Borderlands 3 (2019)

Every single NPC constantly talking for 5 minutes straight ruined the pacing of the game so badly.

And they added these so called "cool" villains here too. Ohhh, heeey, yeeeahh, suuure, guess what ? guess not ? these kind of lines they have. Someone really thinks teenagers speak like that int the daming industry. And they sound like they have a meat inside their nose. Like the one interview Miley Cyrus spoke like a frog.

Otherwise it's a classic Borderlands experience.

Started playing this again on Steam Deck. Man this formula is still fun to me, though it helps that I took a long break from it. I am actually fairly close to the end and started playing the mission with “Mickey Tricky” wherein you are beta testing an early access game that the NPC tells you has a lot of a bugs…. And then the game hard crashes. Had to reset my Steam Deck.

Too meta….

I think everybody knows the strengths and weaknesses of B3 by now. When you get to play it, it's a 3 star. But most of the time, B3 doesn't let you play itself.

Pros

-Amazing variety of cool guns that all feel different and unique, looting is absolutely fun because of that.

-The game looks fairly beautiful, it polished the unique Borderlands rendering style and diversified the look of the different planets, the scenery is beautiful.

Cons

-Borderlands 3 has no flow. You're constantly forced to stop and can't go on because someone is talking to you and you're forced to go back and forth for some minor uniteresting quest. Furthermore, the more open-worldly planets often just don't feel fluent in their quest design.

-The writing is so terrible it is among the worst I've seen and unfortunately you cannot skip the dialogue. This is a massive downside of Borderlands 3 and drags the game down heavily. Borderlands tries to be funny, but it's simply not. How terrible.

-The UI is just very counter-intuitive and badly designed, which B3 tries to compensate with tutorial tips. That's an absolute no-go for me. If you have to explain how your game works, the UXP is badly designed.

My playtime at the moment of review: ~50 hours (main game + all DLCs)

Reasons to play: if you liked previous Borderlands games or like looter-shooters in general.

Gameplay 4/5: The shooting and experimenting with new guns is fun. Some bosses are also rather interesting. The only problem I see is that as you progresses your weapon becomes more important than any active skills. To a point where you don't use them anymore, because you would spend time on it which you could use to make higher damage with the gun. I would really like to be able to make some skill-based build. Also sometimes you can find so overpowered gun that you will use it for next 15-20 level, thus loosing the reason to use any other guns, which is a core gameplay aspect in my opinion.

Story 3/5: I know, Borderlands games are not about story, but here main story is... meh compared to even other Borderlands games: the main villains are just cringe, as well as some of positive characters - you just don't feel much sympathy or interest to anyone there. However, DLCs are probably 4/5 for me - especially Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck, which I really liked from the story perspective.

A pretty fun game that would have been a pretty good sequel to Borderlands 2 if it released 6 years earlier.

Missing so many features for a game that took this long to came out and released in the Year Of Our Lord 2019. It is unbelievable this game shipped with the mini-map and quest indicators being as piss-poor as they are. If you don't have a second player navigating for you at all times, good luck! Enjoy pressing M every 10 seconds while driving! It feels like every screen and quest has something you can point at the screen for and just say "this feels really old!"

It continues to feel great to play, but the shooting doesn't mean much when you're bored out of your mind jumping up and down while waiting for a character to finish their poorly written monologue so you can continue to the next part of the quest. It's very easy to make fun of the Borderlands writing because it isn't funny and is full of memes and stupid shit, but the most offensive part of the writing in this game is just how painfully boring and stereotypical the story in this game is. At no point during it's whole runtime does the story feel like it does a single thing worth your interest or personal investment in the characters.

Still, this is a Borderlands game, and a Borderlands games has good bones. The shooting is improved and feels great. The loot is as good as ever, with really creative uniques and legendaries dropped at what feels like a great rate throughout the game.

Wish it didn't constantly annoy me as much as it did so I could enjoy this at least as much as I enjoyed Borderlands 2.

With how omnipresent the Borderlands franchise is, and how endlessly replayable they at least want the games to be, it's easy to forget that this isn't some Call of Duty- or Assassin's Creed-style annual moneymaker—when this game came out, it'd been 5 years since The Pre-Sequel and 7 since Borderlands 2. Still, it feels like a brave choice for a franchise this big to actually buckle down and tell a story, to make a game that feels enough like an ending that it would be hard for them to justify making another entry in the series.

