Borderlands 3 Review
Played on Xbox One (base)
Developed by Gearbox Software
Released 13th September 2019
Played Co-op
It was interesting for me to hop into 'Borderlands 3' with my co-op partner since the second game had easily become one of our favourites out of all the co-op games we've played. 'Borderlands 2' had it all; great looter-shooter mechanics, great writing, great world structure, and it all meshed into one great experience. Before playing 'Borderlands 3', we were aware of the middling reception the game has with core fans of the series but we were willing to still give it a try, and oh boy, mistakes were made. 'Borderlands 3' entered development soon after the team finished the commercially underachieving 'Battleborn' a title that Gearbox used to relieve themselves of the 'Borderlands' formula, of which, they felt burnt out. Since its launch, the game struggled with its public presence with 2K's manipulation of review scores, poor optimisation and the classic case of Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford being a jackass. Now that time has passed, the game stands to be mixed with fans, with some people citing it as an overall improvement on the series' standard, while others consider it to be a disappointing downfall that will hopefully not be reflected in the rumoured 'Borderlands 4'.
Story
One of the biggest problems that 'Borderlands 3' faces is its writing. While the writing is more of a cause for concern relating to characters, its dreadfulness is also imprinted in the narrative. To give a synopsis, you play as one of the four, new Vault Hunters who ally themselves with the Crimson Raiders, a guerilla effort led by the previous games' Vault Hunters, in an attempt to stop the megalomaniacal streamer Calypso twins from harnessing the power from the vaults. If this sounds familiar, that's because it's scarily similar to 'Borderlands 2' in both the execution of the mission structure and the focus on the antagonists. The antagonists are awful but more on them later. The whole story is just so damn unentertaining. It's like they mistook shock value for well-thought-out plot points because whenever something of great significance happens, it feels only relevant for the duration of the mission it appears in.
Whether it's the "shocking" reveals that provoked an "erm, ok I guess" reaction or the inconsequential introductions and deaths, playing through this narrative felt soul-sapping. Towards the end of the game, my co-op partner and I were dumbfounded by how forgettable the story was with how little care and intrigue we had for it, especially during its closing moments. The design philosophy behind 'Borderlands 2' was to make it so crazy and ridiculous that you couldn't find anything like it in other mediums, yet this clearly didn't carry onto 'Borderlands 3' with how it tries so hard to relive the glory that 'Borderlands 2' had, so much so, that it reeks of it, in a very putrid manner.
Gameplay
Out of all the issues with this sequel, gameplay was one of the more redeemable elements. Like the first two games, it has a deeply rooted looter-shooter identity with randomised drops, skill/talent trees for differently played characters, focus on moving and shooting, and more. While 'Borderlands 2' bolstered a significant improvement on the "looter" side of the genre, 'Borderlands 3' does the same for the "shooter" side of the series, making for what might be possibly a more fun way to play in the world of Pandora. There are alternative fires for several guns, hijacking vehicles, sliding, weapons that boost the crouch and sliding as an option, around three different abilities that you can equip per character, in addition to ability mods that let you create more specialised builds, and an overall improvement on weapon feel. The focus was to make it more entertaining, and that it was (for the most part). There is so much build diversity that you can have with this game that it's incredible, and if it weren't for this game's other faults, I could find myself replaying it to such lengths.
The gun variety has also improved, showcasing a total of 69,002,788 types of weapons from a 2020 data mine of the game, and it's shown by how differently each gun felt - reload types, projectile types, elemental affiliations, scope types, bonus abilities - not one gun was remotely close to feeling the same. The vast options of combat and the increasingly high drop rates of high-rarity loot make this game ridiculously easy. Yes, it's cool to shoot a gun that produces a high amount of special effects and explosions, but facing close to no challenge for 20 hours straight does suck much of the joy away from finding new, legendary weapons that otherwise could've assisted you greatly. This lack of difficulty was so apparent that we nearly B-lined the whole narrative without using side missions to level up to the recommended level because it was that easy. This effect can be felt even more by the smaller enemy variety. I don't understand the thought process behind this; why remove an entire enemy faction (and not replace them) and several other enemies that provided game mechanics that forced the player to think about their environments and positioning, from a game that is already easier due to the sheer abundance of chaos that can be afflicted?
In terms of exploration, it's the same as it was in 2012: static environments that look good but don't offer much outside of enemy spawns and large, open areas for you to drive around in, this time, in completely customisable vehicles. The game does take it a step further by allowing you to visit other planets outside of Pandora that look completely new and fresh but from the convoluted map structure and the lack of side mission variety, little exploration occurred in my playthrough. 'Borderlands 3' finally catches up with the present-day presentation of the shooter genre while retaining and even improving upon the RPG elements that 'Borderlands 2' introduced, all at the cost of removing the necessary challenge that could've otherwise brought more player engagement.
