Borderlands Review: Why it isn't an RPG

[acklumos]

Okay, let me correct my self. This is why Borderlands isn't a WRPG. Happy? And to those of you who say it wasn't meant to be an RPG, to me it came across as trying to be one. If not, fine. And finally, maybe you're all right and calling this a review was a mistake. I wasn't meant to be a full-fledged review, but it wasn't meant to be a rant either.

 

[acklumos]

1-Zero Character Customization: You pick one of four premade characters, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and talents. Modern Warfare 2 has that. Can you edit their skills or appearance? Well, you can change their name and armor color.

2-It's not my character, so it's not me: In an RPG, you should be able to create your own character, and this point kind of goes along with my first. When I play a good RPG, I should be immersed in the storyline and feel like what happens is up to, like I'm in the game, and Borderlands doesn't give me that feeling.

That really seems to be the same point twice. I'm sure you could have condensed them into one point.

Also, this isn't really a review. It's more a list of complaints over this not being an RPG.

In retrospect, I agree it should have been one point.

 

[Srkkl]

It was intended to be a mix of both not the complete package of rpg and shooter, it has elements of both giving it a sort of balance, if your buying it for a complex rpg your not buying the right game, if your buying it for a simple shooter your not buying the right game, I thought it was a happy medium with great multi-player fun.

 

[acklumos]

@ Knight Templar

I see your point. However, until reading the comments of this review I had never heard the term WRPG. I just thought the 2 distinctions were RPG and JRPG. Sorry for any confusion.

 

[acklumos]

Seems like the reviews have been getting worse and worse around here.

This is really more of a rant anyway. No images, poor grammar, spelling and punctuation. You can't "review" a game the same way you write a shopping list, you have to actually formulate proper paragraphs that get across ideas of yours in a persuasive manner relating to the quality of the game.

Okay. Fine. Calling it a review was a mistake. It wasn't supposed to be a full review of the game. However, explain how my spelling and grammar are bad. I didn't see anything wrong with them, and spell check didn't either.

 

[acklumos]

Can't say I agree its not oblivion or fallout sure but it's as much an RPG as the Diablo series now if you were talking about Bioshock I would agree

My perspective on the importance of character customization has changed in the past few days. Until a couple days ago, character customization was almost mandatory for me to play an RPG. A couple days ago, I bought the Diablo 2 Battle chest and love it. I realized that while character customization is a big deal to me, you can make an RPG without it.

 

[yerkyerk]

According to these standards, Diablo 2 isn't more of an RPG than BL - it has no real character customization, a very shallow storyline and you can't make storyline choices.

It was marketed as a post-apocalyptic shooter with RPG elements in it (or RPS, as they called it) and that's exactly what it is. Ofcourse they could've gone more in-depth with the RPG elements, but they're still there.

Game genres get mixed up and more games than ever before are implementing RPG (and sandbox) elements.

 

[Magnikai]

Ok....does this change the fact that it is very fun? No...? Then whatever to classifications then.

 

[acklumos]

According to these standards, Diablo 2 isn't more of an RPG than BL - it has no real character customization, a very shallow storyline and you can't make storyline choices.

It was marketed as a post-apocalyptic shooter with RPG elements in it (or RPS, as they called it) and that's exactly what it is. Ofcourse they could've gone more in-depth with the RPG elements, but they're still there.

Game genres get mixed up and more games than ever before are implementing RPG (and sandbox) elements.

My point wasn't that Diablo 2 is any more of an RPG than Borderlands- My point was that I was wrong (GASP!) and I've realized that yes, I'm kind of shallow minded when it comes to what an RPG is or isn't, and I've realized the problem: the term RPG is too general.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

Seems like the reviews have been getting worse and worse around here.

This is really more of a rant anyway. No images, poor grammar, spelling and punctuation. You can't "review" a game the same way you write a shopping list, you have to actually formulate proper paragraphs that get across ideas of yours in a persuasive manner relating to the quality of the game.

Okay. Fine. Calling it a review was a mistake. It wasn't supposed to be a full review of the game. However, explain how my spelling and grammar are bad. I didn't see anything wrong with them, and spell check didn't either.

Sample sentence from your review:

"When I play a good RPG, I should be immersed in the storyline and feel like what happens is up to, like I'm in the game, and Borderlands doesn't give me that feeling."

If you feel that this sentence is properly structured, know that you are wrong. But I was wrong about your spelling. Looking back, it's much better than I thought it was, it's just that your sentences themselves are poorly constructed or improperly phrased.

Anyway, if you want to bullet point a game and rant about specific points, it would be better to leave it out of the Reviews section entirely and put it in Gaming Discussion. We tend to expect proper reviews in our Reviews section. Can't for the life of me imagine why.