Borderlands 4 is a roaring success, firmly finding its feet after two incredibly divisive entries.
Looter shooter Borderlands 4 is the first mainline game in developer Gearbox’s series that I’ve genuinely loved playing since 2012’s Borderlands 2.
While The Pre-Sequel, Borderlands 3, and spin-off Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands all had their own strong elements, something always felt like it was there to hamper overall enjoyment — be that poor pacing, agonizingly bad writing, or a lack of compelling endgame elements.
In many ways, Borderlands 4 feels like a fresh start for the series, and it’s packed with the kind of confidence that made the first two entries so endearing to me.
Chiefly, Borderlands 4 greatly tones it down on dated meme humor. It still doesn’t take itself too seriously, but characters know to read the room during the story’s more dramatic turns, while much of its comedy actually does land, and I had far more hearty laughs than I was expecting during my playthrough.
But of course, Borderlands’ story and style of humor are just the foundations, and I couldn’t recommend Borderlands 4 if its lootin’ tootin’ and shootin’ gameplay loop wasn’t up to code. And if you come to the series for the near-constant changeup of your guns, augments, grenades, and such, you’ll still find that superbly enjoyable loot chase here.
The biggest divergence in Borderlands 4 is its move to an open world. Outside of dedicated instances like vaults and end-of-chapter fortresses, the map is almost entirely seamless — the planet Kairos’s three major biomes connected in circular fashion. It’s impressive, even if the reduction in load screens leads to its own performance hitches, but I’ll get to that in a bit.
With a well-paced main story and plenty of side missions and activities on offer, there’s loads to do on your first Borderlands 4 playthrough. And while I did find the juice wasn’t always worth the squeeze with its optional diversions, I had a Torgue-sized blast with the game, and I feel the series has regained much of its edge and personality with this latest entry.Killing time
Borderlands 4 takes place on the planet Kairos. Following the events of the third game, the planet has been thrown into disarray after the Siren Lilith forcibly transported the moon of Elpis into Kairos’s orbit. This completely shattered the flow of time and has allowed a dictatorial figure known as the Timekeeper and his underlings to seize control and keep the populace firmly under his control.
As one of four Vault Hunters, we’re captured by the Timekeeper but promptly escape from one of his facilities. From here, we travel to each of Kairos’s three biomes to free the people from his clutches and fold them into our Crimson Resistance.
It’s a simple plot, but one that serves the looter shooter action perfectly well. The Timekeeper himself isn’t exactly a villain to write home about, but I can understand that developer Gearbox Software probably wanted something a little safer after the disastrously ineffective and endlessly annoying villains of Borderlands 3.
On that note, as mentioned above, Borderlands 4’s writing is much stronger than its direct predecessor. Each playable Vault Hunter has bags of personality, while many of its side characters are surprisingly likable. Returning characters from previous entries are all winners, too, feeling better-written here than ever before. Yes, even Claptrap.A rip-roaring good time
Not much has changed in terms of the overall gameplay loop in Borderlands 4. Despite the shift to an open world, you’ll still encounter plenty of camps of baddies (the main two factions being Psycho-like Rippers and the Timekeeper’s robotic Order), and plenty of hives of fauna like flying Kratches and skittering Creeps.
