And we’re back with another blog, that show where we give you some straight-up gameplay and our first impressions of the latest games releasing. And today we’re talking about “Borderlands 4”, the long-awaited return of this fun co-op first-person shooter, looter-shooter franchise is here.
First Impressions and Setup
Keep in mind this video is just gonna be first impressions since the game launched. I jumped in the second it was available and I’ve been playing nonstop since. So again, not super deep into the game, but just some upfront first impressions, some things to expect, a couple of takes. “Borderlands” games typically have very long tales. So with that, I will just say upfront, it seems to me like “Borderlands 4” is solid. It’s fresh, it’s just fresh enough while still very distinctly, still more “Borderlands”. And, you know, if you’re not a “Borderlands” person, you might not be amazed, but I think this does enough to keep things interesting. I don’t know how the hardcore “Borderlands” fan is necessarily gonna take to it. I’m a bit more of a casual fan. 2 is my favorite. I have touched them all, but at the top, this one feels fresh and it is impressive.
New World, New Vault Hunters
A big open world, lots of engaging quests, guns right up front that are just really, really cool. Some tweaks to the humor style storytelling we’ll get into. And of course, like every freaking AAA major release lately, some technical issues at launch. But to get into it and just kind of really set things up, this takes place on the planet of Kairos, and it still feels very familiar, it feels very “Borderlands”, there’s a lot of familiar elements, but it’s also different enough. It just feels like it’s leaning heavier into sci-fi. And then with that comes four new Vault Hunters. There’s Vex, the Siren, who can summon, so you’re kind of like conjuring and commanding these things from a distance. There’s Aman or Amon, he’s the Forgeknight who is kind of like the tank and can conjure up cool weapons and do some melee stuff with some complex elemental stacking. There’s Harlowe, the Gravitar, who uses tech and can move enemies and dis-entangle. And then there’s Rafa, the Exo-Soldier, who I played as, who can summon cool shoulder-mounted auto-targeting guns, among other things. He’s pretty zippy.
Gameplay and Combat Feel
So I picked him and jumped in. And immediately, with the presentation, it does seem like the character you pick does have a little bit more agency. They quip a little bit more, they talk a little bit more. It’s not too annoying, don’t worry. But they also pop up in cutscenes, which is pretty cool. The whole intro sequence, like the first area you play through, the tutorial section, is kind of weak, it’s not too thrilling, but at the very least it does set up the big bad villain of this game, the Timekeeper, who I still haven’t quite figured out in my playtime yet. But he looks cool, he seems interesting, and a lot of the time, as you go through, you’re dealing with his direct reports, so his lower-tier commanders that all kind of have a firm grasp of this weird world.
Guns, Gore, and Exploration
Now, the shooting, which I think is the most important part of these games, I think feels pretty damn great. The guns immediately engage you. Like, pretty early on, I had some surprisingly kick-ass weapons with tons of variation and creativity to them, like weapons that felt like endgame. I really, really like that. It still feels like “Borderlands”, where it’s, like, overwhelming every time you see, like, a boss or, like, a sub-boss, like, pop like a pinata with a bunch of weapons of different colors. Like, it can be overwhelming, but whittling down and finding the cool shit is where that addiction comes in, where that fun is there. And I’m happy to report that that is definitely still a thing.
I’ve encountered all kinds of stuff: weird, over-the-top pistols that can snipe; long-range sniper rifles that can, like, sap enemies’ life force; guns that shoot weird fireworks; switchable, on-the-fly elemental properties on some of these guns; really, really satisfying machine guns that can just rip through enemies. And even when I think they kinda like thought of everything in terms of like the variation of different types of grenades and throwables, I’ve seen some new stuff, and that’s impressive.
Movement and World Design
In terms of navigating these battlefields, despite it being a big open world, when it does funnel you into a place, like in a story mission, like when you gotta do stuff, it feels like a really detailed, really well-thought-out shooting arena. Lots of exploding barrels of all different types, fun points to essentially swing or pull yourself up to higher elevation with a pretty satisfying grappling hook. And the ability to slide, dash side to side, jump, double jump, and even hold to hover just kind of feels good. You feel like you’re really in command of these shootouts, of these arenas. Especially with a really satisfying, like if you’re up in the air, maybe you grapple-hook yourself up to the air, you can hold a button and then slam down with a ground pound, and then sometimes it’ll make enemies, like weaker enemies, explode into bloody guts, and that’s just good.
So far I have experienced some good, satisfying gore, good destruction, good explosions. And I’ve really liked the world. Even just experiencing a small part of it, I’ve instantly realized how staggeringly big the open world really is. Because, yes, a lot of it is built for riding around in vehicles, but even spending some time in the early vehicles, feeling like I’ve seen a good chunk, and then zooming out and seeing how much of the map I haven’t covered, even in these small chunks I’ve experienced, like these zones, there was a lot of variation. And I think this just helps make the game feel different, just like a good open world.
Side Quests and Surprises
And I say that because I did some main-questing, but I also went off the beaten path and took up some bounties that you can find in these little safe houses that you can claim for yourself, as well as just side quests you can stumble across. And of the couple of side quests I engaged with, one I thought was gonna be like really, really dry, bottom-of-the-barrel repetitive stuff, ended up ending in a way that completely surprised me. So I can’t speak to every side quest, but just early impressions: I found quite a few that I liked and that were also, of course, rewarding with some good stuff in the end.
