Borderlands 3

probably the worst writing of all time in a video game, dialogue on mute and a current events podcast is the only way to play this. Writing is bad in terms of both dialogue and the actual plot itself, characters are wholly uninteresting and even bringing back past fan favourites like zer0 serves no purpose. The story is a meandering nothingness that dishonestly tricks you into thinking there even is a story. Vault key is here, ok now another one, completely unoriginal or inventive or engaging in any sense of the word. Gameplay, its the exact same shit as the last 3 games, which is to say fun but repetitive, something you only play to trick your dopamine receptors into rewarding you. Except I got god tier loot for some reason and this made the entire game simple so no dopamine was ever fully given. Every boss fight was a joke as a result, I beat the final boss in about 3 minutes. Genuinely one of the dullest things I've ever wasted my life on, and unless they give away the season pass before the new one comes out I have zero interest in any of the end-game content

Borderlands 3 is a wonderful game gameplay wise, horrible story wise. While Borderland's story isn't the main focus, there is no denying how undeniably horrible this titles campaign is.
Fun gameplay all to be halted by listening to painful dialogue for 40 minutes.
Any fan of the series knows how badly they gutted the story that was built not only by the second game but by Telltales Tales game. Don't get me started about Rhys.

TLDR: ALL the borderlands games are amazing when you dont have an obnoxious fan in your ear telling you they're not.

The dialogue isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be. Its literally the same amount of cringe dated humor in all the games. The main villains aren't as interesting as handsome jack but they aren't boring either, they are on par with the weaker far cry villains (new dawn, 4, etc). I'd say the devs have a really good excuse to have *slightly* worse dialogue than the previous titles due to: 1. The shear amount of dialogue added. And 2. The insane gameplay changes over the other games. I was scared going into the game that the conversations between NPCs was going to be horrible and make the game almost unplayable but no, its just a bunch of redditors who have been being dramatic about it. If you are trying to play Borderlands for the story go play something else, because this is the same formula as the other games; weak story, corny dialogue, funny side missions, and amazing combat.

TWO GRIPES: Common and uncommon weapons are almost obsolete. You will find a couple here and there that stick out but youll quickly get rid of them for a rare, epic, or legendary variant within 20 minutes. BL1 and 2 were much more on the steady side when it game to feeding you loot but BL3 is not. Luckily all the guns are fun, but I miss being forced to survive off a barely functional common assault rifle, personally. My other issue is that this game feels significantly faster paced. In BL2 it took about an hour and a half to get a shield, another 2 to get a car, and then another hour to get to sanctuary. In this title you get all of that in the first 30 minutes. Its nice for me since I finished BL2 last night and wanted to jump into this, but for a new player it goes pretty quick. I do feel like BL3 dropped a little bit of the grittiness and charm of the previous games but not a whole lot. It just means you have to force yourself to take it slow. The previous titles forced you to slow down a lot, but this game really just takes the leash off, def try to take your time and enjoy the map and explore.

I have been playing all the borderlands games since I had an XBOX360 when I was tiny, and I honestly think this is the best installment, especially for newer gen gamers that are coming off of modern games. People who don't recommend this game also think Lilith was a well written character in the last games (she wasn't). Don't let the reviews scare you and remember that the borderlands community has always been a toxic hell hole. If you like looter shooters or have enjoyed any other borderlands games you'll like this.

The borderlands art style died with this game
The game play is so generic and over stimulating with all the over use of effects and lights

I really enjoyed this when it came out, gunplay felt way better. But I recall the story being... quiet bad.

I recently tried to replay this game and good christ the writing... I've read wattpad fanfics with better writing then this. it CONSTANTLY tells instead of showing, and the villains and allies alike become unbearable.

Story is pretty mid, main bad guys and side characters are annoying af, gameplay loop is nothing new. Rules of the universe are also not clearly defined so they are coming up with new rules as they go.
I didn't even finished the game, it failed to catch my attention and i felt like this game is just not worth the time you would invest.
If you are into mindless shooting, go ahead and buy it, otherwise even if it is on sale, skip this one.

Borderlands 3 is a disaster. If you came for the fun gunplay established in Borderlands 2, you won't find it here. Almost every gun you find is dull and underpowered. If you want a good story with interesting/well-written characters, that's also lacking here. It feels like a middle schooler wrote this. At least they aren't calling you "badass" every 2 seconds like Two did.

Borderlands 3 has the worst story in the series, with irritating characters and jokes that miss the mark. The gameplay mechanics are solid, but I had to tweak settings and config files extensively to get it running smoothly on my Dell Precision 3560 business laptop.

