Borderlands is the 72nd episode of the comedy web series Honest Game Trailers. It was written by Spencer Gilbert, Andrew Bird, Spencer Agnew, Matt Raub, Michael Davis and Michael Schroeder. It was narrated by Jon Bailey as Epic Voice Guy. It parodies the open world action role-playing first-person shooter video game Borderlands. It was published on November 17, 2015. Borderlands was originally published on Smosh Games, but is currently available on Fandom Games. It has been viewed over 3 million times.
Watch Honest Game Trailers - Borderlands on YouTube
"Some of the most over the top irritating characters in the history of video games." ~ Honest Game Trailers - Borderlands
Script []
From the developer of some of the worst franchise reboots the world has ever known, comes the reason Gearbox is still allowed to make video games.
Borderlands
Journey to the alien land of Pandora [clip from Avatar]. No, the s**tty desert one. And join the search for a hidden alien vault, whose treasures will only be revealed when everything on the planet has been genocided! Because, come on! Look at these things! [Ugly beasts] That's a face only a mother could love!
Discover the game that brought RNG to the FPS genre, that dared to ask what Diablo would be like -- with guns! Then experience a setting that could have easily been in another by-the-numbers Mad Max ripoff, but had enough humor and wit to justify a spinoff adventure game. Proving our standards for game writing, basic competence looks like Charles f***ing Dickens! ["Eat s***!" "Now that's the spirit!"]
Choose from one four impossibly badass protagonists, featuring: the neckless mutant psychopath [Brick as Himself]; the creep with the leather face and pet bat-hog thing [Mortedair as The Hunter]; the magical pixie dream girl [Lilith as The Siren]; or the token minority [Roland as The Soldier]. Then team up with some of the most over-the-top, irritating characters in the history of video games! [High-pitched voice: "My runner's ain't the prettiest gal at the dance, but she'll put out the second you ask 'er."] To take on wave after wave of horrible alien thingies, murderous psychopaths and their mini-mes, those horrible birds from Morrowind, and... uhh... whatever the f*** these things are. Until you reach the incredible disappointing final boss and unlock the ability to do it all over again! Yay (!)
Get ready to grind thousands of enemies into paste with Borderlands's smorgasbord of weaponry. With a gun creation system that can generate millions of unique weapons -- and hundreds that are actually worth using! Then level up and leverage powerful skills and abilities to make the numbers get even bigger! As you go into a loot-induced coma, and your brain shuts off entirely!!! Oh man! Did you see how high that number was?! This game is awesome!
Push your way through the single player campaign or play through it with friends in co-op mode as God intended. Then, when you're finished with the original campaign, prepare yourself for an ass-load of DLC. Featuring: the Call of Duty zombies one; the one that was just a bunch of slapped-together arena fights; the one that raised a level cap; and the one that finally let your destroy those stupid f***ing clap-traps! Yeah! (Satisfied sigh). Yeah, that feels good...!
So whip out your acid-spitting sniper pistol, and get ready to spend countless hours happily melting faces until guns pop out of 'em! Because nothing makes you forget you're living in your parents basement faster than a shiny new gun! Ooh! Is that a legendary?! YEAH!
Starring: The Heavy (Marcus Mauldin as Brick, the Berserker); Evanescence (Colleen Clinkenbeard as Lilith, the Siren); Sgt. Johnson (Oliver Tull as Roland, the Soldier); The Gimp (Julio Cardillo as Mordecai, the Hunter); Annoy-o-Tron (David Eddings as CL4P-TP/"Claptrap"); Hunter S. Thompson (David Eddings as Teddy "TK" Baha); Your Crazy Ex (Colleen Clinkenbeard as Patricia Tannis); Harley Quinn (Brina Palencia as Mad Moxxi); The Insane Clown Posse (Nine-Toes); and FMV (Britanni Johnson and Jennifer Greene as The Guardian Angel).
The honest title for Borderlands was 'Diablands.' Titles designed by Robert Holtby.
Diablands
Man, you know a game is serious about murder when it lets you resurrect yourself with headshots! Ohhh, yeahhh! Dad needs a wet nap.....!
Trivia[]
- There is also an episode of Honest Game Trailers about the Telltale game Tales from the Borderlands.
Reception[]
Honest Game Trailers - Borderlands has a 97.6% approval rating from YouTube viewers. Logan Booker of Kotaku said the Honest Game Trailers episode "isn't the best outing of the series." Booker also wrote "It's strange how ridiculous the game was, in retrospect, and HGT has no qualms getting to the core of that silliness. As the clip rightly points out, while the game's random weapon system could produce billions of guns, only a small subset of those were worth using. Still, as hollow an experience it might have been chasing down better guns to see bigger numbers fly off enemies like mathematical candy, it was enough to keep you playing."
In his review of the Honest Game Trailer, Blake Rogers of Nerdist observed "Everything that seems to be a dig at the game was also what made it so damn great. The game’s overall concept of being a first person shooter that didn’t take itself too seriously as most do. The over the top violence, character design, baddies, and weapon system all make for a game (and series) that keeps players coming back for every installment. What seemed to draw particular “Honest Trailering” (that’s a term, right?) is what are described as 'some of the most over the top irritating characters in the history of video games', which is something any Borderlands player can agree with." Roger also noted, "All in all, any real criticism of the game comes in pointing out the repetitiveness of the gameplay, the lack of creativity in the game’s DLC expansions, and the overall letdown of the final boss battle. While all of these may be true in some way, it’s worth it to point out the fact Smosh Games (and any player really) loves the game(s) through and through."
Production credits[]
Video thumbnail for Honest Game Trailers - Borderlands.
Executive Producers: Andy Signore and Smosh
Directed by Spencer Gilbert
Episode Written by: Spencer Gilbert, Andrew Bird, Spencer Agnew, Matt Raub, Michael Davis, Michael Schroeder
Edited by: Max Song
Voiceover Narration byJon Bailey
Titles designed by Robert Holtby
External links []
- Even With A Billion Guns, Borderlands Can't Escape Honest Game Trailers - Kotaku article
- BORDERLANDS GETS THE HONEST TRAILER TREATMENT - Nerdist article (via Wayback Machine)