For more than 15 years, my love for looter shooters has been blazing brightly, and Borderlands was the spark that ignited the fire. Gearbox demonstrates that it still knows how to deliver the boom with Borderlands 4. It seemed like this franchise had started to lag in the genre it created after Borderlands 3 fizzled out a little, but 2025’s Borderlands surprised us once more by abandoning segmented sections and adopting an honest-to-goodness open world. The story takes a refreshingly grounded approach that works; the movement is drastically improved, making it one of the most immersive first-person shooters available, and the increased buildcrafting choices, which include throwing knives, healing items, and weapon improvements, are all excellent concepts.
However, there are some regrettable drawbacks to taking these risks, such as the fact that exploration is literally impeded by invisible barriers and awkward surfaces that are impossible to walk on, in addition to some bugs and somewhat rocky technical performance (at least on the PC version that was reviewed). However, those jagged borders didn’t stop me from falling in love with my first looter-shooter again, and it feels even more amazing than ever to blast through hordes of psychos with a few friends.
If you’re unfamiliar with the utter madness that is Borderlands, it’s a series in which you mow down strange creatures and they drop progressively strange weaponry, which you then use to mow down even stranger foes in a never-ending loop of shooting and looting. How strange? Similar to an assault rifle, it can launch miniature rockets, trigger an airstrike, and detonate like a grenade when reloaded and thrown. Or perhaps you’ll be lucky enough to come across a sniper rifle that shoots ammunition like a Gatling gun and stops using ammunition when it gets too hot, or a grenade that yells ridiculous (and sometimes lustful) things as it bounces up and down and spews acid.
By continuously improving the absurd weaponry it provides, which can spread to other weapon manufacturers for even more bizarre results, Borderlands 4 maintains that feeling.
Although Borderlands has always been plenty of lowbrow dick jokes to go along with its hand-drawn graphic novel aesthetic, it has never been shy to surprise with abrupt twists toward truly heartbreaking story moments. This is another unique aspect of the game’s design that has helped its finest games stand out from the competition. (In fact, it’s a universe that has supported a Tales from the Borderlands game created by Telltale and its Gearbox sequel, so it’s not all run-and-gun action.)
However, there weren’t many of those in Borderlands 3, so it was a relief when this sequel finally abandoned the original planet of Pandora and many of its enduring characters who had begun to outlive their usefulness in favor of telling a brand-new story on a world called Kairos that has been ruled by a cunning, brainwashing dictator known as the Timekeeper.
At times, it almost feels like a gentle reboot, but Borderlands 4 is much more than just a welcome change. Some interesting characters are added to the group right away, such as the elegant and endearing Levaine, who has a rather tumultuous past dating your fellow Vault Hunters. However, it occasionally takes a pleasant swim back into the nostalgia pool to have Claptrap crack a few jokes. (Yes, Borderlands wouldn’t be the same without the sassy little bot, whether you like him or not.) With an intriguing plot about attempting to liberate this planet and a few surprising turns ahead,
The game Borderlands 4 is an example of an open-world game.
While the majority of the action is what you may expect from this series, the fourth (or sixth, if you include The Pre-Sequel and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands) introduces many significant twists that upend your vault-hunting adventure. The most significant is that Borderlands 4 is an actual open-world game, complete with side missions, timed activities, trinkets, and puzzles to find, rather than the conventional strategy of vast zones divided by loading screens.
A grapple hook that allows you to access areas that are typically inaccessible, a glider that allows you to fly over vast expanses of land, and a vehicle that you can call upon to speed over hills and through deserts without first hoofing it to a Catch-A-Ride station are just a few of the many tricks you have at your disposal to help you explore Kairos’ four distinct regions. There aren’t many totally open-world games in the looter shooter genre, except a very small number (like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League or The Division 2).
That may not seem like much at first, but it’s difficult to stress how different Borderlands 4 is from its predecessors—not just because there are a ton of new methods to move around, but also because character leveling and story progression are considerably less linear today. I would occasionally race from place to place, concentrating on one aspect of the main story quest line before switching to another in a different area, or I would simply spend a few hours exploring a new area of the map, removing the fog of war and finishing any tasks I came across.
The fact that you don’t have to worry as much about sticking with your teammates this time is also fantastic. You can open up your map and warp to them right away if they need assistance with something, even if they are leagues away doing their own thing. The variety of open-world activities is also more than I had anticipated; they include genuine story-focused side quests, an activity where you must repair a big crawler to obtain a vehicle upgrade, and an activity where you must battle several madmen at a drill site to obtain some awesome loot. It is made possible by the fact that you can explore and discover freely with a group of friends in a way that is never bothersome.
Verdict
Mostly nailing the biggest swings it takes, Borderlands 4 is a fierce open-world extension of a gloriously unhinged looter-shooter game that deserved to attempt something fresh. Exciting new mobility choices and some intriguing enemy designs make combat more fluid than ever, and the engaging plot pushes things in a new way while still fitting in well with the current narrative. Although the shift to an open world isn’t always seamless—particularly when confronted by challenging terrain and an excessive number of invisible walls—it’s well worth the inconvenience to be able to freely explore the bizarre, violent world of Kairos and forge your own route.
However, my buddies and I have found ourselves completely at the mercy of its treasure grind, and while the problems my crew and I encountered were nasty enough to periodically ruin our co-op groove, overall we had a terrific time. Borderlands 4 is the much-needed kick in the pants for the Borderlands franchise, which has seemed a little stale for a while, especially after a few hiccups.
