GDA | Analysis | Borderlands

Disassembling

BO R D ERL A N D S
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GDA | Analysis | Borderlands

CONTENTS
Introduction................................................................................................................................................................................4 Borderlands the Game .........................................................................................................................................................4 This Document .......................................................................................................................................................................4 Formal Elements ........................................................................................................................................................................5 Player Number, interaction patterns, roles, etc .............................................................................................................5 Interaction Patterns ...........................................................................................................................................................5 Objectives ..............................................................................................................................................................................6 Procedures .............................................................................................................................................................................7 Rules.........................................................................................................................................................................................9 Resources ............................................................................................................................................................................ 11 Health ............................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Shield ................................................................................................................................................................................ 11 Money .............................................................................................................................................................................. 11 Gear.................................................................................................................................................................................. 12 Inventory Slots.................................................................................................................................................................. 13 Ammunition ..................................................................................................................................................................... 13 Conflict................................................................................................................................................................................. 14 Obstacles ......................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Opponents....................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Boundaries ........................................................................................................................................................................... 15

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Outcome ............................................................................................................................................................................. 15 Dramatic Elements................................................................................................................................................................. 16 Challenges .......................................................................................................................................................................... 16 Premise ................................................................................................................................................................................. 16 Character ............................................................................................................................................................................ 17 Story ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................................... 19

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INTRODUCTION
BORDERLANDS THE GAME
Borderlands is a science-fiction role-playing shooter (a firstperson shooter with RPG elements) that was developed by Gearbox Software for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Genre Modes Developer Publisher Rating Engine Platforms Release Year FPS, RPG (Role Playing Shooter) Single player, co-op & multiplayer Gearbox Software 2K Games Mature Unreal Engine 3 Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 2009 - Wikipedia

THIS DOCUMENT
This is an analysis of the game in terms of its formal and dramatic elements. Because the scope of this game is very large, this document will only give examples instead of listing every single item.

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FORMAL ELEMENTS
PLAYER NUMBER, INTERACTION PATTERNS, ROLES, ETC
As the genre suggests, this game is played in first-person view (except while driving, which is in third person). This game is tailor-made for co-operative multiplayer. I have personally only tried out this mode, having played the single player mode more. From reviews, comments by players on forums and my own experience, the PvP in the game seems lacking.

Interaction Patterns

Multiplayer Co-operative

Single Player vs Game Player vs Player

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OBJECTIVES
The overall objective of the game is to find a secret place called The Vault, which contains alien technology of high militaristic and monetary value, and can be accessed only once every 200 years. There are a chain of core quests that players must complete in order to proceed further. Players also need to gain levels by collecting experience, allocate their skill points into their class-based specialization trees and finally, they need to continually upgrade their gear in order to make themselves strong enough to tackle higher level areas. When players complete the core quest chain, they finish the game and can either continue roaming the world, or start another playthrough, with harder enemies, who give more experience, loot and money.

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PROCEDURES
At the outset, players get to pick from 4 character classes. Each class has its strengths and weaknesses, as well as one unique ability. All classes use guns, but certain weapons are more suited to particular classes because of synergy with their skills. Borderlands is a pretty linear game in terms of what you have to do, but as you unlock more areas, it becomes increasingly free-roaming. Players complete the game when they finish the core quest chain, culminating in their finding the vault. Other quests are optional. One of the most important things that a player needs to collect is experience. It can be gained by completing quests or by grinding (repetitively killing enemies). Gaining experience increases the characters level, which in turn increases damage and survivability while also providing skill points, which can be spent in the characters skill tree so that the character can specialize in certain areas over others, depending on their class. Most quests are missions given to the player by friendly NPCs. They usually involve killing enemies, finding or collecting objects, pressing buttons located in hard-to-reach areas, etc. Completing a quest usually results in a reward of experience, money or an item. There are two other useful by-products of questing and grinding money and equipment. Better equipment helps you kill things faster and helps you take down harder opponents. Money gets you better equipment. When players kill an enemy, the enemy has a (pretty good) chance of dropping money or items. Enemies killed in higher level areas drop better quality items and more money. Borderlands has a huge number of different types of guns, shields, class mods, grenades and artifacts, and optimizing the gear on your character is a big part of gameplay.