Matchmaking is frustrating—it connects you with players, but many kick you out within minutes. A simpler way to set network modes could prevent unexpected players from joining and reduce this issue. The maps are also a problem: unexplored areas are completely greyed out, which distracts from missions and encourages aimless wandering.

On the positive side, item score and auto-sell by rarity on pick-up significantly improve inventory management. Co-op has been streamlined too: player level differences aren’t an issue since enemies scale individually, and each player gets their own loot, eliminating loot fights. However, fighting higher-level enemies can be a drag—not only do you deal less damage, but you can’t even use the better loot they drop.

The gun-play is so great but the story is so bad I straight up forgot what the entire plot of this game was.

I think my body did that autonomously as a survival mechanism.

Nab it on sale for like $6 and just mute the character voices and you'll probably have fun. I seriously can't recommend it because the story was THAT BAD.

I cant get past the writing and voice acting enough to play this without the game on mute and with a friend. Horrible, garbage slop a waste of disk space as well as steam server space.

It's fun, but it's not borderlands fun.
the mass quantity of legendary drops leave them feeling hollow, and you often find yourself farming for them more than 2, getting them quicker, often ones you dont even want.
the story was completely ruined.
the endgame revolves not around slag, but around anointed effects which are somehow worse for metagaming.
anointed enforcers are worse than marauders in doom eternal in terms of them stopping combat dead.
no dlc vault hunters
and you could tell which dlcs were done in an attempt to fix what the storywriter irrevokably fucked up, and which ones they didnt give a flying fuck.
nowhere near the same level of meaningful updates that 2 got.

now the good points

The gunplay is solid for what it is.
the combat on lower mayhem levels is relatively fun.
the character abilities are real versatile.
theres a lot of misc overworld stuff you can do.

all in all... 5/10
Part of what made bl good is the story and characters. and they killed off so many. i get trying to set the stage for new characters, but burn the bridge *after* you cross it. That, and all the shit that happened with randy "Leave your flashdrives at the door" pitchford.
I waited 7 years for this game, which came out on my birthday. and i could not have been more disappointed.

I just binged almost all of the Borderlands games (still need to finish the 1st one) and this is easily the most fun experience in the series, I'll explain why.

While I generally agree that the story was mediocre and there was a lot of unnecessary dialogue, let's be honest, we don't play borderlands for the story. The only storyline or character arch we truly loved was Handsome Jack's, or perhaps lilith. We play these games for the gunplay, chaos and incredible humour. Borderlands never takes itself seriously, which makes it hard to make a bad game.

The Vaulthunters are pretty uninspiring as characters but their abilities and tools more than make up for it. I would've liked to see dlc characters added like in B2 or TPS, but I can look past it. Luckily the game reintroduced Vaulthunters from every previous game, giving seasoned players a sense of nostalgia while at the same time giving new players a chance to go back to the old games to familiarize themselves with the characters and to some extent the story.

Like I said the story was mediocre..... but not bad. Before purchasing this game I read the reviews and was a little worried but after beating it I can reassure you guys that it isn't bad. I was uninspired by the villians and thought they could be more intimidating or formidable. There were better bosses that can be found earlier in the game imo.

Now here's where the game shined, the gunplay..... This game has some of the most addicting gunplay mechanics that make every gun feel both unique and real. From the looks, sound design, abilities, variety and simple satisfaction of clearing enemies. With the right stats every weapon type or elemental effect is viable, which allows for a diverse playstyle to compliment your character architype or the enemy you're up against. This is what gearbox should take and run with going forward, it made firefights rewarding.

World building was another giant leap, having homebase be a space vessel wasn't exactly original but it worked, introducing a variety of planets was a great move in my opinion, Pandora was getting old. Now sure the maps were at times empty there was always something to see in the sky box or something to find off to the side, not to mention there was no shortage of side missions to keep you entertained or to aid levelling for the main quests.

Another great aspect was the DLC, The Handsome Jackpot was absolutely perfect and gave us our Handsome Jack fix. Krieg's mind was definitely an interesting concept that was worth the time. I can't speak to the other two as I haven't played it yet.

In short I would 100% recommend Borderlands 3, both for new and returning players. Do not listen to reviews trying to scare you away from one of my favourite Borderlands experiences to date.

Wow this game sucks! Its not brand new, seems like they gave up on fixing issues and just moved on. Can't view loot in the middle of your inventory, only top or bottom. It's a looter shooter! That is the whole point. Then today the damn thing won't even load. Sloppy programming, and seemingly non-existant support. When i search these bugs online people reported them 5 years ago and are still having issues!

