Released in 2019, Borderlands: Game of the Year Enhanced (B:GOTYE) is a re-master of the original Borderlands, which was released in 2009 – and was the first game in the Borderlands series. It is a looter shooter (FPS) with RPGS elements. While I don’t think this game is bad, I also feel it’s overrated.
B:GOTYE concerns vault hunters in search of a fabled vault on the planet Pandora. When they arrive in a town called Fyrestone, a woman named “Guardian Angel” sends telepathic transitions telling you to talk to a robot. From here, shenanigans ensue.
Okay, Borderlands has many horrible symptoms that occur quite a lot with many modern FPS games. The biggest problem is that it’s way too complicated for something that is, at its core, quite simple.
It’s got a long, long tutorial. You can’t skip it. Even though it largely plays like every other FPS, it wants to teach you all that stuff all over again. After 4 hours of solid play, it still wanted to teach me new stuff.
Then there’s the actual loot. Yes, I get that loot is the point. However, the loot doesn’t seem all that good. There’s lots of guns, but they’re not particularly memorable, and I find myself not giving a damn after awhile. In Serious Sam, for contrast, every gun is memorable and you look forward to using them. But in B:GOTYE, I pretty much just stick with sniper rifle and shotgun, which pretty much does the job. There’s so much fluff for something that should be simple.
The maps are big, but they also take lots of repetitive traversing, and you tend to meet the same enemies again and again – there seems to be no point in clearing out an area other than you might be able to raid their bodies and find more loot.
Graphically, I feel mixed. On one hand, I like the cartoon quality, which give it a unique look. However, I found myself staring at a sea of brown and beige seemingly forever. Remember when I talked about the brown that infested games during the 2000s? Behold, Borderlands.
That said, B:GOTYE has a few advantages over the original Borderlands. It now has a mini-map, and there’s extra texture detail. In that regard, yes, this is good work.
The sound is the high point. The music is excellent. I liked the Western-inspired soundtrack. The voice work is well-done. And yes, I liked the general sound effects.
All of this might sound like I despise B:GOTYE, but this isn’t the case. If there’s a good aspect about B:GOTYE, it’s the RPG elements. Levelling up is fun, and it’s great to be able to build your character’s abilities.
The combat, when it’s not repetitive, can be decent – particularly the boss fights. And I also love the NPCs, who seem to have more character in them than the playable characters that you select.
As well, unlike Destiny 2 or Warframe, at least there’s no micro-transaction bullshit. So if micro-transactions are something you want to avoid, Borderlands might be suitable for you.
To run B:GOTYE, you need a 2.6Ghz dual core CPU, 4GB of RAM, 2GB of VRAM, and 25GB of space. While this was made natively for Windows, I got it running fine on Linux via Proton. Initially, B:GOTYE complained about my Steam Deck not being able to run the game properly. But ignored this. And you know what? It played at a steady 60fps at high settings.
In addition to PC, B:GOTYE was released on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. The original Borderlands was released on PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, and OnLive.
Developer Gearbox is considered one of the premiere AAA developers for FPS games. They’re known for making Brothers in Arms, Battleborn, and the infamous Duke Nukem Forever.
On Steam, B:GOTYE has an 86% approval rating. People clearly like this one, calling it the game that defined the looter shooter. However, other people point out bugs, a stealth DRM system, and that the game hasn’t aged well.
Borderlands was an okay game, but “Game of the Year”? In 2009, Street Fighter IV came out. But also, Plants vs. Zombies as well. We also got Punch-Out!! for Wii. These are all games I’d rather play than Borderlands.
Neither do I think Borderlands was the best FPS released in 2009. No, that honour goes to Left 4 Dead 2 – which I still return to even now because that game slaps!
Maybe I have certain preferences due to my age. However, Borderlands is now 14-years-old. While looter shooters are still a thing, I don’t think Borderlands holds a candle to modern looter shooters. Did it help define a genre? Yes, but it’s certainly nowhere close to being the best looter shooter ever.
Call it a hunch but I feel that nowadays Borderlands is seen by most people through the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia. It was good for its time. It was not great, but it had some unique ideas.
