Soooo… You want to hear a story, eh?
Greetings and salutations! This week I thought we could talk about a video game series that is, in my opinion, one of the best series in all of gaming. That series is, of course, Borderlands.
Just go psycho
The Borderlands series is a looter shooter (a first-person shooter where you grind for loot) that takes place primarily on the planet of Pandora. Known for being a rugged, Mad-Max looking wasteland, Pandora is the location where the game takes place in the first two titles in the series, Borderlands and Borderlands 2. Borderlands was first released in 2009 and spawned several sequels throughout the following years. Borderlands 2 was released in 2012, and Borderlands 3 was released earlier this year in 2019. There have been two spin-off games, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Tales from the Borderlands which were both released in 2014.
The Plot
The main idea behind the series is that you are a vault hunter. Vault Hunters are people who literally hunt Vaults, which are rumored to be chambers of great power and wealth. From the start of each game, you take the reins of a Vault Hunter that you choose. Each one has a different skill set ranging from drones and companion mechs to mystical powers. In total, there are 14 Vault Hunters in the main series trilogy, with no two being alike.
As Vault Hunters, you are powerful killing machines, almost like celebrities. Though, not everyone is very happy to see you. In Borderlands, there are mega corporations that control the fate of the galaxy (and make sweet loot). Most of these corporations are evil, and will gladly kill anything in order to get their hands on the contents of a Vault. Enter you, the “hero”, to stop these bad guys from getting their hands on incredible power. You better get used to killing everything in your way, because you are going to mow through half the planet to make sure you do what needs to be done.
Guns, Guns and more Guns
Since Borderlands is a shooter series, that obvious implies that there will be shooting, which requires a gun. There are far more guns in Borderlands than any other game I’ve played before. Each item and gun in the game has a color indicating its rarity, and therefore how good it usually is. The scale in game goes white, green, blue, purple and orange with orange being the rarest (and some other colors being used in different parts of the games). Known as legendary loot, orange colored weapons are often powerful and unique gear that will give the player an edge over their enemies.
Different items in the game come in the forms of grenade mods, gear which affects how your grenades act when you throw them, shields and cosmetic items to make your Vault Hunter look different.
Give it a try
As always, if you haven’t already, I 100% recommend giving this series a try. It has a ton of content that will keep you playing for a long time, and if you aren’t a fan of anything but the main story, then that’s all you have to play. Borderlands 3 just recently came out for PC, PS4 and Xbox One, so that would be a good place to start if you want to get your feet wet, or you can start at the beginning if you care about the story and play the first Borderlands. The community is really great and the developers continue to care for these games after their respective releases.
Anyways, I want to hear from you all. Do you like Borderlands? Is it something you’ve tried before, and if not then why? Do you have any ideas or suggestions for my blog? Let me know in the comments!
Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll smell ya later.