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Combat in Borderlands is like most FPS games, except you aim down your weapons sights instead of having the usual crosshairs. You can also throw different types of grenades. Headshots cause critical hits that do a lot more damage than normal. You can also do melee attacks, but these are usually a lot less effective and too risky, except in the case of the berserker class. The player loses shield strength and then health when they take damage. Shield strength can be regained by avoiding damage (by taking cover) for some time, whereupon the shields start recharging. Most classes have some form of self-healing or shield recharge skills, and some can even heal other team members. Players can also man vehicles, sitting in the driver or gunners seat. In single player mode, drivers can still position and shoot their main gun while driving, or stop the vehicle and get into the gunners seat.

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RULES
Players have two vital attributes that they need to monitor shield strength and health. Players shields absorb damage and player health only starts getting depleted when the shields have run out. When their health is fully depleted, they must either wait to be revived by another player, attempt to kill an enemy to achieve a "second wind", or otherwise be regenerated back at the last "New-U" station (checkpoint) that they passed, losing some of their money in the process. - Wikipedia When a player loses health, it can be regained through medical supplies (via drops or purchase) or healing abilities gained through skill specializations. Players use weapons such as guns and grenades. The different types of guns are shotgun, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, pistol, revolver, combat rifle and SMG. Each type uses its own ammunition and the player can only carry a certain amount of each type in their backpacks. Spreading ammo consumption by using different guns is another aspect that the player has to manage. Littered all over the game world are barrels that explode when damaged, causing different types of damage to everything within a short radius, like grenades. Players also suffer fall damage depending on the height of the fall, which can be absorbed by the shield before it affects player health.

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The types of damage in this game are shown below. This applies to damage done by guns, grenades, barrels and even enemies: TYPE Bullet/Melee Fire Corrosive Electric Explosive GOOD FOR Overall Flesh (Unshielded enemies) Armoured enemies Shielded enemies Area of effect

There are strategically placed checkpoint markers throughout the game world, where the player can resurrect upon death and that saves the players progress. Some of these, usually found in towns and other safe locations, let the player teleport to all other such markers that the player has discovered. Players can also reset their skill points here.

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RESOURCES
Health
The primary resource, health steadily increases with the players level and can be boosted via certain class skills and certain shields which boost max health %. When players lose all health, they become crippled (rooted to one spot with severely blacked out vision, wobbliness, etc) and have a short amount of time to kill an enemy, which will give the player a second wind that restores full shield strength and a small amount of health. The time available to try and kill an enemy is lower with each successive time the player is crippled.

Shield
Forms a protective barrier around the player that absorbs a set amount of damage although electrical damage melts down shields like theres no tomorrow. Shield hit points can surpass player health and can also be boosted by class skills. Shields are very useful in that they start recharging, rather sluggishly overall, after x seconds. X is about 10 seconds (estimate) and can you guessed it be boosted by certain class skills. This ability reduces player downtime between fights and is a very nice mechanic, seen in games like Halo as well. Also, when your shields get low in a fight, you can always take cover and wait for them to recharge before re-engaging.

Money
Money is primarily useful to buy equipment from shops. The game word contains shops that sell randomly generated guns, shields, grenades, class mods and health packs. Shop inventories are on a universal 20 min reset timer. Also, a percentage of player money is deducted every time the player dies and is resurrected at the last checkpoint. SIGA2 09 Harshal Chheda

