Borderlands 4 Review
The latest looter shooter in this mayhem-filled series
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE MAY CONTAIN DISCUSSIONS involving SPOILERS FROM Borderlands 4 and previous games in the Borderlands series. It also contains discussions about violence. CONSIDER WHEN AND WHERE IT WOULD BE APPROPRIATE TO READ THIS PIECE.
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We Reviewed our copy of Borderlands 4 on PC via Steam.It is currently also available now on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC via Epic Games.
The long-awaited Borderlands 4 has finally been released, and I could not wait to begin playing it. I have been playing this series since the original Borderlands released back when I was in sixth grade. Countless hours of sleepless sleepovers were spent looting and shooting with friends in Borderlands and Borderlands 2. For me, Borderlands 4 does not just need be a great game – it must be nostalgic enough for me to enjoy the game like I did with previous games in the series over a decade ago.
While the Borderlands series has always had fun and engaging gameplay, it is story-based role-playing game (RPG) before any of the gameplay. The original Borderlands and Borderlands 2 had great story; the first drew players in and the second kept them wanting more. More never really came though… The next two main story Borderlands - The Pre-Sequel and Borderlands 3 – were two massive steps down from the story quality of the first two games. Especially after the disaster that was the Borderlands 3 story, the Borderlands series developers, Gearbox Software, and publisher, 2K, needed to make Borderlands 4 as successful as their first two games. Personally, I think they have done it.
The Story
Borderlands 4 is set six years after the final events of Borderlands 3 on the planet Kairos and is the first game that does not take place on Pandora. The Order, led by the Timekeeper, has ruled over and kept Kairos (and its vaults) hidden from the rest of the galaxy without problem for over a millennium. This tyranny has been facilitated by a technology known as the “Bolt.” The Bolt is a cybernetic implant that is attached to all citizens of Kairos’ nervous systems, allowing the Order to track, control, and even remotely detonate any Bolted citizens that step out of line.
The Order’s only began to be opposed after the final events of Borderlands 3, when Lilith the Siren teleported the entire moon of Pandora, Elpis, after the Kalipso twins had weaponized the moon to destroy Pandora. Lilith did not know where she was teleporting it, so it just happened to be teleported into the orbit of Kairos. The appearance of Eplis, known as the “Invader Moon” to the people of Kairos, has began to chip away at the uninterrupted rule of the Order. This event inspired two new factions to immerge and oppose the Order. The first new faction is the Rippers, made up of people who have either chosen to or forcefully had their Bolt ripped out of them. This effectively releases them from the control of the Order, but has massive mental, physical, and even fatal side-effects – the Rippers are the series-defining Psychos that Borderlands has had all its previous games.
The second new faction is the Crimson Resistance, which is a mishmash of a variety of smaller groups that oppose the Order. Named after Crimson Raiders from past games and led by the infamously annoying CL4P-TP (aka Claptrap), this is the faction that players play under and ultimately works toward building up as part of the story to take down the Order. Players can choose to play as one of four Vault Hunters who came to Kairos in search of Vaults but were captured and Bolted by the Order.
At the beginning of the story, it is unclear how Borderlands 4 and the rest of the series are connected. As it progresses, you encounter characters from past games, hear their stories about why they are on Kairos, and the connection becomes much clearer. Of course, there is much more depth and nuance to the story and Vault Hunters, but I’ll let you discover all that yourself if you are interested. However, the developers of Borderlands 4 teased the game as one anyone can jump into and understand even if they did not play past games. I wholeheartedly disagree and would say that a decent chunk of the story will be very confusing if you have not played all the past games (i.e. Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and Borderlands 3). Despite this, you are still likely to have fun with the game if you like RPGs and/or looter shooter genres.
New Gameplay Mechanics
While the story is good and a very important part of Borderlands 4, I believe it is the gameplay and mechanics that are pushing this game toward greatness. From revamped character class trees to new movement mechanics to speed up gameplay, there are a lot of innovative new and revamped gameplay mechanics to be excited about:
Character Class Trees: Unlike past Borderlands games where there was one ability and all three class trees work toward augmenting it, each Vault Hunter in Borderlands 4 has three abilities and their class trees can augment any one of them. Only one ability can be used at a time, but this provides players with the ability to try numerous different builds on a single character.
Movement Mechanics: Between old movement mechanics repurposed for this game, and completely new map movement mechanics, gameplay in Borderlands 4 is much faster than past games. The double jump and glider pack from The Pre-Sequel are back and better than ever in Borderlands 4. Combine that with the new grapple hook and wall climbing around specific areas of the world, and the map traversal becomes very fun and interesting both in and out of combat.
Boss Replay-ability: Long gone are the days of “Quitting to Main Menu” to be able to fight a boss again. The new Moxxi’s Encore Machine positioned at the beginning of every boss fight in the game allows players to infinitely fight any boss without any loading screens. Farming bosses for their dedicated legendary drops has become much easier in Borderlands 4.
World Map and Vehicle Revamp: Kairos boasts a nearly seamless and massive open world map. Pair this with the new ability to spawn a vehicle almost anywhere for quick way to get where you want to go without loading screens. The only exceptions to these open-world features are instanced areas where important story bosses are positioned, which do cause loading screens to get to.
Exploration: Within the open world of Kairos, there is good incentive to explore. Exploration allows players to find collectables that add context to the story, unlock fast travel stations, and gain quality-of-life perks like increased inventory space and/or increased ammo carrying capacity for the gun type of your choosing.
End Game Revamp: Upon completing the story and reaching the end, players have the option to further increase the difficulty for higher quality loot through Ultimate Vault Hunter Levels. In past games, reaching the higher difficulties required the player to play through the entire story again. With this revamped system, players only have to defeat certain bosses and re-do certain story missions.
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With all the new gameplay features and mechanics, there are a ton of reasons to play and replay the game. Each playable Vault Hunter has several good builds, so making multiple characters is a great way to keep the gameplay fresh. Farming specific bosses to craft the perfect build is also something many players enjoy. Or simply sticking to one character exploring the world, completing all the side quests, and collecting all the collectables – that’s what I did and thoroughly enjoyed over the course of my 70+ hours of gameplay.
However, if Borderlands 4 is going to last the test of time, it needs to fix some of the issues it has. Most importantly, it has a massive performance issue. Only newly built PCs (with expensive high-end parts) or newly purchased consoles (within the last year or two) can run the game well at the default settings or better. Everyone that does not have access to high-end PCs or consoles must run the game on medium to low settings and even then, may have a tough time running the game well and experience game crashes.
Another smaller issue, reaching the end game and the maximum Ultimate Vault Hunter Level is unintuitive and confusing. The game does not tell you how to get there, instead players have to find out on their own by exploring the Challenges in the Missions menu.
Outside of these pretty glaring issues, the game is very solid and has the potential to be a game people would be happy to play years down the line. Luckily, both issues are easily fixable through updates and patches from the developers.
There are several major content updates planned for the end of 2025 and beginning of 2026. New legendary items, new “Invincible” bosses, new playable Vault Hunters, Holiday themed events, new Zones with more story and side quests, and a new “Pearlescent” item tier above legendary (just like in past Borderlands games) are all things to look forward in Borderlands 4. If these new pieces of content are as good as the base game currently is, the game is positioned to be a great game that will be played and remembered for years to come.
Matt
New video game, movie, or TV show? Matt probably has it on his radar, and he might even be in the middle of reviewing it. This digital entertainment enjoying dude is a Content Writer during work hours, then plays games, watches movies, binges shows, and writes about all of it in his free time.