E3 2008 Preview
Gearbox Software certainly has
their hands full, with the development on two different IPs going in full force.
The first one is there long-awaited WWII game, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway,
but the second is a new IP, Borderlands. What can be best described as a co-op
Mad Max game with a little less of a focus on driving, Borderlands puts you in a
post-apocalyptic world with literally hundreds of thousands of weapons at your
disposal, and compelling cooperative gameplay with action-RPG elements thrown
into the mix.
Borderlands is a first-person
action-RPG where your character can gain new abilities as they level up, get new
armor and weapons, and find all kinds of loot. The demo of the game showed off
by 2K and Gearbox showcased an area known as the Barrens and featured co-op
between the two-people. They jumped into an armed vehicle and demonstrated the
ability to switch seats on the fly without stopping the vehicle, which was a
pretty nice touch.
The group showed off a mission
that involved the two co-op players fighting through a group of bandits to
reclaim a stolen alien artifact. The mission had the players using teamwork
tactics to effectively defeat the bandits. Along the way, they would level up
and get better weapon skills, including a steadier hand for better aim and
accuracy.
As I mentioned earlier,
Borderlands will have roughly 650,000 or more generated weapon possibilities.
They are procedurally created by the game, each one with unique stats and
abilities, like acid bullets and different scopes, and it is doubtful that any
one player will be able to see all possible weapon outcomes when they play the
game.
Graphically, the game looks
pretty solid, even in pre-alpha form. The Unreal Engine 3 has been tweaked to
allow for bright colors and wide open areas, as well as dimly lit dungeon
settings. All in all, Borderlands should be a good looking and good playing game
when it’s released next year.
