Borderlands is a series that holds such a special place in my heart. Back in 2009 I was living in a cheap apartment and eating nothing but ramen noodles for most meals. I didn’t have much but an Xbox 360 and a semi broken air conditioner at the time. Life was by no means bad, it just wasn’t all too exciting. I played tons of games on the regular but nothing was really locking in my interest. Then along comes Borderlands 1.

Borderlands was a game I remember seeing in a magazine with a vastly different style. It look gritty and dark. Honestly, it looked pretty cool at that first glance. The game that came out, however, told a much different story. With it’s cel-shaded graphics and lighter (although still much more grounded than later entries) story, Borderlands truly became something unique.

The Man With A Million Guns

Borderlands wasn’t touted as your average shooter. We were told they’d have millions, yes, millions, of gun combinations to mess around with. How do you even fathom a number like this? I’m used to Halo, or Call of Duty, with 20 or so gun. I can’t even imagine 200 guns let alone MILLIONS.

But they were right. Loading up Borderlands 1 was different for each person. You’d more than likely find a different gun than someone you were playing with who has completed the game already. Heck, chances were, every time you started the game, the first weapon you even looked at would be completely different than the first. Sure, maybe it could be something as a bigger magazine or slower reload time. But that was the joy of Borderlands. The first “Looter Shooter.” A million guns. Any time you ran up to an enemy, you never knew what you’d find after eliminating them. Could it be a cheap shotgun that’s way worse? Yes, but it could also be a Legendary orange rifle that’s better than anything you’d have now.

This was the main meat of Borderlands 1. Sure, the gameplay itself was fun. Gunning down enemy soldiers, flying bat/bird demons, or taking on big bosses, was awesome, but the hunt for that Orange Legendary was what kept us going. Borderlands offered the ability to playthrough the game again and again, increasing your chances to find better loot each time. More challenging enemies gave better rewards. You’d spend hours upon hours either solo or in co-op with friends farming for your perfect weapon. Your masterpiece. Once you found it, you’d still want more. It was glorious.

Revisiting Borderlands in 2026

So while I have these fond memories of Borderlands in 2009, I wanted to see how it felt today. The logical thing to do here was to stream it to my Twitch channel. Gearbox released a Game of the Year Enhanced Edition back in 2019, and I decided to give it a go. After 30 hours of gameplay without any of the initial DLCs, here is what I found:

The story of Borderlands 1 is relatively simple compared to the other games in the series but the theme remains. You are a Vault Hunter (1 out of 4 playable characters/classes) looking for pieces of a key to assemble and open up a mysterious Vault. This Vault is said to hold much loot to make everyone who finds it rich. So, let’s get the pieces, put the key together and open the Vault. Only..you have some one in your way. Commandant Steele from the Crimson Lance.

She doesn’t like the fact that you are on this planet to open the Vault before her. So she becomes the main bad. You end of getting tangled into her soldiers and such throughout the whole game.

Honestly, the story is told in such a different fashion (by this I mean, there is way less dialogue) than the rest of the games that you sort of almost forget about it. While it does have its funny moments with Claptrap and Tannis, it’s far less big and took less risks with the jokes than Borderlands 2. It even took a few hours before the big bad’s introduction and it came through a few voice lines that you could easily miss by just not paying attention. She nor the Crimson Lance are particularly a threat that makes the game feel any more urgent. They don’t feel scary either. They’re sort of just…there. The story is not bad, it’s just not as memorable.

Borderlands Brings The Pain…Sort Of

Borderlands offer may ways you can customize your playstyle. Each Character plays much different than the rest in terms of skills and perks. Alongside this, every class has three branching skill trees you can place your skill points in to your liking.

The class I went with, Soldier, has a deployable turret you can throw down to assist you with enemies. It autolocks and fires away. Eventually, you can add on elemental damage with equipment. From the skill trees you can upgrade its damage, or even have it launch missiles every few seconds. The way you can customize to how you want to play is great. It gives you a sense of freedom to running through the campaign which I truly enjoyed.

By the time you get to the end of the game, you can place points fully into one whole skill tree. You can advance how you’d like, though, in the others as long as you actually have the points for it. I will say that this has stayed relatively the same over the years. It’s not revolutionary by any means but it still is fun. Off stream I even made some of the other characters to see how differently they played and each class felt really unique.

Stand Up Comedians Fill The Air

The enemies in this game are great. They hold up for sure. The iconic Psycho that you see on all the game’s cover art started here. They’ll run at you yelling lines like “More meat for me!” after you annihilate one of their comrades. The Skaggs (these beastlike wolf/mole hybrid creatures) are weird and very nostalgic. Almost every encounter in this game will either make you laugh or threaten your in game life.

The characters you pick will shout out some funny lines as well. Roland, the soldier, would yell “Critical, BEAOTCH” as I landed a critical hit on an enemy. I did get a chuckle out of it and it never really outstayed its welcome.

Claptrap, Tannis, Dr. Zed, and others will also fill up the humor as you interact with them sporadically. These NPCs bridge the gap between serious and completely unhinged and sometimes, I never really know what the tone is supposed to be. It’s funny yet dark. It’s serious yet not. You can tell the game really hasn’t got a hold of what exactly it wants to be just yet and that sort of rollercoaster sometimes falls flat.

But Does It Hold Up?

The big questions will be answered here. Does it hold up? In the sense that the game is a fun shooter with satisfying gameplay? Yes! I honestly had such a good time playing it again if for that reason alone. Does the story hold up? Eh. I could go without it, really. It definitely didn’t keep my interest and I forgot about the main bad guy multiple times.

You won’t get a crazy explosion of legendary weapons (I found 3 in my first playthrough) this time around but when you do, it does feel good.

Should you play it? Yes! Going back to where the looter shooter, first person action RPG genre began really gives you a sense on what these types of games are supposed to be. Whether you are looking for a blast from the past or starting the series for the first time, give the Game of the Year Enhanced Edition a go. You’ll get all the DLC (they’re worth it), new weapons, better textures and graphics, and quality of life stuff like a mini map.

Borderlands 1 may fall flat in some areas compared to the rest of the series but it’s seriously a good game to go back and play still. Whether you decide to play on your own like I did on stream, or you have 1-3 other friends to join you, you’ll have a pretty good time!

That’s not all! I’m not quite done with Pandora. Make sure to follow my Twitch channel (SeanIsRetro) as I am now playing through Borderlands 2.

Looking for more Don’t Revive Your Friends? Click the links below:

• Borderlands 1 Review: Does It Still Hold Up Today?
• 7 Modern RPGs That Captured the Magic of the Classics
• Verho: Curse of Faces Review – A True Blast From The Past
• Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced Review | Still the Best Pirate Adventure?
• How Phantasy Star Online Introduced Me to Online Friendships | Summer of RPGs