Great game, but whoever created and wrote Ava should be shot dead in the streets of Detroit. She makes the Calypsos bearable.

the story and pacing makes the gameplay UNBEARABLE dont even try to tolerate it, it is torture

there is only one way to describe borderlands 3 shift servers and that is in my nations famous words: shift servers are poes kak.

Just simply unfun. Season passes are dumb if it doesn't give all the content available, having multiple for a single game should be criminal. Had already purchased and played through on xbox and just wanted to see if it was better on pc. Was very disappointed. I have over 3k hours on BL2, but this game is more depressing than the pre sequel ever could be. Last straw is having full screen ads pop up every time you quit to menu to farm drops. So sad what they have done to this franchise. Will be requesting a refund shortly.

Main Campaign story is the worst writing of the franchise. Best gameplay though.

If you're the type of gamer that doesn't care for a story and just want to play a FPS in down time. Then this is the game for you. Its a good game that gives you lots to do but its one of those games that you'll play through once and call it a day.

boldr LANS 3 is the experince ive had/ game has pepol in it and they talk LOTs to much taLk in for real. tiktoker influjener bad gyha relly makes me wnat to gameend myhself. NOT one of my favoritee experince s wold recomend you stay awayyh

It was pretty boring. A lot of the jokes felt forced. Very much a "How do you do, fellow kids" moment.

great gunplay, great visuals, great worlds, horrible unskippable dialogue and a bad story

"Borderlands 3 is an absolute triumph in the looter-shooter genre, delivering an action-packed, humor-infused, and highly customizable gaming experience. Gearbox Software has outdone themselves by refining the beloved elements of the franchise while introducing exciting new features that keep the gameplay fresh and engaging.

The game’s visuals are stunning, with the signature cel-shaded art style brought to life with enhanced textures and vibrant environments. From the sprawling deserts of Pandora to the neon-lit cities of Promethea, each location feels unique and brimming with detail.

Gameplay-wise, Borderlands 3 strikes a perfect balance between chaotic fun and strategic depth. The gunplay is incredibly satisfying, thanks to an arsenal of millions of procedurally generated weapons, each with its quirks and gimmicks. The four new Vault Hunters—each with unique abilities and customizable skill trees—offer immense replayability as players can experiment with different playstyles.

The storyline retains the series’ trademark humor, blending witty dialogue with over-the-top action and memorable characters. While the villains, Tyreen and Troy Calypso, may not reach the iconic status of Handsome Jack, they bring a modern, internet-era twist that fits well within the game’s tone.

Multiplayer and co-op gameplay shine in Borderlands 3, with seamless drop-in/drop-out functionality and a well-implemented level-scaling system that ensures everyone can enjoy the chaos together. Additionally, post-launch support and DLCs have been generous, offering new content that expands the universe and keeps players engaged.

Finally, the quality of life improvements—like faster travel, better UI, and loot instancing—show that the developers listened to community feedback, making this installment the most polished yet.

Whether you're a long-time fan of the series or new to the Borderlands universe, Borderlands 3 is a must-play. It’s a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously but still manages to deliver serious fun. Highly recommended for anyone who loves fast-paced action, outrageous humor, and endless loot!"

Best guns in the BL series definitely in this game.
Best story would be BL2
Best mechanics game play would be pre-sequel

Obviously those are just my opinions. I had fun in all the instalments. I completed all of them before the release if the fourth. I expect a lot from it

The video game "Borderlands 3" is a fantastic game that I enjoyed playing. There were at least two different guns in the game that I could pick up and use, and some of them actually killed things! If you google "how to disable voice lines borderlands 3" you can find instructions to delete all voice files from the game, which allows you to play the game uninterrupted by the worst writing in history. I enjoyed the experience much more after that. Once i googled the BL3 writers and who would be on the movie, I knew it would suck, and boy was I right!
If the devs want any chance of selling BL4, they will have to release some confirmation that they fired (preferably murdered) the BL3 writing team and got anyone better (even sonic fanfiction writers could do better).

Gameplay is fun and a great improvement. Story and dialogue can't hold a candle to BL2. Why do Axton and Salvador talk to me every time I go to Sanctuary? Also, why would you show me items in the Diamond Key room that I can't actually use because I don't have the DLC. The game tries to make you pay extra for things that should have been included in the base game. Randy Pitchford is the worst :(

probably the worst story and writing i've ever experienced but on the same hand its followed by amazing gun/gameplay. still recommend it just mute the dialog during story missions and its a wonderful experience

You know that feeling when you want to try to replay a game from years past because you think it wasnt that bad, so you boot it up and immediately realise that you dont want to play it anymore, thats the embodyment of this game, the jokes aged terrible and whoever said lets have an actor who plays real life lilith just stare at you while she talks is a complete idiot because that is genuinely unsettling and put me off so quickly.

