When the original “Borderlands” came out in 2009, it took the world by storm. It was an unofficial beginning to the “looter-shooter” genre which has become incredibly popular in modern day.
When “Borderlands 2” came out in 2012, it seemed like this franchise would become a juggernaut. Strangely enough, not counting spin-offs, the series went on a seven-year hiatus after 2012.
Finally, in 2019, “Borderlands 3” has been released.
The game is arguably the most anticipated title of the year, with fans eager to jump back into the world that they fell in love with a decade ago. With so many years since the last title in the series, one would think that the next game would be leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessors.
Sadly, this isn’t the case.
It’s been about seven years since the fall of Handsome Jack and Hyperion. Siblings Troy and Tyreen Calypso take advantage of the power vacuum to form “Children of the Vault,” a cult dedicated to finding vaults and harnessing their power for evil. When the Crimson Raiders, a force created to protect Pandora, put out a call for help fighting the COV, four new vault hunters answer: FL4K the “Beastmaster,” Amara the “Siren,” Moze the “Gunner” and Zane the “Operative.”
“Borderlands 3” simply doesn’t have very good writing.
When the “Borderlands” series was in its heyday, I was a huge fan. At the time, I was in middle school, so I thought the games were the funniest things ever made. Seven years have passed, however, and I’ve grown up. “Borderlands,” however, has not.
The games “lol so random” humor simply misses far more often than it hits.
Sure, I found myself laughing with the game occasionally, but more often than not, I just cringed. Comedy is the most subjective of mediums, so I’m sure a lot of people will still find the game hilarious, it just simply didn’t click for me.
The story should be more interesting to me than it is. “Borderlands 3” is full of so many interesting, unique characters that I should feel more attached to, but I don’t. Troy and Tyreen simply feel like different versions of Handsome Jack and the whole game’s story just feels like a rehash of “Borderlands 2.”
The story’s saving grace is its performances. Pretty much every actor in the game does a fantastic job and does the best with what they were given. Sadly, in my opinion, they weren’t given much.
Being a rehash of “Borderlands 2” is a general theme for “Borderlands 3.”
Graphically, the game looks almost the same as “Borderlands 2.” Textures constantly pop in a few seconds after they should, which feels unacceptable for a big budget game in 2019. Players are even given the option to focus on graphics or performance and, as far as I can tell, both are bad no matter which option you pick.
The game ran normally as it was supposed to, but I ran into frame-rate drops and chugging whenever lots of enemies were on screen. The game also chugs much more than it should when players are navigating the menus, which is insane, seeing as how players will spend a lot of time in menus.
All these issues come together to make the “Borderlands 3” feel like something that would’ve been on Xbox 360 or PS3, not PS4 and Xbox One. It simply feels old and unpolished.
The game does have some saving graces, however.
“Borderlands 3” is still a blast to play. Whether you find yourself adventuring through the game’s four planets by yourself or with others, taking on bandits and strange alien creatures is just as fun as it was in the past games.
The game features a large variety of guns that feel unique and are a ton of fun to use. Every time I would get a unique new gun, I had a blast testing it out and learning how to use it. Looting enemies and chests to find the next rare gun or item never stopped being fun.
Sadly, everything else in the game works against this pure game-play enjoyment to make an experience that was significantly less than what I was hoping for.
If you don’t find much issue with sub-par graphics and performance, there’s a chance that you might still have a good time with “Borderlands 3”. These issues, however, along with the story and writing, make it hard for me to recommend the game.
If all you want from “Borderlands 3” is more “Borderlands 2,” then you won’t be disappointed by this game. If you wanted literally anything else after more than half a decade of waiting, then you might find yourself as disappointed as I was.
Game reviewed on a PlayStation 4 Pro.
6/10