The clues are all there, from a couple significant character deaths, to a big reveal about one of the series regulars, to the fact this game digs into the backstory of the vaults, sirens, and Eridium so much more than the previous games did—the penultimate section of the game takes place on the planet where it all started (not Pandora), which is as Campbellian a structure as you could ask for from a series whose worldbuilding always seems to be catching up with itself.

Also there's the part where they pretend to tease a fourth game and then immediately negate that tease, which is just a step below flashing "THERE WON'T BE A BORDERLANDS 4" across the screen.

While the first game's ending was intentionally disappointing and the second's was a plot-hook, this one actually feels satisfying in a way that I did not expect from a Borderlands game. Maybe that's just 'cause I have a bias towards melancholy, but I don't think so. The plot is meatier, the villains are much more interesting, the characters appearing from the previous games aren't just there to be there (for the most part), the planets are all interesting and distinct—it just all comes together really well. And obviously it does all the usual Borderlands things, with some improvements including a skill tree system that tries to actively encourage cross-tree builds instead of single-tree min-maxing, and vehicles that don't get stuck on every single piece of terrain (though they are still fairly difficult to steer). Also you can by inventory upgrades with cash now instead of Eridium, which is now used to buy cool weapons with special effects, which makes a lot more sense.

Also there's a heist DLC. More games should have heist DLCs. Or main-game heists, for that matter. Or they should just make a heist game. That isn't Watch Dogs. I'm getting off-topic.

Anyway, good game, good series.

RIP Scooter.

(Also if there is a Borderlands 4 I might be a little mad, but I'll still play it.)

I liked BL1, loved BL2 and disliked TPS. BL3 is kinda meh.

The good

The guns, locations and enemies are all well done. There are some fun quests and character bits. Also it doesn't have shitty oxygen management or holes you constantly fall into like TPS.

The bad

It's not as fresh and fun as BL2. The main story is completely uninteresting, the baddies aren't Handsome Jack and even great characters like Tina feel underwhelming here.

The ugly

The shitty fucking awful inventory slot buying is still there. Why the fuck is there are F2P MMO system in a paid single-player game? The UI is still awful console garbage as well. They learnt nothing from previous games.

Starting a new character is 100% painful. Not only is the intro mission way too long, you can't even skip the intro movie. No, that's not a joke, you have to let it run for like 10 minutes before you can play.

Levelling is still too slow and the terrible three different skill trees are still there. It just takes waaaaay too long to get to the "fun" stuff.

Finally, i had serious technical issues and the game would take several minutes to start. I've been gaming since the 80s and i've never had a problem like that before.

Borderlands 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. I loved the gameplay loop, I loved the loot, and I was surprised at how good the story was and how 3 dimensional the characters were. I loved Borderlands 2 so much that it kept me playing it all summer long last year. So I kept myself excited for Borderlands 3 despite all of the controversies with Randy Pitchford, 2K, Epic Games, and Take Two Interactive. I waited for it to come out on Steam and after playing through the campaign, I feel disappointed, enraged, empty, and divided on this game. I have mixed thoughts on this game. On one hand, I loved the same old gameplay that the Borderlands series always had, but on the other hand, I absolutely loathed the story for its wasted potential, underutilized recurring characters, annoying new characters, and the lack of purpose the 4 new Vault Hunters had on the Story.

I'm going to be brief on the positives as BL3 basically Borderlands but more. The sound design is very crisp. As annoying as the Calypso Twins are, Troy has some depth as he is the one that is leeching off of his sister. He's jealous that he is just considered as a sidekick to his sister. Typhon DeLeones has the most depth in the game. The gameplay loop is always fantastic and for the first time, I felt interested in fighting in these gauntlets for the loot I get from them is really good. The guns feel impactful. When you shoot someone with a shotgun, they don't just take damage, they fly back from the impact, giving you more breathing time before they get back up and start fighting again. Thanks to the fast travel system, there is way less backtracking, though I would've liked to fast travel to the Catch-a-Ride systems. After Maya dies, Ava gives you a gun called the Cloud Kill, which is named after a skill that Maya had in Borderlands 2. I loved the statue that appeared after the Tiny Tina DLC with everyone's signature. RIP Roland.

