Borderlands 4 review - An evolutionary leap forward with a few misses

After much waiting, Borderlands 4 is finally here. The latest entry in publisher 2K Games and developer Gearbox Software's iconic sci-fi looter-shooter franchise is without a doubt its biggest and most ambitious yet, and for all the right reasons for the most part. The development team has seemingly listened to many of the fandom's qualms with several aspects of the previous game in order to improve this new journey.

With Borderlands 4, Gearbox has delivered something that fans will love sinking their teeth into for hours on end, either solo or in up to four-player, seamless, drop-in-drop-out co-op – despite some missteps here and there. Learn why in our full review of the game.

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Borderlands 4 courts familiar territory while also being a revolutionary installment for the franchise

A new chapter unfolds on Kairos (Image via 2K)

With a new entry comes a brand-new setting. Set after the events of Borderlands 3, Gearbox has chosen to drop the setting of Pandora in favor of Kairos, a new planet under the tyranny of the Timekeeper and his Order. This new villain chose to keep the planet hidden away from the rest of the universe's view until Pandora's moon, Elpis, came crashing into it.

This opened up a new avenue for discovery to explorers and bounty hunters from all around the galaxy, including both new and familiar faces. In terms of the former, we have four never-before-seen Vault Hunters, each falling into their distinct archetype as is the series' tradition:

• Vex the Siren
• Rafa the EXO-Soldier
• Amon the Forgeknight
• Harlowe the Gravitar

I picked Vex for my playthrough; however, each character brings something unique to the table with their distinct Action Skills, skill trees, and capstones, like Rafa's mobility and third-person melee mode, Amon's adaptive skillset and elemental kit, and Harlowe's insane crowd-control setup. As the Siren, Vex can summon Minions to aid her in battle or empower her attacks with Eldritch Blast.

Stir up trouble with Vex's minion Trouble (Image via 2K)

She is the most similar to Vault Hunters from past entries, making her a good starting point for both newcomers and returning fans. Regardless of the character picked, each will be embroiled in a battle against the Timekeeper to free Kairos from his unjust reign. However, the gold-clad villain is not the only threat to contend with.

The Timekeeper has assigned three elites to each of the game's biomes, whom the Vault Hunters must take down before aiming for the head honcho. This is without counting the various unfriendly dangers on Kairos, as well as the Ripper faction that replaces the traditional Borderlands Psychos. Now, fans might be wondering: How good is the story, really?

After all, Borderlands 3 left a sour taste in many fans' mouths due to the unfunny humor and lackluster writing, especially concerning its villains, the Calypso Twins. Thankfully, none of that is to be found here, at least not to such an overbearing degree; Borderlands 4's plot, writing, and villains are a lot better than 3's and, in fact, are reminiscent of the tone of the past games, especially the first Borderlands title.

New faces like Rush are a nice change of pace (Image via 2K)

Despite this win, the Timekeeper fails to live up to the franchise's peak that is Borderlands 2's villain Handsome Jack, which, frankly, is a tall order to meet at this point. While familiar faces such as Moxxi, Amara, and Zane return, the new ones, like Arjay, Rush, or Levaine, fail to leave a lasting impression like past NPCs (for example, Captain Hammerlock) did.

Still, as with other Borderlands games, the star of the show is the gameplay.

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Looting and shooting like never before

Loot is the name of the game (Image via 2K)

Borderlands 4 will feel most familiar to hardcore fans in the gunplay and loot aspect, which still sees big leaps from even Borderlands 3. While I personally am not a fan of the new Order and Ripper manufacturer weapons, the gunplay as a whole has been improved over the past game. In fact, Gearbox promises 30 billion possible gun permutations that can drop.

This is aided by the new Licensed Parts system, which ensures that a weapon from one manufacturer can have parts belonging to many different manufacturers. For example, a Jakobs shotgun can have a Hyperion shield or a Torgue sticky alt-fire. Interestingly enough, some manufacturers, like Hyperion and COV, are absent overall but are still included in the form of Licensed Parts, which is a little weird.

