Why Borderlands 4’s Chaos Is Too Hard to Resist

After spending +61 hours with Borderlands 4, getting to Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode and clearing pretty much every challenge it had to offer while still having the greater whole of Kairos to explore, I have to say: I did not expect all of that to fall by the wayside because of yet another Randy Pitchford meltdown. In some respects, it’s understandable – when you’ve worked on a game for six years with a budget that dwarfs its predecessor by more than double, you’re bound to become…let’s say, excitable. Perhaps not to the extent of telling players to get a refund if they’re not happy, or that Customer Support isn’t even reporting that many issues, or providing inaccurate advice on optimizing performance, or… but I digress.

Somehow, despite all that, Borderlands 4 has been a success. Sales have yet to be officially announced, but Alinea Analytics reports over two million copies sold in its first week. Over one million are from Steam alone, with total revenue apparently hitting $150 million. Even more telling is the player numbers – not only is it the biggest launch on Steam by a wide margin, but the daily peaks have been pretty impressive. Even among all the reviews rightfully criticizing performance, optimization, and Pitchford, some enjoy the experience (and even say that you should at least grab it on discount).

But the sequel’s success probably isn’t all that surprising. Even with all the criticism towards Borderlands 3’s story, it ended up being the fastest-selling game in the series, with extensive praise for the gameplay. Borderlands 4 improves on that even further with more mobility, even better-feeling gunplay, and the most character customization yet. And much as I have my issues with the story – the new characters feeling mostly bland, the repetitive nature of objectives, how the actual overarching narrative is only really advanced (and that too sparingly) by the end – it feels like Gearbox addressed a good many concerns.

Legendaries feel more special, not dropping by the boatload like in Borderlands 3, but just enough to keep you farming for that perfect roll or something close to it. Licensed Parts facilitate this even further, creating as much joy as frustration (with all due respect, get Ripper Mags out of the game). I didn’t think having the option to instantly rematch against bosses would feel this amazing, but I lost many an hour because of “one more run.”

The endgame feels challenging, especially from the beginning if you’re nowhere near level 40. But while it seems nigh-impossible, all of the systems – the Specializations, the Legendaries, the Firmware bonuses, Skill Trees, Legendaries, and whatnot – start clicking into place. You begin to feel stronger – maybe not outright unstoppable, but more than enough to actually trivialise a few encounters.

All of this works in conjunction to scratch that deeper itch among looter shooter fans – to not just grind towards something but to feel like that grind is meaningful. More status damage, even if it’s only one percent in the Specialization tree, that too for free? A Legendary Shield that provides insane health regeneration and damage reduction? Watching it all contribute to making your build even stronger than before? It’s satisfying. And the overall gameplay makes it enjoyable to keep pulling the trigger or tossing grenades or summoning a small squad of Phase Clones to lay waste to the opposition and so on and so forth.

Another element that I think helps Borderlands 4 stand out is its very nature as a looter shooter. Say what you will about its humor, even now, or the overall gameplay loop – Gearbox understands the kind of game it’s meant to be. Not a live service shooter like Destiny 2, which introduces an insane Power level grind and wants you to keep logging in for meager gains while trying to muster up some interest in the story, but a relatively one-and-done narrative experience with an equally completable endgame. It shows you the ceiling of the current experience, how to get there and leaves the rest up to you.

If you want to min-max that even further to melt bosses in a matter of seconds, well, what else is the point of a looter game?

This doesn’t mean that Gearbox won’t add on to the experience post-launch with new mini-events, Invincible bosses, Vault Hunters or story missions. The weekly ritual of Big Encore Boss, Wildcard Mission and Maurice’s Black Market also provides incentives for logging in regularly. And yet, this isn’t a live service experience in all the best ways. There’s no social hub where you have to log in and see all these other players wandering about (unless you want to engage with co-op, of course).

It’s fully playable offline. There are tons of cosmetics and customization options available to unlock by simply – and I know this is crazy for Bungie – playing the game. Even the Vault Card, which can be compared to a battle pass, consists of cosmetics only. All the gear, everything that makes the game worth playing, is contained in actually playing the game. A novel concept, for sure, but a welcome one.

I’m not going to trash all live-service looter shooters, but the number of titles that have gotten things horribly wrong (and possibly shut down as a result) is far too high. That Borderlands 4 manages to side-step most of its issues while also fundamentally fixing many that have plagued the series is pretty impressive. Not to mention that it’s worth checking out for fans who aren’t insane min-maxers and simply want to explore the world, learning more about its characters, discovering new lore that ties into the greater universe, and much more. I feel like Kairos isn’t getting enough attention for how fun it is to explore, even if some of the exploration tools, like the compass, need further revamping.

At some point, player numbers for Borderlands 4 will plummet into the tens and thousands, maybe falling below the live-service games, prompting some pointing, laughing and comments of “dead game.” Gearbox will eventually nerf some build or the other, angering a huge chunk of the player base that grinded for hours on end. Randy Pitchford will probably (well, almost certainly) have another meltdown. The story DLC and new Vault Hunters could very well disappoint. As with any video game with post-launch updates and expansions, many things can go wrong, Pitchford debuff notwithstanding. And once Gearbox is done with all that, it will move on to the next thing. There may not even be a new Borderlands until a decade later, forget picking up all these threads that have been established.

But there’s something comforting about an experience like this that feels complete in its present state, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the reported millions of other players felt the same. Between all the controversy over the supposed $80 price that thankfully never came to pass, or whether the current price is worthwhile given the number of technical issues, sometimes, having a game that you can have fun with and stop playing, maybe to come back to later (or not), is really all it takes (though of course, everything else helps as well). Maybe that’s something to remember even as the industry seemingly clings to live service against all odds and annoyances.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.