Now I'm going to be talking about the negatives. This paragraph is going to be very long and there will be major spoilers. If you want to see me go on my tangent or don't care about being spoiled, click on the blurred text. Borderlands 3 has one of the most broken, abysmal plots ever written in a video game. There are so many plotholes that I cannot count them with my own two hands. Let's start. How has Lilith not found the Vault Key FIVE YEARS after destroying Sanctuary? She can use her Siren powers to teleport anywhere on Pandora. How has she not noticed that there was a massive cult of 10 billion bandits and psychos until now? Remember at the end of the PreSequel where the Warden foreshadows that war is coming and tells the Crimson Raiders that they will need all the Vault Hunters they can get? Well Borderlands 3 fuckin doesn't as we get 4 new Vault Hunters and Salvador, Kreig, Gaige, and Axton are not even present in the story. Brick, Mordecai, and Tiny Tina only do one thing in the story. Only 2 characters from Tales appear and they don't even interact with each other. How did the Calypso Twins rise to power? How did Tyreen and Troy know about the Vault Key? And when the Vault Key was delivered to Tyreen and Troy, how did Lilith not know about this very important information that could lead to loot? Before Sanctuary was about to lift off, when the Calypso Twins ambushed Lilith, why didn’t she teleport the Vault Hunter into the fight? Why does the Vault Hunter wait until the end of this cutscene to rescue Lilith? Why didn’t Lilith teleport the Vault Key to where it was safe inside? Is Tyreen really that overpowered that she can teleport any bandit to kill the Vault Hunter after leeching off of Lilith who was struggling with destroying a flying city with the help of Eridium? The Calypso Twins are the WORST villains ever and what's worse is that they're not the #1 worst characters in the game; they have such little material to work off of. There was a theme going on with the betrayal of family. Aurelia tries to kill her brother to become the head of Jakobs, Katagawa Jr. kills his family to take over Maliwan. The same almost happens with the Calypso Twins as we could've had Troy make his big breakthrough after being the sidekick to Tyreen, but it never happens, there is little to no development with these two. Instead, all we get are streamer jokes that are not even funny and reminders that Maya is dead and Lilith's Siren powers are leeched. Speaking of Maya's death, the story takes a dramatic nosedive. There are so many plotholes in this one scene. To start, WHY IN THE PICKLE RICK DICK didn't our playable Vault Hunters do anything during the cutscene after coming back from the vault in Promethea? Why didn't Maya let go of Troy after she realized that she was being leeched? Wouldn't Lilith die from the same thing? How come she is alive and not Maya? When we get back to Sanctuary, Lilith says that there was nothing that the Vault Hunter could do about saving Maya. OF FUCKING COURSE THERE WAS! WE JUST GOT OUT OF THE VAULT FOR FUCKS SAKE AND INSTEAD OF DOING SOMETHING, WE ARE JUST WATCHING MAYA BE PATHETICALLY KILLED ON ACCIDENT! And when we are paying respects to Maya, Tannis kills the tone with an unfunny joke. Also, none of the other Vault Hunters from Borderlands 2, except for Zer0, appear to mourn the loss of someone very close to them. I bet Kreig would've liked to pay his respects for Maya since he had a crush on her. And where do I start with the new character, Ava? She’s the absolute worst character in the entire series. All she does is bitch, whine, and blame others for something they didn’t do. She blames Lilith for Maya's death even though Maya was killed because Ava didn't shut the fuck up about how ShE wIlL bE a SiReN. Maya’s death was not treated with little to no care whatsoever. Maya has very little screentime, she dies halfway through the game, and the characters just brush it off. Ava does not deserve to be the leader of the Crimson Raiders. She has no development and she doesn't learn anything. Anyone else but Ava could've taken that place. For vaults that contained all the loot, they sure are anticlimatic as there are only 4 for each vault and each chest can give you a green weapon. Same case with this all and mystical Great Vault. And apparently, Tannis is a successor to Angel as a Siren? Just what the fu-

Borderlands 3 is Borderlands at its absolute best and at its absolute worst. The gameplay is undoubtedly the best in the series with many quality of life changes that make Borderlands 2's great gameplay pale in comparison. But the story is one of the worst in the AAA gaming industry, it treats its old characters like shit by giving them little to no role in the story and its new main characters are the worst in the series. If you are interested in this game because of that classic Borderlands gameplay loop, then play it. If you are interested in getting this game because you want to see what will happen next to the Crimson Raiders, stay away from this game. Just go watch a playthrough. If you're right down in the middle like I am, just make your choice.

FINAL RATING: 5/10

P.S. The soundtrack is surprisingly good. Give it a shot if you're a fan of Hotline Miami's OST.

Wait... I never did a Borderlands 3 review? Time to fix that!

OK, I'm joking. Borderlands 3 is not a boring game. It's actually quite fun. But is a serious step back from the amazing Borderlands 2.

