Borderlands 4 Review

Borderlands is back… or at least that’s what longtime fans of the famed looter-shooter are hoping for with Borderlands 4. With the third installment not performing as well as people had hoped, Gearbox Software has gone back to the drawing board and has dug deep into its bag of tricks to bring its best foot forward for this installment.

Our preview impressions were highly positive, highlighting the extensive customization that players will be afforded, while also addressing the issues that plagued its prior release. The game promises to elevate the franchise’s signature pillars of gunplay, humor, and expansive worlds into what could be its most ambitious installment yet.

Does the game live up to the lofty expectations? Mostly, yes!

Look Like a Vault Hunter

Borderlands 4’s storyline revolves around the Timekeeper, a being who has placed Kairos under complete control. Everyone remains obedient thanks to devices called bolts, which are strapped onto them and can be accessed by the Timekeeper at any time. One thing has led to another, and Vault Hunters have now found their way into the once-isolated planet of Kairos, with the people slowly but surely forming a resistance to break free from the Timekeeper.

It reads like an entertaining yet unoriginal premise, which is somewhat par for the course. That said, much of the criticism from the previous entry, which highlighted the writing along with the questionable choice of villains, has been addressed to some degree. The Timekeeper is quite different (in a good way) from the Calypso Twins, and the story and its elements are quite engaging early on. While the writing has been toned down, it still includes some eyebrow-raising lines here and there, which is not surprising at this point.

While the narrative rarely reaches great heights, it strikes a good balance between humor and seriousness, with several moments often poking fun at various references and elements that offer comedic relief amidst the main story. Some character interactions miss the mark, along with Claptrap being a bit too noisy at times, but it’s definitely an improvement from its predecessor.

Borderlands 4 brings back its signature art style, a blend of vibrant colors and pronounced inks and lines that make its aesthetic really pop. The game looks great, much like any other Borderlands title, though the overall look is elevated with modern lighting and particle effects. Character models also look amazing, and the arsenal in the game is well-designed, making killing the Timekeeper’s forces a stylish affair.

Topping off Borderlands 4 is an equally rocking soundtrack, which brings every gunfight and skirmish to life. Weapon feedback is great, especially as shotgun blasts and sniper headshots connect with their targets. Though some of the cast performances are a mixed bag, it remains passable overall.

Customize Away

Borderlands 4 doubles down on what is arguably its most significant improvement: choice. Players will gain access to four new Vault Hunters in Amon, Rafa, Harlowe, and Vex, each with a distinct playstyle that can be broken down further through the game’s many build combinations.

Take Rafa, for example. An exo-hunter, Rafa has control over three action skills, each with their own skill tree. One of his action skills is Arc-Knives, which replaces his guns with blades that deal melee damage while marking enemies for increased damage. Further down the skill tree, there are “Augments” that change how the action skill works, such as an augment that allows Rafa to regain health while killing an enemy with the Arc-Knives.

On top of this, players can further invest skill points in the rest of the skill tree, which houses the usual stat or skill improvements and passives. There’s a lot to consider here, and with three action skills to choose from and full skill trees per action skill, that’s a lot of build crafting for aspiring Vault Hunters. Enough to be a bit intimidating, especially when considering the weapons you can mix and match to increase the effectiveness of your build further.

Perhaps our favorite is Vex the Siren. In our preview, we toyed around with a build that centered on summoning a spectral ally that would distract and tank enemies while dealing damage. Further along in our playthrough, and thanks to the game allowing respecs anytime for a fee, we experimented more and ended up with a build that leverages the bleed status through critical hits while utilizing the Incarnate action skill, which allows her to recover health and increase her survivability.

Borderlands 4 does not stop there, as weapon customization greatly impresses. The game features eight gun manufacturers, each with its own signature trait. Maliwan weapons mainly focus on dealing elemental damage, while Jakobs weapons will ricochet projectiles to nearby enemies on critical hits. While Hyperion and Dahl have bitten the dust, Borderlands 4 introduces three new manufacturers: Order, Ripper, and Daedalus.

Daedalus weapons can switch ammo modes, which allows for some crazy combinations, such as an assault rifle firing sniper rounds. Ripper weapons need time to wind up, similar to a Gatling gun, but will release rounds rapidly soon after. Our favorite among these new manufacturers is Order, which also uses a charge-up mechanic but will fire a certain number of rounds at the same time, depending on how long you charge your gun. Imagine firing five sniper rifle rounds all at the same time, and you’ll see heads popping everywhere.

Borderlands 4 also implements the licensed parts system, which is basically the ability for weapons to have various manufacturer parts. As you can imagine, combinations can get pretty scary, but the grind for these will hearken back to the days of the older titles, and getting that ultra-rare combination might make the time spent grinding worthwhile.

Adding to these updates is that the game allows for four main equipment slots to accommodate your primary weapons, while heavies and grenades occupy a unique slot called “Ordnance,” which doesn’t require ammo but instead operates on a cooldown. Even health recovery gets a twist via Repkits, which function like cooldown-based potions for when you need a quick health refill when the health pack drops from encounters is not enough. These are welcome (and logical) changes, although weapon switching is not the most intuitive thing.

