Borderlands 4 Review: The Loot is Great, but the Soul Feels Missing

The Weight of Expectations

Gearbox faced numerous challenges in the making of Borderlands 4. Given the polarizing opinions surrounding Borderlands 3, it is apparent that Borderlands 4 has adopted a more cautious approach. The first several hours of gameplay showcase the new world with refined gunplay, new loot, and expanded gameplay mechanics. Regardless, players may be under the impression that the content was toned down. Certainly, the fun is present, with the shooting, the weapons, and the game-play mechanics remaining unchanged. The delight in opening the chests and watching the loot explode is present, but with the amount of content available, it is strangely lacking the soul that has characterized the series in the past.

If Borderlands 3 was too loud, too eager to please, too desperate to prove itself edgy and relevant, then Borderlands 4 swings so far in the opposite direction that it risks losing what made the franchise special in the first place. And while it results in a smoother, cleaner experience on the surface, that polish comes at the cost of flavor.

Gameplay: The Familiar Fun Still Shines

Let’s get the good part out of the way first: Borderlands 4 is, mechanically speaking, a very fun game. Some rifles hum with quiet energy as their barrels glow with heat, others unleash cascades of elemental projectiles that dance through the air like fireworks.

Fighting in the game has never felt so good. Sliding and vaulting are so smooth we hardly notice the transitions, and the skill trees provide plenty of options for each Vault Hunter. The studio has taken notice of what worked in Borderlands 2 and 3 and incorporated the best elements into a cohesive whole. For those who buy PS5 shooting games: if you’re only in it for the looter-shooter thrill, you won’t be disappointed; there is enough here to satisfy that craving multiple times over.

Instead of a zone-based approach where the previous instalments offered a rhythm to the game, Borderlands 4 employs a new, almost completely seamless world. Instead of tight, sharply paced areas incrementally offering a story piece, Borderlands 4 laid out the approach of a Far Cry or Assassin’s Creed game: vast, even score, endless feeling space, and a bit of scattered tokens that reek of strange game design. The space is awe-inspiring, but to what end?

At first, the thrill of jumping in a vehicle and cruising for miles without any load screens sets in. When you start realizing how boring and repetitive most of your activities for your miles become. You decide to mark off a few objectives, which become increasingly repetitive and ingrained. The frivolous charm of moving from zone to zone, which, in principle, each had its own unique activities, is overshadowed by a sense of drifting in a very large, but very empty, theme park.

Story: The Silence Between the Echoes

If Borderlands 3 was to be criticized for always being loud, always wanting and trying to gain your attention, Borderlands 4 seems to gain inspiration from it. Borderlands 4 barely speaks at all. The story is barely there, so bare that the so-called main villain, the Timekeeper, is so mute and infrequent that you might completely forget about their existence. Your lack of an opponent's presence results in a lack of emotion tied to the scenario, so there is either a voice in your head or the radio commanding you to do something; there is no personality guiding you through the pandemonium.

Rather than becoming more complex, the narrative evolves in a subtle manner, more like a series of passive tasks. You advance from region to region, displacing the local leadership, gathering strange relics, and slowly getting to a remote character who always seems to be just out of reach. Although still a legend, it seems like The Timekeeper has lost power, presence, and voice, and, as a consequence, has lost the ability to make a lasting impact. The scenario ends up feeling like random and disconnected errands instead of a single, coherent journey.

This becomes even more important in the context of the wide, always unexplored, lore-rich universe of Borderlands. The most important and most poignant mysteries of the lore have always stayed unresolved in the series, and continuity respect seems absent. The most important mysteries for fans would be addressed, like The Watcher’s warning from The Pre-Sequel, or the Eridian deeper lore. Even the most important and the oldest characters in the franchise lore, like Fl4k, Moze, or Tannis, and the second protagonist of Borderlands 3, whose targeted role and reception there would have offered a perfect narrative contrast, have been left out completely or lost in an essentially plotless and unrewarding appearance.

It's like Gearbox thought that the least risky option was to make the story as simple as possible so that no one could be offended by it.

World Design: Bigger Isn’t Always Better

Making Borderlands 4 an open world was an ambitious but basic choice. I get the logic. Open-world games are the dominant trend in the industry, and the idea of giving players more freedom sounds great in theory. But the Borderlands series was never about size. The older Borderlands games were about rhythm and density in the world. The older games were able to strike a careful balance between chaos and control in a world that was basic and handcrafted. Here, that structure is gone.

The open world approach makes everything that Borderlands sets as a goal take longer than it needs to for no good reason. It can take a long time to get from one key goal to another, and the empty space in the narrative makes the long travel seem artificially used to stretch the game. ​Lush biomes, atmospheric lighting, and a stylish art direction help to make the world visually engaging, but they don’t help the world have the sense of movement it needs.

The side activities feel more like run-time fillers than meaningful additions. After a few dozen side missions, the feeling of fatigue sets in. The humor, so vital to the franchise, seems to have died down as well. The dialogue and missions no longer have the hilarious and absurd elements of the old games.

Playing It Safe

The feeling of safety seems to find its way into every part of Borderlands 4. It seems so clear that Gearbox was so concerned about the mistakes made in Borderlands 3 that they decided to withdraw completely. The unusual game elements, the boldness, and the humor that were so risky in the series were all taken away. The game works completely well, but it is oddly devoid of feeling.

Borderlands 3 had its Calypso Twins, and as aggravating as they might have been, they offered some energy to the game. The Timekeeper is the polar opposite. They kill energy and presence. The Timekeeper is not just a void; they are a whisper in a world trying to speak at a crescendo. To say it is silent is a bad understatement.

Borderlands is not supposed to invoke a sense of silence, but that is exactly what this game delivers.

A Great Game That Forgot Its Story

This is the part that made me so conflicted in the review. As a game, Borderlands 4 is truly outstanding, a delight for most players who buy PS5 adventure games, yet I can understand why others may feel differently. There is an exceptional quality in gameplay, the weapons are fun to use, the loot is terrific, the scenery is beautiful, and it runs really smoothly. From a gameplay perspective, to me, it is a win for Gearbox.

I totally understand how disappointing it can be when something you care about isn’t what you expected. The key elements you loved are not there, and you can’t help but want to get buried again in the magical world, but it feels empty. In the case of BL, it’s the absence of the story. In the case of BL, it’s the absence of the story. The beauty of Borderlands has always been in its chaotic, captivating, breathless writing, in all its forms—narrative, quests, and characters. In its absence, the game feels like a beautifully made shell.

But there’s hope. Borderlands has been all about or begging for DLC, and Borderlands 4 definitely feels like it’s begging for the same. They definitely have the core game, but there’s a story that needs to be wrapped around for a full game.

Final Thoughts

Borderlands 4 is unapologetically the most fun Borderlands title to play. The world’s relaxing and easy to get lost in, and it’s a reminder that not many studios do loot and gunplay like Gearbox does. The fun of the game as a whole, though, still feels incomplete. The game feels like a breath, activated but soulless.

I admire the attempt to restore trust with fans, but I just wish they didn’t go to the point of retreating. Now, we have a game that feels restrained when it ought to have the courage to take some chances, that is reserved when it properly ought to be brash, and to put it plainly, when it ought to be loud and rambunctious, it is still.