I made a essential error in Borderlands 4 earlier than my journey even began. Slightly than doing in depth analysis on the looter shooter’s new Vault Hunters to determine one of the best beginning class for me, I made a decision to let vibes information my hand. I landed on Harlowe after some informal consideration, as I used to be drawn to the fight scientist’s high-tech instruments. That call paid off as soon as I began crafting a robust construct out of her ability tree, however there was an unlucky trade-off: I’d need to spend dozens of hours with the hammiest comic on the planet.
That’s a part of the present and the curse of Gearbox’s extravagant new shooter. It amplifies the sequence’ love of extra in a full-on open-world recreation the place each dial is cranked to the max. Should you love the capturing, distinctive loot, or crisp sound design which have lengthy outlined Borderlands, you’ll get all of these qualities at their peak. But when there’s something that’s ever bugged you concerning the sequence — like, say, unhealthy one-liners served with the frequency of McDonald’s hamburgers at a drive-thru window — you’ll discover that your pet peeves have change into an invasive species.
I suppose it wouldn’t be Borderlands if it wasn’t rather a lot, now would it not?
Set on the planet of Kairos, new to the sequence, Borderlands 4 follows a crew of Vault Hunters (additionally new to the sequence) who discover themselves at conflict with a giant unhealthy often known as The Timekeeper. The tyrannical menace has taken management of Kairos with the assistance of some loyal coconspirators that rule over three of the planet’s biomes whereas The Timekeeper hides in Dominion Metropolis. The battle lights the fuse for a revolution, because the Vault Hunters should hunt down allies across the planet and purpose to take again every area one physique at a time.
Like every little thing in Borderlands 4, the story is grand sufficient to fill a continent-spanning journey — however that doesn’t imply that it’s substantial. Slightly than utilizing its political intrigue to gas a significant story about resistance within the face of dictatorship, Borderlands 4 is a superhero film crammed with cartoon punching baggage who depart about as a lot of an impression as Ronan the Accuser in Guardians of the Galaxy. Gearbox has made some extent to color the story as being extra “grounded” than the infamous meme-fest that was Borderlands 3, however that principally simply quantities to having extra long-winded quest-givers. The result’s a white-noise battle that’s imprecise sufficient with its hot-button political terminology to both allow you to grasp your real-world frustrations on it or utterly tune it out and argue that it’s all sci-fi escapism.
Although that saga is extra severe, Borderlands 4 doesn’t ditch its signature humor to realize it. The fixed popular culture references and memes are largely gone, however characters nonetheless toss out punchlines with the frequency of a Leslie Nielsen comedy — and the hit price is unbelievably low. In attempting to steer the sequence away from self-parody, Gearbox has misdiagnosed its writing weaknesses. The issue has by no means been memes; it’s hackiness.
The humor now has to shoulder the burden of filling silence in an open-world.
Harlow, for example, is continually punctuating scenes with “Um, THAT sounds mistaken!” gags. I’d need to grit my enamel as recurring barks like “From rip to RIP!” and “Guess all Rippers do bathe in rubbish juice!” shot out of my Vault Hunter’s mouth with the overconfidence of a slapstick comedian at an open-mic night time. A lot of the greatest jokes are design-based, like a Pokémon parody side-mission that has me catching sentient weapons and combating a dynamic duo that comes ready for bother. However the precise traces hardly ever land.
After all, none of that is new for Borderlands. What is new, although, is that the humor now has to shoulder the burden of filling silence in an open-world. That’s the place the size of the mission teeters into tedium. Hammy one-liners crop up extra typically, whether or not I’m clearing out a camp or just using my hover bike throughout a discipline. Quest design equally suffers from the rise in scope. The extra concerned aspect missions, for example, have a tendency to pull on for 45 minutes and ship me bouncing between a minimal of six places internationally every time. Since quick touring is restricted to a small handful of silos and safehouses, I spend a whole lot of time driving 800m to filter an enemy base, speaking to an NPC, after which shuttling off to a different marker. Even with a lot of containers to crack open in every single place you flip, there’s a whole lot of filler in what’s by far the longest Borderlands recreation up to now. A part of that runtime additionally comes from a glacial leveling tempo, which forces you into lengthy grinding periods as you are taking down these overstuffed aspect missions that by no means really feel like they reward sufficient XP given the time dedication.
None of that significantly performs to the strengths of a sequence that made its identify on comparatively compact missions that might neatly match right into a relaxed multiplayer session. However the longer I performed in that sandbox, the extra I noticed a connection to a sequence that Borderlands as soon as impressed: Future. (The faction-uniting story even feels like one thing you’d see in Bungie’s looter shooter.) There are bounty boards that give me repeatable missions to chase, like killing a sure variety of enemies. There are pop-up boss fights on this planet that operate like public occasions. There’s a weekly exercise reset. You experience a mount round that’s, functionally, a Sparrow. It’s sufficient to make you surprise if Gearbox actually had its coronary heart set on making an MMO right here.