Surely borderlands 4 wont be the exact same issues and this game or tiny tina's wonderlands :/

Feels like a chore to get through the story.

An overdose of millennial humor that guarantees to kill any possibility of immersion. But Borderlands never took itself too seriously anyway. Other than that, it's a good game. Shooting is good, weapon variety is good, enemies are okay. A regular Borderlands with annoying humor and a not so good story. 7/10 buy on discount.

Worst BL Story yet and that's comparing it to The Pre-Sequel. The final boss and the ending cutscene's just.... skip it.

Why is it that after all these years, there are still numerous bugs in the game. My main issue with this game is the ui bugs. What game company can't fix their ui bugs? Gearbox apparently and even after all this time, its still bugged out. Great game, but i cant recommend a buggy mess.
EDIT: Same day reporting, the doesnt even fucking work now. I crash when loading into a map. nice job gearbox. if i could get my money back id love to right fucking now

This is from a fan of borderlans 1 & 2. while the story absolutely is lacking with very few redeemed qualities i would still recommend this on core gameplay alone. If you go in this and ignore the whole story it is a bunch of fun. the areanas and some of the bosses are truly a blast and the mayhem modifier adds a lot of fun other than just new gaming every playthrough. Rip story but live on in gameplay.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☑ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☑ 10

story bad but gameplay good. lots of side quests are better than the storyline lmfao. 1st playthrough prolly isn't worth the time, but game is very fun. DLC stories better than base too. Gameplay/gunplay great. I'd recommend this game, gets much better with friends

There is plenty of reviews about what the game do wrong, so I don't have to say none of that. Just like Borderlands 2 was improvement to Borderlands 1 and the same is here again Borderlands 3 it's an improvement to Borderlands 2 minus the story i guess, and this time the game is even more like a open world with awesome smooth combat, just I feel like a badass when I'm playing Borderlands 3. Oh yeahh, the shotguns make the enemies to fly, so dope!

A looter shooter but you can't even use the loot you acquire immediately since the loot is always 1-3 levels above you and it takes awhile to level up to be able to use said loot.

I loved borderlands 1 & 2 but this is cringe all the character and sorry is so eye rolling i put it down will never play it agen and will not buy any new games from this developer. Do your self a favor and stay away from it even at a sale price.

Stubbornly refusing to reinvent itself after a five-year absence, Borderlands 3 sticks to its guns and manages to outdo itself. Refined movement and shooting, a legion of enjoyably challenging enemies, and the single largest arsenal of mechanically distinct firearms I’ve ever seen in a video game easily make this the best in a great series of co-op shooters. Its trademark stylized art, on-the-nose humor, and tattoo-fueled storyline are all enjoyable enough in their own right, but what really makes Borderlands 3 excellent is the addicting item chase that unfolds over the course of 30 hours’ worth of lovingly crafted main and side missions. What’s more, this is an adventure I could see myself happily undertaking again from scratch with a new character and a fresh group of friends.

Tried for 45 minutes to play with friends but 3 of us had constant connection issues. Sometimes it only works when joining via Steam, other times only when using Gearbox's Shift network. In the end we were not able to play it.

This port is a mess, but the game is really good!

I've owned a copy of Borderlands 3 ever since release. I first played it on Epic Games, but recently I saw it on sale on Steam, and decided to pick it up.
Over 4 years later, and most of the problems still haven't been solved.

• Crashes are regular.
  
• Stuttering is very common.
  
• The excess of particle effects can make it hard for you to see during big firefights, specially if you are doing coop.
  
• For what this game is, performance isn't good. There is absolutely no excuse for this to perform almost the same as RDR2 (a game that mind you, looks a lot better).
  
• If you have Discord overlay enabled, the game will crash during startup.
  

• Mayhem is a lot better than UVHM.
  
• Being able to fast travel from any point in the map is a good QOL improvement.
  
• More Rhys, and more Hammerlock.
  
• Balex.
  
• The Calypsos may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I really like them as characters, specially Tyreen.
  
• Combat continues to be fun.
  
• Higher enemy variety compared to BL2.
  
• Higher vehicle variety.
  
• More backstory on Jakobs and Maliwan.
  
• Atlas is back.
  
