Borderlands 4 from developer Gearbox Software marks the long-awaited return of a beloved series.
The first entry in the looter shooter heavyweight since Borderlands 3 in 2019, Borderlands 4 arrives on next-gen hardware with some likewise next-gen ideas.
Sporting the expected witty-but-sometimes-dark charm, eye-popping visuals and addicting grind, Borderlands 4 expands its own playground by going full-blown open world to push the series into new, interesting places.
After an extended break, Borderlands 4, on paper, has the mixture of must-have additions and responses to player feedback that could make it a Game of the Year contender.
Borderlands 4 ditches past settings for Kairos and benefits greatly in the process by providing players with an engrossing world that feels very much alive.
It certainly helps, of course, that the tried-and-true approach to visuals that helped the series stand out in the first place triumphantly return, souped up with some next-generation horsepower in the process.
As a series here, Borderlands is still a dazzler of a visual experience with the gorgeous, colorful cel-shaded look and downright stunning explosions and enemy combustions, with ear-candy sounds peppering the loot-drop-dopamine cycle.
Seeing a screenshot is one thing, but actually experiencing Borderlands 4 is something else. Even the game’s quieter moments boast interesting depth to the environments and proper ambient noise to bring the surroundings to life.
How this meshes with the gameplay is a chef’s kiss moment for the series. The big thing here is the fact that there are so many new ways to navigate the world. Players can now grapple, climb, glide and swim, to name a few things, plus actions like sliding have been clearly sped up.
As if that weren’t enough, there are summonable vehicles in most areas of the map to help players get around as they see fit, too.
Respecting a player’s time is clearly just an emphasis, too. Not only can players summon vehicles while jamming in a co-op session, but they can also pull up the map and warp to teammates out in the open world.
These days, a game choosing to go open-world can be something of a drawback. But it’s rather refreshing here, provided one doesn’t run into one of the invisible walls or encounter a surface that just straight-up can’t be interacted with. A rarity, but they stick out.
Combat is tighter than ever, with gunplay that nearly rivals the likes of Destiny 2 and other top-of-genre powerhouses. All the goofy and lethal weapons one can imagine return, whether it’s a gun that shouts obscenities or powerful abilities that pull players into third-person view for a moment to pull off something huge.
It’s once again never not interesting to get new weapon drops and experiment with new weapons. The cycle of ammunition drops, healing items (Repkits can heal now too, not just healthpacks drops) and general combat remains a fantastic loop.
What really sets this one apart, though, beyond a thankfully new, diverse cast of enemies to fight, is how the newfound movement abilities are almost a must to weave into combat. This isn’t a stand-and-shoot thing anymore, exclusively.
Now, players will find the most success (and fun) zipping around the map with all sorts of movement abilities, while also pumping out firepower at enemies.
Boss fights lean into this, too. While not super complex, what might be normally mundane “boss” encounters in past series entries are made more memorable through traversal tasks before letting loose with creative weapons.
Four new Vault Hunters make for a fun time, too. One can summon help in combat, while another can forge weaponry and tech in versatile manners. Nothing too wild, given all the wacky stuff we’ve already seen in the series, but they’re certainly fun to experiment with across different types of builds.
Borderlands 4 very much remains a gameplay-over-everything experience, at least compared to the story. The whole package encourages the grind, courtesy of a gameplay loop that remains super satisfying all these years later, especially with the movement abilities now woven into the experience.
Borderlands 4, as mentioned, thankfully ditches its past stomping grounds location-wise and also sheds many of the characters that had started to become more annoying than funny over time.
Like other entries, Borderlands 4 is wacky, yet unafraid to steer off into very serious moments on a whim, keeping the narrative engaging and memorable.
Not every character players encounter will register as all-timers by any means, but overexposure to looter shooters and witty Marvel characters for decades now means Borderlands 4 had a tall task in this regard.
The delivery of the story and overall progression, though, is non-linear to the point it deserves praise. Players can, within reason, progress how they want, provided they don’t roll up on enemies that are three or more levels above their current level.
Expected side items that always pop up within the open-world space occur here. Borderlands 4 has side quests, timed activities, puzzles to solve and collectibles to find. Mileage on how worthwhile time investment in all of these things are will vary greatly by the player, but the game offering them up isn’t a bad thing.
This is a boon for the Borderlands genre. Again, open worlds have sort of become a controversial thing in the game space. But for series veterans, being able to run off and just clear the fog on the map while exploring, still level up and find cool stuff, all while putting the main story on the backburner? It’s a nice option to have, if nothing else.
Borderlands 4 also gets a little Destiny-like with weekly shakeups. The endgame grind includes fun ever-changing things like a story mission with increased difficulty, a grindable boss fight and a moving vendor to track down in the open world each week that offers up big-time goodies.
Plus, there’s a Diablo-like world tier system that ups the ante for players and keeps things challenging as they progress, too.
Weapon enhancements that let players tweak the how, what and why of drops is a nice feature to have. So too are the deepest skill trees in the series to date, which encourages experimentation.
Borderlands 4 makes it easy to re-spec a character, too, so there’s some fun buildcrafting depth if, say, players find a new weapon that better synergizes with a skill selection path they didn’t prioritize. The cost of this and weapon tweaks doesn’t feel too overwhelming based on currency earning rates through normal gameplay.
There will be inevitable nitpicks about endgame content here, as is always the case in looter shooters. But when we’re talking about 40-plus hours of content before that starts to matter with a series that has historically been fantastic at post-launch support, it is very much a nitpick.
By now, gamers have seen plenty of commentary about the choppy performance of Borderlands 4 from a technical perspective. The game has a strong suite of options, but console performance can be spotty and from the sounds of it, even top-flight PC builds are having issues at launch. Not ideal, but also not a deal-breaker over time, pending proper support and updates.
Conversations around Borderlands 4 will always start with a question: Was it worth the wait?
The answer is yes. There are some red, albeit fixable flags at launch when it comes to literal technical performance.
But otherwise, this is a smart evolution for the series across the board. Borderlands 4 shakes up the tone and character work enough to not grate on veteran players and better mesh with the times as a whole.
More importantly, on the design front, it’s one of the rare games to add an open world and benefit from it so greatly. Tack on modern online looter-shooter sensibilities and the promise of long-term support, and while it might not be a Game of the Year contender, it does feel like Borderlands is finally back on track and near the top of its niche.
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