Borderlands (Xbox 360)

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Few games out this year have us as excited as Borderlands

Striking co-op FPS/RPG hybrid Borderlands will be Gearbox Software's best game to date. I can feel confident in that claim because I've played a 12 hour preview build for, wait for it, 12 hours. This, of course, doesn't mean I've finished the game, or even seen the majority of it (the final game will include at least 60 hours worth of gaming and hundreds of quests), but it does mean I now know what all the post art style switch fuss is about. All that fuss, by the way, is well deserved.

Borderlands is a game that's a risk, as Gearbox president Randy Pitchford has admitted, but its very existence shows the developer is confident in its own ability to create a hardcore shooter with a twist. The twist, as everybody who has been following the game knows, is the striking art style. Borderlands looks like a cel-shaded comic book. 2000 AD has been mentioned, as has Bethesda's behemoth Fallout 3, and the voice acting and soundtrack bring to mind cowboy sci-fi Firefly, but for me it's more like a fusion of 2003 shooter XIII and Blizzard's loot-obsessed hack and slash Diablo.

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The Fallout 3 comparisons come from the post apocalyptic, Mad Max style setting and the RPG mechanics that roll through Borderlands' veins like blood-filled dice. Except the dice aren't rolling in Borderlands - yes, there are four classic RPG classes to pick from; yes, you level up; yes, you spend points in the three-pronged skill trees; yes, each of the many millions (yes, millions) of weapons have their own statistics; and yes, the bulk of the gameplay sees you completing MMO-style quests picked up from NPCs, but Borderlands, first and foremost, is a shooter.

And, as a shooter, it feels great. It feels weighty, bulky, impactful and meaty. When you fire a weapon in Borderlands, not only do the computer-controlled goons and hordes of Skag beasts know about it, but you do too. That Gearbox has decided to airlift Call of Duty's control layout and drop it straight into Borderlands' Pandora is telling. Above all else, the game should be a great shooter, something Fallout 3 wasn't.

The game's full of gamer references. We noticed nods to Fallout 3 bobbleheads and BioShock's main twist.

Diablo is an appropriate comparison because in Borderlands there's lots of loot. More loot than I've ever seen in a shooter. When you kill one of the many variations of Skag (including the "Badass" type, or a demented, masked bandit (some of which are freaky midgets), little objects spurt out of the falling corpse like failed fireworks. Usually it's hard cash, but if you're low on health it might be a health boost, or some grenades or ammo. But occasionally a new weapon, created just for you by Borderlands' impressive random weapon creator, appears. When this happens, you breathe in a little bit. Your heart races ever so slightly. Your eyes and mouth open. Then your brain kicks in and a single question is asked: is it better than what I've already got?

To answer that question, it's stat comparison time. How much damage does each hit cause? Does it add elemental damage, for example fire? What's the rate of fire? Does it have a melee bonus? Is it a weapon my character is proficient in? Well? WELL?

I spent most of my 12 hours with Borderlands pondering these questions. As far as loot whores go, I'm a dirty rotten bitch. I love this stuff. It's a blue! It's a purple! But that green has a better spread damage than that blue. That sniper rifle will every now and again make my enemy burn to a crisp, making it a better choice than this sniper rifle that does more single hit damage. This, ladies and gentlemen, is Diablo baby.

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