Borderlands has been an up-and-down series for me. I loved Borderlands 1 and 2, yet I despised many parts of 3. Various spin-offs showed promise, the best of them being Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. Now Borderlands 4 is here, and Gearbox has finally figured it all out. Not only is it the best Borderlands game, it’s one of my favorites ever in the open-world co-op looter shooter (or shlooter) genre. A massive open world filled with a wide variety of excellent content, and unashamed use of all the best mechanics that recent other FPS titles have to offer, and a move away from 3’s meme-focused writing fixes nearly every issue I’ve ever had with the series. Of course, nothing is perfect, even if it is a masterpiece.
Welcome to Kairos
Borderlands 4 takes the more serious nature of the first title and injects it with the best humor the series has had yet. A few characters may be a bit over the top, but none of the story tropes that I couldn’t stand in 2 or 3 are present. Those games had a focus on shocking deaths that were easy to spot from ten miles away. Gone are the easy tropes, replaced instead with high-quality writing that never delves into the memery of past titles.
As a new set of Vault Hunters, you will traverse across a single planet, Kairos. Gone are the galaxy-spanning adventures of three. Kairos is an enormous, densely packed murderer’s delight. There are five major zones, though one is for a specific questline, so I won’t spoil it. You have a wooded/jungle area, in which you’ll start. After a short series of main quests, the entire map is open. You can leave and go for the desert biome, or take on the icy mountains as you please. All of it sticks to your level, and the freedom felt great.
If I had to guess, you could golden path the main quest in 20 or so hours. I highly recommend against doing it, as the side content and world exploration were just as good as any of those main missions. I rolled credits roughly 53 hours into my review period. I wouldn’t be surprised if it took another 50 or more to fully clear the map and complete every current side objective.
As detailed in blog posts and videos by Gearbox, there is a wide variety of endgame content to do as well. It has a focus on mixing up earlier fights, making them far more difficult and rewarding the player with rare, powerful gear. This game is Destiny plus Halo Infinite and DOOM Eternal, without the Games-as-a-Service microtransaction always-online focus, and it is amazing for it.
The Destiny of it is the game world, full of random events and world bosses. Like Halo Infinite, you’ll get a grapple that can move you around or pull in items to toss. DOOM Eternal’s air dash, wall climbing, and Slayer-inspired weapons show up, and it all controls tightly. This world setup is helped along by a good story, for once.
The planet Kairos has been hidden from the galaxy for a thousand years. Its ruler, The Timekeeper, controls the citizens with an iron fist via his Order government and the control bolts he puts in everyone’s neck. The veil hiding Kairos was shattered 6 years ago when a moon appeared in its orbit, destroying the cloaking system and damaging the surface with its repeated bombardments of debris.
For anyone who played Borderlands 3, you know how it ends with a teleporting moon. Despite this game’s marketing barely mentioning 3, this is a direct sequel, albeit set 6 years later. Characters show up, are amazing, and overall, I was thoroughly satisfied with how it all went as the credits rolled. Your job as a Vault Hunter is to help a properly used Claptrap (seriously, he’s around JUST enough) as he and others build up the Crimson Resistance. Fighting across the planet, you’ll make new allies, new enemies, and it never gets overly silly. It’s still dumb as shit at times, it’s just actually funny for once, and kept under control. Speaking of controls…
DOOMerlands 4 Infinite
I’m sorry, but the only code available for this embargo was PC. I do not know of anyone who had an Xbox Series or PlayStation 5 code for any previews or reviews. On my fully AMD rig, the game ran like a dream at 4K max settings. I could get a mostly locked 60FPS using a 5800X and 7900XTX combo, and this was the first time I used Frame Generation and didn’t hate it. It got me up near a locked 120FPS while offering minimal visual arti-facting and no noticeable input latency while using FSR reconstruction.