Yes, it has a lot of 'quality-of-life' improvements, like the quest cycling and easy fast travel, but everything else is dissapointing. The new environments are not that great, the plot is terrible, the new villians don't hold a candle against Handsome Jack, beloved characters come back and do nothing, most optional fetch quests are repetitive and there are more bullet-sponge enemies than ever.

The worst thing is seeing how your character doesn't even matter to the plot. I also thought the game was gonna say something interesting about the problems with the 'streaming celebrity culture', but there was nothing behind that.

After playing this, I went back to Borderlands Handsome Collection and I don't think I would want to play 3 again. Is not a bad game at all, it's just that 2 is so much better.

Gameplay= Mechanics, gameplay options (freedom), repetition, goals, difficulty

Story= plot, engagement, characters, world-building

Presentation= graphics, animation, environment/character design, Art direction, Script, music

Gameplay: 4/5 The gameplay truly is the biggest highlight of this title. Where the combat felt stiff in the previous games in B3 it feels very fluid. Your jumps don't feel floaty like previous titles. They added new movement mechanics such as a slide and ledge grab ability increasing the smoothness of movement that has been much needed.

One thing that has always bugged me is that the games are all about the guns, but they always lacked a lot of impact that other FPS titles have done well. In this installment I didn't have that problem. All of the guns felt like they had physicality on your end as the player and when the enemy is hit.

Another much needed improvement in this entry were the skill trees. There was a lot of variety in the previous titles, but they all revovled around basically doing the same ability. In this title each character has three abilities that can be each drastically modified. Playing primarily as Moze (the Gunner) I have changed my build at least 6 times just to see how differently the game will play. In previous titles I only changed builds to increase my intended stats (higher damage or more tank stats).

Story: 3.5/5 This game felt like the Avengers: Endgame of the series where its just had almost all of the characters from previous titles and DLCs. Though it did lack some of my favorites. Building off of the core concept of hunting for the vaults this game takes the universe (in part literally) to the next level. There is much more variety in where the game takes you as the story progresses. It continues to have an amazing and hilarious script, but yet was able to do well at serious moments in the story. The characters that return continue to be developed. There are a lot of new faces in the game as well that have some rich stories to tell even if they, in part, are told through audio logs.

Presentation: 4/5 The game keeps its fun "toon shaded" look, but adds a lot of detail to the models and really feels like they look the way they were meant to. The animations also are heavily improved as the stiffness of the previous games is removed. The environments are large and very unique which is a huge plus to me. I often struggle when playing a game where every level feels the same. The variety of enemy types and designs are vast. The designs often include an aspect of game design mixed in too.

Fans of the series have to play this game. Fans of FPS games should try this out. Fans of Looter Shooter may also enjoy this game as it has a decent level of "end game" content or at the least repaly value as DLC and free events come out.

More Borderlands, something I'm more than happy with. The cel shaded art style is something I will never be tired of seeing, gunplay felt fantastic, bolstered by a large number of guns and other equipment you find as you progress, this is an area Borderlands nails so effectively. The story was disappointing mainly due to the main antagonists not living up to previous games and side characters in general not as memorable, though we do see a few blasts from the past which is cool. Boss fights were a mix of inventive joy and boring bullet sponges.

Guns, guns, guns. So many guns, and they are so fun! This was an awesome romp, with well implemented multiplayer (enemy scaling, easy to enter friends games, etc). There is an annoying glitch where your campaign progress gets advanced to match the state of the host's campaign if you join someone else's game ... which might cause some missions to get missed.

That said, the gameplay is great. IO took a star of because this has the most annoying videogame villain of all time. Not annoying in terms of being villainous - but annoying in terms of cliche, predictable, and ridiculously over the top dialog. It just isn't believable, and doesn't get any better from the ridiculous banter at the start. Cast was terrible, even if the voice acting was well done - it couldn't save an absolutely terrible script.

But guns guns guns ... it's a game I'll remember fondly and probably go back to.

After going through a vast part of the game this week-end with friends I can assure you that all in this game is fun. Guns are fun, characters are fun, the Voice acting if through the roof, sidequests are fun, coop is immensely fun, class skills are quite a nice refreshing touch and are super different from one class to another but they are all fun to use.

The only thing that is meh is the story and the level design, I love the art direction, graphics are cool and so is the settings of each zone but it's vast open junkyard and big corridors most of the time. Also the game is quite easy but I still have to reach the end game (level 25 currently).