Borderlands 4 (PC) review: Still loud and chaotic, but finally fun again

Note: This article was first published on 27 October 2025.

I didn’t expect to enjoy Borderlands 4. I mean, I’ve bounced off earlier Borderlands games before and it’s not because they were, but because they felt like that one friend who tries too hard to make you laugh. Yet a few hours into this one, I found myself actually falling in love with Borderlands all over again.

That probably says a lot about where this series has gone, ever since the high point that was Borderlands 2. The latest title is still absurd, still drenched in sarcasm and bullets, but it finally feels like Gearbox remembered what makes the original Borderland games fun in the first place.

In Borderlands 4, you start, as usual, with your choice of four Vault Hunters. Nothing new there, but this time, the Hunters actually feel different. I went with Vex, partly because I like chaos builds and partly because I really do like her overall vibe. A big fun of playing her is that you can summon minions and then there’s her mad AoE elemental prowess. Then there’s Harlowe, the gravity-bending scientist, Rafa with her holographic exosuit, and Amon the close-range Forgeknight. It’s classic Borderlands, except the playstyles don’t overlap as much this time.

sAnd yes, you can respec easily. Thank you, Gearbox. Gone are the days where you sink all your points into some terrible passive and realise two hours later you’ve created a glorified pea shooter. Here, you can experiment without fear of being punished – which, for indecisive players like me, is a blessing.

The story kicks off on a new planet called Kairos and is a proper open world this time. Pandora’s had its fun, but Kairos gives you more space to stretch your legs (and jetpacks). There’s double-jumping, grappling, even gliding, which instantly makes traveling feel fresher. It’s not perfect, because some missions still feel like a slog – I remember there’s one that makes you run halfway across the map just to talk to an NPC who says three words.

That said, the game can feel like a slow burn in the beginning. You’ll be stuck with weak pistols and the low-quality loot. Then, suddenly, it clicks. You find your first good SMG, your skill tree starts to take shape, and before you realise it, you’ve spent the next hour turning enemies into pixel dust while chasing that familiar dopamine rush of a new drop. It’s the same old loop, but Borderlands 4 feels leaner, faster and more generous with how it rewards you.

The campaign itself is a bit of a mixed bag. The new villain, the Timekeeper, is a genuinely intimidating presence (until he isn’t), and the world-building leans darker and stranger in places. But the real magic happens in the game’s side missions. One moment you’re helping a sentient rock learn to fly; the next, you’re investigating alien-abducted livestock. That’s peak Borderlands – weird, funny, occasionally stupid, but memorable. The writing’s toned down compared to the over-the-top meme parade of Borderlands 3, and honestly, that’s a relief. It’s still quirky, but less slap-stick comedy now. And that’s a good thing.

Where Borderlands 4 stumbles is repetition. Some of the mid-game quests feel a little too familiar, the kind of “fetch, kill, return” cycle that open-worlds can’t seem to quit. I found myself zoning out a few times between checkpoints, staring at the quest log and wondering if maybe I just stopped playing. Then I’d stumble into a boss fight that slaps me silly, die three times, swear under my breath, and…there it was again. The game is strangely addictive, even when it annoys you.

Technically speaking, it’s a mixed performance. On console, it runs decently most of the time. On PC, the game suffered from some weird optimisation issues during launch week. Now, my gaming rig is pretty high-end – running on an AMD Ryzen 8 9800X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 – but even then I still experienced stuttering frame rates on multiple occasions. Gearbox has gone on record to say that PCs that support NVIDIA’s DLSS should turn them on, and while that does makes the game run ultra smoothly, there’s no reason for a game to run this badly on the newest PC parts. (Update: A major performance update alongside the game’s Halloween mini event has rolled out since this review was written).

That said, when it runs well, Borderlands 4 looks great. Kairos is a gorgeous, desolate mess of biomes that actually feel distinct from Pandora. I should also mention the difficulty, because the enemies in Borderlands 4 don’t mess around and require a fair bit of skills (and patience) to take them down. But these hard-won fights do provide a genuine sense of satisfaction once you passed them. If I’m nitpicking, the game’s pacing could use tightening, and some checkpoints are placed like the designers were trolling. There were moments where I respawned so far from a boss fight that I almost gave up.

So here’s where I land: Borderlands 4 is not revolutionary, but it’s the first time in years that I’ve genuinely wanted to keep playing a Borderlands game even after finishing the game. It refines instead of reinvents, trims the fat, and feels more confident about what it is – a chaotic, funny, occasionally frustrating looter-shooter that knows how to get under your skin.

If you’re coming in cold as a new player to the series, then Borderlands 4 is a good place to start. If you’re returning after a long break, you’ll probably find it sharper, smoother, and more focused than before. Just make sure your rig can handle it (and update the game to the latest build), and that your patience can handle the occasional slog.

As for me? I’ll keep it installed for a while. Not because I have to for this review, but because every time I exit the game, there’s that little itch whispering, “maybe just one more run.”

Borderlands 4 is now available on PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5.