Gameplay-wise, this is far and away the best a Gearbox game has felt. From the start, you will have a double jump, air dash, and the ability to climb specific walls. Mantling feels good most of the time, though on certain surfaces it refused to activate. Quickly, you’ll unlock the grapple and hover pack. By using the melee button when certain items are within reach, you can either propel yourself forward or yoink throwables into your left hand.
The hover pack lets you do exactly what you’d think. Holding A while in mid-air allows a surprisingly long amount of hover time, which works on a recharging system. Also new to the game is the ability to call in a Destiny Sparrow-like Hoverbike whenever you want. Outside of a select few areas like Dungeons, it is always there and ready to speed you along the game’s massive open world.
Echo-4 is a new companion bot that can hack terminals like Destiny’s Ghosts and give you a direct path to your current objective on a short cooldown. That latter ability is as useful a mechanic as has been added, and I cannot imagine a Borderlands game without it now. For your main quests and contracts, you’ll get a gold and white line that points you directly to where to go, and it works nearly flawlessly.
Both on Mouse and Keyboard and controller, the game is fast, smooth, and never once did I feel cheated in a fight because of it. A lot of BL4’s progression is streamlined as well. Instead of always having to go back to Sanctuary or specific areas, you can now upgrade your SDU (ammo count, backpack space, etc) directly in the UI.
To get the items needed, you’ll unlock the FOBs (forward operating bases) from Halo Infinite with various types of activities around them. Some are straight-up ‘safehouses, others are drilling sites or missile silos. There are various question marks on the map that can be these SDU upgrade giving activities and more. You will want to complete them every time you are near one, as they will become your fast-travel hubs.
Billions and Billions (of guns)
The Destiny inspiration is seen throughout the UI, which I found far easier to read and use than in previous titles. That’s a good thing, because Borderlands moves from ‘millions’ of possible guns into the ‘billions’. Most weapons manufacturers return with a few new additions. Longtime fans of the series know what a Vladof or Torque-style weapon means. For those of you who are new, you’ll quickly find the types you like and those you may not.
For instance, I’m not big on the charge-up weapons or ones with long travel times on their projectiles. Borderlands 4 introduces a new twist on the system, where guns can have multiple manufacturer parts so that your instant-firing shotgun can also use SMG ammo in case you run out of shells.
That is just one of the literal billions of examples of how guns can come out. Different damage numbers, projectile types, alt-firing capabilities, reload behavior, stats, and more are all randomly generated. Thankfully, the UI makes it clear if your currently equipped item is better or worse, raw numbers-wise, at a glance whenever looting, and you will be doing that a lot.
By the end of the game, I had fully upgraded my backpack and could now carry up to 70 items. I filled it up nearly a hundred times throughout my journey and will do it thousands more over the coming years. The improvements to the UI carry over from looting into echo logs and the game’s impressively large amount of character, echo-4, and vehicle customizations.
My main character during this review was Vex the Siren. I figured a ‘pet’ character would serve me best as I mostly played solo, and I was right. She and her various summons kick a lot of ass, and can look cool as hell while doing it. BL4 has a solid variety of heads, player styles (outfit/hair coloring), echo-4 headpieces/paint jobs, and vehicle looks and paint jobs to unlock through gameplay.
You can level up to 50, and once the game’s quest is beaten, you unlock an endless specialization tree. Each of the four vault hunters has three trees, which you can bounce around spending points in, unlocking various action skills, capstones for those skills, and ultimates. As Vex, I mostly used her Reaper and Spectre summons; the first uses a scythe for melee, while the latter uses guns for ranged.
As I leveled up, they got new moves, did more damage, and eventually I could summon a Grim Reaper that siphoned life from everyone around. I’ve jumped around each character a bit now, and outside of doing complete character breakdowns know that you can instantly level any new character to 30 after beating the game, which makes it way easier to try them out.
