Borderlands 4 Review – DID THEY MESS IT UP?
After years of mayhem and mountains of loot, Borderlands 4 has been delivered six years after the third, promising bigger guns, faster chaos, and more Vault Hunter action than ever before.
Kickin’ Booty
The lineup of Vault Hunters here are easily the strongest yet, where every single one feels viable, fun, and powerful, whether you’re soloing bosses or running co-op chaos with mates. The open-world gunplay is still pure dopamine too, with gory explosions, double jumps, gliding, grapple hooks, ridiculous loot drops and more. You’ll constantly find new gear that makes you rethink your build, and it’s where Borderlands 4 draws a lot of its enjoyment.
Zooming around on your own customisable Digi-Runner makes getting around a breeze, as you can summon this hover-car almost anywhere and take down any unfortunate souls nearby like a Ghost from Halo. Good times.
Unfortunately, the story and characters will make you want to stare a hole in the wall instead. Gone are the big personalities like Handsome Jack or Tiny Tina, making you give a damn. Instead, you get a bland cast of one-note cliches who’ll barely hold your attention, faffing about a plot that our Vault Hunters don’t have much of a reason to partake in. And the pacing? Ooft…
Stuttering Lands
By the halfway point, you’ve seen pretty much all the enemy types, and then the deja vu starts to set in. Plus, you’ll have to grind dull side quests just to keep your level on par with the campaign and stop thy foes’ sponginess, unless you wanna play on easy mode. Though even then, you may start dealing less and less damage as you go.
The graphics aren’t great either. At times, straight-up awful, with a couple of major bugs that caused me to soft-reset and lose progress. However, the game does run smoothly enough on base PS5s at a consistent 60FPS, apart from a few cutscenes that lagged like a discount PowerPoint presentation.
Even with Performance turned on, the frame rate was struggling around 20-30FPS in the thick of it.
In split-screen, couch co-op, it’s nowhere near as smooth. Even with Performance turned on, the frame rate was struggling around 20-30FPS in the thick of it. This mode makes for some wacky antics with mates, if (and only if) you can grin and bear those precious frames dropping before your eyes.
Decision
Borderlands 4 delivers a quality looter-shooter experience. Featuring the mightiest roster of Vault Hunters yet and chaotic, open-world gunplay that’s a tonne of fun. Sadly, the story and pacing falls flat with bland characters, repetitive enemies and grindy side quests that drag down the flow. Add in inconsistent visuals and rough co-op performance, and you’re left with a game that nails the action but misses the mark in other key aspects.
By Anthony Culinas – Reviewed on PlayStation 5
Good
In an ironic twist, Borderlands 4 has been refined to a point where it’s forgotten itself in the process. Though if you’re here for lootin’ and shootin’, this is peak Borderlands gameplay. Everything else will ultimately feel hollow.
This game was reviewed using a download code provided by 2K. The Beta Network uses affiliate partnerships, however, this does not influence reviews or any other content published. The Beta Network may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links that are on the website.