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Gear
As in most RPGs and, indeed, FPSs, gear directly affects player damage output and survivability, among other things. So, maintaining a good set of gear is of high priority throughout the game. Players start the game with the ability to use two weapons, but later gain up to four weapon slots, as well as slots for an energy shield, a grenade modification, and a class modification. One of the key features of Borderlands is the randomlygenerated weapons and items created either as dropped by foes, found in storage chests about the game, sold at vendors in the game, or as quest reward items. The game uses a "Procedural Content Creation System" to create these weapons and items, which can alter their firepower, rate of fire, and accuracy, add in elemental effects such as a chance to set foes on fire, and at rare times other special bonuses such as regenerating the player's ammo. A colorcoded scale is used to indicate the rarity of the weapon or item. It is estimated that the random system can generate over 17 million variations of weapons. Items collected but not used can be sold back at vendors for money that then can be used to buy better items. Used items can also be sold. - Wikipedia

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A funky characteristic of weapons is that the player has to look down their sights to get the best aim, and different guns have totally different styles of sights that really give guns a varied feel. For example, sniper scopes come in different shapes, colour schemes and decals. Other guns can either have normal sights or scopes. Also, the sway, reload speeds and other subtle characteristics (together with the more obvious ones like different gun models) all contribute to an ever changing experience when using different guns after all, in a game like this, you gun is what you are always looking at/through. Class mods are a sort of equippable item that can only be used by a certain class and provide additional points in certain sets of skills, as well as special bonuses.

Inventory Slots
Players start off with a set amount of inventory slots, which restricts how many items they can carry at any given time. Inventory slots can be increased by completing a type of quest available in most regions, where you have to repair and rescue a claptrap robot.

Ammunition
Each type uses its own ammunition and the player can only carry a certain amount of each type in their backpacks. Spreading ammo consumption by using different guns is another aspect that the player has to manage.

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CONFLICT
Obstacles
Since a large chunk of the gameplay consists of completing quests, locating quest objectives and neutralizing threats along the way and at the destination is the main challenge. Although there is a very efficient map, quest log and quest objective location marker system; some quest objectives are designed to be hard to find, while most are guarded by enemies. Also, the player has to traverse to the objective, which can be quite time-consuming. However, the player can also drive or teleport to the desired location. Some parts of the map are also blocked off by terrain and the player has to find alternate routes around, often on foot and through enemy-infested regions.

Opponents
Enemies are like the player in that they also have shields (or not) and health, and die when they have lost all their health. Once they are alerted to the players presence, either by proximity (about 30 yards for most enemies Id guess), or when the player shoots at them, they lock on to the player, calling their buddies in the vicinity and trying to advance towards the player, seeking cover and strategic positions, all the while shooting at the player. Some enemies are melee-only and charge towards the player, causing massive damage on contact. Enemies are of many varieties too many for the scope of this document, but a typical example is the brute class of enemies, that have very high health and cause moderate damage, but move very slowly and are physically huge targets with no shield. Another enemy is the SIGA2 09 Harshal Chheda

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soldier-trooper class that tosses grenades, shoots very accurately, seeks cover well and has a pretty decent shield and moderate health these usually require a bit more than a run-and-gun approach, especially when you see a grenade sailing towards your face. Borderlands has a Procedural Content Creation System, which is also used to create the random characteristics of enemies that the player may face. This allows for enemies of the same species to have widely-varying attacks: for example, variations of spiderants in the game could leap around and would jump onto players' faces, while another variant can roll up into a ball and attack people, depending on the content generator. - Wikipedia

BOUNDARIES
Throughout the game, the player can only access higher level areas by either reaching a certain level or that and completing a certain quest. This is why the game is fairly linear at the beginning, as the number of areas you can explore is very restricted. The same applies to all gear and quests the player has to be above a certain level to use or obtain them.

OUTCOME
When players complete the core quest chain, they finish the game and can either continue roaming the world, or start another playthrough, with harder enemies, who give more experience, loot and money.

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DRAMATIC ELEMENTS

CHALLENGES
Borderlands contains challenges of the FPS type as well as the RPG type. The FPS challenge is to position yourself, aim and shoot well to kill your opponents while taking minimal damage. The RPG challenge is to optimally manage your gear and skill points, and to obtain and complete quests. The enemies are easy at the start of the game and get progressively harder, more numerous and with better abilities.