Overall, this system makes even lower-rarity Blue and Purple weapons viable well into the endgame, but that does not mean the developers have skimped out on the Legendaries. There are many Orange-tier weapons to discover, many with unique properties no other gun in Borderlands 4 can replicate, like the Oscar Mike assault rifle with its Gears 5 Hammer of Dawn-esque Space Laser alt fire that decimates foes.

Fighting bosses for loot never gets old (Image via 2K)

Shields now come in the standard Energy form as well as the new Armo form, with yellow health bars. Artifacts from past games have been replaced with Enhancements, which still boost weapon traits but are now tied to specific manufacturers. Grenades and heavy weapons have been overhauled with the new Ordinance system, allowing weapons in this slot to be used on a cooldown; this means no more hoarding grenade or rocket launcher ammo for the right moment.

Lastly, the new Repkits equipment grants healing on demand, which is a saving grace during tough encounters. This is accentuated by new mobility options for the Vault Hunters. Jumps, slides, slams, and ledge grabs return, on top of new mechanics like wall climbing, grappling, and gliding, transforming combat encounters for the better.

For example, most major bosses will have plenty of tricks up their sleeves that require players to use these abilities on the fly to counter them. That said, these mechanics are also useful during exploration.

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Explore a world beyond the horizons

Swimming is also a new mechanic (Image via 2K)

For the first time ever, the franchise goes fully open-world with Borderlands 4. Kairos is one big explorable map, compared to past entries that had segmented areas divided by loading screens. Those instances are still present in the new title, but only used for rare set-pieces like the inner areas of Fortresses; however, the rest of the experience is entirely loading-free, except for between deaths and resurrections.

There are several biomes to traverse, like the Fadefields, with stretches of lush grassy plains, contrasting with the arid rocky deserts of Carcadia Burn and the snowy mountains of Terminus Range. To supplement this major change, many quality-of-life additions have been implemented, including features fans have wanted for a while now.

For one, Runners, the hovercraft-esque vehicles in Borderlands, can now be summoned out of thin air almost everywhere in the world. Side missions are also now replayable, allowing players to get multiple copies of a quest reward easily. Loot can now be picked up as Junk to be mass-sold at vendors, reducing the time spent browsing the inventory to sell items one by one.

Players can explore the world at their own pace (Image via 2K)

The most important change is to boss farming; thanks to Moxxi's Encore stations located outside boss arenas, players can immediately respawn defeated bosses as many times as desired at the cost of some money. Considering how Legendary drop rates have been tweaked to be super rare (sometimes at the cost of being infuriatingly so) compared to how frequent they were in Borderlands 3, this should make item farming much more hassle-free.

The game's world is teeming with life, from NPCs in towns going about their work and even fighting incoming foes, to fauna and rare events that keep the experience fresh. There are also multiple side activities to engage in. From unlocking Safehouses and Silos that work as fast travel points, to gauntlet-style Ripper Drill Sites, abandoned Auger Mine dungeons, and even a handful of full-blown Vaults to explore, Borderlands 4 will keep completionists busy for a long time.

All this is on top of the fleshed-out endgame content. The Ultra Vault Hunter Mode (UVHM) for New Game Plus returns, raising level caps and droprates. New missions, bosses, and activities become available, including the return of Vault Cards to keep players grinding for Legendaries. Fans can also expect more content (both paid and free) to be added in the future, including Invincible Raid Bosses.

However, the game is not without its share of key issues, ranging from afterthoughts to inconveniences.

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Losing momentum on this journey of mayhem

Rift bosses are fun to fight, but be sure not to exit the arena by mistake (Image via 2K)

As drastic and impactful as many of Borderlands 4's changes and additions are, some of them just don't work well. These range from minor gripes, like the inventory menu UI being cumbersome in terms of readability, to more significant ones that affect a player's sense of discovery. For example, a Rift can spawn randomly on Kairos.

