There are going to be two types of people when it comes to Borderlands—which is out now on the PS3 and 360 and is coming to PC next week—those that are incredibly excited about the game's release, and those that just aren't going to understand why the rest of us are so excited.

This is a first-person shooter take on the Diablo genre, and again, that's either going to arouse your gaming sense until you get hives or leave you completely cold. If you're in the second group, go read something else—this game is not for you. If you've ever had a water-cooler discussion about the gear you found in a game, however... I have something you might be interested in.

Title Borderlands

Developer Gearbox Publisher Take 2 Games Price $59.99 Shop.ars Platform 360, PS3, PC (reviewed)

In terms of characters, there actually isn't much to choose from here. There are four characters, each one a different class, and that's it. Each has one special power, such the ability to drop a turret or the ability to charge enemies and deliver a powerful melee attack. As you level up you can dump points in different skills or abilities, but these choices are also somewhat limited. Once you've beaten the game once with one of the characters, it's doubtful you'll want to go back and play it again; you've already seen nearly everything there is to see with that experience.

That being said, this is a game that grabbed me and didn't let go. I had a decent time playing the single-player game and finding some good loot and grinding the quests, but the real fun was in the multiplayer. Jumping from single to multiplayer is simple: on consoles players can just jump in, and on the PC you simply invite a friend. Your character can be used in both single and multiplayer, and while you can't get the experience points from beating a quest twice, you can help your friends with some extra firepower by tagging along when they go to kill 20 of this or collect the bounty on that.

This is a fun game to play with your friends while simply hanging out online. Finish a mission or two, talk about your character path, compare gear, or just run around and kill the random enemies on the map. While the changes in scenery take a while to get to, the game has more variety than we had first assumed. You'll be fighting across large overworld maps, with a few areas that require a brief loading time to transport to, and the main draw is the guns. The glorious guns. They're constantly falling from dead enemies: shotguns, hand guns, SMGs, rocket launchers... and they're all different. You also get specific weapons from killing bosses, and you can sell your unwanted firearms at vending machines to get money to buy... better guns.

You'll also buy add-ons to those guns, and things like shields, but it's the ongoing race for the best ordnance that will keep you going. The more you use a class of guns, such as sniper rifles, the better your proficiency in that type will go up; you'll be building your character's strengths just by pulling the trigger. When an enemy is killed—and this is a game with midgets that fire shotguns that knock them on their butts as well as masked madmen who attack you with axes by rushing towards you screaming while on fire—you can put your cursor over a beam of light that comes from the top of the weapon to see its attributes. That way you can compare your existing equipment to figure who gets what.

You'll find guns that set enemies on fire, shock them, and fire electrical blasts that move in waves. You'll find grenades that stick to enemies, give you health back, and break into multiple explosive pieces. You'll find better weapons than the ones you're carrying, but you may pass them up simply because you like certain guns more. I had found a scoped handgun, that hit for incredibly damage when you land a critical, that I fell in love with for a long time.

Head shots or attacks to the weak spots of enemies count as critical hits, giving you some measure of control over much damage you do; there is no better feeling than watching an enemy's head simply pop with a well-placed handgun round.

The game also features a refreshing and attractive art style. Stylized, cartoony, but still hard-edged, this is a game that looks great on both the 360 and PC, but the PC version gets the nod for better controls with the mouse and keyboard and some great scaling. My friend played one of my review keys on a higher-end desktop gaming box and it looked incredible. I played it on my Macbook Pro on my gaming partition and it looked great and ran smooth as the action on my shotgun.

There are arenas that allow you to test your loadout on your friends, some great boss fights, a good variety of people to meet and kill, and with up to four-player co-op, this is a game to play with your Left 4 Dead crew if you're in the mood for something new and exciting. You can also spawn vehicles around the map and use them to get to where you're going quicker, or just have fun with a few rocket launcher drive-bys.

The story may be a little thin, but who cares? This game is an absolute blast, especially with good friends playing with you. Let me give you a sense of the replay value: we first had a 360 code, and then the PC code, and now next week the final retail release will be released for the PC. After playing both the console and the PC version for endless hours, the first thing I'm going to do when I get my boxed PC copy is reinstall, call some friends who haven't played it yet, and go through the whole thing again. The quicker I help them beat the game, the faster they can help me get the good loot that's unlocked in the second playthrough mode.

Verdict: Buy

Update: There are no dice rolls in the game, different enemies have different weak areas that count as a critical hit. I have updated the text accordingly.

Listing image by 2K Games