“Borderlands 4 has managed to overcome its own identity crisis and deliver a predictable but undeniably rich experience.”
- More balanced tone
- Tons of ways to express yourself in combat
- Bosses require a thoughtful approach
- Humor still misses quite a bit
- Menus can be overbearing
My favorite mission in Borderlands 4 centered around a talking missile struggling with an identity crisis.
Plenty of sidequests popped up as I drove between main mission objectives, but this one caught my eye. A talking missile asking for help is precisely the style of absurdity Borderlands is known for, so I took a detour to check it out. This missile had landed in a small village, but failed to detonate and was desperate to know why they couldn’t achieve their sole purpose for existing. Was it a mechanical problem, or were they a dud — a failure?
My Vault Hunter and this missile spoke as I gathered the parts needed to relaunch it so it could not only find out the truth, but finally be who (or what) it was destined to be. We spoke about purpose and value beyond what one is “designed” to be, but this missile needed to know the truth.
I won’t spoil the ending of this quest except to say Borderlands 4 played it straight when it so easily could’ve pulled the emotional and philosophical rug out from under me for a joke. This quest is a microcosm of the game’s greatest strength and showcases Borderlands 4‘s evolution from past games. It isn’t afraid to let dramatic moments sit, explore characters in deeper ways, and not rapid-fire jokes at me like a machine gun. The humor is still there, and jokes don’t always land, but the blending of tone struck here is the best in the series.
Borderlands 4 has managed to overcome its own identity crisis and deliver a predictable but undeniably rich experience.
Shut your Claptrap
Borderlands 4 can almost be seen as a reboot of sorts for the series. I am dropped into a new world called Kairos with four new Vault Hunters to play as. Any of the major returning faces, like the series’ mascot Claptrap, don’t play that big a role in the narrative and let a new cast of heroes and villains take center stage.
Borderlands 4 played it straight when it so easily could’ve pulled the emotional and philosophical rug out from under me for a joke.
Kairos is a world under the rule of the mysterious and immortal Timekeeper. Beyond getting power from a Vault, he also subjugates the population by installing Command Bolts to their spines, which allow him to completely override and control them directly. He’s a dictator and oppressor, but his real villainy is in stripping people of their identity.
Below him are his lieutenants I was introduced to with their own twisted plans for Kairos and its people. As charismatic and fun as a villain as Handsome Jack was, his sarcasm and flippant personality constantly goading me kept me from taking him seriously as a threat. The villains in Borderlands 4 are villains; they’re not going to be spitting one-liners and riding Butt Stalions.
One of the major points Gearbox wanted to address with Borderlands 4, following the reception to 3, was regarding the tone. The comedic take on a Mad Max-esque sci-fi world was core to the series’ identity, but was pushed too far for most. With Borderlands 4, humor is still here, but applied with a much more measured approach.
The villains in Borderlands 4 are villains; they’re not going to be spitting one-liners and riding Butt Stalions.
The result is a game with a far better balance of tone. Dramatic moments are given the proper room to breathe without feeling the need to force a joke in, enhancing the impact of both. I was able to get much more invested in the world and its people without being afraid the game would punk me for it by undercutting all the dramatic buildup for gag.
Shoot, loot, repeat
As the pioneer of what the modern looter shooter looks like, Borderlands 4 is focused on refinement rather than reinvention. It knows what its audience wants it to be and is laser-focused on providing the best possible version of that. For the most part, it is a wild success. The new movement options of sliding, double jumping, gliding, and grappling expand the combat sandbox in fantastic ways.
Level design is more dynamic and vertical now, and I was constantly encouraged to stay on the move and use every new tool I had to gain the upper hand. Sliding into jumps and gliding to avoid incoming fire while taking shots as I soar through the air, and punctuating it all with a ground slam, is the kind of expressiveness Borderlands 4 thrives on.
Of course, my character’s identity really shines through guns and skills. The same trick is being used here as before to achieve the supposed 30 billion guns, where the same base models are tweaked with stats, elements, firing modes, and other modifiers to get that amount. There’s still a huge amount of variety here between each weapon type to fit whatever style I preferred at the time, and the licensed parts system added on top allowed me to really tweak my favorite guns to my taste. Grenades and ordinance are also streamlined into one button, which simplifies things perhaps a bit too much. It feels oddly restrictive to choose between a grenade or a throwing knife and a rocket launcher or a Gatling gun that all function on cooldowns.
Character builds are much more freeform. I played as the new Siren, Vex, and could easily change my entire build by swapping out my main skill and augments. The skill trees even encourage this, with some skills under one build directly benefiting the ability from a different build.
Borderlands 4 feels like the idealized version of what this series was always striving to be.
To be as maximally effective as possible, I had to spend a bit longer than I’d like working the menus, but I was able to have a great time through most of the game just equipping whatever new gun had the better DPS stat and picking whatever skill looked coolest. Quest rewards are also dumped into loot boxes in the menu, meaning I had to put a pause on my fun every few missions to tidy everything up. The higher level challenges and endgame content won’t be as forgiving, but the system felt balanced so that I wasn’t forced to min-max anything until I was fully comfortable with all the game’s systems.
The new seamless world structure (which looks, feels, and plays exactly like an open world) is used to great effect. Scooting around, I am constantly distracted by sights, sounds, and curiosities that always lead to some reward. It scratches that checklist-style mentality with things like bases to take for fast travel points and collectibles, but pairs them with emergent world events that can be as simple as a broken-down patrol, a random world boss appearing, or an Airship raid. The way the main plot structures itself, though, is about as boilerplate as it gets; there are three main regions to go to, each with a faction you meet and a Timekeeper lieutenant to take down.
But boy, Borderlands 4 knows how to make a great boss battle. The integration of MMO-like raid mechanics, though not quite as complex, tested me to use all the tools at my disposal like the best bosses do. While I played almost entirely solo for this review, I can’t wait to use the mission replay feature to run some of these fights with friends to master.
No matter what I’m doing in Borderlands 4, I’m always earning something that offers a new way to strengthen my character’s identity. Guns each feel more distinct than ever, making the loot grind that much more enticing. Each fight is an opportunity to flex my personality thanks to the movement system allowing me to approach and react in dozens of ways, with bosses acting as the exclamation point to it all. But most importantly, Borderlands 4 struck the best tonal balance yet. Borderlands 4 feels like the idealized version of what this series was always striving to be.
Borderlands 4 was tested on PC.
