Game Review: Borderlands 3 offers more of the same formula, but that's okay

It’s been like what, seven years since Borderlands 2 came out? That’s a hella long time for a follow-up. It’s surprising too that 2K Games didn’t come up with one sooner, especially since the game is one of Steam’s top-five most played games ever, packing an average of 10,000 concurrent players as late as April this year. 

Then September 13 came and Borderlands 3 dropped. And it’s a bonafide hit! Right now, the latest outing of the looter shooter is officially the fastest-selling title in 2K history with over 5 million units sold in its first five days. 

It’s clear that fans of the franchise were hungry for even more lootin’ tootin’ gun-a-shootin’, and Borderlands 3 delivers exactly that. The base formula of killing bad guys, levelling up and uncovering rare, powerful guns returns in an even larger scale. Cel-shaded comic art style? Check. Co-op campaign? Yup. Irreverent humour? Definitely. Tight gunplay? Oh, hell yes. 

But are there any major changes made to the gameplay, now that Borderlands has finally arrived on current-gen consoles? Not really. I mean sure, you can now mantle up ledges, ride monocycles, slide to cover, click alternative add augments to actions skills. If you’re running as Zane, you even have the option of having two action skills. 

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Be that as it may, but you’ll still be running hundreds of fetch quests, grind/farm your way to getting some legendary loot, and fight bullet-sponge bosses. 

Not that any of it really matters, because Borderlands 3 is made for the fans who already like the shoot-and-loot mechanics from past iterations. But if you can’t bear the last couple of games (we’re not counting the Telltale instalment), stay far away from this one because it’s even more of the same. 

It’s not a bad thing, really. As a longtime fan who has played every Borderlands game — yes, even the meh Pre-Sequel — the latest outing pushes all the right buttons and more. You just can’t beat the pure satisfaction of unboxing every single green-lit chest, locker, and box you can find strewn across the galaxy to vacuum up guns, grenades and mods worthy enough to store or sell. Firefights, no matter how much of an utter slog they can be, need to be ended for the sweet, sweet procedurally-generated weapons waiting to shower all over the ground. 

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Honestly, the biggest motivation is hearing that special CHING and seeing an orange beam of light shooting up into the sky — the signal for legendary gear. At this point, it’s a Pavlovian reaction. 

Borderlands has always been about the guns, and in that aspect, my cup runneth over. The sheer amount of weaponry at disposal could even be described as excessive, even in Borderlands standards. Which is good (because you never run out of gun options), but also bad (because a major bulk of them are either trash or doesn’t fit your play style). 

But the best addition to Borderlands has to be the alt-firing modes, which open up endlessly fun possibilities in every firefight. Shotguns can double up as grenade launchers; scopes can be switched; Maliwan weapons create dual-element practicalities (shock and fire submachine guns mow down shielded enemies like butter). The one that I came to rely pretty heavily on were Atlas firearms, which offer tracking rounds in one mode and smart bullets that whiz toward the marked enemy on the other. Which came in pretty handy for my fast-moving drone-and-clone build for Zane. 

Yet again, you play as one of four vault hunter classes with varying skillsets to shoot your way through increasingly tougher bandits, soldiers and creatures with the end goal of opening a Vault — ancient treasure troves that hold ancient behemoths guarding abundant loot. This time around, however, you’ll be opening more than a few vaults and you’ll be traversing more than a few planets. 

What’s the rush to open the vaults? You need to stand in the way of evil siblings Troy and Tyreen Calypso, who’ve managed to unite all the bandits of Pandora in a cult called the Children of Pandora. The twins are Borderlands 3’s main bad guys, and the two cult leaders — fashioned as bloodthirsty versions of annoying YouTubers/live streamers — are hell-bent on opening vaults across the galaxy and obtaining supreme power. 

