Make a run for the border...then fight to stay alive

We’ve all made plans for what we’d do if we were dropped on a postapocalyptic desert world with nothing but our keen wits and a vast arsenal to survive. Or you’ve made these plans if you’ve watched The Road Warrior more than once recently…

This is the scenario you’ll find yourself exploring with Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition, developed by Gearbox Software and published for the Mac by Feral Interactive. In Borderlands, you take on the role of a “vault hunter,” scouring the bombed-out, mutant- and monster-laden world of Pandora as you search for a legendary vault filled to the brim with treasures that opens only once every 200 years.

The role-playing elements keep things interesting—at the start of the game, you’ll choose from one of four vault hunters, each with unique abilities and specializations, like erecting an automated turret that can additionally provide cover, deploying a bird known as “Bloodwing” to hunt nearby enemies, or phase-walking between enemies to outflank them, then rushing in and pummeling away. As the game progresses, you’ll earn talent points to spend on expanding those skills.

Sledge isn’t much for polite conversation; just kill him and steal his shotgun.

Borderlands’ chief strength lies in its presentation. While it involves a certain amount of grinding as you take on quests to unravel the mystery of the vault, this is laid out in a beautifully cel-shaded, cartoonish style that never fails to appeal. This, combined with great audio and vocal work, a zillion different weapons to pick up, and the game’s sense of humor, keeps you coming back, even when it’s way past your bedtime.

Multiplayer is the key to Borderlands’ “Game of the Year” content, and while this is fun and responsive, getting multiplayer to work in the first place can be tricky. While it’s easy enough to set up and run LAN games, hosting or joining a game across the internet requires the free GameRanger utility. But our efforts to join a game resulted in the Borderlands app loading and then asking if we’d like to host a game instead. Hopefully, this can be resolved with a patch.

Make no mistake about it: some of your enemies are badass.

We ran into a few other issues too. A limited number of enemy types makes you feel as if you’re shooting the same bandits, monsters, and mutants over and over again. And while the game’s AI is clever, at times our enemies were unable to clamber over an obstacle or would hang in mid-air after being killed. This, combined with a story that starts off strong but seems to give up on itself and whimper its way to an unsatisfying end, shows that some additional development time would have gone a long way.

The bottom line. Still, none of these are absolute deal-breakers. The application ran flawlessly under Mac OS X 10.6.5. The single-player and LAN modes prove both fun and addictive. There’s decent replay value in being able to choose from four characters, and this game is a must-have for first-person shooter fans who love role-playing elements.