Borderlands 4 Review
Does the Loot Still Shine?
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Title: Borderlands 4
Release: September 11, 2025
Platform: PS5 PC Xbox X|S Switch 2
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2k Games
Genre: FPS RPG Looter Shooter
ESRB: M
Reviewed on: PC
Time Played: 49
Loot, shoot, repeat. That’s the Borderlands formula, and Borderlands 4 doesn’t shy away from it. With billions of guns, open world chaos, and the usual dose of Claptrap’s antics, it feels like the series is trying to remind us why we loved it in the first place. But does this fourth entry do enough to keep vault hunters coming back for more, or has the grind finally lost its charm?
Where it starts
You will play as one of a new generation of Vault Hunters, whose adventure takes you to Kairos, a prison planet ruled by the Timekeeper. You are then captured and imprisoned. However, it’s not long before you escape with a bit of help from a new friend. Once free, you’re recruited by the beloved Claptrap into the local resistance and quickly sent out to find others willing to help take down the Timekeeper.
Selecting Your Vault Hunter
When you start, you will need to select a character to play as, each with their own combat specialties. Even though you get some information at the time of selection, you might have to try playing with all of them before you find what feels best for you. However, I’m fairly sure there are badass builds for every single character, so none of the choices are terrible. Besides gameplay, each character has their own comments and responses to everything in the game, making each playthrough a little more unique.
The Action Skill
Each character will have action skills and trees to develop. You start by choosing one of three skills and progressing along that tree, eventually specializing in a specific aspect, always boosting stats in some way, from gun damage to shield strength. Usually, you’ll need to invest enough points in a tree to unlock the most useful skills. After completing the main story, you’ll unlock specialties, a new tree to further enhance your skills on the battlefield.
Guns, guns, & more guns
Your main damage source will be shooting enemies until they explode or stop moving. You will find them everywhere, from chests, quests, vending machines, and dropped by enemies. Through procedural generation, manufacturers, and gun parts, there are over 30 billion possible gun combinations. However, depending on the manufacturer, you’ll get a sense of the basic feel of each gun. They always drop at your level and come in different rarities, from common to legendary. Legendary guns have unique fixed effects, making them, well, legendary.
Other Gear & Firmware
Along with guns, you will need to kit yourself out with other pieces of equipment. A shield, class mod, enhancement, heals, and ordnance. All of these items also varying by manufacturer and rarity. Eventually, you can start finding firmware on gear. Add-ons that create set bonuses when multiple pieces have the same firmware. Initially, it may be difficult to equip a full set, but eventually, you can begin transferring firmware between items, so every piece with firmware remains useful regardless of level or stats.
Open World Events
While exploring the vast land of Kairos and completing some main quests, you will eventually come across world events. These events can last a little while, requiring you to fight numerous enemies and achieve a high score for better rewards. You may also notice a large bubble forming in the distance, which will contain a random boss. Defeating the boss gives you a chance at some awesome loot for free. However, if you jump out of the bubble, whether on purpose or by accident, the boss will disappear, so watch out for that.
Side Gigs
As the main adventure takes you through the game, you’ll encounter plenty of side characters and areas that could use your help. You don’t have to, but it’s worthwhile to assist everyone who needs it. Not just for the monetary reward, but for the stories. Borderlands is packed with wacky people and humor, and it’s felt throughout the entire game. I mean, who wouldn’t want to help a killer A.I. escape from a toilet and cause chaos in a nearby town full of bandits?
Always Something to Do
Besides side quests and world events, there are hundreds of collectibles to discover and a bounty board with recurring quests. A large list of achievements gives you goals to aim for, and if you want to farm a specific boss for a drop or simply enjoyed the fight and want to replay it, you can do so multiple times for a small fee each time. With everything always within reach, you’ll never get bored!
Can the kids watch (check settings)
If the kiddos wanted to watch, be forewarned, this game can be pretty graphic with body parts exploding and viscera flying around as you blast enemies away with your guns. You can lower the amount of gore in the settings, however, it does state that it may not affect some cut scenes. There will also be some harsh language, and very immature jokes only for the mature, I loved it, you’ll probably love it, but you can decide if the kids can love it.
Final Thoughts
I would love to hear any thoughts or questions you have about the game or my review, so leave me a message in the comments below. While you do that, let’s move on to my final thoughts and ratings.
I’ve been having a great time with Borderlands 4. It looks awesome, plays smoothly, and satisfies that itch I’ve had since before the third game. The open-world gameplay is really fun, with all sorts of activities constantly appearing and a long search for every collectible. I’m almost fifty hours in and still have plenty to find. The only thing I think the game could use is more variety in the areas to explore and enemies to fight. There are distinct sections of the planet I’ve checked out, but it doesn’t feel as adventurous as previous Borderlands games. However, as usual, there are a few planned DLCs coming that will probably fix that.
I played the game with my graphic settings on medium and averaged about 45 frames per second, and it looked great. I didn’t experience any choppiness, and with the iconic Borderlands design, everything looked fantastic. A major improvement from before is the characters’ speech animations. The mouth movements during cut scenes were impressive. The world was also well crafted. I didn’t like the use of invisible walls to block my path, but each part of the game felt smooth and unique, with plenty of places I could explore.
The story wasn’t particularly exciting, but it kept me engaged and I was motivated to see it through. It’s always a pleasure to see which characters decide to return from older games, giving us more of their quirky humor and combat styles. It wasn’t as compelling as other Borderlands stories, but it also didn’t turn into a frustrating nonsense chase after bad guys.
The gameplay was what you’d expect from a Borderlands game, always focusing on how a skill tree is designed and hunting for that perfect legendary gear with the right roll to get you through most fights. It definitely felt like the hardest Borderlands game to solo I’ve ever played. As I moved from zone to zone, I had to lower the difficulty to survive, even with some decent gear. There still seem to be some balancing issues with enemy strength in certain parts of the game.
The open world aspect was very well done for a Borderlands game. I really enjoyed finding random bosses scattered throughout the land and exploring the world on a hoverbike. There were plenty of fast travel spots to find and use; however, some of the new U stations were sometimes placed at a very annoying distance from where I died. When fighting my way through sections of enemies, I could die halfway to my destination and respawn almost so far away that I was surprised the enemies didn’t respawn by the time I got back.
With a variety of characters to choose from and numerous tasks to repeat while legendary hunting, this game offers a lot of replayability. Not necessarily from the start, but fighting the same bosses repeatedly is very engaging due to the game design. I may have finished the main story in thirty-eight hours, but I could easily double that while still having a good time.
With that I would love to boil these thoughts down into numbers to find this game a home on my shelves so I can get back to playing it.
The visual were excellent, the unforgettable Borderlands style never looked better, that’s a 5.
The story served as an entertaining backdrop to get me through the game, but it wasn’t particularly memorable. I’m giving it a 3.
The gameplay was rather difficult at times, and some respawn placements seemed rude. Other than that, it was great. It’s getting another 3.
High replayability, I will definitely be repeating bosses and areas for a long time yet, that’s worthy of a 4.
I’m having so much fun, this game is almost keeping me up at night thinking about it while trying to sleep, giving it another 5.
Earning Borderlands 4 an average score of 4 out of 5. Giving it a spot on my top shelf. If you’re a fan of the Borderlands series this is a no brainer, even if Borderlands 3 may have left a bad taste in your mouth this definitely makes up for it, it did for me anyway. If you’ve never played a Borderlands, there is no problem checking out some of the earlier titles before spending the money needed for this one.