Borderlands 4 is the best Borderlands game I've ever played — but with a small hitch

After years of waiting, the long-awaited sequel, Borderlands 4, is here. Hundreds, if not thousands, of hours have been spent toiling away at a controller. Starting back in the Xbox 360 days, I'd grind General Knoxx over and over again, never stopping for a moment until Borderlands 2 dropped.

I'm a Psycho when it comes to Borderlands (thanks for the joke, Kevin). While I don't necessarily obsess over min-maxing the best traits on every weapon, I definitely follow guides while also tinkering with my own builds here and there.

Every legendary drop leads to the question, "Does this fit my build?" If it doesn't, I ask, "Can I make a build for this weapon?"

Why You Should Trust Me

Why You Should Trust Me

Michael Hoglund

I've been a Borderlands fan since the original story ran in a 2007 issue of Game Informer. That was back when the game still had realistic graphics and hadn't found the definitive cell-shaded look. If you need any more reason to trust me, Borderlands 2 was way better than Borderlands 3. There, does that do it?

Guns and loot: Combat redefined

Look, Borderlands is known for multiple things, but we all know what the series is most known for, and that’s the weaponry. The shooty things that go boom in the Face (McShooty) of the enemy. The insane, adrenaline-fueled pump of blood we get from cranking bullet after bullet into the flesh, bone, and metal of enemies. Death be damned, they all go to meet their maker by the shine of your chosen weapon.

The guns in Borderlands 4 are an absolute blast, delivering that wild, trigger-happy chaos fans crave with zero letdown.

Tediore weapons, forever the bane of my existence, finally feel good in what might just be the greatest Borderlands yet. Those "chuck it and curse" guns, think a Little League right fielder with a noodle arm, have somehow become shockingly useful in this latest vault-hunting romp.

As I mentioned in my Borderlands 4 preview, players will no longer be carrying around dedicated grenades and rocket launchers. Instead, they now have access to the Ordnance slot. This acts as a cooldown ability, which can be slotted with items such as grenades, throwing knives, laser beams, rockets, and other similar items.

Legendary weaponry

Legendary weapons sit atop the Borderlands 4 arsenal, the shimmering reason we Vault Hunters live and breathe. That iconic chime when one drops? It’s pure magic, sparking Psycho-level screams from players, even those who can barely hear it, as we scramble for that golden or orange loot.

This really depends on your brightness and saturation levels.

So far, legendaries are just as good, if not even better than they’ve been in the past. While I’ve only managed to obtain a handful, what I’ve obtained has been mostly chef’s kiss.

One assault rifle dropped that also ran an underbarrel shotgun secondary. A kill with either would refill the other while granting 100% bonus damage on the swapped weapon. I’d charge in close, unloading buckshot into enemy faces, then quick-swap to my rifle for slick takedowns. Rinse, repeat, revel in the carnage. With damage galore and no reloads needed (unless I goofed and ran out of targets), the gunplay’s an absolute riot.

Only a few times was I left scratching my head, wondering what in the world that specific legendary did. Like one odd shotgun that shot snail-speed prismatic energy balls. Until I find the time to experiment more (and don’t have to sit down and write a damn review), I’ll be left wondering if it deserved a slot on my weapon wheel or not.

Get ready to move

Combat has also undergone a significant overhaul, largely due to its association with the new movement system. Sliding is back, but mixed with double-jump and default hovering, combat is as up and down as it is left to right.

I felt like an unhinged Tony Stark, soaring through battlegrounds, raining destruction on enemies with an arsenal of mayhem. Without any doubt, this movement system is the new standard for Borderlands—fluid, frantic, and absolutely joyful.

I don’t think I could ever go back!

The open world, though, has definitely screwed up some respawning mechanics. I don't know what it is, but there is a severe lack of checkpoints to be found in the game. While instanced zones are fine, other areas have a severe lack of respawn areas. I had multiple deaths where the run back to the action was a minute or more.

That's right, I died, then had to run well over a minute to get back to shooting the guys who killed me. This is exacerbated in the beginning when you don't have a vehicle, as legging it feels like a marathon to complete.

Story and humor: At appropriate levels

I won’t dive into any story-related spoilers. I think speaking of anything outside of what’s already public knowledge would be a massive disservice to the writing team at Gearbox. So, I’ll keep it simple.

Vault Hunters find themselves on Kairos, a planet ruled by an overlord named the Timekeeper. The planet was previously unseen, but thanks to the teleportation of the moon Elpis in Borderlands 3, the once-hidden rock was exposed, and now everyone can, in fact, see it.

