Started Borderlands 1 on Switch. Is this it?

[Blackpuppy]

What I mean is: is the whole game just going to people, they give you missions and you go off and do the mission… Then come back for money/XP etc?

I don't know why, but I'm not feeling the shooting or anything. I see it was GOTY for a lot of folks, but I quickly got bored. Do I just need to get past an initial hump?

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Yes. That's Borderlands. It's basically an offline/co-op MMO in its core design loop.

 

[Faceless_Caesar]

That's what Borderlands is. An RPG-lite where every class only has 1 skill. You see it a lot more clearly when you are playing by yourself versus playing with friends. The grab is supposed to be the loot variety but that really only works on paper because the game is pretty much solved and you know which guns you want.

 

[Orayn]

It's first person Diablo so yeah that's what you do when you play it. Your abilities get more sophisticated as you level up and fill out the skill tree, but the gameplay loop remains the same. It's immeasurably better in co-op.

 

[Lowrys]

That's exactly the game loop you'll experience for the remaining 30 hours. It doesn't change.

 

[kurahador]

Yup. It's designed to be played with other people, so the interaction with npcs are minimal. And worst of all, the ending is freaking dumb as hell.

2 and Pre-Sequel is better at this but not by much.

 

[SirKai]

Borderlands released in 2009; the hard expectation for a satisfying FPS experience wasn't nearly as defined as we have it now, and it was enormously carried by the novelty of basically being Diablo in a genre that didn't have leveling up, loot, variable skills/perks/traits on everything, etc. Now everything that made Borderlands feel fresh is brutally worn out. It hasn't aged well but it was very very exciting on its release.

Borderlands 1 legitimately had me thinking "every game should be like this!" God, I guess I got what I wanted.

 

[NinjaScooter]

Thats generally the loop. It was novel when it was basically a first person Diablo and there weren't a lot of Diablo games on console at that time (also part 2 I think is generally better and more polished). But if you don't like the shooting you might as well bail now because thats what the game is.

 

[UraMallas]

Yeah, it's like a Diablo FPS

 

[UraMallas]

If you don't like the shooting I would say it was much improved in the sequels. So if you are curious about the franchise still, you could always skip to BL3 which plays great.

 

[Aaron D.]

While I quite enjoyed the original, Borderlands really found its feet with the B2 sequel.

As I remember (it's been a long time) voice acting was very limited in the original and there wasn't a main baddie like Handsome Jack that taunted you throughout the entire game.

They get flack for meme-factor, but I think B2 and B3 are pretty damn awesome both mechanically and on a presentation scale.

 

[Shadow Dancer]

It's great. In coop even better.

 

[bloodgate]

The shooting does get better with each subsequent release, but I could see the first Borderlands feeling quite dated. Borderlands blew my mind when it was released and Borderlands 2 was one of the biggest anticipations in my life, up there with Elden Ring and Silksong.

 

[Dan Thunder]

Yes it is. Bear in mind it's a 15 year old game!

 

[Silverhand]

It's funny at least.

 

[pittman]

Yeah, never was a huge fan of it back then. But that's probably because I didn't have any friends to play it with.

In a lot of ways it was a precursor to many gaas. Take missions in a hub, go out with your buddies, get loot. With mostly the same mission type.

 

[Captain of Outer Space]

Soldier's a great solo class because it's broken.

 

[show me your skeleton]

game came out in 2009. how did you not know what it was by now? cmon.

 

[Blackpuppy]

I'm over 40 so the age of the game doesn't bother me (I play Doom at least once a year!) but shooting desert rats and collecting food for some space hillbilly and walking back to him is just a bit… meh.

 

[KanameYuuki]

Either it instantly grabs you or it isn't for you, and even between the franchise I love 1 and 2 and didn't like as much pre sequel and couldn't get past the first hours of 3 and dropped it.

 

[Otakunofuji]

I never liked Borderlands 1. It has always felt off to me and I just can't get into it.

Borderlands 2, on the other hand, is awesome.

