Borderlands 1 is still pretty solid to this day, it's a competent shooter and loot is fun enough to keep you grinding it out without too much issue. The story itself is fine though it's incredibly scarce, outside of a few cutscenes and small bits of dialogue, you don't really get much of it. The characters are also fairly lacking with none of them really having characterization outside of Tannis, who really only gets it due to her ECHO Log side quests. The biggest issue I faced solo was that, early on, it's fairly easy to get underleveled and find yourself getting one-shotted by enemies with only a single level difference which can be grating, though by the time you reach the central hub, that becomes a lot less of an issue. The gritty atmosphere is very well done, and while lacking as mentioned, the story is fairly grounded (especially compared to what's to come) which makes it serve well enough as a backdrop for the more engaging gameplay side of things. Overall, this isn't really a game you'd play for any story or character interest, but purely for the looter-shooter fun of it.

This is where I would talk about the DLCs as well. I started the Zombie Island DLC, but between one of the new enemies (defiler) popping up frequently and having an attack that slows you to a crawl for several seconds (literally), and then a section where you do nothing but fight enemies for 3 minutes straight (literally), and a crash causing me to have to redo said 3 minute fight, I lost all interest and moved on to BL2. Maybe I'll revisit and update, maybe not.