You’re there to lead the resistance against the Timekeeper and restore the planet to the people. And maybe, just maybe, unlock a vault or four.

So, how’s the writing?

The writing is so much better

Borderlands 3, for all intents and purposes, was fairly cringe. I think a fair number of people share that sentiment. Dare I say, the majority even.

There were moments of grandeur, laughter, and outright awesomeness, but there was an overabundance of what felt like fart-level jokes. Like the kid who tried too hard at the lunch table, Borderlands 3 was the kid you spoke to because he had awesome toys to play with.

Borderlands 4, from everything I’ve touched so far, took that widely shared opinion to heart. At times, I found myself waiting for the bad punchline that would ruin an epic moment, or a joke that would go on for way too long, but it didn’t happen.

Instead, the writers at Gearbox have created a story that felt rather dark, but spattered with the humor we’ve come to love from the Borderlands series. Familiar characters you’ve fallen in love with over the years make their return in fashion that’s both sensibly awesome and humorous.

Sure, there are probably some jokes that people won’t find funny, or pivotal story points that others will find dull, but that goes for everything. Borderlands 4, it seems, has completely rewritten the script on what to expect from the series going forward.

The story isn't groundbreaking, nor was it forgettable, but it's one that felt right and was a natural progression of the narrative players have followed over the last 16 years of games.

I guess I'm trying to say, thanks for not messing up this time, guys!

Open world: Done right

You hear games becoming open-world and think, “Wow, so cool, so fresh, yay!” Every game and its remastered sequels are becoming one form or another of an open world. Some become soulless creations of what once was, tightly knit games that have unraveled due to being shoehorned into an open-world schematic. I’m looking at you, Halo Infinite.

Borderlands has always been a semi-open-world experience. Separated by zones, Borderlands games have continuously become larger-scaled levels with each passing sequel.

Now, for the first time, we have a truly open world. Well, if you don’t count zone instances like Vaults, fortresses, and some other story-related areas. The main hub is now absolutely astonishingly massive, like, really massive. I spent the first 20 hours doing side missions and other content within the Fadefields and felt like that in itself was a decently sized area — it's the smallest of the three main zones!

The lush green clover of Fadefield is replaced by the grimacing hot desert-like Carcadia Burn. If you feel the need to cool off, you can head over to the Terminus Range, which sports an Ice-Age equivalent tundra.

All three main areas are, in themselves, places you can spend quite a bit of time working on not only the main story, but side missions, secret zones, and more. Within these ginormous maps are an equal number of activities to complete.

Players will be constantly rewarded wherever they choose to spend their time playing. Nothing is senseless, and everything feeds toward the progression of your character.

The first time I remembered hearing that you’d be rewarded for exploring areas you’d never think to otherwise go, I was greeted with a little collectible statue of the fan favorite Marcus Kincaid. Easy money.

This small attention to detail left me with a sense that the development team really tried to extend something, no matter where you look. Whether it was replayable activities that could land legendary loot, dynamic events, or some other item up for grabs, there’s a reason to check every corner, and with enthusiasm, too.

What comes as a result of this open world is something players may find troublesome

Performance drops: Not the legendary kind

I was ready to lambast Borderlands 4 for some of the worst performance I’ve seen from a AAA game. When I initially started reviewing it, the game was a choppy mess, especially in the open world.

Driving from one side of a zone to another was an abysmal, choppy experience as Unreal Engine 5 loaded the next area of the zone into memory (or whatever it was trying to do). At least, that was until the latest patch I and other reviewers received a couple of days ago.

I suspect the embargo time for the review is so close to launch that reviewers and content creators alike had time to test the patch. Maybe they should have kept the original launch date if that's the case. For the record, I conducted the entire review on Steam using specifications that almost mirror the recommended PC requirements outlined by Gearbox.

• GPU: Nvidia RTX 3080
• CPU: 5900X
• RAM: 32GB DDR4
• SSD: NVME 2.0

I’m one tier above the recommended 5800X CPU. So, I guess I’m the nearly perfect candidate for this ongoing performance debate. With the latest patch, which doesn’t include some of the other performance fixes coming with the day one update, I’ve had better results.

I still see some intermittent zone loading when riding across the open landscape, but it’s no longer hitching my computer to the point that I think the game is about to crash. I know that doesn’t sound like the pleasant benchmark to be going off of, but you don’t understand just how bad performance was in the beginning.

