Borderlands 4 review

While everyone complains about the technical state that Borderlands 4 released in, whether it’s choppy performance or the lack of an FOV slider on consoles, I found myself on the much happier end of the spectrum. Aside from the gruellingly slow start, where I was drowning in weak pistols and absolutely no other weapon types, playing this game had me smiling like an idiot about how it’s the best Borderlands yet.

Admittedly, it’s a series I’ve never really clicked with, all previous attempts having ended in boredom. Borderlands 4, though, is different. Almost everything about it, from the world design to the power variety of the playable Vault Hunters, has been improved or refined, to the point where I’m actually annoyed that I have to stop playing so that I can write up this review. This game is consuming me.

Once again, it all begins with the choice of one of four Vault Hunters. While everyone fights for the witchy goth girl Vex – because of course gamers love their goth girls – I went with gravity-manipulating scientist Harlowe, and while that was because I’m also a sucker for a bit of hair dye, I don’t actually recommend basing your choice on appearance. Even more so than previous games, the mercs of Borderlands offer impressively distinct playstyles.

If, for example, you prefer getting up in enemies’ faces, then Amon the Forgeknight – with his variety of melee abilities – is likely a better pick for you. For those who want an easier solo run, poster girl Vex can provide you with high damage and the ability to spawn in minions to fight on your behalf. Rafa, who packs a holographic exosuit, is a great hybrid, allowing you to jump in and melee before quickly backing out to pelt survivors with ranged abilities. Still, in Harlowe, a runner-gunner with a giant bomb and a lot of crowd control was just what I needed.

I also appreciate Borderlands 4 finally ditching Pandora in favour of new hellplanet Kairos, a previously hidden world ruled with an iron fist by new big baddie the Timekeeper. Glorious leader to his overly loyal lackeys and public enemy number one to everyone else, the Timekeeper stars in a pretty good introductory sequence in which you bust out of one of this prisons, though it’s odd how he’s set up with the completely overpowered ability to possess anyone wearing one of his control bolts – which includes you – and yet declines the opportunity to just snap your neck as soon as you start causing trouble.

The opening hour also sees you reunited with the one, the only… Claptrap. Except in another case of Borderlands 4’s improved sensibleness, he’s only really there to introduce you to Kairos proper – an open world split into four regions, each with their own objectives and questlines – before promptly leaving. The game is much, much better for it, and don’t even mean this in an edgy ‘It’s cool to hate Claptrap’ way. I genuinely cannot stand that robot and how his voice grates on me. Thank you, Gearbox, for hearing my cries.

There was still something else on my mind during these early stages. Namely, “Where are all the guns?” It makes sense to have stronger weapons limited to later levels, but it takes a while for Borderlands 4 to actually find its feet simply because you’re largely limited to simple pistols for the better part of a couple of hours. After coming across my first good-spec SMG, however, I was hooked, and not just because of my new firepower. Where even to start with what Borderlands 4 does better – dare I say, everything?

Take Kairos itself, which finally gives the series its first true open world, with zero loading screen interruptions. It’s more fun to traverse as well, with majorly improved movement mechanics that let you double-jump, grapple, or jet-pack across the alien landscape. You can utilise these in combat too, grappling to vantage points or hovering behind cover as you heal up – moves that, in particular, suit Harlowe’s aggressive style perfectly.

The ability to summon a personal vehicle on command also does away with the awkward moments in previous games where you’d need to run to the nearest spawn point for new wheels. These customisable hoverbikes get the job done even if they’re not that amazing to drive, and your robot buddy Echo having sat-nav makes getting from place to place literally as easy as following a straight line on the ground. So long as it works, anyway – sometimes Echo will just shrug at you or tell you it can’t find a path despite there clearly being one.

Of course, as with any Borderlands game, a lot of missions require you to traipse away to far-off locations just to have a single conversation with some sucker before going to the next waypoint, meaning you spend a lot of time simply travelling. However, one neat change is that you rarely have to rush all the way back to base to ‘complete’ a mission. You also get access to fast travel, though it’s limited to only a few key locations and then safehouses you have to take over. This can be a tad frustrating, particularly when some checkpoint locations are hundreds of metres away from where a fight is taking place.

There’s been a keener improvement to each Vault Hunter’s skills and build potential. Everyone gets three skill trees, stemming off three variations on their unique Action Skills, allowing for greater flexibility than in past Borderlands games and more opportunities to tailor your Vault Hunter to suit your playstyle.

The powers themselves are more satisfying too, as well as being more diverse. For instance, Harlowe’s CHROMA Accelerator, which throws out a huge, freezing cold energy orb, was my absolute cup of tea. A giant explosion which not only does impact damage, but also leaves behind radiation to deal damage over time? You can’t go wrong.

Thanks to the scale of options when it comes to selecting an Action Skill and placing action points, you can easily ensure you feel the same about your character. If you suck at aiming, you can still make this game fun by opting for explosive AOE damage, or – if you’re running Vex – picking up an ability that creates a massive saber-tooth tiger to fight on your behalf. If you want to buff out your already perfect aim (pfft, show-off) then you can do so by picking up skills which empower your guns.

There’s definitely something for everyone, far more so than in Borderlands 3. Suboptimally levelling up your skill tree isn’t punishing, either. You can experiment, try out new abilities, and then easily go and reset them at a respec machine for a minimal cost. If something isn’t working, it’s not the end of the world.

Borderlands 4, mind you, can be difficult. You’ll progress through the game and absolutely obliterate the Timekeeper’s loyal companions, and by absolutely obliterate, I mean die over and over again trying to beat them; take a break from playing the game; go outside for a cigarette; come back; die over and over again, then finally by the skin of your teeth win the battle.

Even so, for me, this challenge played into how much more I enjoyed this over previous Borderlands games. No matter how overpowered your Action Skill becomes or how good your guns get, you’ll still struggle, which makes those narrow wins all the more much more satisfying. I cannot describe how good it felt when, after sixth attempts to fell a particularly high-ranking boss, I finally got to watch them keel over.

And, when the campaign gets too exhausting (or when you’ve run out of cigarettes), there are countless side missions to take on instead, many of them both silly and charming. Whether it’s a couple whose farm animals are seemingly being abducted by aliens or a sentient rock who wants to be able to fly, there are loads of quirky (but not Claptrap-annoying) characters who fill out the world of Kairos and remind you that, for all the surrounding political unrest, it doesn’t always need to be suit-and-tie serious business.

After the excessive wackiness of Borderlands 3, with its shoehorned-in jokes and memes, Gearbox have indeed kept the main story of part 4 more grounded. The laughs haven’t been abandoned to achieve this, though – they’ve just been shifted into those sweeter side missions. Another wise choice.

Borderlands 4 takes everything that worked about the previous games, removes the majority of the hindrances (cough Claptrap cough), and refines its RPG aspects, all of which make this easily the best Borderlands I’ve ever played. It has its share of issues: not just the tech stuff, but also what sometimes feels like endless travelling and the overabundance of terrible weapons. But what is Borderlands, even a much-improved one, without its billions of garbage guns?