PREMISE
Borderlands is set on the planet of Pandora. Lured by its apparent vast deposits of minerals, several colonization ships journey to the planet and create a society there. However, they soon discover that there is little else of value on the planet save for the presence of alien ruins. Those who are rich enough to do so left the planet, leaving the rest of the population to scavenge

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GDA | Analysis | Borderlands for themselves. While some isolated settlements were formed, much of the rest of the colonists became bandits, living out in the barren wastelands or trashheaps across the planet. Further investigation of the alien artifacts leads to the discovery of "The Vault". A supposed treasure trove of alien artifacts, technology, and of insurmountable wealth. But those that had discovered it were wiped out by a protective force, leaving few clues as to its location or purpose but creating a myth of its marvelous treasures. - Wikipedia

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CHARACTER
There are four playable characters in the game; though they are given default names by the game, the player can opt to change their names or appearance of their outfits at "New-U" stations throughout the game. Brick is a Berserker, a tank that is strong in melee combat with the special ability of entering a berserker rage mode to rapidly punch through the enemies. Lilith is one of only six known Sirens, beings with superhuman powers but with no way of controlling them; Lilith's Phasewalk ability allows her to temporarily enter another SIGA2 09 Harshal Chheda

GDA | Analysis | Borderlands dimension and then exit within a group of foes, causing a shock-wave blast that harms them. Mordecai, a Hunter, is aided by his pet bird Bloodwing which can be used to assist in his long-range attack skills and scavenging. Roland, a former Crimson Lance Soldier, is able to deploy a turret to help with close-range combat. - Wikipedia

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STORY
Borderlands begins approximately 200 years after the discovery of the Vault; seeking the Vault, several fortune seekers, including the player, are drawn to Pandora. After arriving at the town of Fyrestone, the player sees an image of a mysterious woman, the "Guardian Angel", aware they are here to seek the Vault, and directs them to follow her instructions. The Angel eventually leads them to collecting one of the several artifacts needed to open the vault, causing Patricia Tannis, an archeologist/scientist, to contact the player and urging them to collect the other two Vault keys, at the same time revealing that the Vault opens every 200 years, and the time of the next opening is approaching. At the same time, Commander Steele of the Crimson Lance, a well-outfitted force, threatens to declare martial law over the planet and demands the vault keys. While the player is able to secure the second and third Vault keys without incident, they find that the final vault key is not where it is expected. Steele contacts the players, and reveals that Tannis had betrayed them, that there are in fact only three keys, and proceeds to cut off the planet's ECHO network, disabling further communication with the Guardian Angel. The player infiltrates the Crimson Lance's headquarters and find Tannis locked up; she reveals she had no choice but to betray the player under force, but urges him/her to restart the ECHO network and to prevent Steele and the Crimson Lance from using the key. After restoring the network, the Guardian Angel urges the players to hurry and stop Steele. The

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GDA | Analysis | Borderlands player finds as they approach the Vault that the Crimson Lance are in combat with alien Guardians; after bypassing both forces, the player finally arrives at the Vault, too late from stopping Steele from using the key. However, when the Vault opens, Steele and her guard are wiped out by a giant monster that is attempting to escape the vault. The Guardian Angel explains that the monster is called the Destroyer, imprisoned in the Vault by the alien Eridians long ago to prevent it from destroying the universe, with the Guardians present to prevent anyone from opening it. The player is able to defeat the monster, sealing the Vault for another 200 years. - Wikipedia

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CONCLUSION
Borderlands is an addictive game which I spent many hours playing I took a soldier and hunter to the 20s and a siren to level 50, almost finishing the 2nd playthrough. The lack of endgame content is a huge drawback, but the variety of equipment and class-specialization-gear combination really keeps you going, along with the really well-conceived special effects, e.g. the crazy enemy screams as they burn to death.

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