Commitment And More Lands That Border

More Lands That Border

More things that are satisfying about Borderlands:
1. The World is HUGE. I keep discovering new outposts with different mission, some as trivial as "collect 5 mission recorders and bring them back" to "collect 50 crystal samples, defeat the two giant monsters guarding the samples, refine the crystals into an artifact."
2. The Sorting Algorithm of Weapons: The weapon that was your best friend and most trusted problem solver will be nearly-useless later on, as all the enemies around you level up as you do. Even the ones with comically low levels (a Lvl4 Skag attacking you, a Level 30 Gunslinger Hunter) can still nearly kill you if you ignore them. Sure, they die comically in one hit and you get little to no XP for them, but if there's a pack of them, you can still croak.
3. Different experiences. I was discussing this game with Luke at work, and I had an experience I haven't had since Fallout 3: We were discussing the game and the environments, and we had had completely different experiences. He played as a Bruiser (a Tank class, with a berserk ability and a love of fisticuffs and rocket launchers, quite the opposite of my Hunter's love of ranged weapons and one-shot kills), and as such had a different playstyle and strategy, and in the end, got a different result.

This segues me nicely into the unsatisfying thing about Borderlands, though, the more I think about it, it's something that's wrong with me. I had the same issue with Fallout 3, and in discussion with Ted, that many people had with Diablo. The inventory.

Now, in Borderlands, you're given twelve slots in your backpack for weapons, shields, grenade mods, health kits, and class mods (which give bonuses to skills). You also have two equipped slots (later four), which are mapped to the D-pad. You can complete Claptrap side missions to increase your carry capacity.

Here's my issue. I'm a hoarder, and a worrier. I try to carry a mixture of weapons, so I can be covered in any situations. My twenty-seven slots are filled with, currently:

-6 revolvers (two normal, one with zoom, one without & four elemental)
-6 sniper rifles (two normal, one with a stupidly huge zoom, one with massive damage, and four elemental)
-3 shotguns (two elemental, one automatic and fast-firing)
-2 submachine guns (one with scope, one that does 4x projectiles & reloads super-fast)
-2 repeater pistols (one with Shock damage, and one with a scope)
-3 combat rifles (one with large magazine for support firing, two elemental)
-1 rocket launcher (after much deliberation)
-2 shields (one high-capacity with corrosive resistance, and 1 medium capacity with fast health recharge)
-1 grenade mod (changed often, depending on the situation)
-2 Class Mods (Gunslinger & Ranger)

Now, where this gets frustrating is that when I find a piece of loot that I like (or just one worth a lot that I can sell), I then get to spend loooooooong minutes, staring at my inventory screen, agonising over what to leave behind, the distance to the nearest shop ("If I pick this up, then drop it, then run to the shop to sell something, can I make it back so that the thing I dropped is still there?")... I'm also a cheapskate, so the idea of dropping a weapon that's worth four thousand dollars bothers me. I'll occasionally do an inventory cull, leaving a few spots open for sellables, but the minute I find something decent, it becomes "Well, I have a Shock Revolver already, but this one does more damage, even though it's got a lower fire rate and only holds three bullets... it has a higher accuracy and zoom, though... I could do more damage more accurately, but if I miss, I'm screwed..." For ages.

I was the same with Fallout. Most people I talked to customised their character with a persona, based upon the upgrades they took and the skills they developed. My overarching ability? I could carry a lot. I took every Strongback upgrade to the pount where I was carrying 300 pounds of gear on my back (mostly weapons and armour, with some space for things I wanted to sell). Doesn't make for a memorable character.

Think of it as a video-game based fear of commitment. "Do you take this sniper rifle, to have and to hold, in sickness, and when something better is dropped by a dead Rakk?"