REVIEW: 'Borderlands 4' Is A Return To Form From Gearbox Software
- Christopher Mills
- 21 hours ago
- 7 min read
The Borderlands franchise has always been a staple within the video game industry. It redefined and popularised the looter-shooter genre and took countless hours of our time. In today’s age of gaming, there are countless video games that derive from the functions that Borderlands excelled in but have since lost all sense of that magic which made grinding for hours to have the most powerful build so fun. What’s the point in a looter-shooter game if there’s nothing fresh or redefining being brought to the table? This has been the cost and failure of many games since, such as Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League and free-to-play games like The First Descendant, which not only want your time but more of your money through their microtransactions (battle passes, currency, skins).
Borderlands itself also lost that magic with the release of Borderlands 3. What made Borderlands unique for its time was the grand world filled with rich story to explore and wild characters to interact with. On top of all of that, it had humour that varied from pop cultural references to just outright slapstick, raunchy humour. Borderlands 4, after coming back from a few hard years, could’ve doubled down on the recent additions of looter shooters and even opted for the live service route, but thankfully, Gearbox took some time to reevaluate the franchise, and with that, we get a game that not only serves as a soft reboot but is a refreshing addition to the genre and franchise.
After Lilith’s sacrifice in Borderlands 3 caused the protective barrier of the planet Kairos to shatter while protecting the Pandora moon, Elpis, four new Vault Hunters found themselves searching for vaults before they’re captured by the all-powerful and mighty Timekeeper who rules over the people of Kairos.
With a new planet to explore, Borderlands 4 offers a new gameplay loop that surprisingly hasn’t been a staple of the franchise before, and that is a fully exploitable open world, which made the lack of loading screens such a blissful experience. There are some quality of life changes that come with the grander experience of exploring an open-world map, such as your vehicle being available just from the press of a button instead of having to find yourself a Catch-A-Ride station (R.I.P. Scooter).
Although there’s some ease in that department and they’ve added the inclusion of safehouses you can capture for fast travel points, it eventually becomes redundant when you decide to finally play a new vault hunter and all the map progress you’ve uncovered is wiped. These are simple issues that could be changed with an update, but the sudden switch in characters during my co-op session led to recapturing previous safehouses before we could proceed on with actually playing the game.
A personal highlight for Borderlands 4 was its story. With the people of Kairos wanting to be free from the grasp of the Timekeeper, it allowed for an improved storyline from the last game that was darker in tone, had actual stakes and had brand new characters that are written well and overall feel impactful to the overall story being told. The humour is greatly toned down during the main story, which was a correction needed after the excessive toilet humour from Borderlands 3, and while sometimes the humour can be missed, it does come in small doses that are more tolerable and allow for each joke during the main story to land.
The major downside in the main story is that by the time you reach that final cutscene, you’re left empty-handed, expecting more. There’s a lot they had to pack into a story where there’s a new planet involved, which includes catching up on the whereabouts of previously introduced characters while also setting up the next story arc that we’re likely to follow either through the DLC or just the next ten years of this franchise. It’s slightly underwhelming that the ending doesn’t allow for the story to come together, but it’s clear that Gearbox just wants to play it safely, which has proven to be their best bet.
If you’re missing that humour, then you can find it all within the side missions of the game. Out of the few that I played alongside my friends, there were some which were outright ridiculous. There are two side missions that will come up in this review, the first being “Crack This Guy’s Back”. It’s in the name; you come across a guy having horrible back pain and simply just have to melee him to fix his back, which all leads to setting the mood with candles and finally, jumping from high above and giving him the best crack of his life. This is a mission that’s short, has barely any action (you have to walk through an area with enemies but can skip), and is genuinely just some great humour and an honest break from all the action.
The second side mission is “No Place Like Home” which features Claptrap and is somehow one of the best-written missions in the whole game. He’s not a major part of the game and doesn’t make a last-minute entrance (physically), but this side mission makes up for the lack of Claptrap in the game. The poor little robot misses home, and this side mission is about helping him move on from the past and accept the future. For a character so comical, it was a beautiful moment to finally get the character building that he’s deserved for many years and is just proof of Borderlands 4’s improvement over its predecessor. It’s with side missions like these two where you’re able to get the perfect balance between the humour and tone of the overall game without one or the other feeling saturated.
The four vault hunters offer such a unique and varied playstyle, with some being the perfect fit and others feeling too slow. The two that were attempted on this playthrough were Amon the Forgeknight, who appealed design-wise, but unfortunately his play style wasn't what was advertised, and I lacked the patience to build him to be at his full potential. The star of my playthrough was Vex the Siren, who has the ability to summon beasts and clones of herself to fight in the battlefield. There's been a Siren in almost every game (excluding Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel) and yet Vex feels the most creative with what her skill tree allows her to do and just how powerful you can actually feel as you level up. The strength of a Siren has never felt more real than with Vex in Borderlands 4.
What makes Borderlands is the looting mechanic, and there's a ton of loot to come across, and it never once feels like you've seen it all. Borderlands 4 is the first time where you could find a weapon that combines the traits of two weapons, which allows for maximum destruction. With the specific build that my Vex was working with, she was at her strongest with status ailment switches, which just provided so much chaos in the battle against the Timekeeper. Unfortunately, there felt like there was a lack of pistols and snipers that felt different from one another compared to the shotguns and SMGs, which always felt like they offered a unique experience with each variation found, although moments do arrive when the look hunt gets stalled.
The entirety of the game was played through co-op with two other players, one being on PC and another on the PlayStation 5 just like myself, and it seems like Gearbox hasn't mastered not having server issues on launch. There were countless times when my teammates would be disconnected from the group, and all it ever did was bring a pause to the playthrough. The PlayStation 5 also suffered frame rate issues which mainly occurred in areas with a large spawn rate of enemies or loot drops; it never took from the experience, but it happened enough times to notice that Borderlands 4 wasn't optimised as best as it could've been. Alongside this were some missions failing to continue their objectives, with NPC characters freezing, stopping progress and forcing you to restart your lobby and invite your friends again just to continue the mission, which removes from the overall immersiveness of the game.
Borderlands 4 is the best game in the franchise to release since Borderlands 2 and at times can rival the game. Gearbox returns with a game that plays it safe to its success with a storyline that's darker in tone with the humour dialed down and saved for its side missions, which manage to have a great blend of the two. The four vault hunters all feel unique and captivating as characters, with a few of them feeling as powerful in the gameplay as they are in the story. There are a few bugs and performance issues that will attempt to hinder the overall experience of the game, but with how big of an improvement this game is over its predecessor, the positives begin to outweigh the negatives. Borderlands 4 is the return to form that Gearbox Software needed after the failure of Borderlands 3, and while the ending felt lacklustre in the grand scheme of everything, the future is looking bright for the franchise while bleak for our characters.
Rating: ★★★★☆
About Borderlands 4
Release Date: September 12, 2025
Played On: PlayStation 5
Director: Graeme Timmins
Writer: Sam Winkler
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox Series X/S
Synopsis: Set six years after the events of the last game, the story follows a new group of Vault Hunters in the ancient planet Kairos, who join its local resistance to find the planet's Vault and overthrow the despotic Timekeeper.