This is a giant bubble in an area, and entering it summons a random boss to fight. The problem here is that if players step out of that Rift bubble even for a second, the encounter disappears. Given how run-and-gun Borderlands 4's gameplay is and how most encounters require keeping distance from the boss to avoid being piled on, it can be easy to accidentally step out of the Rift.

Bizarrely, the Pet AI for Trouble is also a step back from Borderlands 3, which is baffling. I had the big cat swiping thin air as the enemies fled from it or it got stuck in geometry. The worst offender, though, is the new carry mechanic. Borderlands 4 allows Vault Hunters to hold an item, like canisters or objects of interest, which can then be thrown or put into context-sensitive locations.

Escorting objects is one of the most unfun parts of Borderlands 4 (Image via 2K)

However, while an item is held, the Vault Hunter's range of motion gets limited; trying to mantle onto walls or using Action Skills will drop the item. This is such a bizarre, immersion-breaking mechanic, and it makes no sense for a Vault Hunter, who has a backpack that can store dozens of weapons, to run around with an object in their hand.

Thankfully, this mechanic is only utilized in brief moments across the campaign, including side quests (a double-edged sword, considering side missions are some of the best parts of Borderlands 4). These quests are largely the same, asking you to go to certain places, collect certain items, or defeat certain enemies. That said, many of them are quite engaging, delving into the franchise's lore while also unearthing fun Easter eggs and references from past games, much to longtime fans' delight.

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Graphics, performance, and sound

Borderlands 4 looks stunning despite technical hiccups (Image via 2K)

Borderlands 4 is undoubtedly the best-looking entry in the series so far. Built atop Unreal Engine 5, the use of Lumen (a software-based raytracing solution for global illumination) and Nanite (for handling densely detailed environments) offers a clear upgrade over Borderlands 3, especially in indirectly lit areas.

Unfortunately, this comes at a cost, as the game is yet another in a line of poorly optimized Unreal Engine 5 games in the industry. Before we start, let me clarify that Borderlands 4 was reviewed on a device with the following specs:

• CPU: Intel Core i7-12650H (10C/16T)
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop (8 GB)
• RAM: 32 GB DDR4
• SSD: 1 TB NVME

The biggest problem plaguing the game is stuttering; at launch, this was a major issue, with frequent micro-freezing while traversing the world, especially on vehicles. Borderlands 4 also suffered from memory leak issues on the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, where performance would degrade with longer playtimes.

Most of these problems have been largely resolved via patches, but the stuttering persists, albeit to a lesser degree than before. The other issue is low frame rates. It is impossible to get anything close to 60 FPS without the use of image upscaling techniques like Nvidia DLSS, which is frankly absurd; most of my time playing at 1080p and Low-Medium settings with DLSS set to Balanced was spent in the 40 FPS range.

Besides that, the sound design is great, with familiar Borderlands tunes ranging from electrifying beats to haunting orchestral music – nothing to complain about here.

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In conclusion

Borderlands 4 gets a thumbs up, but I hope the issues are resolved sooner rather than later (Image via 2K)

Borderlands 4 is, for the most part, a success story. As someone who has sunk over 900 hours into Borderlands 2, the beloved 2012 entry still remains the franchise's peak for me. That said, this latest entry is easily the next best thing. The new changes here take the franchise in the right direction.

Exciting new Vault Hunters, improved gunplay, a vast new open-world to explore, a plethora of side content to indulge in, and an endgame that will get even better over time with new content – all of this contributes to the appeal of the latest title. This is certainly admirable, even though the game stumbles a bit in several design areas.

Many of these issues are rectifiable, mind you, but it is up to Gearbox as to whether or not they will be tackled. All in all, Borderlands 4 is a high point for the franchise, one that is a must-play for anyone even remotely intrigued by 2K's iconic looter-shooter franchise.

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Borderlands 4

Our final verdict for Borderlands 4 (Image via Sportskeeda/2K)

Reviewed On: PC (review code provided by 2K)

Platform(s): PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 (TBA)

Developer(s): Gearbox Software

Publisher(s): 2K

Release date: September 12, 2025