I Think That I’ve Played Borderlands To Death
Swavek got me a copy of Borderlands for an early Christmas present. He also got a copy for himself, since we like to compare notes over time while we play the same game. He started off playing a Sniper character, while I chose to start with a Siren. We talked a lot about the game.
I’ve compiled the emails that I sent out below, along with hindsight commentary in brackets. I’ve already beaten the single-player game twice, but Swavek and I have yet to play cooperative mode. If you’re at all interested in information about Borderlands gameplay or links to cool Borderlands stuff, then read on.
11/2/09
I love finding new shields, especially ones that are better than the one that I already have. I got a shield that was named something like “fast recharge” but it also had “thermal” in the title for fire immunity. The description didn’t say anything about fast recharge time, but it already had four lines in the description. Here is a fix to see all five lines:
http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showpost.php?p=1626085&postcount=258
[It turns out that "fast recharge" is a little arbitrary. Rely on the recharge rate numbers to tell you how fast you can expect to be protected again while ducked behind cover.]
11/5/09
There are a couple of really funny videos made using the Borderlands assets and character voices. You’ve got to check these out!
Homage to the Christian Bale Meltdown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDf_S18tOxg&feature=player_embedded
Funniest Thing I Have Ever Seen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOWPMPtHbcc&feature=player_embedded
11/9/09
I just got an awesome sniper rifle called The Volcano, and it has the red text “A sacrifice must be made to Pele” in the description. [Red Text means that it's special in some way.] It makes me want to weep openly. It has a x4 Fire Effect rating, and I’ve got my fire artifact at level 2, so people just burn up with one shot. It’s awesome, and I find myself keeping my distance until almost everyone in an area is dead, then moving in to mop up with the SMG.
Red Text Weapon Effects
http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/Special_Weapon_Effects
I also found my first “pearl” weapon. Not made of pearl, but the name of the item was listed in “pearl” color. It sucks that the pearl text looks JUST LIKE white text, but it appears at the top of the list of weapons (unequipped items are sorted in order of rarity). It’s a repeater with the red text “Uncle Toni says Hi” or something like that. I don’t use it very often though, since I’m most often switching between my Volcano and the Eridian rifle that was behind TK’s house.
11/24/09
I finally beat Borderlands. I would have thought that a giant purple Cthulu would have been harder to kill. I just kid behind a rock and fired at his purple pustules until they popped. I’m at level 36, I think. Can’t find any weapons, shields, or mods that are better than what I already have…
There are a few places that I didn’t visit though. While cruising the salt flats, I noticed that there was a bus attached to a cable that went out to a mesa or something. There was no job or anything out that way, so I passed it by. The best loot seems to be out that way, so I might check that out before I try a new character. [This area was a player-vs-player arena.]
I’m not usually a melee type, but I might try playing the Brawler next time. I played the Siren as a sniper the whole time (although the electric-phasewalk attack did wonders against the aliens), using mostly elemental weapons, so Mordecai [the sniper character] might be like playing the same game. I don’t normally play melee fighters (even in fantasy games), so this will be different.
11/25/09
After you beat the game once, you can continue with your high-level character on a second play-through with higher-level bad guys. I tried the second play-through with my Siren tonight, and almost had my ass handed to me for the first time in a long time. It’s like you’re starting all over again, except the monsters are ten times tougher. I had to fight a badass-level fiery uber-skagg for the TK quest. He almost got me… Not sure if I’m going to bother going after Nine-Toes or just start another character. The loot that you get right off the bat is pretty awesome though!
12/4/09
I think that there might be something wrong with Borderlands… I started a new character, a Brawler, and once I hit level 9 or so, everything got really hard. I emptied ALL of my ammo trying to clear out Bonehead’s junk yard. There was a badass-level bandit there! And even with no ammo left, I still had trouble beating up Bonehead in Berserk mode (and that was with only half his health). I walked away with no ammo, no shield and only 30% health!
