Let me say before I begin that I have played, Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and was a fan of all three. Though I have to admit I didn’t make it all the way through the pre-sequel and I normally like to complete a game. Borderlands 3 is more of the same of the first three games, and that is both a good and a bad thing.
The Basics
Just like in all the other titles you have a choice of vault hunter and just as in each title before each of your four choices has their ups and downs. I will say that in each previous game, I gave each class a try, but in this one I played with only the beast master. The other characters really didn’t appeal to me, and after I made it through the main storyline, I had no desire to go back and do it again, so none of the other ones got a shake.
OK, let’s start things off on the good side; in this edition they changed the guns, and that was a positive. It’s not that there were necessarily more or fewer weapons to be had, but that there were more specific ones. Each manufacturer this time around means certain stuff. One maker’s weapons all swap between two different firing modes, another maker’s guns all come with a shied built in for you to use, and still another will never need to be reloaded, though it may overheat. But I will say there is a special one to finds that never needs to be reloaded, never overheats, and never runs out of ammo. How sweet is that? The guns all sound different and do cool things. Something very cool for things bowing down to the RNG.
Also on the plus side is the addition of legendries on the map. What I mean is, if an enemy drops a legendary, not only will it show up with a nice beam of light, but it will also show up on your map as a star. Also on the map is your ability to drop a marker for people in your party, and the newly added ability to hot swap between your current missions. That’s the one I personally enjoyed the most. It is very nice to just tap the d-pad and swap my task than open a series of menus.
Now for some of the bad… First of all, there really isn’t anything new... Same type of fights, same type of enemies, same stuff to unlock, same idea behind the story, and same humor behind that story, it’s really Borderlands 2.5. So, if you loved the first three, you’ll probably love this. For me however it got a bit grindy. I will give a good amount of credit to the side missions though. They were almost like mini main missions. Instead of your standard hunt and gather side missions, the side missions had little independent stories and characters that made them different. Problem was they were sadly kinda meh for me after a bit because in the mix of the main game being more of the same they just blurred in. Which is too bad because a few of them were really different and should have stood out, they just didn’t when tucked into so much more of the same around them.
Something else that’s probably an issue just for me and perhaps just a handful of others is that I play solo. Borderlands 3 is probably a lot better with a handful of friends, especially with the new loot system they have included, it is very playable solo, just not much of an upgrade from the previous titles. With the ability to play split screen in the living room or together on the interwebs, multiplayer has got to be a hoot, it’s just not something yours truly coordinates enough to do enough to make it through an entire title.
One more thing that I am putting on the minus side is the humor. I enjoy a good pad joke, and I enjoy some awful humor as well, but most of this game that was intended to be funny did not entertain me. I am torn between whether that is the humor being bad or me falling too far out of the demographic to be “in” on the jokes. I mean I got them, they just weren’t entertaining to me.
On the Plus Side
- Still tons of guns to enjoy
- The Side Missions are like mini regular missions
- Legendary weapons are much easier to find
The Negatives
- More of the same
- The villains are nothing special
- Maps are a little linear for a Borderlands title
I have enjoyed Borderlands games for years and will most likely buy the next one and give it a shot, I’m just not logging the end game hours with this one that I would with other shooters.