Borderlands Preview

I almost got through an entire preview without saying how GORGEOUS this game is.

Lucky is eventually found sitting on an abandoned toilet in a corner of the bandit's camp. Skip forward a few minutes, and the gang are already onto their next task - the destruction of an enormous creature named Skagzilla. Mr Zilla is (or was) the big brother of the alien dog-lizard things I mentioned in my last preview; he's huge, jumps about barfing killer vomit, and survives roughly three minutes worth of sustained bullet-rain before he finally keels over and goes to Reptile Heaven. As he dies he drops a load of loot, including several rare guns. It's always a good idea to grab new weapons, since you can always sell them back to vending machines if they turn out to be rubbish.

Somewhere amidst all this chaos, a whole bunch of other interesting things happen. The player controlling Lillith uses her Phase Walk - an ability that turns her into a sort of psychic ghost. Once invisible she sneaks into the middle of an enemy camp and then detonates, unleashing a lethal shock-wave. At another moment, Roland (the all-round soldier class) challenges Brick (the tank class) to an impromptu duel by smacking him in the face. Brick responds in kind, and suddenly a dome-shaped force field appears to trap the two mercs in a makeshift arena. The two duke it out, but Brick's massive fists give him the edge and he swiftly beats Roland to a pulp. This is no big deal, as these spontaneous fights are merely a bit of fun that allow players to humiliate each other. To show that there are no hard feelings, Roland later gives Brick a health boost by shooting him with healing bullets. That's right, healing bullets. I don't know who came up with this idea, but whoever it was they deserve a medal.

After merking Skagzilla, the quartet's next objective is to activate part of the Fast Travel Network. Randy explains that this is part of the game's teleport system, allowing players to warp between any of several terminals that can be discovered around Pandora. The activation process is pretty straightforward, but needless to say the gang is attacked halfway through the job - this time by quick-moving insecty things called Scythids. This variety of Scythid seemed to come crawling out of the ground, but there's no guarantee that they'll all behave this way, since at least some of the enemies in Borderlands will have randomly-assigned attacks. For now, I can confirm that Scythids make a squealing noise when they get shot in the head. And of course, these are just one of the many weird beasties that await you on Pandora. "There are all sorts of interesting creatures," says Randy. "Mostly they just want to eat your face off."

The final quest in the demo was entitled "The Road Warrior". Here the objective was to kill a hard-as-nails brigand named Mad Mel, who just happened to be hanging out in a large (Thunder)dome-shaped fortress. Yes, the Mad Max-o-Meter went off the scale at this point, although thankfully Tina Turner was nowhere to be seen. This final battle went down as a vehicular Royal Rumble, with Gibson's doppelganger doing battle from behind the wheel of a colossal six-wheel truck that spews fire. Our four fortune-seekers did their best, managing to take down a great number of Mel's cohorts, but in the end this last foe proved too much to handle. The lead demonstrator succumbed and collapsed in a bloody heap - or at least, his character did - and then the demo drew to a close.

That's a whistle-stop tour of four Borderlands quests, but Randy tells me that the full shindig will have well over 100. Some will be connected to the central story, but many will be optional. Lest we forget, the game will also feature over 600,000 guns, and a whole menagerie of things to use them on. There will be midgets, parasitic pets, and break-dancing robots. And I, for one, cannot wait.

Borderlands is due for release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on October 23.