/VERDICT
Big and daft, but
still quite fun.
Borderlands 3
is a satisfactory
if not especially
ambitioussequel.OVERALL SCORE
70 %
However,thegame’sbiggestsuccessis thewayit makes
countlessrandomlygeneratedgunsfeelfantastictoshoot.
Yes,theweaponsremainthedarkstarsofBorderlands
3’sshow.Youcanbarelywalk 50 paceswithoutstumbling
onsomebizarreandmagnificentdeathcontraption.From
Gatlingriflesthatshootwitha crank,toshotgunsthatreload
byexploding,Borderlands3’sarsenalis aseclecticasit is
deadly.Therearetwocrucialelementstothesystem.
Firstly,whilesomegunsaremoreinterestingoreffective
thanothers,thevastmajorityfeelsatisfyingtofire.Secondly,
thesystemdelvesdeep,carefullydistributingnewtypesof
weaponsacrossthecourseofthegame,whichis impressive
consideringthegame’slength.
Withfourplayers,plusAIcompanions,firingabsurd
gunsat dozens of enemies, Borderlands 3 is consistently
entertaining. That said, it’s a shame the game’s many guns
all do fundamentally the same job, namely shaving numbers
off enemy health bars.
There’s potential for Borderlands to be a more creative
experience, perhaps with weapons that manipulate
enemies in other ways, pushing them into one another,
swapping them around, letting one player set up the pins for
another to knock down. This would make the game a more
actively cooperative experience, which would be beneficial
in such a long game.
Borderlands 3 is an exhaustively huge game, lasting
anywhere between 30 and 60 hours depending on how
thoroughly you explore. For much of that time, it does a
reasonable job of keeping up the variety, regularly throwing
up new locations and, of course, weapons. There are times,
however, when it pushes its core to breaking point. One
mission set on an asteroid takes around two hours to
complete in itself, which would be fine if it didn’t very
obviously draw out the time with multiple waves of
enemies per encounter. Towards the end, it even begins to
make jokes about how this is definitely, probably the last
wave you’ll be fighting.
Speaking of jokes, Borderlands 3 loves the sound of its
own voice. The script is more of a screed, a relentless
torrent of dialogue filled with frat-house humour and lazy
parodies of modern society. That’s not to say it’s never
funny. Some of the enemy death cries such as ‘I’ll see you in
hell ... bring guac’ genuinely made us laugh. At the same
time,it canalsobedownrightunpleasant,andwedon’t
justmean there’s a lot of swearing. Borderlands 3 has a
particularly bizarre obsession with dwarfism. Almost every
fight includes small enemies with squeaky
voices and belittling names such as ‘Tink’ and
‘Nog’. It’s mean and unnecessary.
Borderlands 3 is at its best when it’s being
silly.Whenyouhavea bigdaftgunthatkills
bigdaftenemiesina bigdaftway,it’sa hoot.
Themomentit triestobeedgyorclever,it
runsinto problems. It’s also too long, and is
largely a similar experience to Borderlands 2.
Nonetheless, it’s undeniably a well-made FPS,
and while the procedural guns could be more
creative, playing with them is a blast.
RICK LANE