By skyforbes
I am not the hardcore gamer type. I’ve played video games my entire life, but always for fun. I feel like there’s a lot of gamers out there like me who mostly just lurk this sub like I have done for the past many years but never post anything, and I hope to speak to them with this. Also, I posted a TLDR at the bottom if you want the short of it. I don't spoil any major plot points in here, but as always if you don't want to be spoiled at all, don't read this.
Let me just start with this: I am a huge Borderlands fan. I’ve played all of the Borderlands games from start to finish, though I’ve enjoyed some more than others. I’m one of the people in the minority that genuinely very much enjoyed Borderlands 3, even with all of its….not good dialogue. The gameplay though? It was such a huge step up for me from Borderlands 2 that it really sucked me in. I also played a good amount of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. It didn’t click with me at first, but eventually I ended up enjoying it enough for what it was. Anyways, Borderlands 4.
Gameplay: Easily the strongest point of the game, the combat is incredibly satisfying and rewarding. I have done two play-throughs now (first was with Harlowe, second with Rafa) and I enjoyed both of the characters for different reasons. I tried multiple builds for each and while enjoying all of them, it did feel to me that some are just way stronger than others. The movement, grappling hook and jetpack all come together seamlessly most of the time to create that feeling of being the baddest of the bad in the firefight. My only complaint here is that at times it felt like I would get stuck after using a dash and leave myself in bad situations. But I also kinda think that’s fair. Git gud and all that.
Story: For the most part, I enjoyed the story. Nothing overly complicated or deep, but definitely a more serious tone than Borderlands 3. There’s a big bad, he’s got 3 big henchman you must take out, and there’s a twist. I enjoyed the characters for the most part, although at times some of them felt a little underdeveloped. The returning characters were great but I miss some of the manufacturers. I do hate having to slowly walk behind characters as they give exposition, and that is something you’ll just have to get used to in this game. So boo on that. Sometimes you can run to the next objective early, but sometimes you have to wait for them to finish their spiel to give you something, you just never know.
Side quests and collectibles: The side quests are awesome, and some of the collectibles are fun…but there really are just so many. It’s a large map with lots of stuff to find, so if you’re into that, you’re gonna have a great time. If not, I would say probably turn down the difficulty a bit so you can run through the story without needing all of the experience from the side quests.
Guns and Loot: Now this is what the game is all about right? Getting guns that really fit your playstyle and causing maximum damage. There were times during this game that I’d have four different guns I loved all at once, and I’d just cycle through them fight to fight on a whim. However, after a while those guns would be too weak, and I’d find myself at a point where none of my guns felt fun anymore. So you change it up, and then you end up trying guns that you don’t like. For example, I genuinely don’t understand why you’d use a lot of the torque weapons that shoot the slower rockets. You can’t hit anyone at range because the enemies are constantly moving. As for sniper rifles, why use anything other than a Jacobs that gives massive damage per shot without having to reload each time? If anyone out there uses a Maliwan sniper, please explain…I don't understand them. Most of the guns are great, and the unique guns always bring something fun and different which makes for some great moments. As for loot, if you’re playing on anything under hard, you’re going to be disappointed.
Technical Stuff: Now look I’m not a game dev or anything like that so I generally will give passes to games that don’t run perfectly if they’re fun to play. But if you quit playing BL4 because you couldn’t deal with the massive amount of bugs? Completely understand. Here’s a list of what I’ve dealt with: 1) the game loses frames the longer you play it…I don’t really know how to justify this it really sucks. 2) Sometimes during quests, you will be forced to “Clear all forces” or whatever, and one of those guys will somehow clip through the environment and you have to close the game and restart it to redo the entire fight and hope it doesn’t happen again….incredibly infuriating. 3) since the newest patch, if I put my PS5 in rest mode with the game still open, I will receive an error message and the game will close when I try to get back in. So I’m forced to close the game every time I decide I’m done playing, which really isn’t that big of a deal, but I definitely shouldn’t have to do it. 4) as a lot of people have said, the map is terrible, giving useless routes when you ping where you’re trying to go, which is rather annoying.
All in all, I really do love this game. I hope some things are fixed, but it will be a game I return to when I’m not feeling anything else for quite a while.
Tldr: gameplay is great, story is fine, side quests and collectibles are cool but too numerous for me, guns are so much fun (but loot could be better I think) and there’s just a ton of bugs. 7/10 for me.