 

[Blackpuppy]

game came out in 2009. how did you not know what it was by now? cmon.

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Because I didn't get a ps3 until like 2012? And never bought it nor really paid much attention to discussions around it…?

 

[HemoGoblin]

I remember playing through borderlands 1 back in 2013 or something so I could play 2. Wow that was such a slog single player. 2 was a bit better but not by much… i didn't end up finishing 2 because i was so burnt out. I'd imagine those games are much better multiplayer if you can swing it. Personally, I'd just skip the first one at this point.

 

[bloodgate]

The bosses in the first one are what really sold me on the game. Could just be the dopamine from a loot explosion ;)

 

[demi]

I'm over 40 so the age of the game doesn't bother me (I play Doom at least once a year!) but shooting desert rats and collecting food for some space hillbilly and walking back to him is just a bit… meh.

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Because it is meh, it's improved a lot in the sequels. Like most similar games, its all about the endgame, farming that same boss trying to get [the] gun with [the] stats to make your build even stupider (until they nerf it because that is the nature of single player PVE games)

 

[mausterhunter]

Probably not worth it without a friend to shoot with.

 

[Jakenbakin]

I love borderlands but have absolutely never played it solo more than a few minutes maybe after a friend logs off or something.

 

[Qudi]

Borderlands 2 is the GOAT borderlands in the whole franchise. I only played the first game a few hours but quickly dropped it because it was kinda boring.

Played 2 like 10 times coop and solo. Give that one a try.

 

[Bishop89]

Yeeeeep.

The best thing about Borderlands, at least BL2 is the writing. Otherwise it's generic gameplay

 

[Sangral]

That's how videogames work, yes.

 

[Strat]

It's funny at least.

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Is it?

 

[turbobrick]

I'm over 40 so the age of the game doesn't bother me (I play Doom at least once a year!) but shooting desert rats and collecting food for some space hillbilly and walking back to him is just a bit… meh.

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I agree, I found the game pretty meh and dropped it after a few hours. I did have more fun with the second game playing it with friends. Never finished either though.

 

[Uncle at Nintendo]

It was novel for its time but so many games now just take shit straight from Diablo when back then only a few were doing it.

 

[Evilmaus]

I didn't get into Borderlands until the sequel. Everything about it landed for me, except I was playing solo, so when I reached the endgame the balance just fell apart and enemies were hideous bullet-sponges. Post-game was naturally worse.

 

[Kreim]

Well it was kind of a novelty for co-op. I played it with my long distance girlfriend at the time..... 15 years ago! Good lord. That shared co-op experience was a little rarer back then, so you put up with a lot. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

 

[SixelAlexiS]

I've played it years ago with my brother and after that I didn't want to touch a looter shooter ever again, it was such a shallow experience.

 

[BasilZero]

What I mean is: is the whole game just going to people, they give you missions and you go off and do the mission… Then come back for money/XP etc?

I don't know why, but I'm not feeling the shooting or anything. I see it was GOTY for a lot of folks, but I quickly got bored. Do I just need to get past an initial hump?

Click to shrink...

Yes that is how it is

It's a looter shooter with missions

 

[Blackpuppy]

Right so the consensus seems to be that the game is better in co-op and 2 is better. Hrmm… in any case I got the game for like 8€ in a bargain bin at Carrefour so I'm not too miffed.

 

[Justin Iacobellis]

Yup, that is Borderlands for you. I put it down early on in my original playthrough on the 360 back in 2010. At the time, I felt that the world was too devoid of engagement and thus played better as a co-op experience.

After going back to finally completing the first Borderlands and Borderlands 2 on PC last year, the sequel left me with more intrigue for what the rest of the series has to offer. The core gameplay loop remained mostly the same in Borderlands 2, but the game felt vastly more "alive" compared to its predecessor. As a primarily solo player, this improvement was much appreciated.

 

[Foolish]

Yeah, Borderlands 1 is incredibly basic. The second game and onward have waaaaaay more interesting setpieces, enemy variety, and quests. The base content of the first game is 90% grey and brown dusty rocks, bandits, and animals.