I believe one particular look was given to me by the Super Deluxe Edition code we received for review. Outside of that, every look and color I’ve unlocked has been a random reward from main missions, side missions, and fulfilling contracts from the game’s various bounty boards. Main and Side missions focus on storytelling, both serious and not. The contracts are your typical “go get this thing” or “go kill this thing”, with smaller rewards based on their shorter time commitments.
By the end of the game, I had unlocked six different vehicle looks. I’m not sure if they handled any differently, as the vehicle engines you’ll also unlock through missions were how to change/improve your vehicle’s stats. There were another six vehicle types, all tied to long, grind-filled challenges.
Those challenges are everywhere in Borderlands 4. Every enemy type, gun manufacturer, main mission, side mission, and general activity has some form of carrot-on-a-stick numbers-go-up challenge tied to it. Some challenges are a single step, mainly missions, while others are up to five steps as you kill enough threshers or get enough Jakob’s gun headshot kills. Many, when completed, offer up rewards that you can quickly accept in your main inventory.
The game’s economy quickly goes into the millions. I had 23 million in cash on me when the credits rolled, and nearly 6,000 Eridium. The first is used for vending machines, and 10% is lost every time you die. The latter is different in BL4, as its main use is in replaying missions or taking on previously defeated bosses in the endgame. For a cost, you can replay content with various modifiers that change each week for a chance at a higher reward.
Add in the returning Ultimate Vault Hunter system and its five levels of difficulty, and your rewards will grow as the difficulty escalates, similar to Diablo, Destiny, and past BL titles. Overall, the progression and builds feel good right now. I’m sure some diehards will outpace me a few days after launch, as I have to shift to reviewing the deluge of September and October releases. For now, after all of these hours, this has been my favorite progression and customization system in a Borderlands game.
Alongside your normal, and quickly unlocked, four gun slots, you’ll have a shield, class item, enhancement item (this makes certain gun types more powerful), and a few new items. First is the ripper kit, which is a heal on a cooldown, with plenty of stats and buffs of its own. Finally, instead of having to rely solely on health drops, you can give yourself a surprisingly powerful heal on command.
The other new slot replaces the grenade. Inspired by the spells of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, you now have the ‘ordinance’ slot. It can be grenades, rocket launchers, miniguns, and more, and it is a fantastic change. Some of the new launchers are extremely fun to use, and the added variety is another thing I wouldn’t want to lose from the series. Much like the game’s far better mix of tones.
Let’s Get Super Serial
Borderlands 4 is the first time they have nailed, at least for me, the mix of serious moments and humor. Borderlands 1 was a bit dour at times, with absurdity more than straight comedy, at least in comparison to 2, 3, and all the offshoots. BL2 had some great moments with its antagonist, Handsome Jack, and how terrible his life went, mixed with the crazy over-the-top comedy moments.
For many, myself included, it went a bit too goofy at times, and that goofiness was only elevated in Borderlands 3. When I got to see BL4 early at Gamescom 2025, the team made it clear that they wanted to mix the best story elements of 1 and 2, without ever mentioning 3 in any way. I’m happy to say that they did it, and Borderlands 4 is not only damned funny, it isn’t annoying as shit. Hell, it isn’t annoying at all outside of a few scenes.
The story is good, and the writing is great. Returning characters aren’t just there to be slaughtered for a shock after being made far cooler/stronger than they ever were before. Instead, the story deftly weaves through serious issues, adding in a bit of the Borderlands absurdity for a laugh or smile when it feels right.
A large part of the story is tied to ‘Ripping’. The Timekeeper uses command bolts to control the citizens of Kairos. Those who rebel, led by one of his former lieutenants named Callis, rip their bolts out of their necks, driving themselves insane in the process (if they live at all). The rippers are the main psychotic, crazy bad guys wearing the iconic mask that we’re used to fighting. Alongside them are The Order, full of human soldiers and robotic synths of different sizes.