Needless to say, it's nothing that will cause chaos, agony, or pain to those running at recommended or higher specs. With my setup, I ran the entire game at 1440p with medium settings and DLSS set to performance. I could also use balanced mode, but often I found myself uncomfortably dipping below 50 frames per second.

With performance mode, I only saw dips below 60 during massive open-world segments or expansive cities. Borderlands seems to suffer from the same incredibly low performance drops that Dragon's Dogma 2 had in its population zones.

While it’s not nearly as bad, if you look in the wrong direction, like the middle of a city, I was dropping well below 50 frames per second again. That’s not ideal, but it’s something that has progressively improved since my review began.

What I fear for are the gamers trying to enter the space running on a 3060 or below. Those who haven’t upgraded for quite a few years. While the 3000 series came out in 2020, and the minimum GPU is a 2070, I can’t help but think players will need to push 1080p low if they hope to keep a stable 60 fps experience.

How that will be received by the general public is almost universally bad, and rightfully so. Even recommended specifications, which only achieve 60 fps at medium with DLSS performance mode, are cause for concern.

While Borderlands 4 looks leaps and bounds better than previous entries, you have to wonder if the cost of beauty and open world was perhaps too great. With that said, my performance metric has always been, “Am I having any less fun because of this?” It’s a simple question that surprisingly resonates with my otherwise performance-seeking ego.

With the latest patch, I can say I am still having a ton of fun playing. If I’m squinting my eyes at certain things, I can see DLSS performance mode creating some weird jagged edges, especially for any form of glint.

Other than that, I’m maintaining a steady frame rate and dropping body after body while grinning ear to ear over how awesome this game plays otherwise.

If you’re a performance fanatic, you may want to wait. However, if you’re okay with playing at medium 1440p resolution at the recommended specs. Borderlands 4 is a ton of fun and a pleasure to play through.

I'd also like to issue a warning, as it appears that no console codes were sent to reviews or content creators. When that's the case, it doesn't spell doom, but it's also not a great sign for what's to come to Xbox and PlayStation.

Endgame: The grind of Borderlands

So, how’s the grind?

Well, I’ll start off with the fact that I haven’t played through the entire endgame. I’ve only had the game for a little over a week. I’m not a psycho. I would be, but I have a wife, guys, alright?

What I have touched is brilliant. Borderlands 4 brings back the fan-favorite Ultimate Vault Hunter, spread out with extra layers thanks to the addition of challenges. Players can tackle these challenges to raise their difficulty, which in turn leads to better loot and more challenges.

Sprinkled across that are numerous Vaults, Mad Moxxi’s Encore mechanic, and a ton of activities to grind through. Not to mention the addition of weekly challenges that players can tackle as Gearbox releases them. This is the ultimate endgame of the entire series. I remember that when I finished Borderlands 3, I spent days one-shooting the same Vault boss over and over. Grinding away for the perfect loot.

With the sequel, there are way more things you can do that will fill that legendary grinding role. It’s actually astonishing just how much there is at launch for players to tackle. Every boss and activity you face can be redone through the Moxxi mechanic. Each entry will be equal to your level, so loot dropping will always be of value.

The cost of doing so is measly initially, as the value of the loot that drops will far exceed the cost to get in. Eridium becomes a premium currency as you enter Ultimate Vault Hunter mode. Players will need this to do the harder versions of these battles, but will be granted far better loot odds as a result.

On top of the promised free updates, weekly events, and more, players will spend far more time wondering what to grind next than they will be waiting for more content to come out. That’s a problem I haven’t had with Borderlands in a long time!

Borderlands 4: Should you buy it?

✅ You should buy this if...

• You like Borderlands at all
  • This is the definitive Borderlands experience. You won't be disappointed by the gameplay, nor the gameplay.
• You love endgame grinding
  • Borderlands 4 promises to keep players occupied for weeks, if not months between DLC releases.

❌ You should not buy this if...

• You're a stickler for performance

Borderlands 4 is the ultimate Vault Hunter playground, the gold standard for the series moving forward. Sure, performance can stifle the experience, and I’d kill for a Naughty Dog caliber story, but this game has me rabid for the grind, chasing bigger DPS numbers, perfecting min-max builds, and hyper-grinding.

Writing this review ate up precious time, leaving me bummed I’ll be half-zombie when I join my crew at launch. It’s just that damn good. I’m obsessed, and Borderlands fans will be blown away, assuming their rig can keep up.

Borderlands 4 releases on September 11, 2025 for Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5.

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