Recruited by Lilith (playable in the first Borderlands) in her Crimson Raiders militia, you’re tasked with taking on the Calypsos. You could be Moze, the former soldier who can pilot a hulking mech. You could be Zane, the spy with gadgets like attack drones, bubble shields, and holographic clones. You could be Amara, the buff magic controller who can conjure mystical arms to punch, slam and crush enemies. Or you could be FL4K, the robot assassin who can command and fight alongside dangerous beasts. 

The new heroes and their respective skill trees are fascinating, and each are absolute fun to play around with. Borderlands 3 encourages experimentation and switching builds on the fly with the ability to change up skills at Quick-Change station vending machines. But more importantly, it’s more fun than ever before to synergise builds for co-op gameplay. Moze, for example, can install a turret at the back of her mech for friends to jump on. Zane players can focus on the character’s Under Cover skill tree to provide maximum protection and buffs for other players. 

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So the core gameplay remains compelling — pretty much the gold standard when it comes to modern looter shooters. The story on the other hand? Oh, man. 

Maybe it’s because Borderlands 2 lead writer Anthony Burch is missing or maybe it’s because some of the material were written years ago, but the writing in this one misses the mark a lot more than it lands on target. Granted, we all know that the jokes in Borderlands have been crudely juvenile (and proudly so). This time around, however, it’s like they’re shoving it down your throats — every single moment feels like Borderlands 3 is screaming “hey kids, we’re a funny game!”. 

Or maybe we were spoiled with an actually compelling villain in Borderlands 2. Handsome Jack simultaneously exuded arrogant charm and evil, but as we play on, we get why he’s acting like that — the man somehow convinced himself that he was the hero of the story and that it was up to him to save the planet. 

The Calypso twins and the corporate baddies we kill along the way in Borderlands 3? They’re like that because they’re… live streamers? They’re annoyingly rampaging their way across the galaxy for… views? The little video clips that the villains put out — the game writers’ lampoon of YouTube videos — are cringeworthy and severely outdated in 2019. 

Off the mark, off-colour (there are just so many times you can hear the word “b****”), and off-putting are the words to describe the dialogue and narrative. Don’t get me wrong, I was into the slapstick shtick for the first 10 hours, but it got kinda tiresome once you realise that the story doesn’t actually do or say anything consequential after setting-up the jokes. 

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That’s all fine if the principal reason you’re playing Borderlands 3 is for a good time shootin’ and lootin’ with friends. Which is honestly good enough! And the experience is made better with subtle features that make adventuring easier, like better fast travel options, pinging systems to mark targets of interest, and a vending machine that spits out loot that you might have forgotten to pick up along the way. The new dynamic levelling system lets everyone in a co-op run fight enemies together on equal ground, and more importantly, grab dropped weapons and gear individually without having to split hairs over who gets what. 

But there are some subtle technical annoyances to be found that eventually snowballed into legit displeasure. Sure, the graphics have improved — or rather, improved as much as a cel-shaded art style allows — but when it comes to loading menu screens, it’s just not as buttery smooth as you’d want it to be. And frankly, kind of perplexing considering that this is an RPG title which consists of constant switching from gameplay to menu for inventory management. Waiting an extra couple of seconds for the user interface to go from glitchy textures to actually legible sounds like a first-world issue, but trust me, it ain’t fun to face it constantly during hours-long sessions. 

Then there were the other bugs, like mission objective markers disappearing or getting your character or a vehicle stuck in a janky spot. One particularly weird bug I faced a few times was a sound issue that cuts off or delays certain audio (like gunshots or footsteps), while other audio cues play out accordingly. The issues are usually fixed after quitting to the main menu and loading again. Like I said, annoying. 

Despite the gripes, Borderlands 3 is still best at being Borderlands: a big-budget first-person shooting game that delivers all the guns, gears and gizmos your hoarder heart will ever want, and it’s fun on your own or with your friends. Ten years on since the first title, we now have even more Borderlands — it just hasn’t changed that much. For better or for worse. 

ilyas@asiaone.com