Borderlands Complaints

[madmsk]

I bought borderlands a few days ago thanks to the Steam Summer Sale. I want to make this first point clear: I loved the gameplay. It was tight and rewarded skill and good character building. But I feel like the story was just kinda disappointing.

While the game took me 22 hours, I did every single side mission (not counting DLC) and spent a whole lot of time walking back to the vending machine and selling the slightly worse weapons to the vendor. Even without all that time wasted, the story missions were in the very tiny minority. The ending (without trying to spoil it) was really disappointing and anti-climactic.

Spoiler: Complaints about the ending

After all that work to open the vault. We don't get anything, other than some more pointless money, we don't get even get to find out what's in it other than the destroyer (unless I'm not getting something. That fight wasn't even particularly hard. I was a little overleveled, (I was 35 and the destroyer was 33 I think) but the fight with Sledge was more intense than this. I get that you have to have an epic looking ending fight, but it should be a little more difficult.

Also, why are we giving the key back to Tannis? She's a backstabbing lunatic.

Again, the gameplay is still tight enough for me to be addicted for the last few days. But I feel like the story just slapped me in the face.

 

[guidance]

I just bought it for $7.50 would you say its worth that? For what I've heard so far it is and 22 hours seems like a good amount of time.

 

[Dragonheart57]

I never finished it myself, it was kinda fun for a while, but eventually it became a grind to level up and get new weapons to replace my old ones. I did like the vehicles though, especially the one near the boss that you have to kill to get the vehicles. He gave me a lot of problems, but the car can run over him.

It probably is worth 7 bucks, if you don't mind the massive numbers of guns and constantly switching them around.

 

[dyre]

Yup, Borderlands didn't have much of a story. It's hella fun when you play co-op with friends though.

A great storyline can only help a game, but it's not totally necessary for all games.

 

[ThePuzzldPirate]

A little late to be complaining about this game now isn't it?

 

[madmsk]

I just bought it for $7.50 would you say its worth that? For what I've heard so far it is and 22 hours seems like a good amount of time.

I would say yes. I was riding merrily along until the last 10 minutes or so. 22 hours/7.50 (my price too) is about 3 hours of entertainment per dollar, which is waaaay above what you'd get at the movie theater.

 

[surg3n]

I think that a lot is lost if you don't play it co-op, even with 1 other person. I played through it twice, plus most of the DLC with my brother on split screen. It makes a big difference when you have someone to swap weapons and stuff with. Probably the best co-op game I've played, and even though the story is a bit lacking at the end, it's quite amusing.

Catch a riiiiiiiiide... $7.50 is a bargain price for such a game IMO.

 

[Mekado]

Yeah the ending sucks, and no the vault dosen't have anything else in it than the destroyer...

Borderlands is all about guns,also on playthrough 2 and 2.5 you'll get much tougher enemies, though the destroyer is a really easy fight if you're not a complete idiot

 

[Ruiner87]

You're complaining about the story? In Borderlands? Ridiculous. The game isn't about that stupid story and it never was. Besides, the last fight is supposedly more intense when you head through and fight it after finishing all of the DLC. Apparently the anti-climactic battle turns into an "Oh my God this thing is ten levels above me." affair.

 

[madmsk]

I never finished it myself, it was kinda fun for a while, but eventually it became a grind to level up and get new weapons to replace my old ones.

Really? I just played single player and had no problem leveling up. I would sort of stumble into new levels. The quests gave more than enough experience.

You're dead on about the constantly switching weapons though. I always felt like the problem was more that I had too many weapons I liked than too few. Oh and did the rocket launcher feel really weak for anyone else?

 

[mrm5561]

well what did you expect your on a planet looking for a vault. and at the end you find it. plus the end set up for the dlc that really couldnt happen if the 4 characters found what they were looking for and left... side note i loved this game

 

[captaincabbage]

Dude, co-op that shit up! It's a pretty well known fact by now that Borderlands doesn't have a particularly deep story, but it'sjust a plot device to send you off to a variety of interesting locales, with awesome weapons and great gameplay. Just make sure to play co-op, or you're missing out on at least half of the game.
Also the Steam summer sales of Borderlands GOTY are definitely worth it IMO. I would have bought it myself if I didn't already have it on PS3 (I'll always take splitscreen over online MP).

