Some things I don’t care for in Borderlands:
Backpack Upgrades – why is this an item I have to use? Why can’t it simply give me a message saying your inventory space has been increased as opposed to me having to go into my inventory and use the upgrade? Seems like an unnecessary step. I mean, unlocking weapon slots isn’t an item you use.
Unlocking Weapon Slots – why are half the weapon slots locked at the beginning? This doesn’t make any sense. What’s the purpose in restricting the number of weapons I can quickslot? Imagine if Fallout 3 restricted the number of weps you could assign to the d-pad. Having more weapon slots isn’t about making your character more powerful; it’s about giving the player convenience. Titan Quest had a similar issue, where after completing two quests you’re rewards with extra inventory space; the extra stash space I can forgive because you had to buy it. So essentially, put a price tag on extra space instead of handing it out as a quest reward.
Bruisers – heavy-type characters/units that force you to change the weight you put on your priorities; perhaps you want to unload everything into the heavy first or maybe you prefer to kill off the smaller opponents so you can deal with the tank in isolation. But the Bruisers in Borderlands don’t look like heavies. Well, they do in that they are bigger than everyone else, but all they wear are pants. I tire of games that have bullet sponge baddies, and it aggravates me more when their indication is simply thick bigness. Put some fucking tank plating on these motherfuckers or something. Just because you have more muscle doesn’t mean you’re bulletproof. This is just lazy design.
Untouchable Quest Items – this is just insanity. Send me off on fetch quests, I accept this as a game trope. But send me back to the same area over and over? Gimme a fucking break.
I think the game makes up for these in other ways, except the quest system. Having to go back and forth between a questgiver and a big camp of guys with guns is really obnoxious, but I love that everything in the game is designed to be fast: everything drops health, ammo, and guns, so you don’t always have to be waiting around or vendoring. Character talent trees are like 5 layers deep and you have three moves: shoot, punch, or special. You don’t even have to put effort into picking stuff up. And when I play as Brick, things explode when I punch them! Is that not awesome?
I like the fastness of things also – the game may not have the smoothness of a Valve or Infinity Ward game but the movement still feels good. I, too, love the non-effort of picking stuff up; for example, in Titan Quest, you couldn’t pick up or even interact with loot until it finished its “falling to the ground” animation. maddening.