Borderlands seems to lose me the more I see of it. It's come so far from the first teaser we saw at the end of 2007, yet that seems like a steep deviation from what I originally found intriguing about it. It's like it took a wrong-turn into wacky land and lost it.
See, that trailer was NOT what I found intriguing about Borderlands at all. What I'm finding intriguing is the whole combo of HGL type of gameplay (first person shooter - if you went w/ a gun-related class) mixed with the Diablo aspect (Action-RPG). I been waiting for another game to try and expand upon what HGL had actually accomplished and learn from HGL's mistakes - another game to take another crack at getting this kind of game perfect. I think Borderlands is headed in the right direction, myself.
Now, take the above idea of mixing HGL and -- now throw this comic-book look (cel-shaded) is what did it for me and this puts me over the edge and really made me pay attention. The normal look was fine, but something felt missing. The game is so over-the-top like Diablo (with the abundance of looting, killing, and leveling up skills) and ridiculous in so many ways -- and this cel-shaded comic book look really does it to me and adds to this game. The ridiculously huge words of "Level up" on screen when I gain a level. The whole dueling thing, after slapping each other in the face -- it's gonna be awesome seeing gamers fighting over loot. I expect that'll happen a lot, too.
I understand Gearbox went for the cel-shading since they felt they wanted something different and they probably couldn't compete with visuals otherwise. Now it just feels like it's trying really hard to be the "awkwardly funny guy at the party," which only makes it come off as lame and unfunny, and it seems to be trying to adopt Team Fortress 2's aesthetic style as its own (with heavily desaturated colour).
XIII (2003) had done the cel-shaded look before TF2 (2007).
The only thing I see that's relevant to Diablo now is loot, and it's not like Diablo ever advertised "87 bazillion swords and various stabbing weapons." Sure they added in some role-playing elements like experience and quests, but Diablo didn't create those conventions.
No, they didn't -- but I think Diablo really took this style of the ARPG to a whole new level of insanity and popularity.
The one thing that seems to be missing is the sense of a strong underlying story, which was a big part of Diablo (+Diablo 2 and Lord of Destruction) for me. Everything about Borderlands just seems to be about a mad romp around a desert planet.
If Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 was any indication, Gearbox knows how to really tell a story and a narrative. Whether they actually do it or not in Borderlands, we'll just have to wait and see, I guess -- since it really feels like the story has been kept under-wraps purposely.
I don't know if Gearbox doesn't want to spoil too much or what -- but we know all the characters are mercenaries; a big corporation is reverse engineering some alien weapons so they can try to use them (for their own agenda); and we're out to get these weapons; this corporation's armed goons comes after us once we hit like Level 15.
I'm glad they're not trying to recreate Diablo as a 1st-person shooter but why compare it to begin with and draw so much criticism. The whole "FPS and RPG made a baby.." ad campaign doesn't work either.. Well, it wouldn't be the first baby anyway.
I think they are making the comparisons to Diablo b/c of the way the game operates -- kills galore, loot galore, skill-tree galore, level-up galore. Even though Diablo does a great job of telling and presenting its story, that stuff is really not the main part of the game. I expect the same from Borderlands.
Plus, I think the last thing they want to do is compare Borderlands to the game it's probably really going to be much closer to -- Hellgate: London. As much as I really digged HGL despite its obvious list of flaws, I really had a great time with it. I can't deny that. Plus, I doubt Borderlands will turn out THAT buggy on its week of release.
