Borderlands is a unique game that offers players a very refreshing experience.

The game first caught my attention after reading about it from this year’s E3 Expo. After hearing the details about this game, I could hardly wait for its release.

Now jump ahead five months and Borderlands has been released and any X-Box 360, PS3 or PC owner can get their hands on it.

For those of you who don’t know anything about Borderlands, it’s basically a first-person shooter and looter. However, that’s barely scratching the surface of this great game. It also combines with plenty of RPG elements, giving you complete control of your character.

At the beginning of the game you select one of four classes; soldier, siren, berserker or hunter. Each class has a unique special attack. For example, the soldier deploys a turret serving as cover and helping to take down foes, whereas the berserker throws down his guns and begins to pulverize enemies with his massive fists. After playing all classes I found the soldier to be the most effective for my gaming style. Still, I love playing each class as they are all completely different.

Furthermore, each class has three different skill trees offering plenty of different ways to customize each class. This game was made for the people that love to develop characters as there are so many options as to how to raise your character. Personally, I think every game should have some form of character development. One of the coolest things a game can do is give you control of a character, allowing you to shape them to how you see fit.

Then you get to the guns. Though each class specializes in a particular weapon set, there are different types of weapons. You have your shotguns, pistols, revolvers, combat rifles, SMGs, rockets, snipers, and finally energy based alien weapons. I’ve never seen so many weapons in a game.

What’s really cool is that no matter your class, you are constantly leveling your weapon proficiency for each weapon set just by using them. Each time you grow a level of proficiency you gain added bonuses for the particular weapon.

Add in the fact that there are thousands of different guns – and I do mean thousands – you are always on the lookout for a better weapon. Add in elementals and you’ll be burning the flesh of mercenaries, another personal favorite, or blowing their heads of with explosives. It’s incredible how much fun I have with all the different guns and there elements. Still, I usually fall back to the combat rifle as it offers great accuracy with good fire rates.

Though the game has a general plot, there really isn’t too much of an interactive story. However, that’s not a bad thing at all. In fact, I think it helped the game to be better. You see, this actually serves to give the game a much faster pace full of non-stop action and constant looting.

By far the coolest thing about this game is the co-op. The fact that you can go it alone or play with up to four friends just makes this game even better.

Then there’s this little ditty – the more players in your party, the stronger your enemies will become and the better the loot you’ll find. So the game never really gets any easier. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. If you’re playing with four players, foes you can barely handle alone will become nearly unstoppable. It’s structured so that everybody’s got to pitch in. There can be no dead weight on the team.

RPGs and first person shooters are my two favorite video game genres, and when the two come together and it’s done right, you have a recipe for success.

The first game that I seen do this was 2007’s Mass Effect. However, Mass Effect was much more story oriented and played through a lot slower than Borderlands. It was revitalizing for 2K to take the hybrid genre and give it a much faster pace with Borderlands.

Borderlands is by far one of the most addicting games I’ve ever played. With characters constantly evolving and your knowledge that there’s always a better weapon out there somewhere, you’ll never be left with a feeling of repetition or without anything to do. And creating a game like that is no easy feat. Throw in the fact that they can add downloadable content to expand on this already massive game, and I’m sure I’ll be playing this one for a while.