Back to Pandora to participate in the mayhem! The Borderlands franchise was one of the biggest co-op looter shooters that I ever got to experience. Gearbox has a very strong formula and even though there isn’t anything fairly innovating, the experience of shooting and looting has reached a new peak in Borderlands 3. The comical characters, the cartoony presentation style and the co-op experience are also returning to the fray. It’s an amazing feeling to be back!
Like previous games, the stage is being set for those new vault hunters and Gearbox made an entertaining introduction movie to set the mood. This introduction movie is mostly important to have a glimpse of the characters from which you can choose to start your journey. There’s the clobbering Siren that uses her powers to stasis her enemies or obliterates her opponents with her astral projection. FL4K is your animal lover that uses his pets to conquer every obstacle or to build up his critical hits. Moze is summoning her mech that can be equipped with the most devastating weaponry. Last but not least is Zane who uses a holographic copy of himself to confuse the enemy or focuses on doubling his damage by equipping himself with a buttload of grenades. Each vault hunter represents its own playstyle and it’s up to you to choose what kind of playstyle fits you the most. Each character has its own talent tree and can be re-arranged if a certain build doesn’t fulfill your needs. Each hero can use every type of weapon and is viable in each situation, however, some playstyles are easier to master than others.
“When you’re reaching your end destination, you can really feel the true potential of your build.”
Whatever hero you choose, they’re all built to last. Each vault hunter represents active and passive skills and it’s up to you to figure out the most perfect build for you. It’s often recommended to play each character for an hour or so to see what kind of damage you can do on Pandora. I do feel like the build-up to where you’re going to is rather slow, especially within the first 12 hours. I rarely felt overpowered as you’re still progressing through the story and there’s still need to gather up experience points to be the best you can be. Even though it’s more common in a Borderlands game to feel fairly strong from the beginning, Borderlands 3 chooses to go down another path. A path that’s worth taking but is rather slow. Eventually, when you’re reaching your end destination, you can really feel the true potential of your build.
Borderlands 3 doesn’t let your character stay on Pandora. The story takes your character to different planets all with their own setting and atmosphere. This a great addition to the Borderlands franchise to create some variation in the environments. The first couple of hours lets you explore Pandora and its enemies it has to offer. All of these enemies are actually more cannon fodder to test out your new skills and create a small but decent arsenal to continue your story. The game also takes time to introduce new players to all of the mechanics that Borderlands has to offer. It lets you experience everything first hand with a decent tutorial that explains the important bits of the game. There’s the option to accept some side quests, earn some cash, discover secret mini-bosses and utilize the different vehicles the game has to offer. In other words, the first couple of hours will give you a glimpse of what the game has to offer and what kind of gameplay you should be expecting from the franchise. If you’re a veteran like me, it’s just some fun hours to get into the groove.
These different environments have been well designed as they’re distinct from every other planet in the game…”
I already talked about the game taking it a bit further with their different environments. Once the first hours have been completed, you’ll gain access to a huge space ship that’ll take you to places where you’ve never been before. The spaceship is your sanctuary that can always be accessed from the hub. It gives you the options to gain some extra experience points or cash but it also gives you the opportunity to spend your cash on specific items because the “Sanctuary” will have different vendors and interesting places that’ll improve your quality of life in the game. From within your spaceship, you can travel to the different planets you’ve already explored.
Planets that you’ll visit can vary from a futuristic metropolis to a darker swamp-like planet. Each planet has a certain “thing” going on and it’s up to you to explore the planet for the vault and of course help around and gather some loot. These different environments have been well designed as they’re distinct from every other planet in the game, and this keeps the game interesting on a later level. Even though, Borderlands spices things up with a decent variety collection of planets, the game falters in the questing process. Just like any other looter shooter game, it’s very “normal” and doesn’t stand out from other games. Your quests are all about killing certain enemies and gather important items. A lot of these “mini-bosses” are mostly a big chunk of flesh that can absorb a big amount of bullets. Some bosses have been designed well with “balanced” mechanics but there were also a couple of bosses that instantly killed me with some of their abilities. This will probably be fixed with the incoming patches but I’ve honestly expected a bit more of Gearbox. Don’t get me wrong, some mechanics will let you think about creating some kind of strategy, especially because of the fact that they’re abilities hit hard. You’ll need to confront a boss, look out for any special kind of mechanics and play all of your cards to survive. If it doesn’t work the first time, you’ll get it the second time around. But in the end, they’re still bullet sponges.
“With this feature, it doesn’t take long to adapt to any kind of situation.”
What Gearbox does fairly well, is the variety in gun design. Each gun feels different due to these stats or even by there look. Yes, there are a couple of guns that look very similar but it’s due to its alternate abilities that create this huge variety of guns. I do feel like every gun has a certain weakness and this keeps the game interesting because you want to find that other gun that tops the one you currently have. Even though, each gun looks and feels different, not every gun has received the same amount of attention as other guns. Some guns are just plain awful and don’t make sense. However, the feature to use alternate firing mode is the best upgrade Borderlands could have. With just the touch of a button, your assault rifle is spitting out sticky bombs or an alternate pistol mode allows you to fire off a taser that locks on to different enemies in the area. It’s a great option to have to encounter specific enemies. With this feature, it doesn’t take long to adapt to any kind of situation.
Another part where the game lost its touch is most definitely the writing. I feel like I was watching a very bad stand-up comedy where only the drunk people were allowed to make jokes. All of these characters seem to have the urge to be funny, while they’re most of all doing the counterpart. The main villains also lack “interesting” components to maintain my focus. The villains feel like they’ve been locked up for ages and just found out that technology allows us to communicate with others through streaming. It’s like they’re trying to play the meme card when it has all been done before. Thank God, there are some interesting points during the story where I thought: “Finally, we’re getting somewhere!” but those moments are too short to be remembered and too few to make a big deal out of it. Previous Borderlands games had this comical touch and every piece fitted into this comical undertone but this time around, it feels like they’ve lost the creativity to maintain their standards of comedy. Claptrap is also still the one who tries to make the ride comfortable even though he doesn’t reach the same level of enjoyment as previous games.
“Borderlands 3 is a fast type of game and if the game doesn’t run fluently, it’s a pain to continue.”
The game also offers co-op modes, either locally or online and boy I’m glad they’ve implemented a local co-op split-screen mode because these types of games are the most fun when you’re battling with your friends. However, the PS4 still needs some tweaking when it comes to performance. There were a lot of times where screen tearing happened or even some texture pop-ins. Then when everything seemed to go perfectly, there were these small drops of FPS that definitely broke my immersion. Borderlands is a fast type of game and if the game doesn’t run fluently, it’s a pain to continue. Especially when you’re confronting big bosses. Then again, all of these things can be patched with future content updates, so hopefully, Gearbox will get these minor performance issues out of the way before the first DLC.
Borderlands 3 is a great example of “staying true to its nature”. Gearbox has a great formula and even though the next installment of the franchise might not be as innovative, it still works and it still gives you a lot of hours of pleasure. Too bad, the story couldn’t convince me because all of the other things did. If Gearbox would have invested a little bit more time in the storytelling, as Telltale would do, I’m sure this would have been the best Borderlands yet! Anyhow, the game is enjoyable solo or with friends. It’ll take a couple of more weeks until I’m fully done with it, until the next DLC launch of course!
8.5/10
tested on PS4