Bossfights
The general rule of thumb for bossfights is that they can only be as good as the quality of the gameplay mechanics allow them to be. Since the gameplay loop is pretty good, feeling fast, eccentric and chaotic, the bossfights end up feeling the same, albeit with a couple of issues here and there. Other than the glaring ease of difficulty being a constant problem in my experience, the recurring phase invulnerability found in most of these duels damages the quality of the encounters. Once you damage one of these bosses enough to make them enter a new phase, they become immune to all damage as if to give them a fighting chance against you, which is just strange. Instead of increasing the difficulty (like they should've done) it becomes the most pace-dampening, fun-ruining thing I've seen of the 'Borderlands' calibre. It completely saps the energy out of the fights which is a shame because these bosses have great designs, accompanying music and attack patterns that were well telegraphed and designed. The only other concern I had with the bossfights is that some felt like they lacked the flair and narrative significance to be identified as a "boss"; Billy the Anointed, General Traunt and more, came across more like an elite enemy or mini-boss, but this nitpick won't detract from the score much.
Characters
Fire the writers, I beg of you Gearbox. The writing here was so bad that I had genuine physical reactions to them because of how unbearable it was. The dialogue is, at best, sighable with its humour that tries too hard to be funny. It either tries to be meta with the whole prospect of streamer/content creator villains or exaggerates certain elements of characters like Lorelei's "bri'ish" accent or Vaughn's one-dimensionality of using the word "bro" more times than the game made me cringe with its writing (which is a lot). Returning characters also feel like they lost their signature, loveable trademarks in return for simplifying them into archetypes used merely as a tool for bad comedy. The only character that feels in tune with how they were presented in previous games is Zer0 and that's because his whole "shtick" is being mute.
The antagonists are disappointingly bad. They just feel like watered-down copies of the charming but sadistic persona of Handsome Jack, modified to fit the current day and age of content creation. I do like the idea of siren cult leaders being the source of evil here, and the embracing of live streaming could've been an awesome and effective meta-commentary on such a world, but it's done so poorly, with inadequate jokes that feel like disconnect from what the players know about the world of content creation. Between the twins, Tyreen is the more redeemable villain and does occasionally succeed in that Handsome Jack wit of "yeah you're outmatched by me, lemme give you an example". Troy, however, is so unfavourably boring that I questioned his existence, even when he got his narrative power-up. I wish 'Borderlands' took a 'Far Cry' role in its villains with a new type of "crazy" each game, going from Vaas' primal insanity to Joseph Seed's vindictive cultist attitude, rather than remaking cheap copies of Handsome Jack. Lastly, the addition of players' characters being able to speak is kind of cool but felt odd and out of place for me given the mute-protagonist trademark that I grew comfortable within the prior 2 games.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere, while it received yet another improvement, can't be appreciated in full effect if you're playing on anything but current-gen consoles (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X). I played the game on an Xbox One and faced many technical issues with it, from incomplete rendering of textures, frame rate drops, excruciatingly long loading times, a couple of crashes and other co-op-related bugs. Remember, it's been 5 years since the game has come out and optimisation is still a detriment. Other than hardware limitations, my friend and I faced many issues relating to the servers such as connectivity issues and synching with the now mandatory SHiFT account, so much so, that we had to play the second half of the game purely in couch co-op split-screen (which is well-designed).
This is a shame because the game clearly looks amazing with the heavy emphasis on the vibrancy of colour palettes that 'Borderlands 2' offered. Whether you're going to the cyberpunk-esque Meridian Outskirts, the expressive carnival-inspired Carnivora or the swamp manor of the Jakobs Estate, each area offers great colouring and detailed line work that propels the graphic-novel aesthetic of 'Borderlands' and much more in making all these locations memorable and pleasing to the eye. Sometimes there is a little too much with the colours as explosions, projectiles and particle effects from dying enemies and guns do create such a messy cluster of visuals that I couldn't tell if I was shooting somebody or if I got hit with an LSD-infused flashbang.
Music and sound effects have never been a defining trait of the 'Borderlands' games, subtly getting the job done but never sinking into one's memory. In that regard, they're on par with 'Borderlands 2' as it captures that wild energy that the series is known for and it definitely does help amplify the intensity of gunfights and emotional moments, but just not enough to be standout performances - in other words, it's serviceable.
Story - 4/10
Gameplay - 7/10
Bossfights - 6/10
Characters - 2/10
Atmosphere - 7.5/10
SUBPAR
Cheap thrills that lack as much meaning as the writing lacks quality.
