Platform(s): PC (version reviewed), Xbox Series, PlayStation 5
Genre: Looter Shooter, First-Person Shooter, Action RPG

The more things change, the more they tend to stay the same.

For all of the new features, coat of paint, and storyline Borderlands 4 features, there’s just a lot it can’t shake away from. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but there is a huge sense of developers Gearbox trying to overcorrect past “mistakes” from Borderlands 3.

Fourth Time’s A Charm?

For instance, the story: it’s a tad more serious and less “pop culture” jokey now. Borderlands 4’s plot revolves around new Vault Hunters coming down to the planet Kairos and getting enwrapped in a coup against the Timekeeper and his Order. He is protecting a Vault the Vault Hunters are going after, though the rebellion and the amassing of new and familiar faces (like BL3’s Amara and Zane) are the crux of the storyline. This is a great choice, and one I can get behind.

While some characters like Outbounders leader Rush seem like whitebread 2D protagonists, I do like the designs and presence of antagonist Callis, the repentant Zadra, and Defiant Calder. They’re great additions to the already colourful cast and aren’t as obnoxious as the recent additions back in Borderlands 3 onward. While The Timekeeper isn’t on-par with Handsome Jack and Butcher Rose, he’s still a decent villain in his own right, playing mind games with our heroes and being an omnipresent threat through and through. The narrative does throw a few surprises here and there especially for legacy players, so I can’t complain much for trying. It does seem to lose a bit of its soul and comedy chops, which felt greatly balanced in Borderlands 2 and the DLCs in Borderlands 3.

I also have to give props to Gearbox’s tweaking of the looter shooter formula and controls. For starters, your base Vault Hunters have the best abilities and playstyles. Each of the four have different Action Skills (colour-coded for our convenience) and different branches for each Action Skill tree, meaning loads of playstyles and potential to break the game with the right gear and setup. From Amon’s flame-and-ice axes Action Skill and powers that let him transform them into swords with different elements and trigger effects, to Harlowe’s trap bubbles and Mega Buster cannon that plasters enemies with status effects and “share-all” damage nonsense, there’s a lot to love about how the new Vault Hunters play out. Their voiceworks and quips are also fun to listen to.

Your Vault Hunters also can grapple onto hook points, air dash, and double jump, in addition to mounting and other past abilities they have in the last few games. Traversing and jumping around the open world map while fighting the fauna and Order troops and Rippers/Psycho mobs is just enthralling and exhilarating to go through just because of how flexible and fast you control. Speaking of traversal, you also get a speeder bike to make travelling faster, kinda like the Sparrow from Destiny. You know, the game Bungie made that’s clearly inspired by the first few Borderlands game, so it’s OK for Gearbox to do an ouroboros and take ideas from them?

Your guns, be it Legendary ones to even the Blue and Green tiered-ones are a literal blast, with new ones and even classics like the Hellwalker making a return (if you know where to farm it). Speaking of which, rockets, grenades, and other big/throwable weapons are filed under Ordnances – you pull it out, fire until your magazine’s empty, then wait for the cooldown to expire, then repeat.

Healing is also given an upgrade: you carry syringes called Rep Kits that let you heal with a push of a button at any time, then wait for the cooldown so that you can use it again. Much like Shields, Class Mods, and other equippables, Rep Kits have different tiers and different abilities and buffs.

Coupled with said open world with lots to explore and unlock, loads of new areas and towers to climb and get new equipment and collectibles (like SDUs that upgrade your bullet count and backpack storage count), side missions and fast-to-pick-up-and-complete contracts, and boss fights that feel like proper skill-based phase-filled epic battles than attrition wars, Borderlands 4’s gameplay loop and mechanics are improved for the better.

Still, there are some foibles: co-op is the best way to play as boss fights reset everything if you die in a single-player bout. Enemies have big life bars and feel spongey the higher leveled you are, with this feeling more apparent and detrimental in higher difficulty levels post-campaign.

And Fight For Your Life still has its flaws, especially with status effect attacks downing you and there’s no enemy left to kill, leaving you high and dry for a Second Wind revival if you’re solo. Still, it wouldn’t be a Borderlands game without some old-school nonsense like this intact, right? Way to stick it to solo players, Gearbox.

Broken Free?

Long story short, Borderlands 4 is definitely a helluva upgrade and step up from the past base game. Yet somehow the series takes a few steps back with some of its questionable design choices to preserve tradition, like health sponge bosses and single-player being quite a slog the first few times through. Still, it’ll be hard to go back to past looter shooters with the new gameplay changes and features I’m overloaded with. The PC version is still kinda borked and I’m hearing news of the console versions facing memory leaks due to prolonged hours of play.

Check out our video review below for the final score on this kinda-new-yet-kinda-old sequel.