• Being able to use multiple action skills.
  
• Zane and FL4K are some of the best vault hunters Gearbox has ever made.
  
• Eden-6 and Athena's have excellent maps.
  
• More vaults.
  
• They aren't milking Handsome Jack to death anymore (well, at least not in the main game).
  
• Assault Rifle's aren't useless anymore.
  
• More bank slots.
  
• More endgame content.
  
• Money is the main upgrade currency again, so you'll never need to farm eridium.
  
• Legendary drops are more common.
  
• There aren't many of them, but the seasonal events are nice, and instead of needing to play the game during a specific time of the year, you can enable them at any moment.
  

• They did Maya dirty.
  
• Ava is insufferable.
  
• Tina feels off.
  
• The humor is very hit and miss.
  
• Vaughn is... Well, outdated.
  
• They wasted the plot for the first vault hunter (won't give spoilers).
  
• The retcons about the vaults really mess up the story of the prior games.
  
• Aurelia is kind of just there.
  
• Not enough Mr Torgue.
  

• Performance and stability issues.
  
• Ads on a game that isn't F2P.
  
• Locking the game's only raid boss behind DLC.
  
• A battle royale DLC? Seriously?
  
• Gearbox removed a scene which would have been fundamental for Ava's character development.
  
[*]Continuing the trend of having multiple Season Passes.

Summary:

Gameplay | The Experience:

Graphics | The Visuals:

Sound | The Music:

Story | The Feels:

Replayability | The Value:

Final Thoughts:

Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆

good gameplay, story seems like it was written by a 35 year old millennial that was home schooled by a lesbian couple

Just picked up the DLC to play with my friends and as it turns out Gearbox's servers are so unstable I can't hold a connection for even a heartbeat. The last hotfix was three years ago, which is tellingly terrible. According to several other reviews, this is a running issue that hasn't, and apparently won't, be fixed. The menu is also absurdly more graphically intensive than the rest of the game for some odd reason.

As far as I've heard the game is mechanically great but written horribly. What little humor I've bumped into thus far is at-best dated, at-worst extremely grating.

I would love to rate this as a good buy. but even for 6 dollars, with the current state of the Co Op expierience this is a hard NO for anyone looking for the OG BL gameplay with friends. The lag is horrid , no matter the excellent internet and PC specs of the Host or even all involved. I suspect it's the SHIFT servers. But even the shift server status page has been silent since August. Such a sin especially with BL4 upcoming.

Overall I recommend this game for its strong gameplay loop, however that's kind of all this game really offers.

The humor is severely downgraded from it's predecessor (Borderlands 2), and the story is not really that interesting.

8/10

bought this game for 5 bucks, get scammed gearbox

the story sucks, the characters are bland and corny and unmemorable.
VAULT HUNTERS IN ORDER OF CORNY-NESS (least to most):
FL4K, Zane, Moze, Amara

if u like a good story don't recommend

--> THE GAME IS A BUGGY MESS, ESPECIALLY WITH DLC <--

my game had always crashed atleast once while playing this, usually when playing with my friends but at the time of writing this, it literally just crashed during singleplayer

The networking in this game is god-awful. These issues have been known for years with no fix. It's a great game, but my friends and I are unable to play together due to not being able to connect to one another. This is not an isolated thing, I have many other friends that have encountered the same issues. It's a great game, but the great gameplay is overshadowed by the long-standing networking problems.

I really wanted to like Borderlands 3. I was a huge fan of the first Borderlands, and while Borderlands 2 things got a bit wacky it was still a great game with tons of great features.

Borderlands 3 however, turned the wackiness up to 11. The game takes place on planets where there's genocide, death, fire, explosions, animals mauling people's faces off...and everyone is talking like they're on Reddit. I played for about 6 hours and I just can't get myself to fire it up again. Almost every single piece of dialogue has to be wacky, cringy with random comments that aren't funny at all. It's a shame, because the artwork and gameplay are amazing. Tons of unique guns, a nice varied selection of characters to play...you name it. But the cringy dialogue just makes it unbearable. Hard pass, even for 6 bucks.

The story is lazy, boring and the main antagonists are "influencers" in their mid 20s. They are easily the worst villains in any Borderlands game to date and are completely insufferable! The writing is mostly not funny and a lot of the characters you meet are uninteresting or simply annoying af.

I'm only recommending this game because the following things are fantastic - Graphics, Movement, Sound, Performance, Gun Play, Weapon Variety, Vehicles, Character Abilities and EXPLOSIONS!

Most everything else is mediocre at best.