Borderlands 4 Review – It feels like how I remember Borderlands 2 feeling

I’ve played most of the Borderlands games, though I wouldn’t necessarily say I’ve always been a massive fan of the games themselves. I just like looting, shooting, and co-op, and these games always have those things. Frankly, even when I was younger, I found the humour to be something to be endured rather than enjoyed, but hey, numbers going up always feels good, and that’s pretty much the whole reason why I was looking forward to Borderlands 4.

In fact, I barely paid attention to any of the marketing because of that baseline expectation, which means I went in completely clueless about all of the changes. I had no idea the game was open world, that we would be able to glide everywhere, or that we’d be getting a grappling hook. I didn’t even look into the new Vault Hunters, because I figured I’d just pick it up and play with a mate on vibes alone.

So, imagine my surprise when, after a couple of hours, it dawned on me that this is easily the best Borderlands to date, and it manages to do it while having some fairly well-written and heartfelt moments. Sure, some of the humour is still grabbing for low-hanging fruit, but there are some really well-timed jokes from the cast that actually made me laugh. Out loud. Like the olden days.

It helps that the villain is an absolutely loathsome dictator too. The Timekeeper is a seemingly immortal ruler who controls the masses by implanting circuity into their nervous system via the neck. It lets him not only control them through constant monitoring, but literally take control of them. While I don’t think this is used enough in the moment-to-moment gameplay, like the synths being taken over in Mass Effect, it lends a lot of weight to the story beats. This dude is just all kinds of evil, and you want to take him out because of it. It helps that his sycophants are all just as horrific.

For as bad as they all are though, the people you’re fighting for are just as good. Sure, they’re all a bit rough around the edges, with Rush being a himbo and one of the other factions being made up entirely of toffs (they seem nice enough though), but they’re all likeable as well. It’s just nice to feel a bit more invested in a Borderlands game, you know? The character chatter is excellent too. All four of the Vault Hunters not only feel good to play as, and are highly-customisable thanks to three different skills and skill trees to choose from before you even start thinking about your gear, but they’re all pretty charming too.

It all feels good as well. The gunplay here is amazing, with the randomised weapon drops and the different manufacturers giving offering you different approaches to take for your ranged violence. The augment here is that you can now mix and match manufacturer mods, lending the characteristics of one style of weapon to another. Are you an enjoyer of ricochet projectiles and thrown guns that sprout legs and shoot at enemies autonomously? Just mod those onto the other weapons that you acquire with high stats. It’s a clever way of putting more control and player choice into the loot system, so you’re not so beholden to the randomisation.

The enhanced movement is also amazing, with the grappling hook, double jumping, dashing, gliding, ground slamming, sliding all coming together to give you so much mobility that you might not know what to do with it. You also have your summonable vehicle, so you can always get around quicker when exploring the open world.

The game has also run pretty well for me playing on PC. Unreal Engine 5 does come with a pretty heavy burden and optimisation can always be better these days, but turning down some lighting effects can give you big performance improvements and the game is still plenty enjoyable for me. I’m also very aware of the mass of complaints about the bugs and glitches going on, and ‘m absolutely certain those are true because the friend I’m playing with is suffering, but I’ve managed to artfully dodge those issues. So, in a very selfish kind of way, I’m all good.

I do wish the game had more music though. The big, wide world is genuinely quite rewarding to explore, with new discoverable locations, collectables, and more awaiting you around every corner, but it’s weirdly quiet. A Vault Hunter radio or two to keep the music going would have been a nice touch, especially as the music that is in the game is pretty good. It’s also really nice to look at. It’s easy to forget how much a stylised art direction can help make a game stand out, but Borderlands 4 does just that.

I really like Borderlands 4. I like it on the story front, gameplay front, mechanical front, and just all of it really. I have every intention of coming back to it and replaying it with the DLC characters in later playthroughs, and while the endgame stuff isn’t that fleshed out yet, I have faith that it’ll improve as time goes on. Let’s just hope everyone else can enjoy it without bugs soon too!