Dynamic and Living Open World

Borderlands 4’s new setting, Kairos, presents players with a brand new landscape to explore, and it also implements some fantastic updates that make roaming the world fun. Players are no longer limited to just running around and strafing, as the game provides access to various tools that add much-needed agility and verticality to the mix.

Early in the campaign, you’ll acquire a grappling hook for scaling cliffs and hurling environmental objects at foes, plus a glider for bridging large gaps. These aren’t tools that are limited to traversal, but combat encounters will also present opportunities to use these tools, making engagements more dynamic and encouraging creative positioning.

Borderlands 4 also gives players a ride early on in the game, the Digirunner, which is useful for getting from point A to B in a jiffy. If players lose their way, Echo-4 is a constant companion that can guide them in the right direction, showing an easy-to-follow path to the next objective and keeping players focused on the gameplay.

The Borderlands 4 open world is home to dynamic events like ambushes or the many side quests and mini-bosses scattered around. Silos are also present, which are key locations that can house important Vault Key Fragments that unlock high-level dungeons or act as fast-travel points that make traveling easier. Apart from that, players will also be given the chance to choose which area and boss to tackle first once they reach a certain point in the campaign, so playthroughs where I would take Idolator Sol down first may differ from others.

Speaking of bosses in Borderlands 4, they’ve undergone quite the change as well, shedding their bullet sponge nature in favor of a more dynamic encounter that has mechanics and phases. Idolator Sol, for example, will spawn mobs of enemies that can increase in number quickly or be used to replenish his armor if not taken care of. In between this, he also has an armor that needs to be destroyed first using the environmental objects scattered around the arena, along with an AOE attack that covers half of the fighting space.

Bosses have actual mechanics in this game, and what’s even better is that the fights are actually pretty engaging and fun, as long as you make an effort to figure things out and not just go in blasting away. All of these mechanics and updates really go back to Borderlands 4’s dedication to choice, providing players with ways to approach and go about things.

Welcome to the End

As you may know, finishing the campaign is only the beginning for some games, and in Borderlands 4, the team is introducing a more dynamic and rewarding experience for players. Chasing god rolls and legendaries (and grinding bosses) is the name of the game, and players can do that with the introduction of Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, which ramps up difficulty while offering greater loot incentives. This mode has more difficulty levels, which players can access by ranking up through challenges, unlocking better gear as they progress.

And if that’s not enough, new Specialization skill trees and Firmware will also be introduced, which dials up the customization to 11. You can think of Firmware as essentially what gear sets are in other games: these are not weapon drops, but you can combine them to take full advantage of their perks, as having more pieces will unlock additional benefits. Specialization skill trees are new trees that players can pour points into for even more HP or damage upgrades.

Additionally, there are Weekly Wildcard Missions, which rotate challenges and modifiers to keep gameplay fresh and unpredictable, while testing your character (and your build) to see if you can hold your own against the big and bad vault hunters in the endgame. Along with that, Raid Bosses are also present, giving more challenges to deal with post-campaign.

Overall, this seems to be a step in the right direction for the endgame. Still, there are indeed many factors, such as drop percentages, balancing, and long-term engagement and support, that will determine whether Borderlands 4 can extend playtime meaningfully by offering theorycrafting opportunities and not just dumping activities left and right.

PC Performance

Here’s the system we used to play Borderlands 4:

• Ryzen 5 5600x, 16 GB DDR4 3600 RAM, NVIDIA 4070 Super, 1TB NVMe SSD

And here are the System Requirements for Borderlands 4:

Minimum

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10 / Windows 11
• Processor: Intel Core i7-9700 / AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 / AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
• Storage: 100 GB available space

Recommended

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10 / Windows 11
• Processor: Intel Core i7-12700 / AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
• Memory: 32 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 / AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
• Storage: 100 GB available space

On PC, Borderlands 4 delivers a mostly stable experience, though not without hiccups. Testing on our rig, the game generally runs at 60 FPS on high settings with DLSS on and no frame generation. However, shader compilation stutters emerge when entering new areas, and unexplained frame drops occur during exploration.

We were advised late in the review period that a patch would fix general issues, and once we had updated, we had to compile shaders twice (!) before getting to play. It does seem to perform smoother than before, and the stutters look like they’re gone, but we’ll do further tests. Despite that, these performance issues don’t entirely cripple the experience but are definietly noticeable in an otherwise polished presentation.

Verdict: Buy it!

Borderlands 4 is back in great form thanks to its exceptional customization, dynamic open world, and reinvented boss battles. Gearbox Software clearly listened to its community, addressing past critiques with a sprawling, interactive map, expansive skill trees, and guns that feel genuinely unique.

PC performance is passable but requires minor tweaks, while narrative and UI blemishes don’t substantially diminish the experience. These are minor nitpicks in the grand scheme of things and should not distract us from the fact that Borderlands 4 is another fantastic addition to the long list of games released this year.

*Borderlands 4 was reviewed on a PC with a review code provided by the publisher.