Also, DLC, DLC, DLC! Some of the DLC has better pacing and more interesting stuff than the actual regular.

 

[madmsk]

You're complaining about the story? In Borderlands? Ridiculous. The game isn't about that stupid story and it never was.

That's true. It was definitely tight enough to enjoy without the story, but the game tried really hard to make me like the story and characters, but they were also so flat. Maybe I'm off base here, but part of the appeal of Call of Duty 4 to me was that it was so engaging. I was genuinely invested in all the characters which made me not mind as much about several of the gameplay problems.

If the story isn't going to be as big a factor of gameplay, then you need to make the game bigger. Fallout 3 didn't need as big a story (not that it was lacking) because the game was so big you could lose yourself for hours without doing story. Borderlands is really kind of contained.

 

[madmsk]

Dude, co-op that shit up! It's a pretty well known fact by now that Borderlands doesn't have a particularly deep story, but it'sjust a plot device to send you off to a variety of interesting locales, with awesome weapons and great gameplay. Just make sure to play co-op, or you're missing out on at least half of the game.
Also the Steam summer sales of Borderlands GOTY are definitely worth it IMO. I would have bought it myself if I didn't already have it on PS3 (I'll always take splitscreen over online MP).

Also, DLC, DLC, DLC! Some of the DLC has better pacing and more interesting stuff than the actual regular.

I definitely plan on co-oping in the near future with a few friends and I'm starting the DLC tomorrow. The story just seemed misplaced. I've loved games with sorrier stories (L4D2 is still my favorite of all time, and the story is flimsier than the manual). But this game could have gone the no-story route and been fine, or the heavy story route and been fine, but this is an uncomfortable middle ground.

 

[Bags159]

Does co-op have a different story line then?

 

[captaincabbage]

Dude, co-op that shit up! It's a pretty well known fact by now that Borderlands doesn't have a particularly deep story, but it'sjust a plot device to send you off to a variety of interesting locales, with awesome weapons and great gameplay. Just make sure to play co-op, or you're missing out on at least half of the game.
Also the Steam summer sales of Borderlands GOTY are definitely worth it IMO. I would have bought it myself if I didn't already have it on PS3 (I'll always take splitscreen over online MP).

Also, DLC, DLC, DLC! Some of the DLC has better pacing and more interesting stuff than the actual regular.

I definitely plan on co-oping in the near future with a few friends and I'm starting the DLC tomorrow. The story just seemed misplaced. I've loved games with sorrier stories (L4D2 is still my favorite of all time, and the story is flimsier than the manual). But this game could have gone the no-story route and been fine, or the heavy story route and been fine, but this is an uncomfortable middle ground.

Trust me man, I know what you mean. I've finished the game twice before (once on my own, once with my GF in co-op) and both times I've just been disappointed.
I've always held the belief that the story of Borderlands is just something to be ignored, so you can get back to blowing the top halves of raiders off with sniper rifles.

Also, I'd say start with The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned. It's an easy enough fare with lots of zombie blasting and some pretty cool new enemies.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

The ending (without trying to spoil it) was really disappointing and anti-climactic.

I'm fairly sure that was the joke, man.

 

[evilneko]

My complaint about Borderlands is it constantly crashes on my desktop, apparently a common problem on AMD multicores. >.>

 

[Zeriah]

Borderlands was just one of those games where gameplay was enough to hold it up as one of the most enjoyable experiences of the year. Its story was crap but man, I still had an incredibly fun time playing it alone and when I played it with 4 friends, it was about the most fun I had gaming that entire year.

The game could have just had an arrow pointing you to dungeons and it still would have been amazing, if it had a decent storyline it would be worthy of a greatest of all time nomination.

 

[Warlord211]

Does co-op have a different story line then?

No, it's just a hell of a lot more fun to kill shit with your friends. And also the difficulty level goes up with each new person in the game.