Borderlands 4 Review - So Good It Might Even Shut Claptrap Up

Borderlands 4 is finally here, and the run up to release has been of a dichotomy between the genuine expectation of a great game, and the fear that Borderlands 3 marked the start of a decline for the iconic series. Longtime fans will no doubt have their list of red lines - and they're right to have them. Few modern series are able to legitimately claim to be as iconic as Borderlands in terms of style.

Six years on from the last release, there has been plenty of time for developer Gearbox Software to percolate some new ideas to add to the old ones, and the most recent set of consoles and PC hardware should give them all the tools they need to make a truly modern Borderlands game a reality. So did they manage to do it? Well, with 50 hours under my belt and an extensive look at all of the different playable activities, it's an enormous relief to say you're in for a chaotic, enthralling treat.

The first thing to say is that Borderlands 4 is such a big game that it’s a little difficult to know where to start, but for the sake of argument we’ll begin where all players likely will - the main story. Whilst this review won’t contain any major spoilers, here’s the setup once you’ve picked from one of the four available Vault Hunters (Rafa was my favourite).

After crash landing on the planet Kairos, we’re captured by the forces of a dictator-like figure known as the Timekeeper, who implants us with a nefarious device known as a bolt, which they use to control the population. That doesn’t last long though, and we’re soon busted out by members of the Crimson Resistance, who seek to overthrow the planet’s cruel ruler.

It’s a compelling enough start and I was quickly invested in the fate of the planet and the nice folks I’d met in the first few hours of the game. The stakes start off high and they only go up with each passing mission, as your actions put you on a direct collision course with the big man himself.

As you’d expect from a Borderlands game, each major quest is filled with a variety of enemies that you’ll have to blow your way through, and frankly I never reached the point where I got bored of doing that in ever more outlandish ways. The real strength of those missions comes when you have to face off against the boss enemies at the conclusion of major points in the plot.

These fights are much more like something you’d expect to see in a raid in an MMO, than anything that usually populates the looter shooter genre. They aren’t the complex coordination exercises that games like Destiny 2 provide, but they’re a great exercise in working out what to do before actually having the skill to do it. The bosses themselves are varied in both design and mechanics, and these set piece fights absolutely serve as the highlight of the single-player experience, particularly when working through the main story.

The characters you’ll meet along the way are also generally cool to interact with this time around (even the bad guys). The Crimson Resistance and the factions that join your struggle are filled with memorable people who I quickly became attached to, and that made the missions feel much more impactful when their lives are threatened.

It’s great to be part of a group that’s working together to get something done and, though you obviously serve as the hero of the piece overall, every major character has something to contribute at big points in the story. So much so that finishing the narrative for the first time feels bittersweet, but with plenty else to do, it’s a feeling that doesn’t last too long.

Outside of that, if you’re committed to getting your hands on the very best Legendary gear for your character, you’ll be jumping into a lot of side activities to give yourself the best chance of that god roll you’ve been searching for. These are also impressively broad in scope, with plenty more to come in the first few months after launch.

One example is the weekly Big Encore Boss, which will see you take on one of the big bads from the main story, only this time they’ll be a lot tougher and drop much better loot. It’s not just one-off fights though, and there are a litany of side activities that should suit every type of player, from puzzle-focused loot grinds to pursuits that alter the world you play in. One of the best examples of the latter are Safehouses which, once you’ve cleared them of enemies, allow you to unlock new fast travel points and additional bounties.

All of that combines to make Borderlands 4 a remarkably solid single-player game, but it’s the multiplayer experience that really elevates the enjoyment and drives home exactly what the developer was trying to achieve. Again, it’s the lack of pressure on what to do that makes the game’s multiplayer exactly what you want it to be. Whether you’re one of those people who want to sit and grind the most difficult activities to increase your chance of securing the best gear, or just want some friends to explore the open-world with, you can do whatever you wish and still have a great time. The practicalities behind playing with others are also very forgiving, and you don’t need to be of a similar level to play together, with enemies scaling to each player so the damage remains relative to the weapons and abilities you’re using. Joining someone’s game is a case of clicking a couple of buttons in the menu, and that ease of use is impressive for a game as deep as Borderlands 4.

Throughout my time with the game ahead of launch, performance was largely stable, and this only improved with a patch deployed by the developer during the testing period. Some lag spikes permeated my playthrough, but these were usually in the more mundane moments.

As an example, boss fights were consistently fine, but the game would lock up for a second or two if I dropped a couple of items from my inventory at the same time. Equally, there were some occasions where damage seemed to fail to register when shooting enemies with certain weapons, particularly at range, even when a large enemy was dead center in the scope. Those minor gripes aside, I had very few performance issues on my mid-high level PC, which is running an RTX 4070 and a 5800X CPU.

Small issues aside, Borderlands 4 should give fans of the series most, if not all, of the experiences they were looking for. It's bombastic, spectacular fun that puts the emphasis on the player to go out and have a brilliant time. Playing through the story for the first time is one aspect (and again, an enjoyable one), but it's what you do after all that's said and done that really drives home what this game is meant to be. Whether taking on a raid boss with other players or free roaming the world in search of adventure, I sat there with a big, stupid grin stuck on my face for literal hours afterwards. Any game that delivers out-and-out fun at the rate of Borderlands 4 deserves its flowers, and it lives up to the reputation that the previous games so carefully built.

Pros: Great gunplay, engrossing story and well-executed multiplayer

Cons: Occasional performance issues, Claptrap isn’t for everyone.

For fans of: The other Borderlands games, looter shooters.

8/10 - Excellent

Borderlands 4 is available from 12 September on Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2. A review code was provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.