Pandora, a gun on the ground, and that little voice telling you the next one will be better.

On gut feeling, no criterion, Borderlands only edges ahead of 11% of games. That stings. But look at the detail and the colour changes: fun ahead of 85% of titles, soundtrack ahead of 83%, the urge to rediscover it ahead of 74%. Everything else floats just above the middle, desert island, attachment, controller feel, art style. That is the tension. Nobody names it as their favourite off the cuff, but the moment the question turns to raw pleasure and sessions that stretch too long, it climbs right back. Careful though, several criteria rest on only two or three votes, so those high marks are still to confirm.

In the shooter landscape, Borderlands opened a lane: endless loot, cel shading that refuses military realism, humour and four player co-op. Plenty have copied it since, and that flood of descendants may well explain why the gut choice does not land on the ancestor.

So, who is it for? For you if you like hoovering up guns all night with friends in your headset. Much less so if you want a game you take alone to a desert island, for the feeling.