Borderlands

Thank you Borderlands, for introducing me to Cage The Elephant.
BL1 is one of those 'product of the times' games where you kinda had to be there. It's similar to Undertale in that sense that if you weren't playing it when it was new, the "Why was this regarded as so cool?" is lost. BL1 stood out because it was the first to really do a lot of things well. We'd had looter shooters before but none that were actually... good. Gamers were still kinda meh on the whole cel-shaded thing that we associated with the Wii and BL made it cool. The humor was peak aughties "Penguin of Doom!" nonsense. Having RPG-style progression in shooters was still relatively new. It was a co-op shooter where you weren't just another military grunt. And so on.
Now that stuff is everywhere so it no longer really makes up for the other shortcomings in the game. To be fair, it was quite a new thing at the time to be a Diablo shooter. It probably doesn’t feel great now but for the time, no one was really doing passable action with RPG mechanics. As crazy as that sounds with where todays industry has gone in terms of bolting loot and "builds" into every genre. I still find it okay but maybe it’s because I played it at the time and know what to expect.
This game is practically prehistoric now, so it's a bit dated. I mean, I'm getting close to 40 and I feel like I played this game a long, long time ago. Xbox 360 if I remember right. Despite this I replayed it recently and still enjoyed myself. The gameplay is very dated like I said though, and the environments are far more samey than the sequels, which can be a pro or con depending on how much you like the wasteland theme. I still don't think people should skip Borderlands 1 but it's not the sort of game that's worth more than a single playthrough just to experience it.
7/10

Borderlands is like that first sip of an energy drink before a marathon of madness. You think, "Oh, a shooter with cartoony graphics, no big deal." And then it hits you: psychos with axes, monster trucks, guns that scream when they fire, and a plot that feels like it was written by someone high on penguin action movies. And that's just the beginning! With each sequel, the insanity grows like a snowball rolling down a hill drenched in gasoline and set on fire by a rocket launcher.
The DLCs for the first game are like training for the apocalypse. Borderlands is the starting point of a world where logic taps out after the first two minutes, and you're left holding a gun with a crooked grin on your face. And you know what? It's a damn good time.

It's a game where you hunt for treasure, but mostly find bandits and guns that shoot everything but bullets. The graphics are like wallpaper, but you're too busy to pay attention - everything explodes, and that's enough!

The original version of Borderlands Game of the Year is rough around the edges and harder than its remastered counterpart, but it is one of the first role-playing first-person shooters to introduce the "looter shooter" sub-genre.
With a great soundtrack, narrative, dialogue, and humour makes Borderlands GOTY really a must player for any gamer.

The best Gearbox game and the best Borderlands of all. Love this game
Its a shame that it was just a coincidence, because in the next 15 years Randy Pitchford couldnt make anything even close to borderlands 1.
R.I.P. Gearbox

Now that it has been more properly explained, no, there is no spyware in borderlands. Take Two still shouldn't have changed their EULA without telling gamers, and it shouldn't have taken them months to respond to say "no we aren't spying on you". Company is still shit, but at least the games aren't spying on you, these ones at least.

This review is based on 100% completion and 70.7 hours of gameplay.
Recommendation:
Would I recommend this game? Yes, I would. I have a huge nostalgic attachment to this game, so I admit I’m a bit biased, but even after all these years, the game still holds up well and is where the Borderlands franchise all started. It's definitely worth picking up and giving it a try.
While the game does feel a bit dated, especially in terms of gameplay and mechanics, the art style still looks great even by today's standards. If you're coming from more modern games, you'll notice that the mechanics feel a little outdated, but the core gameplay foundation of Borderlands remains solid.
For me, the gameplay felt good—dated but still enjoyable. The difficulty, compared to the other games, felt well balanced overall, with a few exceptions like Moxxi's DLC and bosses like Crawmerax, who are insanely difficult unless you use a glitch or have another player helping. The sound design and audio are also good. There’s less voice dialogue in this game since it relies more on MMO-style quest text, but what dialogue is there is well done. I especially loved the sound design in Moxxi's DLC—the vibes when the arena opens up are great, although the constant one-liners can get tiresome. I also had a good nostalgic laugh when I heard the Halo CE shield audio. Overall, the sound design and voice acting are solid and fit well.
Despite being an older game, Borderlands is still a great experience and worth picking up if you have the chance. Since the original edition is no longer listed on Steam, the only way I know to get it is through bundles, which often go on sale. I’d recommend waiting for a good deal, especially on the Handsome or Pandora collection bundles.
DLC:
Moxxi’s Underdome Riot: This is an arena mode, and frankly, it's not great. The difficulty is very high, especially if you don’t have good weapons or a high-level character to carry you. I hosted at level 20, and the enemies were also level 20, but without strong gear, I was getting melted. Beyond the difficulty, the mode feels hollow—no XP from killing enemies or completing rounds, no proficiency for your weapons, and the loot drops are poor. Unless you're going for 100% completion, this DLC feels like a waste of time. Each arena takes about 2-3 hours to complete and must be done in one sitting, which makes it a long, boring grind. We also encountered a significant issue on the third arena map, "The Gully." We made it to round 17, wave 1, but an enemy spawned outside the map, forcing us to leave and redo the entire run, wasting over two hours. This is a common issue, as seen in forum discussions.
The Secret Armory of General Knoxx: This is a decent piece of content that introduces Moxxi and Athena. The long highways in this DLC can be a bit tedious with little to do along the way, but it gave me Halo 3: ODST Coastal Highway vibes, which was kind of nice. The enemies can be tough, but they're manageable. Be prepared for Crawmerax, though—it’s an extremely difficult boss.
The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned: This is a fun, lighthearted DLC with more of a focus on humour and references to things outside of this IP. It was one of the more enjoyable bits of content in the game for me.
Claptrap's Robot Revolution: Like the Zombie DLC, this is another fun piece of content. It's really satisfying to finally get to shoot at claptraps!
Achievements:
DLC is required for 100%, and there are also some co-op/multiplayer achievements that will need to be completed.
If you complete this original Borderlands, good news: you can import your character into the enhanced edition, which carries over 30 of the 80 achievements, including the notoriously difficult Moxxi’s Underdome Riot achievements and almost all the other DLC ones. There's a steam guide by "alphabetsoup" that explains this in more detail, which you can view here.
If you're starting fresh, the main things to keep in mind are the co-op/multiplayer achievements, which will require help from another player, and the Moxxi DLC achievements, which require you to complete all three arena modes. These are no easy feat and can take 2-3 hours per arena. I recommend doing this with other players, with one hosting at a low level (I hosted at level 20) and the others at max level with good gear. Be prepared for long sessions. Thankfully, if you plan to play both the original and enhanced versions, you only need to do these achievements once, as they carry over.
The "And They'll Tell Two Friends" achievement can also be tricky, as you need to join the game of someone who already has the achievement. This might require some effort to find someone in the forums but there are a lot of people who like to help.
For the co-op achievements, such as completing 15 missions and killing bosses, you can solo them if you don't mind using a third-party application to trick the game into thinking there are more players. More details on this can be found in a guide by “Nilex”, which you can view here.
The Claptrap DLC’s collectable achievements are another challenge. This is a long grind, and since it relies heavily on RNG, everyone's experience will vary. In my case, it took me around 10 hours to collect everything. Unfortunately, even when you've completed one set of collectables, they still drop, making it more frustrating. Stick with it, though, and you'll get there.
The rest of the achievements are fairly standard for Borderlands and can be completed with some grinding.
For more in-depth yet straight-to-the-point reviews, feel free to check out my curator page here.