Technical Issues and Optimization
Now of course, at launch, like I said, some technical issues have been popping up. If you look at early Steam reviews, people are pretty mixed, and it seems like on PC, the game is poorly optimized. Of the two systems I tested mine on, I didn’t have too many issues, if I’m completely honest, but that’s just me. Everybody’s PC, everybody’s rig is different. I’ve seen widespread reports of crashing and just real struggles to get the game over 60 FPS without just like a super substantial rig. So definitely keep that in mind.
What I will say is that I do feel like “Borderlands” and the publisher, they do have the resources and probably very likely will fix this pretty quickly. But you can never bet on that, and I also think that games should just launch and release in a better state. We’ve talked about this a million times, it’s getting repetitive and kind of ridiculous at this point. So keep that in mind. Like I said, I didn’t have too many issues. It didn’t launch optimized. I had to, like, really tweak the settings and stuff to get it working well for me. But once I did, I was looting and shooting with minimal problems.
However, the fact that there isn’t a FOV slider on console, I think that should be updated. That’s an issue, because even playing on PC, I’m not one to get motion sickness, but the default FOV did jam me up a little bit. I had to adjust it with the setting. I’m glad the setting was there, and I think console players should have that option as well. For me, in terms of issues, my bigger thing was the UI. It feels a little underbaked, like the menus and stuff. These games often have an issue because there’s just so much data, so much information on screen at once. So many little RPG elements and stacking things and perks and numbers, right? But I think here the UI just looks and feels kind of flat.
Co-op, Visuals, and Humor
It doesn’t really help anything really stand out. I also had some issues with highlighting certain things and having windows pop up that then covered other things I also wanted to be looking at at the same time. So I’d definitely like to see some tweaks and some adjustments. Other things, like the map and everything like that, worked fine. But yeah, some little things here and there. Nothing that really got in the way of my fun playing for quite a few hours.
Since yesterday, as soon as the game was available on PC, I played most of it solo, and I found the game interesting enough and engaging enough to play solo, and I think “Borderlands” games are usually good for that.
But I did have somebody else jump in my game just to test it out, see how the servers are doing, and we didn’t have any issues at least, which, you know, at launch you never know. But again, it’s that shooting and it’s the loop of getting the guns, you know, the “Borderlands” 101, that seems like it’s still working here and really pulled me in.
And on top of that, the big open world, but also the look of the world, kind of like the way the details work out and some of the colors, feels to me like a bit of a continuation from Tiny Tina, but like that’s very much a different game set in a different period, going for a whole different style. But it just feels like an evolution of what they were doing there in some ways.
Humor and Identity
The other thing I think should be addressed, a lot of people like to talk about this, is the humor. Humor is, of course, incredibly subjective. I think some people don’t realize that. Like, look, some people like one flavor of humor, some people like another, some people like a mix of in-between. Some people find “Borderlands” humor absolutely grating, and some people can’t get enough of it. There’s been lots of talk of like “Borderlands 4” being toned down or scaling back from how “Borderlands” games really present themselves. And I’d say it is noticeable, but I would say to “Borderlands” fans, like it doesn’t feel like the game completely ran away from its identity. There are still pretty frequent jokes and quips, and I gotta be honest, like a couple of them really hit with me.
Especially, I don’t know if you’ve seen the headlines going around, there’s one where there’s a location in the game named after Embracer, like, you know, Embracer Group, the publisher, and it’s just like a, it’s like a trash island with, like, a talking toilet. It’s a whole funny thing. So the game still has lots of bits, it still feels like “Borderlands”. So if you still don’t like this stuff, I don’t know, but I’d say still give it a try, ’cause it is a little different, it is a little tuned. But I’m glad they didn’t make the game like gritty or grimdark or like super serious like that first trailer or so, like, suggested. It’s still “Borderlands”, it’s Claptrap doing a bunch of dumb shit, so.
Final Thoughts and What’s Next
Yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing where this one goes. It seems like a pretty massive game. I could see people spending a lot of time in this one. You can very clearly see the depth of the weapons, the depth of the characters themselves. The Vault Hunters, like each has their own, like, technically, three action skills, with skill trees lying within each of them. And like those three action skills themselves all have different variations and equipable things and nuances to them. So that, combined with the weapons, there’s a ton of complexity, combined with the size of the world, the amount of quests, and weird little things, and busy work, and mysteries going on, it’s a lot. And I think that’s good.
I think they just need to figure out the technical stuff, because, once again, it’s another game where a lot of people are reporting some issues. But that’s where I’m at right now. That’s just a quick “Before You Buy”. You know how this goes by now. We give you some pros, some cons, and some personal opinion, and now we want to hear yours down in the comments. If you jumped into “Borderlands” right away like us, we’d love to hear your first impressions. We’ll probably be making more videos on this, so keep your eyes peeled, like tips, and, you know, maybe an updated look a couple of months down the line. So make sure you’re subscribed if you haven’t, but either way, let us know what you think about “Borderlands 4” down in those comments. Thanks for reading. We’ll see you guys next time.