Borderlands Legends

There is so much content and is such a complete fusion of genres - RPG, FPS - that you have a hard time finding real criticisms.

Ask any fan of Borderlands 1 and 2 about what makes the games so good. Chances are that you'll come up with this list: a delicious first person shooter, superb co-op, the eternal quest for better loot, the excitement of trying equipment, the delicious art style and the huge areas to explore. Maybe even Clap Trap's annoying pleasurable state of mind.

Ask what makes Borderlands bad, and many will mention the lengthy tutorial. But honestly, you can live with that given the rest is so good.

Borderlands Legends is the iOS version of Borderlands, and if you wonder how many of the above points it hits, the answer's one. And that is the slow tutorial. It's almost enough to make you cry.

Let's pull apart any of the joy this product could have. You buy loot from vending machines. Different brands are gone. There's only single player - not a shred of co-op. It's not a FPS. Fallen enemies don't drop loot. Areas are small, random missions play out on repetitive environments. Even Clap Trap has no lines (that may be a plus for some). And we haven't even touched on the lack of AI intelligence or poor path-finding.

On the other hand, the graphics are great, and the style matches Borderlands well. But the game reminds heavily of the 80s, when companies tossed together half-hearted 2D platformers of licensed titles in the hopes of a sale.

Borderlands Legends is such an animal. It's a cash cow without charm. It's boring, controls are poor, surroundings are bland and virtually everything you love about Borderlands is gone.

What remains is a game that wants to be a cool version of the excellent iOS game Battle Heart. A game where, in a highly restricted area, you manage its four characters at once by dragging them around, or marking on the screen where they should go. A similar premise, but one that doesn't always work here.

It is, nevertheless, what you do in Borderlands Legends, controlling the four main characters from the first game against a wide range of familiar enemies. When you are strong enough, you can survive the most part, and even when you have problems, then you can make sure to be close enough to a teammate to auto-resuscitate him. In other words, the cycle of shoot, die, revive and shoot a boss spins over and over like a soul-eating slot machine.

You can buy new skills, and later in the game you gain perks. Yet they have zero impact to the action. So there's no strategy - and there's no challenge. I literally had my attention stolen from the game for a few minutes, only to come back and find that I'd managed to increase four levels. Sadly, that's not an exaggeration.

Borderlands Legends could easily have delivered, as we've seen this type before. The Dungeon Hunter series made a leap to arena-based gameplay, and while disappointing to fans, offered sound entertainment within this tighter framework with satisfying hack 'n slash.

Battle Heart, which as mentioned is the nearest model to Borderlands Legends, has far better mechanics and much more precise control. Take Gun Bros - there is a top down shooter, has co-op and satisfying gunplay. The latter's free, the former only a few quid.

EA showed with Dead Space how to make a solid game for mobiles, which is close to the original. Ubisoft delivered a spin-off of Rayman which was fantastic. With Borderlands there's little extra work needed - you've already got a great art style, memorable characters, good music and fantastic mechanics to draw from.

If I was a Gearbox employee I'd be sorry to see a much-cherished franchise abused in such horrific fashion. As a reviewer, I can only come up with one real positive for the game. And that is it looks great on my iPad. Avoid.