Fighting these people as you work with others feels damned good. For once, thanks to being only available on modern platforms, the scope can feel like an actual war. Dozens of enemy and friendly combatants are going at it as the screen explodes in a kaleidoscope of colors and particle effects, which has me a little worried about performance on consoles.
Yes, Once Again, I Could Only Review A Game On PC…
As stated earlier, Borderlands 4 was only available to me on PC for this review. I’ve never seen or played the game on anything except for a PC, either at Gamescom or on my personal rig. This review should be going live right as the console versions start hitting their local midnight launch times. Please look at streamers and those who get performance content up to see how it looks and runs on those platforms.
As far as my personal PC (specs above), the Lenovo Legion Go, and the Steam Deck. As it goes, my experiences were: Fantastic if you’re all AMD on a powerful PC, surprisingly solid on the Legion GO, and completely unplayable on Valve’s handheld. The Steam Deck ran at 20 fps with poor input latency, no matter what I tried. The Legion Go in performance mode held a locked 30fps at mostly low settings, and my PC ran full 4K in FSR Quality mode at a locked 60 or nearly a locked 120 with Frame Generation on.
I normally hate frame gen, as it adds massive artifacting and input latency on AMD systems. It’s a bit better, normally, on Nvidia, but in BL4, it felt and looked great on my home rig. Borderlands 4 is a damned good-looking game, especially maxed out on PC. The HDR is colorful and vibrant, with high-quality textures and excellent art design that takes the game’s cel-shading style and makes it look far better than I can ever remember.
Hell, it barely looks ‘cel-shaded’ as we know it, yet still maintains that classic Borderlands aesthetic. The biome variety hits all the classics, including some stunning spoilery sections that elevate the missions that take place in them. Overall, it feels pretty damn well optimized for Unreal Engine 5. I know that isn’t saying that much, as UE5 can still be a stutter-fest, and I definitely had that occasionally while using my vehicle. When you get crits, mf’ers explode into gore and viscera as well. Limbs fly off, heads turn into goo, and I loved it.
Bugs-wise, it was nearly flawless. It crashed a few times, but only when closing the game out. I fell through the map one time while replaying a mission 55 hours into my review, and there was some Steam wonkiness while trying to play co-op with our EIC, Jon Clarke. That co-op system is great, letting you skip missions in your own playthrough if you’ve already completed them in another player’s world. Borderlands is best with friends, and having my character fighting level 41 enemies, who showed up as level 15 for Jon, made it that much easier to play in co-op.
Finally, the Music… It’s so good. It is epic, mature, full of beautiful strings, and never in the way. Much like the voice acting, it never goes into 3’s ‘cringe’. There’s an almost ethereal nature at times that works well with the Timekeeper and his Order’s art stylings. All the familiar, classic sound effects are back, and the audio mix was perfect while using Dolby Atmos with my gaming headset.
Wrapping Things Up
Open World Loot-focused cooperative shooters are my favorite genre. Borderlands 4 is the best one in it that I’ve played. I have no major faults, only a few minor gripes about one character and how long bodies take to disappear when you want to grab the loot underneath ‘em. Outside of that, Borderlands 4 is a masterpiece. For all the hours I have already played, I could easily see myself putting in another thousand over the years, loving every second of it.
Borderlands 4
Played on
Steam (PC)
PROS
- Gorgeous Graphically
- Top-tier Gameplay
- Smartly streamlined progression
- Excellent UI
- Great writing
CONS
- I did not get to play on console for this review
The game is ok. But “Gorgeous Graphically” shouldn’t be a top factor, expecially if played on a computer with a RTX4090 which costs multiple times a xbox
I have a 5800x CPU and 7900 XTX GPU. The game is gorgeous graphically in the only platform I could play before launch. I don’t see why that shouldn’t be noted.
great writing?!
if written after 2 hours of pre-launch gaming it’s just a terrible mistake…if not corrected after finishing the published game it clearly disqualifies the author of this “review”.