Borderlands Preview

Randy Pitchford isn't afraid to tell it like it is. The head honcho of FPS specialist Gearbox Studios is currently working with his team to put the finishing touches to FPS/RPG hybrid Borderlands, so we caught up with him to find out how much of a risk the studio is taking. With numerous delays, a complete art redesign and ambitious cooperative play, is Borderlands a big gamble given the current climate?

VideoGamer.com: Thanks for taking the time to speak to us, and congratulations on Borderlands. It was the first game I saw at E3, and it was a great way to start the show! It looks beautiful, obviously...

Randy Pitchford: I've got to be honest, I'm terrified! I think it looks beautiful, but I don't know what the rest of the world is going to think.

VideoGamer.com: Well, you've got one vote over here.

RP: Help us out, man! There are a lot of sequels out there, and it's hard for the original stuff, the stuff that's taking risks, to break through all that. The Machine really tends to prefer the sequels. Our industry clamours for originality but The Machine works against that, so we’re taking some big risks. And if folks like you dig it and help us talk about it, it helps. It makes it easier for other folks to create original and innovative things too.

VideoGamer.com: You’ve somewhat pre-empted my next question. There have been a number of games lately that tried to take an original approach, but didn’t get the sales they needed. Do you think there’s a risk that innovation is going to be curbed?

RP: Innovation is curbed, it’s already happening. It’s been happening for the past five years or so, as the industry exploded. It’s definite fact. Whatever we thought about EA in the past, I was kind of heartened a couple of years ago when they started to take some risks and they did Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge. It was tough for them - those games did ok, but they weren’t really paid for the risks they took. That makes it even harder for those guys, and we’re going to see them fall back on some sequels too. That’s too bad. There’s so much talent in this in industry, and all the developers want to do it [innovate]. The art style in Borderlands? It’s not because I’ve said, “Let’s do it!”, it was guys on the ground that just wanted to let their creativity burst out., you know? I was almost going to shut it down, and then they secretly showed me and I thought it was too awesome. So I thought, “I don’t know what this is going to do, but I’m all in so I may as well go with it! Let’s see what happens!”.

VideoGamer.com: You mentioned that during your presentation. What was it particularly that persuaded you to go with it?

RP: It’s hard to say, because it’s objective, right? But I think what they managed to do captured a couple of things. On the one hand, it’s very distinctive - I’d never seen anything that looked like it before. But at the same time, it still looked like Borderlands, you know? It’s still familiar. I can recognise the car, for example, and the style is still there in some respect. It’s still the same world, but there’s this distinctive edge and character to it that didn’t exist before. It was astonishing that they managed to do that. They managed to completely re-invent it from an art style point of view, but at the same time respect the art direction that existed and what we loved about it. I couldn’t believe that was possible until I saw it, and then it just kind of stuck. It worked too. I don’t know if I mentioned this when I talked to you before, as I’ve only said it a few times only the past few days, but I had to get our partners involved. Take-Two has got a big stake in this, so I had to bring the game over and show them too. I didn’t know what they’d think. But they got behind it.

VideoGamer.com: You also referenced Fallout 3 during the presentation. Obviously this is a different kind of game.

RP: We’re coming at it from another vector. They came at it from the RPG vector, we’re coming at it from the shooter vector. We’re not exactly meeting in the middle, but we’re pretty close. They’re more on the RPG and their shooter is ok; we’re definitely more a shooter and maybe our RPG isn’t as rich but perhaps it's more accessible. We certainly don’t have dialogue trees - we’re more of a fast-paced action game. But you can definitely see some of the same desires that are pushing these guys in that direction.