That strategy works within the context the place it probably issues most. The density of content material is custom-tailored for co-op play, as associates can casually cruise from one mob to the subsequent slightly than committing to lengthy story missions. Rewards lie in each nook of the world, whether or not you’re clearing out a Ripper (a brand new faction of psychotic weirdos) website within the grasslands, capturing silos within the desert, or simply grinding out long-tail challenges. It additionally makes for a fantastic endgame grind that provides gamers loads of uncommon loot to chase down and hard bosses to slay. Like all video games of this nature, it’s greatest loved whereas casually speaking over the gunfire with associates.
Whenever you come at Borderlands 4 from that perspective, the sequel’s maximalism turns into a a lot better promoting level. Like a repotted plant reaching new dimension potential in a bigger house, the motion RPG methods have grown to satisfy the sprawling world. There are actually considerably extra methods to craft distinctive playstyles out of 1 Vault Hunter due to deeper ability bushes. For my Harlowe playthrough, I centered on perks that will increase my overshield capability and provides me extra harm the upper that quantity was. I ultimately paired that with a mod to my disc ball-like Flux Generator means, decreasing the harm I took per enemy entangled — one other ability that I buffed up. So long as I saved my shields up, I used to be a wrecking machine.
Every Vault Hunter is distinct sufficient from each other that every one of them are clean canvases begging to be crammed in like that. Amon is the spotlight among the many quartet, as he can toss hearth and ice axes at enemies proper from the soar. From there, he will be buffed up right into a tank or a melee-heavy essential hit machine that may burn and weaken enemies. Prospects like that can little doubt depart you jealous whenever you staff up with your folks and see what they’ve been cooking. In my first co-op session, I watched in awe as my colleague’s Vex ran circles round enemy mobs whereas dropping a small military of clones. Seeing that means work together with my flashy Flux Generator made for one hell of a celebration.
Even simply shifting round as these characters is extra satisfying, thanks in no small half to the scope growth. To make the open-world extra traversable, Vault Hunters now get a hover pack (as soon as once more just like Future) and a grappling hook. Each make repetitive shootouts extra thrilling, as I can soar by way of the air and hearth down at Rippers whereas making an escape into cowl or use my grapple to snag an explosive barrel and toss it at an enemy. The hero moments are larger-than-life, not confined to that one clutch means activation.
All of that pairs with Borderlands’ most vital ingredient: the mountains of weapons. The elementary pleasure of the sequence has all the time come from choosing up a brand new weapon and seeing what it does. No recreation fairly has the identical arsenal of curiosity moments, doling out shock after shock that sells the looter shooter hook. That’s preserved right here, and even turned as much as the utmost, since there are sufficient weapons to fill a complete open world. One minute I’d discover myself obsessive about a revolver that may quickfire its total chamber in a second. The subsequent, I’d discover one which as a substitute shot tagging darts that will explode after just a few seconds. Whether or not I’m experimenting with a cryo SMG that works on cooldown slightly than clip dimension or changing my void grenade with a series gun that retains rolling if I nail criticals, I nonetheless really feel like a child in a sweet retailer (or Walmart, extra soberingly), dozens of hours in.
Even when Borderlands 4 is at its most cloying — and it typically is — that easy thrill nonetheless holds. That’s as a result of, for all of its lore-heavy storytelling, the sequence’ more practical messaging has all the time been at a mechanical stage. It is a franchise that throws you right into a wasteland and asks you to carve out your house among the many freaks. All the things flows again to that concept, as you’re constructing an id as a lot as a playstyle. Borderlands 4 makes that much more focal by including tons of character customization potential through unlockable cosmetics discovered within the open world and as problem rewards. By the point I breach Dominion’s partitions, it seems like I’ve discovered myself simply as a teen does in a coming-of-age film. (Okay, possibly not precisely like that.)
That’s why the principle marketing campaign’s rote superhero story rings particularly hole. I’m shortly positioned right into a place of command slightly than left to helplessly wander canyons. My looting feels extra like I’m stockpiling weapons for a conflict slightly than determining how little outdated me is meant to defeat tyranny.
It’s no shock then that every one the memorable narrative moments lie in smaller aspect quests. In a single, I support a sentient rocket who’s self-conscious about its incapability to fly. In one other, I by chance change into a self-help guru for a man in determined want of steerage. There are tons of little tales like this about anxious weirdos whose private struggles have been misplaced amongst Kairos’ political turmoil.
That’s the actual coronary heart of Borderlands 4, even when it’s buried below often exhausting blockbuster extra. The world is a giant, scary place, however you’ll be able to all the time construct a life for your self within the sea of scrap. Or at the very least trigger a bit mayhem.
Borderlands 4 will likely be launched Sept. 12 on PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, and Xbox Collection X. The sport was reviewed on Home windows PC utilizing a prerelease obtain code offered by 2K Video games. You’ll find further details about gamexplore’s ethics coverage right here.
