4/5 ★ – IAmAShelton's review of Borderlands 4.

When Gearbox announced Borderlands 4, I had one concern: Will this basically be more Borderlands 3? Great gameplay, but too much adolescent humor, puns based on memes, and a terrible baddie? I’m relieved that the sixth entry in the OG looter-shooter hardly resembles Borderlands 3. Any similarities are found in the improved movement and gun systems. But the story, characters, Vault Hunters, and open world take Borderlands 4 in a notably safe but impressive direction. Pandora, and any references, are almost non-existent. It’s all about Kairos, uncovered after Lilith crashed Pandora’s moon into Kairos’s atmosphere. It’s a beautiful planet, and with just as much chaos as Pandora. It’s ruled by the Timekeeper, a dictator who manipulates Kairos’s citizens into total submission with neurological implants. The resistance group—the Outbounders—is determined to leave Kairos and break free from the Timekeeper’s rule. This campaign is a 180 from Borderlands 3. It’s serious and measured in its comedic attempts. It feels similar to the first Borderlands, but with more character development and dialogue. It’s an intriguing tale, but I struggled to suspend my disbelief over the premise. The Outbounders aren’t nearly as interesting as any character in Borderlands 3, but they’re also not off-putting, which is a welcome palette cleanser after Borderlands 3. The Timekeeper is a menacing character, but you rarely feel his evil. He seems conflicted; he has motivations, but the story doesn’t make interesting use of his motivations or resolve any of his moral conflicts. He’s interesting enough to want more, but what’s given leaves a lot on the table. His lieutenants, who are some of the more exhilarating bosses you’ll fight, are much more interesting as their story has clear motivations and a resolution. Gearbox never called Borderlands 4 an open-world game, but that’s exactly what Borderlands 4 is. Besides two or three areas you have to load into, everything is connected in one large map, and it feels organic. And it’s in step with modern open-world design. This is the standard for Borderlands going forward. But one caveat: I hope Gearbox explores adding more loading segmentation into their open worlds. Hear me out. Borderlands 2 felt very big because of the variety of locations you could visit. Kairos naturally feels big, but it doesn’t have the same variety. The map resembles a Super Mario overworld map, with its segmented zones and a giant circle at its center. Adding zones you can load into provides the variety that Borderlands 2 offered, with the expanse of an open world. With that said, it’s good that Gearbox didn’t add many loading zones because Borderlands 4 has problems with “compiling shaders” and framerate. Every time you load into a new area, you’ll start compiling shaders. And the game will continue to do so in the background while playing, tanking performance. Compiling eventually resolves after 15-20 minutes, making loading much faster, but if you change any graphic settings or apply a patch, you’ll have to recompile the shaders again. It’s a terrible way to play a game. Despite the open world, portions are blocked by invisible walls, breaking my immersion. I’ve seen sections where there should be no reason I can’t jump to or jump over something, but for whatever reason, Gerabox made it off-limits. Sometimes it's just a simple fence I can't get over. Once, I exceeded the boundaries and died while trying to unfog the map. It didn’t look out of bounds. Gearbox added a few lovely quality-of-life features that I’m surprised work as well as they do. My favorite is fast-traveling to a co-op player. Highlight them on the map, and you’ll teleport to them no matter what scenario they’re in. It’s liberating to know that if my partner is doing something I don’t feel like doing, I can do something else, and when I’m ready, I can fast-travel to them. You can pick up weapons as junk now, which makes farming and selling loot easier; you can farm bosses without needing to exit to the main menu; you can skip cutscenes. All of these changes positively streamline previously clunky elements, and brings Borderlands 4 closer to modern looter shooter standards. Another welcome change is the ability to select specific story missions instead of replaying the story to reach whatever you wanted. It certainly speeds up farming. You still have to sit through all the in-game commentary, so hopefully Gearbox gives the option to skip that. Karios has a deceptive level of activity. Order troops patrol roads and various checkpoints, sometimes they spawn out of nowhere, keeping me on my toes, and rarely, some drop in like Hyperion loaders. I’ve seen large groups of badass enemies of different biomes on the roads just daring me to jump them. Giant semi-translucent bubble-looking spheres randomly appear and contain challenging world bosses that drop significant loot. My favorite world event is the Airship, which is a very tough solo challenge but has fun mechanics, plenty of loot, and enemies to shoot. All of that, plus collectibles, side-quests, and Vaults to unlock. There is no shortage of things to do in Kairos, and it feels complementary. Side-quests are very well done in Borderlands 4. That’s where all the humor lies, and some have excellent writing; few of them feel like fetch quests. Some of the standouts have been a loot heist where I have to play Bop-It to unlock the container, and another where I provide therapy to a missile having an identity crisis because it didn’t explode on impact. Side-quests have been pretty good in Borderlands over the years, but Borderlands 4 has some of the best ones in the franchise. Guns feel as Borderlands as ever, but still closer to Borderlands 3, and they mostly still feel good to shoot (not a fan of Ripper guns). A few changes carried over from Borderlands 3 create very interesting interactions with builds. For example, guns essentially get their own class mod called Enhancements. These will boost specific manufacturer parts, should your gun have them. My favorite weapon manufacturer in this game, Vladof, has an enhancement that increases Underbarrerl fire rate by 75%. Other manufacturer enhancements buffed different parts of the gun, and I was able to stick with the guns I liked for longer thanks to these weapon buffs. Shooting enemies has become the most intricate in the franchise. Now, I'm annoyed by how hard it can be to hit enemies because they react so quickly. I'm like an old boxer. I know they're going to do some wild dodge once I shoot them, and I still can't consistently hit them, especially the ones who like to rewind themselves (a comical reversal of what the Maliwan enemies did in Borderlands 3). The collection of enemies and how you need to fight them feels more diverse and interesting, and I think part of that comes from movement, but whatever it is, it makes combat more exciting. As far as movement, the bar is set. This is the best movement in the franchise. Sliding continues to feel great and is as flexible as in BL3, but now there is gliding, grappling, and dashing, which makes combat much more interesting and allows for even more engaging boss encounters. Combining the glide and the dash can take finger dexterity (on mouse & keyboard), but it doesn’t feel like a necessity, just an enhancement. Grappling is limited to specific points, and it would be nice if you could grapple anywhere, but other than scaling mountains, it’s not necessary. The grapple points feel haphazard, though. Sometimes they’re on a climbable wall, sometimes they’re not. Sometimes they’re on cliff faces, sometimes they’re not. There’s no standard, so it’s hard to know where to expect them. Now, about our intrepid Vault Hunters. Unlike the initial previews, they do have a sense of style and their own personality. I’ve played mostly Vex, the Siren, who can obliterate opponents with her witchy powers and minions. Her skill tree has more complexity compared to previous Borderlands games, but there is far more flexibility. From what I’ve played with and heard from others who use other Vault Hunters, the skill trees are very flexible, and all of the characters do have endgame viable builds, which is a relief, as previous entries have struggled to ensure that. Each Vault Hunter has a fun personality, and it’s nice to see them come alive in cutscenes in ways Vault Hunters haven’t been able to previously. Borderlands 4 doesn’t break ground within the genre, but Borderlands 4 modernizes and rejuvenates the franchise, making it one of the strongest entries and definitely among the best looter shooters.