Borderlands as an IP has a 16-year history that spans multiple gaming generations and media. The first two games (especially Borderlands 2) were the cornerstone of the looter shooter movement, highly regarded and acclaimed by players and critics alike. This was also true of the humour, defying the shift to ‘serious’ games as the rise in technological capability focused on mature themes. All titles since then – especially Borderlands 3 – have struggled to match expectations or align tone to contemporary gamers. With the recent release of the Borderlands film, the IP had somewhat of an identity crisis and the humour of the series was thrown into interesting discourse. This meant that the spotlight on Borderlands 4 was brighter than most 2025 games with an impending sequel, even more so than the latest Assassin’s Creed. The fate of the IP rested on its colourful, gun-spewing shoulders. Developer Gearbox maintained confidence, leaning into the ‘soft reboot’ phase to cleanse the palette. Now that Borderlands 4 is playable, there are three core questions I had when booting up the game:
- Is the story more engaging than the recent film and Borderlands 3?
- Is the gunplay and gameplay taking all the best parts from the series in its evolution without sacrifice?
- Do the jokes land with a marketed darker tone?
After 20+ hours of play, a completed story and time spent in the endgame, I can confidently write a resounding YES to all the above. This is Borderlands at its absolute best, launching the definitive looter shooter of 2025 with deep replayability and ongoing content that will keep gamers engrossed for years to come.
There’s gunplay. There’s a story. There is dirty humour and more guns than any sane person could count. But the biggest decision as you begin your journey is your choice of Vault Hunter. While story impact is largely minimal outside of voice acting, gameplay is unique to each of the four hunters. Your choice in character dictates how you play this game, how you build your attack, and how you sort through the millions of options. Make no mistake: this is not just a skin and voice choice. The depth to each character’s skill trees and builds is extensive and once that choice is made, you’re not flicking back and forth in the campaign. For my initial run, I chose Rafa. He’s an exo-soldier with a handy balance of speed, automatic gunfire and melee (depending how the skill tree is navigated). His peacekeeper cannons – shoulder turrets that auto fire on anything close by – saved me more times than I can count and allowed for greater strategy in taking down the heftier foes. After beating the game, you can access the other three characters at level 30 to play with their skills and attributes. Vex seemed much more powerful off the bat as Siren’s often are, and Amon’s forgeknight axes were a delight to use. I need to put more time into Harlowe to have an opinion, but from around an hour of play with her she appeared to be perfect in co-op to buff and debuff at will. As a solo player, I did prefer the more aggressive playstyles and would happily complete the entire campaign again as either Vex or Amon.
With Vault Hunter settled, into the gunplay. Everything is just so bright, loud, colourful and fun. The story is more grounded, but the gameplay is faster and wilder than ever before. The standard looter shooter process of finding a bundle of guns, checking their stats to see if you want to swap from your current loadout and then selling or dropping most of your pick-ups is a gameplay loop that is always satisfying – even if I wasn’t sure which gun would suit my playstyle. There is such deep customisation with the alternative fire modes and elementals that I didn’t feel fully aware of my best choice until well after level 20 (maybe later). Every gun you pick up seems different and unique. And then when you start firing them, the assortment is intimidating. Charge up guns, rapid fire, rocket launches, flamethrowers, sticky grenades, throw another gun that explodes when reloading, vampiric knives, stack critical hits, toss grenades or use the slot for a heavy weapon, shields with buffs. There is so much happening on screen, and so much available to deal with the mayhem. Firing with the controller is tight, responsive and powerful. Aiming is smooth and the more options in manoeuvring the battlefield mean closing the gaps makes shotguns and pistols more viable for longer. Borderlands 3 had a leap in gunplay despite its shortcomings, and Borderlands 4 perfects the cycle to make each battle a joy to partake in even if the enemies can become repetitive. This is the type of game that is filled with things to do, and completing them is never a chore knowing the rewards on offer.
Shooters often provide story for the mere sake of progression. Cyberpunk 2077 is an example of an excellent story alongside deep customisation of gameplay mechanics, and while Borderlands 4 doesn’t quite reach those emotive heights it still ensures that you are seated for its high-octane cinema. The main strength in its story is the writing. The jokes are there, but they do not get in the way of the major story beats and instead make side-missions a hoot. From the moment you can move your character, escape is a serious focus and danger is expressed through narration. The NPC leading you along is not supplied for a laugh, and the villain establishes himself as an evil dictator immediately. Gone are the Tik Tok inspired twins. I found care for the NPCs and whenever one died, their missing presence was felt. There are twists and turns, big bosses full of taunts and side missions packed with pop culture references to keep the fun vibe. Being set on a planet away from Pandora allows a natural progression not held back by previous titles, which was very refreshing in my first playthrough. The story beats are best experienced for yourself. They may not work for everyone more in it for the brawls, but the story here more than serves purpose across a 20-hour span and adds to both traversal and boss runs.
Performance. This has already been topical when Borderlands 4 is discussed amongst early players, reviewers and Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford. As no codes were given out before launch for the PlayStation 5 (my chosen system for reviews) the PC reviews cited struggles with memory leak, framerate drops and minimum specs. On my base PS5, I saw no major issues and the framerate performed at its 60 FPS on performance mode. Outside of some minor sound blips, the game runs very well and is frankly more impressive than the likes of Monster Hunter Wilds in how it operates. This is also the first open world Borderlands, with the player able to zip across the map on foot or by vehicle without loading screens. There are, of course, invisible barriers – but no game is infinite outside of No Man’s Sky and therefore this provided no immersion breaking on my end. The world lives and breathes, and you’re a single entity within it.
Borderlands 4 is one of the most entertaining games of 2025. Any first-person looter-shooter enthusiast has a giant, colourful playground to shoot down foes on the way to a 100-hour platinum (and that is before the DLC roadmap). With an improved story over the recent mainline game and more options in fast movement, there are very few flaws in its armour. The looting is morish and rewarding, with fewer legendary drops meaning every glowing yellow trinket is like checking under the tree on Christmas morning. Some players may see minor performance issues, especially on PC or in co-op – but as a solo player, very little happened in my playthrough to impact the sheer enjoyment over the game’s campaign. With plenty of endgame activity, the fun is only just beginning. See you in Kairos.
Pros
- Perfecting the looter-shooter genre
- Greater focus on fast movement
- Better story than 3
Cons
- Some people may see performance issues
- Enemy variety, though their design is often wiped through your sheer power
