New Borderlands art style shown

By Robert Purchese Published 17 April, 2009

First screenshot backs bold claims.

Gearbox Software has shown the very first image of the redesigned Borderlands.

The image - a PC Gamer-watermarked screenshot on the official Borderlands website - depicts male and female characters looking over the corpse of an animal, guns in hand. They're stylised and cartoon-like - very close to the "Concept Art Style" term that Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford coined earlier this week.

The result is very impressive, even blown up to full resolution. It's also full of personality, even if it is quite close to the cel-shading we've seen in Prince of Persia and Crackdown before. The new look is miles away from the original Borderlands.

Borderlands is a shooter/RPG hybrid due out this year on PS3, 360 and PC. Among its boasts are a randomly generated world resulting in endless quests, items, areas and monsters. "Mad Max meets Diablo" is the soundbite.

Head over to our Borderlands gamepage to find out what we know so far.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Eraysor #1 3 years ago

    I'm not going to pass judgement until I see it in motion. Perhaps they wanted the game to look less like a Fallout 3 clone?

  • Roamer #2 3 years ago

    Becoming more excited about this by the day..

  • glaeken #3 3 years ago

    Is the new look really miles away from the original shots? It you look at the character models in the original shots they are sort of cell shaded. The proportions of the character models look a little more cartoon like now though.

    Anyway I like the look of the new shot.
    Edited by 1 at 17/04/09 @ 12:44

  • space_ace #4 3 years ago

    not half bad

  • muscleblade #5 3 years ago

    Due out this year eh. Dont believe it until i see it on the shelves. Games like these are always pushed back.

  • Gearskin #6 3 years ago

    Screwed up Aliens? Based on what?
    Sega never gave a release date. Who knows what's going on.
    Shortly after the release of Shellshock 2, Sega announced Rebellion were doing AvP 3. That seem like a good idea?

  • speedjack #7 3 years ago

    Blimey - that looks 1,000,000 times better (IMHO)

  • Vin #8 3 years ago

    Yes.

    Gearbox didn't fuck up Aliens, Count. And it's STILL on for release.

  • muscleblade #9 3 years ago

    Aliens should have been in the shelves by know. It was delayed from a pre chrismas release to a Q1 2009 release. Now its rumoured to have been cancelled. Im afraid it could be the case.

  • muscleblade #10 3 years ago

    @CountFapula

    Exactly!!

  • stevetuck #11 3 years ago

    I like it, tho i have always liked cell shaded games :)

  • Machetazo #12 3 years ago

    My thinking on this whole Sega/Aliens "trilogy of travesty" thing, is that I couldn't care less about any AVP3, until such time as they extend the courtesy to provide closure, one way or the other, on the titles I was originally interested in, and looking forward to.
    Until then, their "cheap replacement" title is dead to me.

    It would be great to see Borderlands available, this year! If I could have made one wish at the start of this year in the games space, it probably would have been to be the proud owner of a copy, before 2009 was through. The art style, the new one; looks more Fallout, less Gears, but there isn't any context to it. It's definitely more stylised and detailed, as the article author expressed, so perhaps the game has a strong character element, now, than just all-out action? I don't quite know what this is meant to tell us about the direction that Borderlands is headed. The source at the studio explains that this move brings the final visual style closer to the concept illustrations (wouldn't be the first time that's been tried - and, the results were impressive) but, overall, I'd just like to find out more about the game, really.
    Hopefully, they'll show this version in video form, soon enough.
    Edited by 1 at 17/04/09 @ 14:43

  • mkreku #13 3 years ago

    Am I really the only one who preferred the more realistic look? This makes it look like Wind Waker or something..

  • Machetazo #14 3 years ago

    The original seems very muted, and brown. I remember when they showed the sequence in the cave complex, onstage - it was difficult to see what was going on, sometimes, it was lit really dark. The new art style means you can have that darkness, but not have a pea soup situation of everything being overwhelmed by the blackness.
    Was their change, perhaps, inspired by Valkyria Chronicles?
    Edited by 1 at 17/04/09 @ 14:56

  • glaeken #15 3 years ago

    Gearbox do have a history of long running projects that often end up not delivering. I remember when they were bought in to create the first single player CS retail game and that dev cycle was a real sagga that just went on and on.

  • YourMessageHere #16 3 years ago

    This is getting closer to Trigun - the RPG, which can only be good. Like this a lot, great look. Also, look, a female character that's not massively sexualised - how genuinely unusual and welcome.

  • john_silence #17 3 years ago

    Well, that just turned the game from "meh... brown, bland FPS" to a very intriguing piece of software. Colour me interested all of a sudden - it makes me think there may be more interesting ideas lurking behind the surface than I first thought.
    I don't think it will be on shelf this year, though. Such drastic changes to the art style, at this point, can only mean it's quite far away from being ready for release!
    Edited by 1 at 17/04/09 @ 16:58

  • Cheeky #18 3 years ago

    "Blimey - that looks 1,000,000 times better (IMHO)" - Agreed. It's amazing how much a new visual style can generate interest - I wasn't interested in this at all, but I certainly am now.

  • metalangel #19 3 years ago

    Here's hoping they also binned the stupid "posh" voice the woman had in one of the old trailers.

  • RedSparrows #20 3 years ago

    wait wait wait wait, moment of innocent hype here - Mad Max meets Diablo? WOOT

  • Darkedge #21 3 years ago

    Have to say it looks horrible. Sorry just don't like the new look.

  • bdgr #22 3 years ago

    like. a lot!

  • Gearskin #23 3 years ago

    @CountFapula

    Splatterhouse was pulled from a developer recently. For no solid reason.

    Sega might have pulled ACM from Gearbox, but that's not to say the game has been cancelled. They may well intend to palm it off to another studio. Their decision could have been financial.

    We'll never know.

    All I know is Rebellion have been turning out relatively mundane stuff for a long time.