Like a lot of games now, Borderlands is labeled as cel-shaded. When really, people have no idea what what style to call it so they just assume its cel-shaded. From what I've found, gearbox have labeled it in their eyes as "Concept art style" its pretty much a combination of cel-shaded, line art and 3D comic style. Which isn't to say they have invented this style, more like they adjusted a rarely used existing style.
Here are a few examples of the art styles I've just mentioned. The first image (Left) is from Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, which is an actual example of Cel-shading. The second image (Centre) is from the 2011 film, All star Superman and is an example of Line art. And the final image (Right) is from the comic book series Iron Man, which is an example of 3D comic style.
A lot of gamer's believe this art style is the first of its kind, and that gearbox invented it. To me this falls into a kind of grey area. There aren't many other games out there with the same style as Borderlands, in fact only one i have found. There are plenty of games which have been categorized the same, under cel shaded. But as i have mentioned borderlands doesn't actually fall under this category. The one game that does however look very similar is the 2008 Prince of Persia, which was released a whole year before the first Borderlands came out. Here are 2 screen shots, one from Prince of Persia (top) and Borderlands (bottom).
As you can see the style of the character are very similar if not the same, but the background of Prince of Persia holds a different style to its characters, where as Borderlands keeps the same style. So overall the the whole style of the game is different. It just has similar elements.
Going back even further than Prince of Persia. In 2006 a short film made for MTV called Codehunters was born, also holding a similar style to Borderlands. Those who know about Codehunters mainly feel Gearbox stole this style along with other elements of it. Or at least were heavily influenced by it. And its easy to see why they feel this way. Apart from the style, it seems gearbox also took influence from the characters and vehicles. In both Borderlands and Codehunters there are 4 main characters.
Starting from left to right, there is the "Tank" the huge muscly male character, which in the case of Brick from Borderlands uses his fists as his main weapon. This sparks a resemblance to the muscly male character in Codehunters who has a double ended hammer, which can split into two smaller hammers. Next we have Mordecai from borderlands. With this character its not the method of killing that's similar its the body type and shape. Thirdly we have the skinny female character. Who doesn't have a weapon per say more of a skill or in the case of Lilith from borderlands a power, she can harness energy and "phase walk" and the similar character in Codehunters uses some kind or rope to defeat her enemies. Last of all the fourth characters are completely different. But it doesn't end there the second and fourth characters do look similar to two characters in Borderlands 2, Zero and Tiny Tina.
Zero (top) is a character who's weapon of choice is the sword, or energy sword, not to be mistaken for the one in halo. he uses this sword primarily to defeat his enemies but also uses guns too. His figure is slim and tall much like one of the characters in Codehunters who also owns and primarily uses a sword against his foe's.
The final character of Codehunters is a small and seemingly innocent girl to look at, but as she showed us, she loves explosives. Tiny Tina (bottom) from Borderland 2 also shares this passion and look as you can see in the image above.
Not only do the characters share similar features but so do some of the scenes. The opening scene both show a similar entrance to some of the characters, ariving on a bus. The fight scenes of Codehunters and Borderlands 2 are both set on a train. And finally there is a shot of the females walking away which does also spark similarities.
I'm not sure weather they have been heavily inspired by the characters scenes and of course the art style. Or Borderlands was just a happy coincidence. Either way i don't think it matters too much. The art style does seem to be similar, but i do prefer it a lot to Codehunters as its more vibrant and fun looking. Where as Codehunters has a dark and slightly eerie feel to it. Borderlands holds more detail and to me doesn't feel too cartoony but Codehunters does.
Gearbox didn't always have this "concept art style" in mind, they originally wanted the game to be a post apocalyptic game that was more gritty and realistic. It was heading down a path that would add it to the pile of all the other games of that style. It would have ended up being another generic post apocalyptic game like all the others.
So why the change? According to Gearbox " The game feels pretty good! The systems are really solid! The action is over the top! In facet that is one of the BIG problems! Art quality inconsistency." So 75% of the way through the game they decided on a complete overhaul of the art style. Thus fixing the problem of over the top action, because it would fit with the new style and also fix the inconsistency with the art style.
The reason they call the art style "concept art style" is because the style is taken directly from the concept the artist designed, outlines and all.
Previously the game characters were mean to look like this...
Over all i'm glad Gearbox changed the style. Even if they were kind of pushed into a corner and forced to change it. I feel most games companies focus too much on making there games realistic, because that's what they think people want. And there are a huge amount of players out there who do want that. But there's also a huge amount of people who want something different and new. I'm one of those gamer's and i thank Gearbox for Borderlands and Borderlands 2. I Hope more companies take a page from Gearbox's book and do something different.
http://www.gatheryourparty.com/articles/2013/05/30/crash-course-cel-shading-in-video-games/
http://badassdigest.com/2010/11/26/codehunters-short-film-by-the-director-of-the-deathly-hallows-animated-sequ/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-24-randy-pitchford-astonished-at-lack-of-borderlands-rip-off
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68952
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/behind-borderlands-11th-hour-style-change/1100-6253257/
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