Borderlands 4 – Review

Reviewed by Karan Parmar | September 12, 2025

Okay, so Borderlands 4 is exactly what I thought it would be: chaos, guns that make no sense, a ton of loot flying everywhere, and Claptrap being… well, Claptrap. If you’ve ever played a Borderlands game before, you already know the vibe, but let me break down what’s new, what’s fun, and what made me roll my eyes.

First off, the story. Look, nobody plays Borderlands because they’re dying to hear Shakespeare in space, but the writing does its thing. The villain is another over-the-top warlord with way too much charisma for his own good, and the whole plot is just an excuse to blow things up while listening to characters crack jokes every two minutes. Some of those jokes land hard; I legit laughed a few times, but others are recycled or drawn out to the point of “Yeah, I’ve heard this before.” The campaign has a decent flow, though, and even when the main plot stumbles, the absurd characters you meet along the way inject enough personality to keep things moving. Side missions lean heavily into this too; some are hilarious mini-stories with clever twists, while others boil down to running across the map for yet another fetch objective. It’s a mixed bag, but at least the game keeps you entertained.

Now, the gunplay? This is where the game absolutely kills it. Shooting feels better than it ever has in the series. Every weapon kicks differently, reloads look slick, and when enemies explode into loot fountains, it’s impossible not to smile. The variety is insane: snipers that double as grenade launchers, rocket launchers shaped like musical instruments, pistols that sprout legs and chase enemies, and SMGs that literally scream when they fire. It’s the perfect blend of stupid and brilliant. The downside is that most loot is still junk, and you’ll be swapping gear constantly because guns age out quickly. Finding that one weapon that’s so good you hold onto it for hours is rare, but when it happens, it feels like striking gold. Combat itself is frantic fun, especially with a squad. Solo play is fine but exposes balance issues; bosses take way too long to go down and feel like bullet-sponge walls rather than tactical encounters. Add friends into the mix, though, and the game becomes chaos in the best way possible. Skill combos light up the battlefield, loot rains everywhere, and the back-and-forth of revives, shouts, and last-second saves is the kind of madness that makes Borderlands at its peak.

Movement and traversal are smoother than past entries, too. Grapples, wall climbs, and boosts make the environments less clunky to explore, and vehicles finally feel usable rather than like floaty shopping carts on wheels. Driving across the wastelands with friends is actually fun now, especially with the vehicle customization system that lets you kit out your ride with weird weapons and bizarre paint jobs. The world itself looks incredible; the cel-shaded comic-book style is sharper and more detailed than ever, and the sheer variety of biomes is impressive. Neon-soaked futuristic cities, icy wastelands, jungle ruins, and swampy alien plains all look fantastic. But once you peel back the visuals, the actual design of missions and maps doesn’t always live up to the presentation. Too often, you’re funneled into another wide-open combat arena with enemies scattered around, and while it works, it feels a little too familiar. Some areas could have pushed the formula further instead of relying on the same “clear the camp, collect the loot” loop the series has leaned on for years.

On the progression side, skill trees are more customizable than before, giving you flexibility to build around co-op synergies or solo playstyles. You can spec into support builds, go all-in on high-damage crits, or stack survivability to tank through firefights. There’s a satisfying amount of freedom here, and it pays off in co-op, where different builds actually matter. Enemies are varied enough to keep things fresh; armored heavy brutes, shielded psychos, swarms of alien beasts, and robotic death squads all force you to switch up tactics and experiment with your arsenal instead of relying on one weapon or skill.

Unfortunately, performance is a sore spot, especially on PC. Even with top-end hardware, firefights get messy with frame rate dips and VRAM spikes that make no sense given the stylized visuals. Larger hub areas can stutter hard, and badass settings look gorgeous but come with such a massive performance hit that they’re not worth enabling. Tweaking shadows, effects, and lighting can stabilize things a bit, but the optimization is clearly not where it needs to be. On consoles, things are smoother, though load times drag more than I’d like. It’s playable, but PC players in particular will notice the rough edges.

On the bright side, audio and music are stellar. The soundtrack slaps with a mix of heavy beats for combat and moody ambient tracks for exploration, always keeping the energy high. Guns sound punchy, explosions rumble with satisfying bass, and loot drops still make that dopamine-triggering chime that never gets old. Voice acting is solid too, especially from the main villain and a handful of returning favorites who carry scenes with ridiculous energy.

So yeah, Borderlands 4 is exactly what it should be: loud, dumb, and fun, but it also shows the series treading water. It nails the core loop of blasting enemies and drowning in loot, but it doesn’t do much to evolve the formula, and technical issues hold it back from greatness. The humor is hit-and-miss, the grind can feel overwhelming, and PC performance is rough, but when you’re in the middle of a firefight with friends and loot is flying in every direction, none of that matters. It’s not the reinvention the franchise probably needs, but it’s still comfort food gaming at its most chaotic, and sometimes, that’s all you really want.

Rating: 7.5/10

Special thanks to 2K for providing the review code.
© Images and screenshots used in this review are courtesy of Gearbox Software / 2K.

Buy the Game

You can purchase Borderlands 4 from the following official platforms:

• Steam (PC)
• PlayStation Store (PS5)
• Xbox Store (Series X|S)

Support the developers and dive back into the mayhem of Pandora, where outrageous guns, wild co-op chaos, and over-the-top humor make Borderlands 4 a loot-filled ride like no other.