Review — Borderlands 4. A loot-fueled blast that still needs…

A loot-fueled blast that still needs some polish.

From Pandora to Kairos: A Quick Look at Borderlands’ Past

The first Borderlands came out in 2009 and surprised everyone. It mixed a first-person shooter with Diablo-style loot drops, all in a cartoon-style world. The game’s reception was mixed: the story was thin and the loot wasn’t always balanced, but it was new and fun. The premise that you never knew what game-changing gun you’d get next, was somewhat addictive.

Borderlands 2 was a big leap forward. The classes were more fun, the upgrades worked well, and Handsome Jack was one of the best villains ever. It had a good mix of humor, story, and action. Many still think it’s the best one and consider it the baseline for future instalments.

The Pre-Sequel was the oddball in the series. It took place on Pandora’s moon and thus low gravity and air tanks were thrown in the mix. It was fun, but the world was smaller and had fewer enemy types. The story and humor were okay, but not as good as in Borderlands 2. It felt more like a big add-on than a full new game.

Then came Borderlands 3 in 2019. It was huge: more planets, more guns, more chaos. It was big and flashy, but also quite messy. The story was all over the place, the jokes were too much and sometimes too cringy, and the game had performance issues on many systems. Patches improved the state of the game, but the launch problems were never truly forgotten.

So, when Borderlands 4 came out, I was as excited as I was skeptical. Could Gearbox make the series great again?

A Story That Knows When To Breathe

This time around, the story revolves around Kairos, and you can tell right off the bat this planet is not just an ordinary bandit playground. It was hidden behind a big shield for a long time until something tore it open. Ever since, the world is in chaos. A being called the Timekeeper controls the planet’s inhabitants. He somehow managed to take over their minds and make them act out of their free will; some of them do what he says, some fight back, and the rest just tries to survive.

You play as one of the new Vault Hunters, right in the middle of it all. Without going into spoiler territory, I will say the story isn’t just a simple good versus evil; it goes lengths to show how people act when they’re desperate or afraid. The best part of the story is how it feels. As opposed to its predecessor, Borderlands 4 takes its time. It still has funny characters and crazy moments, but it also knows when to tone it down and be serious. That makes both the humor and the drama hit way harder, as it gives more time to let the emotion sink in.

The game also doesn’t scream at you as often like Borderlands 3 did. Every few minutes, someone was cracking a loud joke over the radio, screaming during a fight, or making fun of something while you were trying to focus on the mission. The writing seldom gave you a quiet moment. It was funny for a while, but exhausting over time. This time around, Gearbox seems to have realized that less can be more. Characters still joke around, but they do it less often, with better timing. There are pauses where you can actually hear the environment, or feel the tension in a scene.

But, it also doesn’t take too many risks. The story is safe, and the jokes are funny but less extreme. For example, instead of a quest about collecting poop for some ridiculous reason, you’ll now have an NPC who’s convinced a vending machine is haunted and wants you to exorcise it. It’s still silly, but not gross. And yes, Claptrap still cracks jokes, but he’s less hyperactive and more self-aware, sometimes even making fun of how annoying he used to be. Nevertheless, you can mute Claptrap now, which is funny given the aforementioned past but but also weird decision on Gearbox’s part; it’s not like you’re disabling Clippy in the late 90’s Office software, it’s more like muting the spirit of Borderlands itself.

Guns, Glory And Glitches

My desires to feel that loot rush again are answered big time. The shooting feels good, the world is alive, and the weapons and skills work great together.

But, the new big open world has problems too. Everything connects without loading screens now, so you can roam around freely. You can glide, dash, and even use a grappling hook to reach high spots or throw barrels. Sounds good, so what’s the problem then? Well, when it works, it sure is a lot of fun. But it also means there’s a lot of empty space which slows down the pace of the game a little too much for its own good. It has its ups and downs; sometimes it’s fun and fast, the other moment it becomes slow and dull. Enemies pop out of the ground or drop from the sky to fight you. They have a rather big health pool, which makes fights take longer, but not necessarily more difficult. In fact, those random encounters become quite repetitive after a while, making you just avoid them if you have the chance.

The menus are also not great. They look inspired by Destiny 2, but they are slower to navigate and feel clumsy on a controller. You can mark junk and sort items, but it’s just too much clicking. Comparing the guns’ overall stats is also visually harder than in Borderlands 3.

And let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the performance isn’t great either. On Xbox Series X, I initially had plenty of frame drops, stutters, and texture pop-ins. Sure, patches improved the situation, but didn’t fix the issues completely. The newly introduced FOV slider is a nice addition, but turning it up can also hurt performance.

What’s Next for Borderlands 4?

Fixing the basics should be Gearbox’s first priority. The game is not a complete trainwreck like other launches of the recent past, but the technical issues need to be sorted out before adding more content so that they can regain trust.

Second, the game needs better balance. Some builds are so strong they kill bosses in seconds. That’s fun for a bit, but if everything dies too fast, the game gets boring and the loot doesn’t matter that much anymore.

And finally, the endgame has to matter. Weekly missions, events, and DLCs can’t just be filler. They need to give real incentive to keep playing.

To be fair, Borderlands 4 already fixed a lot from Borderlands 3. It’s indeed less noisy, better paced, and simpler, but in a good way. The traversal in general feels right, the world is bigger but more connected, and the story has heart. The direction is right, it just needs more time and care to shine.

Final Thoughts

Borderlands 4 does a lot of the things right. The shooting is fun, the loot feels good, and the story finally has the right cadence between humor and serious moments. It’s pretty much what I’d hoped for, but it still has problems. Frame drops, bugs, and balance issues stop it from being great.

If Gearbox shifts its gears up (hah!), this could become one of the best in the series. If not, the conversation will stay stuck on technical issues and messy menus instead of what’s great about the game.

Despite the issues, I’ve had fun so far. And indeed, I’ve never made a game engine, so what do I know? Just give me a gun that shoots guns, I guess?

4 / 5

Reviewed on Xbox Series X.
Download code provided by publisher / PR agency.