Borderlands 4 – PC Review
In recent years the “FPS Looter-Shooter” genre has very much been commanded by Destiny 2, but in a moment of synchronicity, when Destiny languishes in average content and its player numbers plummeting, the real O.G Daddy of the looter shooter, Borderlands, has returned at just the right time!
Borderlands 4 is a return to form for the franchise, after bit of a miss-step with the design choices in number 3. Borderlands 4 is full-on channelling Borderlands 2 energy, but with a lot more modern refinement to the gameplay loop and endgame.
Set on a new Borderlands world, Kairos. This time round the four new vault hunters have to go up against all-round bad guy bad and maniacal leader, The Timekeeper. To bring him down three “MacGuffins” have to be ripped from three world bosses, so then the The Timekeeper and end vault can be looted.
The story is good, nothing to write home about though. I don’t think it is as good as Borderlands 2, certainly not as funny. The Timekeeper isn’t vaguely close to the memorable bad-guy, Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2. And Borderlands 4 has sought to wind-in some of the outright cringe and silliness which Borderlands 3 was cursed with. However I think Gearbox went a bit too far on said windback. As the game and its characters are now just amusing and seldom actually funny.
I kinda miss the super silly Clap Trap from Borderlands 2
So, serviceable story and characters aside, the important part of a looter shooter is the gunplay and grind loop. I’m pleased to report Borderlands 4 is on the mark here. Guns wise, there is still the advertised “Bazillion” guns to collect, but in reality, they are variations on some set manufacturer architypes. Assault Rifles, Shotgun, Submachine Gun and Pistol etc… Gunplay feels nice and each weapon has its own feel. I would have liked the Assault Rifles to be a higher rounds-per-minute architype, but I can see the design choices behind the scenes as to why they are not.
But each gun is so different in performance, damage type and alternative fire mode. In the later game, build crafting around a nice roll is awesome. As too are the four vault hunters and their skill trees. The Soldier with a turret, Siren with magic minions, the kind of Tech AoE character and a Warrior melee class. All are just as varied and customisable as the guns they loot. I played Vex, the Siren and settled on the “Fourth Seal” tree. With melee and ranged minions I could spawn to help in the fight and buff my stats. The generally “agreed” Metah though, seems to be The Soldier and turrents build.
That said, Gearbox have shown already that this game is going to be well supported. So established Metahs’ will certainly change. There has already been a major buff and balancing patch, team Raids are coming at the end of the year and for the first time, new vault hunters will be coming in early 2026. Gearbox are looking to pin a looong tail on this franchise.
The Map of Kairos is split into three biomes. The predictable Trees, Sand and Snow zones. Not amazingly unique in their own right, but does the job to make it seem like the whole game isn’t just the same thing from start to finish. The world is vast though, which means a lot of time is spent on the spawn-able speeder bike, getting to objectives. Outside the main campaign, there are endless quests and bounties to work away at in the grind towards the endgame. One of the absolute excellent additions worth a mention is the “Moxxis Boss Kiosks”.
After beating the various bosses through the game, a Moxxi kiosk spawns nearby and at any stage players can pay the money and just keep running that specific boss fight over and over, to grind for loot drops. Whether I was hoping for a good epic with the right combination of manufacturer architype, with the right specs, perks and right alt-fire mod. Or to just to get the bosses linked gold Legendary weapon to drop. The kiosk made it fun and importantly…easy to do what I wanted, when I wanted. (take note Bungie!)
I loved this. I hit bit of a damage plateau at about level 17, and was not getting meaningful drops from just playing the game. I went back to the first boss I toppled, back at about level 6. And using the kiosk, ran him about twenty times and got an excellent epic shield and an assault rifle which I ended up crutching through the next 10 levels with, as they were so over-powered. Right there, is what a looter shooter player loves. A fair grind… and good rewards!
Much has been made of the poor PC optimisation, but I haven’t had any major issues. I’m on a new system running a RTX5070 and Ryzen5 9600X and the game will run happily at 120fps at 1440p at close to max settings. The only complaint I would have is, no matter what I tried, I had some very minor screen tearing and stutter at times, which wasn’t game breaking but really annoying. A quick search of Reddit though, will net many, many complaints of performace on older systems. So, “Caveat emptor”.
No major issues here Vault Hunters
If anything, my real gripe with Borderlands 4 is actually the art style. Which is craaazy complaint, I know! As it is the same cel-shaded or comic-book style that everyone knows and loves. But I just don’t like it in 2025. It makes everything feel too simple and the lighting seems so flat. In the age of HDR and Ray-Tracing, it looks like an old game. This, combined with the empty open areas in the maps, it all feels a bit last gen and lifeless. I will happily accept though, this is massively subjective and based on the online discourse, I would certainly be in the minority with this view.
Overall, Borderlands 4 does what is says on the tin. It is a massive, co-op focused, rootin, tootin, looter shooter. There is no highbrow lore to learn or refined gameplay mechanics to master. Its just about getting some mates together and shooting so psychos in the face with guns…lots and lots of guns. Its big, loud and fun, and makes no apologies for it.
