Coming six years after Borderlands 3, Borderlands 4 has had adequate time to steam and get baked inside the oven. Borderlands is a series known for its quirky setting, guns, and unique cast of characters. And we’re getting a lot of those again this time. Prior to its release, Borderlands 4 promised a lot of the same thing, which in this case, is usually a great thing. But is it actually great? Is Borderlands 4 a game that you should spend money and time? Or is it just another money-grabbing sequel slapped with a recognizable name? Read our Borderlands 4 review to know more!
Instead of the usual planet, “Pandora”, where the first three Bordlerlands were set in, we get to transfer to a new planet in Borderlands 4. This new world, “Kairos”, is a prison planet managed by the Timekeeper, a powerful tyrant that controls the world’s resources and people with an iron fist. Previously invisible to the outside, Kairos’ invisibility was broken by the crashing of “Elpis”, Pandora’s moon teleported during the climax of Borderlands 3’s events. After being abruptly revealed to the outside world, Kairos then becomes a popular place for people to crash land.
More importantly, a vault, a place where alien races hid valuable stuff (and even eldritch monstrosities), has been confirmed to exist on Kairos. With this development, Kairos is now also a hot spot for prospecting Vault Hunters.
The player assumes the role of one of the four Vault Hunters in Borderlands 4. You get to play as one of these unique individuals with different fighting styles. Each characters’ reasons for going to Kairos are revealed via snippets that you can find scattered across the game world. Upon arriving on the planet, you unfortunately get captured by the Timekeeper who wishes to keep a valuable Vault Hunter in his control. Fortunately, a prison break occurs and you manage to get out of the world to get what you actually went in to do: open a vault.
Since the Timekeeper also guards Kairos’ vault, you are then tasked to form a resistance group against him: the creatively named, “Crimson Resistance”.
This act of rebellion against the Timekeeper must be done in steps, tasking the Vault Hunter to defeat his lieutenants first and then ultimately the Timekeeper himself.
It ain’t Borderlands without guns. Borderlands 4 is packed with the looter-shooter mechanics that made it the franchise that it is now. It’s not a mechanic that needs too much to get updated. If it can be thought of, there’s likely a gun for it. We still have wacky features such as guns being thrown as grenades when you reload them. Some guns have bullets that ricochet and kill six enemies when you score a critical. There’s freedom in equipping them and there’s variety in the ways that you can attack enemies.
Oh, and you can also go melee. But why would you?
Part of the charm is the system of these guns and the passives that you get as you progress. You get more experience as you complete more challenges and quests, defeat enemies, and do some random things in the game world. Builds are what adds flavor to the already engrossing pile of guns that the game has to offer.
With each Vault Hunter being unique, and each one having different branches of possible builds, Borderlands 4 certainly has a lot to offer in terms of replayability. It’s also worth noting that players can easily respec and redo their characters without having to start from scratch.
It’s also worth noting that additional Vault Hunters are on their way to be introduced into the game via DLC. This would inevitably add a bit more to the game’s already unique cast of characters.
Borderlands 4 features an open world and in this game, loading screens are a thing of the past. Unlike previous Borderlands games where loadings screens segment different areas of the game, Kairos is open and only a select few, like fortresses, have their instances and loading screens. If you can see it, you’ll likely get to visit it. Players can seamlessly traverse through the lush green forests and plains of the south, and then transition to the icy cold wastes of the east. The world is dotted with a lot of things to do and it mostly involves shooting stuff to get things done.
Two new mechanics are introduced in the game: grappling and gliding. These two mechanics are introduced very early on in the game. Players can grapple on specific spots to traverse the field, granting mobility and greater control during a fight. Grappling can also be used to pull vents, solve puzzles, and grab hold of objects to open paths.
Meanwhile, gliding grants the player greater control while on air. While mostly used to traverse wide open spaces and to navigate platforming areas, gliding can also be adopted and utilized in gunplay mechanics of the game.
Possibly the other leg that made Borderlands stand up is its multiplayer aspect. Thankfully, it’s still here. Players can tweak their settings to filter players that can enter their game. Additional players means additional mayhem. Borderlands 4 is a game made for chaos and having up to three more heads to join the fight is a sight to behold.
Borderlands 4 supports NVIDIA’s multi-frame generation found on both GeForce RTX 4000 series cards and RTX 5000 series cards. This feature allows compatible NVIDIA cards to get more frames on screen by predicting the subsequent frames. Latest NVIDIA RTX cards can produce to four more frames while the RTX 4000 series cards are only limited to two times.
Having experienced this while playing with my ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce 4080 graphics card, I can say that the gamelay has been quite smooth even on higher resolutions. With every setting maxed out on my rig and with resolution set to 3440 x 1440, my setup was able to get an average framerate of about 90 – 105 FPS. Without frame generation though, my FPS would just be around half or 50 FPS.
I only encountered one crash during the course of my review. No gamebreaking bugs were present and I was able to proceed with the games’ story without any issues.
There were also parts in the game that were jittery due to the 30 FPS lock in cutscenes. It may be due to the multi-frame generation being turned on but the uneven frames were gone after updating my drivers.
I really like Borderlands 4. It’s more of the same thing that made the previous Borderlands games popular and that isn’t a bad thing. It has more guns, is more streamlined, and is finally a true open-world game. The story is a bit mid but it has enough oomph in it to propel you to continue and see what would happen next. The new setting is also a very welcome one as Kairos has a varied flora and fauna, granting players more reasons to explore its lands.
Probably what makes Borderlands 4 a recommended game for me is that it is an easy game to pick up and roll with. Unlike most games that require much in terms of commitment, Borderlands 4 is easy to play with after you unwind from work and responsibilities. The mechanics are easy to follow and relearn, and being an FPS game, you just point and shoot. Multiplayer, loot mechanics, and RPG elements also add a tremendous amount to its replayability, making it a game filled with value that will give you hundreds of hours of gameplay. I can highly recommend Borderlands 4 for both fans of the series and for those looking for a game that’s fun and easy to manage.
Borderlands 4 is available on the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Borderlands 4 Steam). The Nintendo Switch 2 version of Borderlands 4 will also come out in the future.
