Borderlands

Overview

Borderlands is a 2009 action role-playing first-person shooter developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K. It is the first game in the Borderlands series. It was released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows in October 2009. The story follows four Vault Hunters who travel to the distant planet Pandora to search for the Vault, which is rumoured to hold advanced alien technology and priceless riches.

The hunters piece together clues to find the Vault while battling the savage wildlife of Pandora and the local bandits, and finally band together to stop the Atlas Corporation and its military force, the Crimson Lance, from reaching the Vault first. Players choose one of four characters at the start: Brick the Berserker, Lilith the Siren, Mordecai the Hunter or Roland the Soldier. Each has a special action skill, such as Brick's rage, Lilith's phasewalk, Mordecai's pet Bloodwing and Roland's automated turret.

Gearbox called it a role-playing shooter. Players take missions from characters and bounty boards, earn experience and money, and spend skill points in one of three skill trees for their character. One of the key features is the randomly generated weapons and items, made by a procedural system that changes firepower, rate of fire and accuracy and can add elemental effects such as fire or acid. A colour-coded scale shows rarity, and Gearbox said the system could produce around 16 to 17 million weapon variations. Players get two-passenger vehicles and can duel one another or fight in arenas.

The game can be played alone, in two-player split screen on consoles, or with up to four players cooperatively online or over a local network. The game follows the progress of the host player, and enemy statistics are adjusted when more players are present.

Gearbox's Randy Pitchford said the idea came from a love of role-playing games and first-person shooters, and the game was pitched internally as Halo meets Diablo. Development started around 2005, and the first public reveal came in a Game Informer cover story in September 2007. The art style was first more realistic and brown, and with the game 75 percent complete a small team made a prototype in a cel-shaded, comic book look instead. The new style was kept, and the original art director left the company over the change.

Borderlands received positive reviews. By December 2009 it had sold over 2 million copies, 3 million by February 2010 and 4.5 million by August 2011. Four downloadable expansions followed: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx and Claptrap's New Robot Revolution. A Game of the Year Edition collected the game and the four packs.

A sequel, Borderlands 2, was announced on August 2, 2011 and released on September 18, 2012 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows. It follows four new Vault Hunters on Pandora as they fight Handsome Jack and the Hyperion Corporation. The first game was later remastered for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in April 2019, and for Nintendo Switch in May 2020.

Official trailer

Borderlands Gameplay Trailer, Gearbox. Watch on YouTube

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Action role-playing, First-person shooter

Developer

Gearbox Software

Publisher

2K

Series

Borderlands (first game)

Engine

Unreal Engine 3

Composers

Sascha Dikiciyan, Cris Velasco, Jesper Kyd, Raison Varner

Designers

Matthew Armstrong

Writers

Allison Berryman, Mikey Neumann, Randy Pitchford, Simon Hurley

Producers

Simon Hurley, Stephen Palmer

Age rating

ESRB M (Mature 17+)

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

2 (split screen)

Online multiplayer

4

Release dates

Editions

Check out the store

Subscription history

Disc IDs

The serial printed on the disc and the case. It tells you which region a copy is from.

Achievements

Achievements80 (1,750G)

