It took me officially Way Too Damn Long, but a hole in my budget opened up long enough to let a copy of Borderlands slip through, and I’m really wondering why I didn’t get this sooner.
Right now I’m about 75%-ish through my first playthrough. I’m playing the Soldier class; since he is a planet-hopping mercenary with a hip urban attitude, I have named him Deltron. I’m currently at Level 32 with a Support Gunner class mod, closing in quickly on 33, and for the moment I’m mostly focusing skills on physical endurance, dealing good damage with all weapon types, and getting the most use out of the deployable turret. My only complaint is the lack of any ‘alternate’ character models, since while I do love my Soldier’s skillset, I still feel awkward not playing a girl, and I’ve found I’m pretty terrible with the Siren(stealth is decidedly NOT my forte).
It’s interesting, as I play through this, to note just how damn greedy I am. I’ve reached a point in the game where I effectively have more money than I could EVER need, as healing items are relatively cheap, and buying weapons/shields is a really rare thing, since the general selection is usually meh and the ‘special buys’ are pretty much never anything useful to me. Despite this, I still OBSESSIVELY pick up everything I see, cart it back to the vending machines, and sell it off. At this point I’m up to something like $2,000,000+, and I literally have no idea what I’m going to do with it all. I have noticed the selection improves as I level up, so maybe by the time I’m on to the New Game+ I’ll have a use for my vast supply of wealth. As for actual gear, between farming the chests in New Haven and just grabbing random drops, I’m set up pretty well for the moment. Just for personal reasons I’d love to find a Revolution, because carrying a gun named “Glorious Revolution” is goddamn awesome.
Overall? I’m having a blast with this game, it’s the most fun I’ve had all year. Dragon Age may have a better narrative, but Borderlands is DECIDEDLY more satisfying to actually play. Definite belated thumbs-up: as soon as I get enough money to afford a wireless adapter for the 360, I’ll be looking forward to blasting around Pandora with friends.
Also, apologies for my recent absence from the podcasts: real life has been seriously ganging up on me lately, and I’ve either not had the time or not had the energy to put anything together for the show. Rest assured, however, I’ll be back in action soon, hopefully with plenty of new stuff to talk about!