An elder skagg attacked my roller last night, which shouldn’t really happen at level 10. Then, I was attacked by a Bruiser (at level 10!) and he must have had 1000 hit points, since I could not kill him with my gun or grenades or anything. Berserk mode didn’t do any good either. Then I ran him over with my car instead, and he just sat there taking it for a minute. It was ridiculous. Mind you, this was not long after beating Nine-Toes to death with my fists in Berserk mode…
Guys shouldn’t be this hard this early on, and I’m doing nothing but dying. I’m thinking that I’m fighting second play-through guys somehow, or at least guys that are as powerful as second play-through guys. From what I understand, most bad guys shouldn’t be able to withstand a Berserk uppercut from a Brawler, much less six of them. So I’m a little disheartened…
12/5/09
Borderlands Intro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai7pMPCDHpo
Watch it in HD for the full effect. I really like this game.
12/9/09
After getting screwed with my Brawler, I tried again as a Soldier. I like him better, and I really dig the Scorpio gun turret. However, the same thing happened again. I was able to take Nine-Toes down pretty easily, but then the fight against Bonehead was really hard. The gun turret helped a lot though! So getting this far was about the same as my first play-through, and not nearly as difficult as it was with Brick.
Once Bonehead was dead, however, I jumped my roller over the ramp and then ran directly into a fiery uber-skagg. I’m like level 9, and there should NOT be a fiery uber-skagg on the other side of that ridge. I freaked out and hit it with my car. IT KILLED MY CAR! So I’m blaming the game. It’s broken or something. There must be patch for this…
Speaking of starting a new character, have you ever scouted around the area that you first start out in? As soon as the bus rolls away, ignore ClapTrap and run around a bit. There is money and ammo everywhere! I suppose it helps to know what to look for. There are even guns on top of the building to the left. Just run over there and climb up to the roof. It’s a big space, and it took a while to run all over, but for a new character, it’s worth it.
12/10/09
[Swavek said that any time you play Borderlands again, even with a new character, it's considered a "second playthrough", so you get tougher enemies. I didn't think this was the case.]
No, the “second playthrough” is for characters that have already beaten the game. For example, if you beat the game with Mordecai, then the next time you select Mordecai from the Single Player menu, it will ask you if you want the First or Second Playthrough. The first playthrough is just a continuation of your first game. You can continue on to level 50 from there, but I didn’t get much challenge from the enemies at that point.
The second playthrough is a exactly like the first, starting in Fyrestone with a tutorial from ClapTrap, but you get to keep all of your skills and inventory from the first playthrough. All of the enemies are jacked up, usually with new adjectives in their name. So instead of “skagg pups” to fight when opening the gate to Fyrestone, you get “rabid adult skaggs” with a buttload of hit points. You get elemental monsters right off the bat. There are several levels of bad guy, each with its own adjective, and apparently “bad-ass” level isn’t as high as you can go.
The problem that I was having is that I’m on my first playthrough with new characters, but the enemies that I’m getting are really hard to kill. I tooled around with my Soldier for a bit last night, just running bad guys over and shooting at them with the gun turrets if they’re too big. I whittled another Fiery Uber-Skagg down to half its hit points with my car turret before running it over this time. I still don’t think that a level 10 Soldier should be getting Fiery Uber-Skaggs, but I’m adapting…
1/1/10
I just beat Borderlands for the second time, this time with Roland. That Destroyer took out the Scorpio turret way too easily, but I just did the same thing that I did last time (hide behind a rock, jump out and shoot). I almost got killed when I jumped out and dropped the turret next to my rock. It targeted the turret and I got banged up with the spread damage. After that, I would run from rock to rock, dropping the turret in between as I went. That worked better.
I’m finally going to install Dragon Age on my PC. New year, new game. I think I have enough closure with Borderlands now. I heard that Dragon Age was really hard, but it’ll be a nice change of pace from Borderlands.
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I enjoyed reading this, my friend and I just beat Borderlands after 20 hours straight, it was fun. Right now we’re playing a second time with different characters. I don’t really know if it will still retain it’s ‘fun’ factor, I guess we’ll see.