Total

80

Gamerscore

1750

• Paid in Fyrestone Complete 5 missions in the Arid Badlands 5G 98% of players
• Made in Fyrestone Complete all missions in the Arid Badlands 15G 53% of players
• Paid in New Haven Complete 5 missions in the Rust Commons 10G 62% of players
• Made in New Haven Complete all missions in the Rust Commons 20G 38% of players
• My Brother is an Italian Plumber Kill an enemy by stomping on its head 15G 44% of players
• 12 Days of Pandora Master the technology of Pandora 30G Hidden 60% of players
• Wanted: Sledge 10G Hidden 69% of players
• Wanted: Krom 20G Hidden 57% of players
• Wanted: Flynt 30G Hidden 52% of players
• Destroyed the Hive 40G Hidden 54% of players
• Destroyed the Destroyer 50G Hidden 51% of players
• Speedy McSpeederton Race around the Ludicrous Speedway in under 31 seconds 10G 32% of players
• You call this archaeology? Apply an elemental artifact 20G 68% of players
• Ding! Newbie Earn level 5 5G 94% of players
• Ding! Novice Earn level 10 10G 84% of players
• Ding! Expert Earn level 20 20G 68% of players
• Ding! Hardcore Earn level 30 30G 57% of players
• Ding! Sleepless Earn level 40 40G 43% of players
• Discovered Skag Gully Discover Skag Gully 5G 93% of players
• Discovered Sledge's Safe House Discover Sledge's Safe House 5G 77% of players
• Discovered Headstone Mine Discover Headstone Mine 5G 72% of players
• Discovered Trash Coast Discover Trash Coast 5G 55% of players
• Discovered The Scrapyard Discover The Scrapyard 10G 63% of players
• Discovered Krom's Canyon Discover Krom's Canyon 10G 59% of players
• Discovered Crimson Lance Enclave Discover Crimson Lance Enclave 15G 52% of players
• Discovered Eridian Promontory Discover Eridian Promontory 15G 53% of players
• Ding! Champion Earn level 50 50G 32% of players
• Get A Little Blood on the Tires Kill 25 enemies by ramming them with any vehicle 20G 73% of players
• Rootinest, Tootinest, Shootinest Kill 5 Rakk in under 10 seconds 10G 74% of players
• Pandora-dog Millionaire Earn $1,000,000 50G 56% of players
• Fence Sell 50 guns to a shop 25G 66% of players
• Can't We Get BEYOND Thunderdome? Win an arena match 25G 37% of players
• Duel-icious Win a duel against another player 15G 58% of players
• Group LF Healer Rescue a groupmate from death in a co-op game 25G 68% of players
• There's No "I" In "Team" Complete 15 missions in co-op 30G 61% of players
• United We Stand Defeat the Rakk Hive, the Vault Boss, Sledge, Krom, or Flynt in a co-op game 35G Hidden 54% of players
• And They'll Tell Two Friends Play in a co-op game with either an employee of Gearbox or someone who has this achievement 10G Needs online 61% of players
• Weapon Aficionado Reach proficiency level 10 with any weapon type 20G 61% of players
• You're on a boat! 15G Hidden 34% of players
• Duelinator Win a duel without taking damage 35G 55% of players
• Facemelter Kill 25 enemies with corrosive weapons 25G 56% of players
• 1.21 Gigawatts Kill 25 enemies with shock weapons 25G 62% of players
• Pyro Kill 25 enemies with incendiary weapons 25G 75% of players
• Master Exploder Kill 25 enemies with explosive weapons 15G 73% of players
• There are some who call me...Tim Equip a class mod for your character 25G 69% of players
• Fully Loaded Rescue enough Claptraps to earn 42 inventory slots 10G 29% of players
• Truly Outrageous Kill an enemy with the Siren's action skill 15G 45% of players
• Careful, He Bites Kill 15 enemies with the Hunter's action skill 15G 44% of players
• Reckless Abandon Kill 15 enemies with the Berserker's action skill 15G 36% of players
• Down in Front! Kill 15 enemies with the Soldier's action skill 15G 52% of players
• House of the Ned Complete the "House of the Ned" mission 25G 100% of players
• Jakobs Fodder Complete the "Jakobs Fodder" mission 25G 91% of players
• Night of the Living Ned Kill Ned 1G Hidden 88% of players
• Ned's Undead, Baby Actually kill Ned 49G Hidden 89% of players
• Braaaaaaaaaaaaains! Complete the "Braaaaaaaaaaaaains!" mission 25G 60% of players
• Small Tournament Complete the Prove Yourself mission 10G 98% of players
• Hell-Burbia Reach the end of the larger challenge in the Hell-Burbia coliseum 25G 50% of players
• The Angelic Ruins Reach the end of the larger challenge in The Angelic Ruins coliseum 25G 49% of players
• The Gully Reach the end of the larger challenge in The Gully coliseum 25G 55% of players
• Big Tournament Reach the end of each of the 3 larger challenges with one character 40G 44% of players
• Making a Monster Build the New Car: Monster 10G 95% of players
• Athena, Out Rescue Athena 25G 80% of players
• Depot Demolition Destroy the Lance Depot 25G 68% of players
• Vincible Kill Crawmerax the Invincible 50G 57% of players
• Sneaky Little Buggers Kill each of the loot midgets 25G 41% of players
• Speed Kills Destroy a Lancer while in a Racer 25G 75% of players
• Ding! Overleveled to 11 Reach Level 61 40G 60% of players
• Completionist Complete all missions in Secret Armory 25G 28% of players
• Sucker born every minute Pay for a worthless tour of the world's largest bullet 10G Hidden 50% of players
• Ding! Overleveled Reach Level 51 15G 28% of players
• Tourist Find all 6 Claptrap Statues 10G 58% of players
• Knoxx-Trap Kill General Knoxx-Trap 20G Hidden 97% of players
• Steele-Trap Kill Commandant Steele-Trap 20G Hidden 97% of players
• Ned-Trap Kill Dr. Ned-Trap 20G Hidden 97% of players
• Muerte la robo-lucion Kill the INAC 70G 95% of players
• The Collector Complete a crazy request for Tannis 50G 75% of players
• The Lubricator Find 25 oil cans 10G 34% of players
• Bobble-Trap Collect 15 claptrap bobbleheads 10G 34% of players
• It's so realistic! Collect 5 3D glasses 10G 79% of players
• What a party! Collect 3 panties, 5 fish in a bag, and 15 pizzas 30G 34% of players

