Fallout 3 was an amazing game, one of my games of last year in fact; and it helped to show that there was a market for post-apocalyptic landscapes and ways of traversing them, whilst gaining a little bit of money on the side.

I know I’m meant to be reviewing Borderlands, but what the first paragraph is doing is showing you exactly what everyone is going to compare Gearbox’s new title to. We may have the barren wasteland and the strange, genetically mutated monsters, but that’s pretty much as far as you go in linking this to the Bethesda classic.

For a start the whole thing has an almost cartoon-like appearance, with a huge nod towards the cel shading that had last been done so very well on games such as Wind Waker and Prince of Persia. This gives Borderlands a unique presence in regards to what you would expect from a title which fuses RPG and First Person Shooter together. For a place that’s meant to be as bland as school dinners there is a surprising amount of colour; and if you look closely at the visuals you can even see sketch lines on things like rock faces and the main characters themselves in a comic book style.

The story for the game goes down the road of you being a mercenary gunning for money and being driven to a small town called Fyrestone to begin a quest for riches. Just before you get off the bus a mystical voice speaks to you using her special powers (not to mention she’s a fantastic ventriloquist, as I never see her lips move… EVER…). You have a choice of being one of four people, which are more or less your RPG style character types. These range from the fist throwing Berserker and gun loving Soldier to the stalking skills of the Hunter and the only female of the group, the stealth based Siren. Each of these guys has an action skill, which is unique to that class and can vary from a trained hawk wreaking havoc to an ability to turn into the Hulk for a brief moment and go totally bonkers on anything standing in your way.

There is a blend of RPG and FPS, but it does have to be said that Borderlands leans heavily towards the latter than being a more balanced approach. You may well have Exp scores and increasing levels, allowing for more offensive power and weapon control, but that is as close as it gets. There aren’t any armour upgrades or extra items you can equip. Looking for a magic spell to cast petrify? If so then go and play Final Fantasy or something, as the elemental attacks are present in the form of being linked to your weaponry; and that‘s it.

This isn’t to say this is a bad thing however. Fire, electricity, corrosion and explosive options are available and these act as your extra firepower from a more role playing world. I think it’s a really nice amount to put into something like this, as too much would have kept away the mainstream, with too little turning this into just another shooter that would get forgotten about on the shelf next to Perfect Dark Zero and those out of date sweets in the corner.

There is a distinct feeling of World of Warcraft (yeah ok, I said it….) here, but thankfully it is a more optimistic one than the usual thoughts of “You’re paying HOW much a month to be AFK (away from keyboard, folks) and look for animal pelts?” You see, for all the criticism that non WoW players direct towards the Blizzard cash cow, you cannot take away from it the way it brings people together that hasn’t been done in such a convincing way for the genre since Phantasy Star Online for the Dreamcast. Borderlands is rekindling the desire to do the RPG rounds again, but now we’re in a position where we can chat away to our friends on consoles worldwide and talk about who needs levelling up and what guns were nabbed from the crates. It’s this sense of community spirit that makes this game as good as it is. Hell, my friends list proves that nearly every night, to be honest.

It’s not without its faults, it has to be said. Sometime the AI can be close to being admitted to hospital because some enemies can freeze up when the nasty armed players come calling. I have seen other major glitches, such as vehicles becoming permanently stuck in scenery and foes levitating in the air for no reason before dying from beating themselves to death.

This is where Borderlands plays its secret weapon. Normally when you have problems like this you slate it for being incompetent and move onto the next title on offer, but in this case we have a game with so much character and fun factor that you cannot help but become captivated and enthralled within the world it offers. I’ll be honest with you. The only reason that your caring reviewer actually bought this was because there was nothing else out there to interest him, but it was one of the best things I’ve done in terms of purchasing software this year because it is one of those games that wears it heart on it’s sleeve and doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is. The music might be boring and repetitive and the robotic claptraps can run out of one liners quicker than a rookie comedian, but for whatever reason it just doesn’t matter.

There is a beauty about Borderlands which I can only explain by giving you an example or two. Medal of Honor, We Love Katamari and even another 2K classic in the fantastic Bioshock all showed that something can hit the scene with as near as damn it no hype or fanfare whatsoever and through word of mouth and a building reputation can become something truly exceptional. There are faults and some monotonous bits scattered throughout, but when you have something capable of opening doors in the console community for 4 people playing through a game of this size (25+ hours on a casual play through) and have so much fun doing it, how can it be bad?

The surprise hit is back, ladies and gentlemen. It’s not perfect, but when there’s this much soul and character on offer, who cares?

VideogameUK verdict: 8/10