not shoot Claptrap the first minute of the game ? how the hell did it get past Q&A that Claptrap does not even flinch at those bullets ? make him at least say “ow!” and some curses, 1/8 the time and money they spent with that UNHOLY “im dancing” routine would suffice

I would have played with you, but I sold the game long ago. It is quite repetitive and generic, in each and every aspect, but it remained fun enough for me to see it through to the end twice, one time solo and a second (much faster) time with a friend.

The shooting gameplay worked well for me, it was fun to play either Brick and go berserk, or Lilith and deal huge elemental criticals. My friend played the hunter and his pet was a weapon of mass destruction. You eventually hit a town with quite a few people, some of them not related to any quest, and there is a story, although it plays little part in most of the game, but become more important later. The ending is very abrupt though, so don’t get your hopes up if you decide to keep playing.

The best and worst aspect was definitely the loot. There’s just way too many guns to pick up and 99.9% of them are worthless, yet you still have to check them all in case you miss an awesome “white” shotgun that deals 50×11 damage each shot. However, what joy it is when you find some terribly overpowered orange gun.

Eventually, the constant respawning and lack of diversity of the opposition made me stop.

Well to play it alone is boring for sure. I liked it, but with my antisocial nature and no friends it’s not that good.
As for MMO’s you should try EVE online :) It’s way more than quest giving npc’s. It has probably the best community of any online game. And if you happen to be in a nice corp, there’s much fun to be had.