TGON’s Couch Co-Op Collection: Borderlands

Welcome back to another installment of TGON’s Couch Co-Op Collection! This week we’ll be looking at the ever so popular Borderlands! This game blends comic book-esque graphics with post apocalyptic style themes and fills in the cracks with blood, gore, and plenty of guns! I’m excited to talk about this one, so let’s dive right in.

Borderlands was released on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC, but the couch co-op feature didn’t quite make it onto the PC version. Sorry PC Master-race, you didn’t win this round. Released in October of 2009 by Gearbox Software and 2k Games, this title ended up taking Game of the Year and has become a fan favorite. Rated M for mature, due to all sorts of blood, violence, and random acts of sexiness! Lots of randomized loot, baddies by the boat-full, and the comedy stylings of CL4P-TP the robot make this game a must have, especially if you’re looking for the couch co-op action.

How to Play

Borderlands is a post apocalyptic style shooter with some RPG elements thrown in. You control a character, who has some specific weapon focuses and abilities, and travel around the different areas killing baddies and searching for ammo. You’ll earn experience by killing enemies and completing quests given by an array of quirky NPC characters. The more things you kill the higher your level, which makes killing things that much easier! Not to mention the epic loot you’re bound to find along the way! Adventure through barren wastelands, enormous caves, and a variety of towns and military bases as you search for the elusive vault.

Characters

Borderlands offers you four different characters to select from when you begin the game. While all of them can use the assortment of weapons you’ll come across, each one will specialize in a particular weapon type that is complemented by their unique skills. Each character even offers three separate skill trees that allow for further customization based on your personal play style. Have fun experimenting with different character combinations with your couch co-op buddy, and you’re sure to find a different game-play experience each and every time!

Roland the soldier uses his trusty scorpio turret to turn the tide of battle. Equipped with shields that help deflect incoming attacks, the turret can be upgraded to do some serious damage. Roland himself prefers assault rifles and shotguns to bring the pain. His skill trees make him an effective solo player, but an excellent teammate. Consider adding him to your couch co-op action.

Mordecai the hunter fills the sniper role quite well. His special attack is his trusty buddy Bloodwing that he keeps on his shoulder. Fire him off, and he’ll go straight for the baddies for some pecking action with plenty of added ability once he’s leveled up a bit. Sniper rifles and revolvers are his weapons of choice, so you’re covered in close combat and long distance. If you like the calm, cool, collected attack from afar type, then Mordecai and Bloodwing are your men.

Brick the berserker loves to hit things with his fist. No really, his preferred weapons are the explosive kind and his fists. Once you unlock his special move, he literally will go wild and punch things! Brick was my first character playing through, and he didn’t disappoint. Consider him an easy fill in for the tank role in your group, as his health regen capabilities are fantastic while he’s pummeling your enemies to the dirt.

Lilith the siren really embraces the elemental damage in the game. She is a siren, which makes her a very powerful ally. You’ll learn all about the rest of the sirens as you play through the series, but Lilith will show you a few of their tricks. Phase shift is her special move, and it makes her invisible as she runs through enemies and explodes with energy at the end. Her weapons of choice are incendiary, shock, and corrosive weapons and the SMG style of gun usually fills that role quite well.

Highlights

As far as couch co-op games are concerned, this one is a personal favorite. The varying skill trees for each character really allow you to choose a more strong solo game-play style or one that meshes well with your teammate. Either way, you’re both bound to the same quests and goals which means you’re always working together. And you’re going to enjoy the wacky story, and the downright crazy characters who play along, all the way through. Once you’ve beaten the game, you can choose to replay for better loot to grind and harder enemies with a few new areas tossed in.

Overall

Well worth a play-through or 3. A few different buddies and I have traveled to Pandora to go hunt for the vault together, and the game hasn’t gotten old yet. The NPC’s have character, so you can’t help but love them. The bosses are unique, and even more crazy than the NPC’s, so they add an element of comedy to each and every battle. You can likely pick it up pretty cheap too, if you don’t already own it, and the DLC that goes along with it. There are two sequels (though one is 1 1/2 I guess) that you can pick up as well if you’ve beaten your way through this one enough.

Have you journeyed to Pandora in search of a vault? Let us know some of the epic gear you’ve found! Check out the Borderlands launch trailer below for some game-play and action, or the Gearbox Software team here! Let us know if there are any other couch co-op games you’d like visited! Our team is always looking for a new title to try out.