If the main game is feeling like a bore to you, try just hopping straight into the DLCs-- they level scale based on the level you first enter them. I believe you can enter them via fast travel waypoints, there's one right in the hub of Fyrestone near the doctor.

The zombie DLC is great fun and has a great energy to it, should be a lot more engaging right away. The Mad Moxxi DLC is just pure arena shooting in waves if all you want is high tempo action. The General Knoxx DLC takes the base game's formula and refines it with a more interesting setting and a more focused story. The Claptrap DLC, which was released last, is kind of a wrap-up epilogue of everything that came before so it probably won't hit that hard unless you played everything else first.

 

[Bengraven]

It's straight up Diablo with Halo style controls and that was exactly what I wanted.

It's the only Diablo-like game I like outside of Torchwood and actual Diablo.

Right so the consensus seems to be that the game is better in co-op and 2 is better. Hrmm… in any case I got the game for like 8€ in a bargain bin at Carrefour so I'm not too miffed.

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Just FYI, you really don't need to play through BLands1 to like 2.

If you've played for a few minutes, you get the point. There isn't a ton of necessary story in Blands2 that doesn't already get repeated there.

BLands 2 is much bigger, has more fun game mechanics, more customization, better characters, some FANTASTIC DLC that should be included in whatever version you buy, is fucking funny, and is one of my top 10 games of all time.

 

[C.Mongler]

It's FPS Diablo with a goof-ass tone. I personally would never feel inclined to play one of these games solo -- all of the Boderlanding I've ever done has been with a group of friends. It feels fairly designed around doing so. Also yeah, 2 improves upon the experience in pretty much every way as well; I'd imagine the original Borderlands feels pretty dated at this point.

 

[Gungriffon]

If your not into seeing numbers getting bigger this might not be for you.

 

[butalala]

What I mean is: is the whole game just going to people, they give you missions and you go off and do the mission… Then come back for money/XP etc?

I don't know why, but I'm not feeling the shooting or anything. I see it was GOTY for a lot of folks, but I quickly got bored. Do I just need to get past an initial hump?

Click to shrink...

Yeah it's not great.

 

[Uncle Sensei]

Still probably my favorite of the series. Something got lost in the sequels for me

 

[Tigress]

That's what Borderlands is. An RPG-lite where every class only has 1 skill.

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I will die on this hill, Borderlands is not an RPG. It's an open worldish FPS with RPG elements. Just cause it has a skill system does not make it an RPG. Fallout 4 is a light RPG.

Sorry, but it bugs me to see RPG so watered down that people consider Borderlands RPG at all (even worse, I've seen at least two people argue that Bioshock is an RPG). It has an RPG element in it, that's it. It's very much an FPS in an open world. But you have a very straight story line and the main focus is shooting things up (the story is more there to amuse you while you shoot things up).

 

[NinjaScooter]

Does anyone actually care anymore about arguing about whether a game is "an RPG" or a "game with RPG elements"?

 

[Darkstorne]

Right so the consensus seems to be that the game is better in co-op and 2 is better. Hrmm… in any case I got the game for like 8€ in a bargain bin at Carrefour so I'm not too miffed.

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Worth noting that while 2 and 3 are certainly better mechanically (add the Tiny Tina fantasy themed spinoffs to that list too) they all play functionally the same. So if your primary issue is the core gameplay loop (shoot things for better loot so you can shoot higher level things for even better loot) you probably won't get on with the sequels either.

 

[Ricker]

It's great. In coop even better.

Click to shrink...

This and if you like loot well you cant go wrong here lol...

 

[JigglesBunny]

Not only is that Borderlands 1, that's Borderlands 2, The Pre-Sequel, Borderlands 3 and Tiny Tina's Wonderland.

The whole franchise is a collection of bloated one trick ponies. If you enjoy it, you're well served. If that one trick doesn't work for you, the whole franchise (Tales from the Borderlands aside) is a wash.