Borderlands 3: The Evolution of the Looter- Shooter

The highly anticipated release of Borderlands 3 is almost upon us and fans everywhere arebeyond excited for the latest introduction to their beloved series. Ten years ago in 2009, anemerging genre was defined by the release of the original Borderlands. Critics at the time werecalling the game “Diablo-inspired”, little did they know that the title had enough unique elementsto spawn a genre all by itself. Through Borderlands, the concept of a looter-shooter waspopularised and eager developers have been trying to replicate its success ever since.So, what exactly is a “looter-shooter”? A looter-shooter is a subgenre of well, shooters, it can beeither first-person or third person and focuses on interesting and exciting in-game “rewards” orloot. Everyone playing a looter-shooter inevitably ends up begging for the perfect drop, theywant the coolest piece of armour or the most powerful gun, but of course, the odds are againstthem which makes the rush greater when they get the item they’re looking for. With itsimplausibly large library of randomly generated guns, Borderlands was able to convert theaddictive loot-chasing gameplay of Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) titles like World ofWarcraft into its own single-player (or co-op) experience.Borderlands is well-known for popularising the genre but it’s a common misconception that itwas the first looter-shooter ever made. It’s a difficult task to attribute this feat to a specific gamebut one of the earliest instances of a game which brought together many critical elements of alooter-shooter is Hellgate: London. Hellgate, released in 2007, was the vision of former Blizzardemployees who were heavily involved in the creation of the original Diablo. It’s easy to see thesimilarities between the two titles, both are built around randomly generated levels and takeplace in a world invaded by demons. Many early elements of the looter-shooter genre can beobserved in this hack-and-slash action RPG. The game features six playable classes whicheach bring their own flair to the gameplay, the concept of distinct classes would go on tobecome a staple in the genre due to both the replay-ability it encourages and also because itgives co-op players different experiences to those they are playing with.Besides the class system, Hellgate also makes use of a random gun system with over 100different base weapon types complete with random enchantments. Interestingly, the gameallows you to switch between first-person and third-person cameras if you are playing a rangedcharacter, melee characters are forced to play in third-person (likely due to animationconstraints). The game had a mixed reception at release and would go on to have a peculiarhistory. Hellgate’s developers, Flagship Studios, intended to support the game for much longerthan they did but they went bankrupt less than six months after release. The company’sintellectual property then passed over to Korean publishing company Hanbit Software whoeventually relaunched the game with Korean multiplayer servers in 2011. Unexpected butwelcome news came in late 2018 when Hellgate: London was released on Steam with someadditional content.Hellgate: London was by no means a huge success story which is why it comes as no surprisethat no other developers immediately tried to replicate some of the systems in place. That wasuntil, as previously mentioned, Gearbox Software struck gold with their 2009 mega-hitBorderlands. Simply stated, Borderlands took the gaming world by storm. It combined the loot-driven shooter gameplay from Hellgate with beautiful cell-shaded graphics that still hold up welleven today. In addition, the game’s plot, setting and character design have receivedtremendous praise for how interesting and engaging all these elements are. For thoseunfamiliar, Borderlands takes place on the ravaged planet of Pandora where mega-corporationshave squeezed the planet of all its natural resources and have ruined its ecosystem. However,the planet still attracts brave adventurers called Vault Hunters who are trying to find a legendaryvault full of advanced alien technology and riches.Unlike Hellgate, Borderlands was a massive success which is why it did come as a surprise thatthere weren’t many similar games being developed in the years immediately after its release.The gaming industry was still very much going through its open-world RPG golden age withtitles such as Mass Effect 2, Fallout: New Vegas and Red Dead Redemption releasing soonafter Borderlands. The looter-shooter genre would remain a one-hit-wonder until surprise,surprise the critically acclaimed sequel to Borderlands was released in late 2012.If Borderlands created a storm in the gaming world then Borderlands 2 created a hurricane. Thegame would go on to become the best-selling game in the history of its publisher (2K Games)and would receive numerous “game-of-the-year” awards. Borderlands 2 retained the bestelements of its predecessor and its additions served to engage and entertain the player in newways: in-game challenges that reward the player with base state increases, a plethora of newcustomisation options and a more streamlined multiplayer experience all improved upon theoriginal Borderlands formula. The most memorable part of playing Borderlands 2, however, hasto be its incredible plot. While Borderlands was somewhat bogged down with having to build anentire universe from scratch, Borderlands 2 was free to experiment with a world its playersalready understood.This freedom spawned Handsome Jack, one of the most iconic video game villains of all time.Jack does his best to impede and harass you as you try to derail his nefarious plans andremove the iron grip his corporation Hyperion has on the planet. It’s not his constant attempts tokill you that makes you hate him, it’s his cocksure attitude and constant taunting that make youwant to desperately reach the end of the game just so you can see him get his comeuppance.Borderlands 2 is widely considered one of the best shooters of the modern era which makes italmost indisputably the greatest looter-shooter of all time.So, after Borderlands 2, it was surely time for another developer to try their hand at cracking thelooter-shooter genre? Correct. When legendary developers Bungie, famous for creating theHalo franchise, announced their full departure from the Microsoft tree in 2010, everyone wascurious what their new franchise would be. The answer came in the form of Destiny, a moremultiplayer-oriented looter-shooter that released in 2014.Destiny was the first true competitor to Borderlands, it had entertaining gunplay, absurd varietyand quantity of loot and amazing visuals. The focus of Destiny is much more on the multiplayeraspect of the genre, while Borderlands feels like a single-player game that can be played withmultiple players, Destiny feels like the exact opposite. In true Bungie fashion, the game’s mapsand weaponry are satisfying and well-put-together but the game had shortcomings in otherareas. The story and setting of the game were widely panned at release for being paper-thinand uninteresting. It also exploited a nefarious aspect of the genre that would worsen with itssequel, the monetization of loot. Destiny was created with microtransactions in mind and itsexperience systems undeniably inches the player towards paying instead of grinding. Destiny,although a fun and well-built game, was one of the early exploiters of a now pervasive problemin gaming.In 2017, Destiny 2 released and improved upon the core gameplay of the original. It’s still fun,it’s still addictive and it’s still laden with microtransactions. Though, unlike the original game, it’snow standard practice to attempt to squeeze players out of extra money in Triple-A games.Anthem, BioWare’s 2019 attempt at a looter-shooter, had such an egregious form ofmonetization (in combination with stale and limited gameplay) that the player base has all butabandoned the game, less than one year after launch. Borderlands 3 will also havemicrotransactions, though they are strictly cosmetic. The sad reality is that additionalmonetization is likely here to stay in looter-shooters but recent high-profile failures like Anthemwill hopefully advise developers and publishers to dial it back.From the early beginnings of the genre with Hellgate: London, to its poster-boy seriesBorderlands, to the latest variations of the genre with Anthem and Destiny, looter-shooters wereclearly a trend of the last decade and all signs suggest they’ll continue to pop up during the nextdecade as well. Will the genre move in a more positive direction or will new releases continue todrown in monetization? Only time will tell, either way, I’m off to kill some psychos in Borderlands3.