DLC

Four paid expansions came out for the Xbox 360 version between November 2009 and September 2010, plus a free update that raised the level cap. The Game of the Year Edition includes them.

Items

Name	Date	Adds
The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned	2009-11-24	New quests, items and enemies, including WereSkags and zombies, in an area called Jakobs Cove. It adds 5 achievements worth 125 gamerscore.
Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot	2009-12-29	Three new riot arenas (Hellburbia, the Gully and Angelic Ruins), new game modes such as low gravity and shieldless fighting, and item storage. It adds 5 achievements worth 125 gamerscore.
The Secret Armory of General Knoxx	2010-02-23	A huge new environment with new missions, weapons and enemies, and a level cap raised to 61. It adds 9 achievements worth 235 gamerscore.
Claptrap's New Robot Revolution	2010-09-28	A rogue army of brainwashed Claptraps and enemies turned into Claptrap styles. It adds 10 achievements worth 250 gamerscore.
Free level cap update		Raised the level cap by 8 for all players, to 69, or 58 without the Knoxx pack. It adds 1 achievement worth 15 gamerscore.

Playable today

Online

Co-op can be played in two-player split screen with no connection, or online with up to four players. Dueling and arena matches are also played in co-op games.

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	Xbox 360	84	100
Metacritic	PlayStation 3	83	100

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
Game Informer	9.25	10
TeamXbox	9	10
IGN	8.8	10
GameSpot	8.5	10
Official Xbox Magazine	8.5	10
GameTrailers	8.4	10
GamePro	4.5	5
GameSpy	4	5
Giant Bomb	4	5
1UP	B+	A to F

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Producer	Simon Hurley
Producer	Stephen Palmer
Designer	Matthew Armstrong
Programmer	Steven Jones
Programmer	Patrick Deupree
Programmer	Jimmy Sieben
Artist	Brian Martel
Artist	Jennifer Wildes
Artist	Jim Sanders
Writer	Allison Berryman
Writer	Mikey Neumann
Writer	Randy Pitchford
Writer	Simon Hurley
Composer	Sascha Dikiciyan
Composer	Cris Velasco
Composer	Jesper Kyd
Composer	Raison Varner

Notes for collectors

• The Game of the Year Edition was sold in two forms. The first (October 2010, North America) came with one-time vouchers for the four expansions, and the second put all four on a second disc on Xbox 360.
• The achievement And They'll Tell Two Friends needs a co-op game with a Gearbox employee or someone who already has the achievement.
• Several achievements need other players: duels, arena matches and co-op missions.
• The art style was changed to the comic book look when the game was 75 percent complete. Earlier builds were more realistic and brown, closer to Fallout 3 or Rage.
• The game first had three Vault Hunters. Brick was added later.
• Fourteen of the 80 achievements are secret on the list, including all of the Wanted and Destroyed achievements.

Credits

Publisher

2K

Developer

Gearbox Software

Released

2009-10-20

Age rating

M (Mature 17+)

Region

US

Time to beat

about 22 hours