Borderlands 3

Storyline may be somewhat AIDS but fun combat and characters.

I love BL2, and I deem it my utmost favorite game of all time. BL3 has some quality of life improvements, and that is the only good thing I can say about it.

The story and the characters are horrible, with not a single male admirable character present. Most characters are annoying, and most deaths are not even characterized properly through the story. These attempted shock value moments are an absolutely amateur approach to creating tension without actually building up to it.

Almost all the levels blend into one another, and they seem AI generated, rather then someone actually sitting down to design them properly. The world is needlessly cluttered without actually giving thought to how to practically place world elements to make some sense and variety. And do not even get me started on the myriad of invisible walls..... The laziest way to deal with "you cannot go there, I will slap you on the wrist."

I have sat down with pain to go through one playthrough so as to prepare for the upcoming BL4, and it has been a torment to finish this excrement. I could really go into intricate detail as to why this is horrendous, but it would turn into a TLDR review.

People don't like this one for the main story, which is kinda valid? I mean its solid but yeah, it doesn't compare to 2. However, the gameplay, settings, UI, events, characters, weapons, variety- literally everything else is better than 2 lmao.
I'd even dare argue the story was enjoyable, villain dialogue corny at some points but they had a handful of funny moments in their defense. Also the settings and world building where super fun and a great time, really fun to explore and do quests in. Definitely worth getting, though I recommend getting the Pandora edition thing so you get all of its content, plus the other games.
Also I want to mention how all of the DLC in this game is AMAZING in all aspects, and quite honestly makes you forget the shortcomings of the main story.

My only complaint is that I wish all Mayhem modes had an option to turn off their modifiers cause they're annoying af lol, tho mode 11 solves this but its only for max difficulty. And some better optimization around sanctuary would be nice.

Also big tip!!! - Turn off volumetric fog in the in-game settings, it tanks your fps and is super ugly.

The writing is TERRIBLE but the actual gameplay is super fun. Ava is hands down the most annoying character in any game ever and it's not even close.

Great game if you completely ignore the Story.

It's solid enough if you skip as much story as possible, but this is a game that just cannot get out of its own way.

Good shooter with a horrid story, Sorry but Ava and the twins just suck hot garbage through a straw made of stained butt hole skin.

The obvious problems are indeed obvious, combat is solid (although I prefer bl2 combat still) but everything else feels like a downgrade.

The story is giga ass. It's infuriating, I hate Ava.

Gameplay is good, buy it on sale if you liked the older Borderlands gameplay.

Not good, too much talking, boring unskippable story and bosses are easy. Other borderlands are better, save your money and time, dont play it.

This game is not for everyone. a lot of people will complain about the way the graphics look, and based their opinion on the entire game off of that. The skill trees are awesome. the fast travelling is prime. the map UI is so good. the dialog for all the characters are fantastic, creating humorous moments that get serious fast. If you enough an FPS MMORPG, this is one of them!

The usual Borderlands Mayhem, tropes in the writing are a bit old, but this is still a great looter-shooter

Main story-line is so cringe it wasn't worth paying attention to. The DLC's and side quests on the other hand make the game worth it. There is plenty of content that keep gameplay from getting stale and makes it enjoyable.

better than 2 if you ask me. more boss fights, more customization available. Only thing I don't like so far is how complex the maps can be sometimes, and that eridium is no longer used to upgrade your storage and ammo count

This game is underrated and over hated. Is the writing as great as 2? No. You'd find few who would say it is. Is the writing bad though? Also no. People complain about the potty humor in this game, but choose to forget Borderlands has ALWAYS had potty humor. The villains are also not terrible as people like to say. Two psychopaths creating a hit livestream for torturing people is one of the most Borderlands things ever.

The biggest thing this game does for the franchise is making the gunplay feel truly good for the first time ever. Guns actually shoot where you expect them to. It feels like a modern game. The improved variety of your active abilities is something that I really hope to see added upon in 4. I know a criticism that isnt uncommon is that 3 is much easier than the other entries. While this is true, for those who continue after the campaign, you have 12 different difficulty levels you can play on, including the base difficulty. Each makes the game harder, adds modifiers, and increases loot value.

Love playing this game with friends. It feels endless and is a nice game to just relax and play together. Works great on steam deck

story wise: absolute garbage, the only way to enjoy this game fully is to manually go in and remove the dialog files.
gameplay wise: solid good fun that just about anyone familiar with borderlands can enjoy

is it worth it for 60 dollars, no and never will be.
either get it on an extreme sale or flat out pirate it if youre so curious.

Good graphics, good gameplay
Holy s h l t amount of guns
cringe story, cringe antagonists and freaking stupid Ava
It feels a whole lot different than the previous ones
Still worth playing

terrible story, amazing gameplay. needs a skip dialogue mod off nexus to be bearable

This game is massively overhated. I understand that for original fans of Borderlands waited a long time between 2 and 3 and had their standards set high by Borderlands 2, but I don't think this game deserves the hate it gets at all. The main issues people have is the writing, and whilst there are some annoying characters it's really exaggerated just how bad it is. It's not like it's got Marvel movie dialogue, if you can just get past Ava and some cringe inducing lines from Troy and Tyreen, it's really not that bad! I would even go as far as to say Troy and Tyreen are fun characters! Every time they were on screen, I felt like they were truly threatening in a way Handsome Jack couldn't even do (Jack is still better though, of course), I was always scared they'd do something to the characters that I love. And as far as story goes I think it may be the best? It might just be the most lore heavy and we learn a lot about the universe that we didn't before.

Gameplay is where the game gets it's rightful praise, it's hard to rank any Borderlands game above another because I genuinely think they're all equally fun to play, but this one is especially fun to go through and makes the grind to get 100% completion (which I did) not as gruelling as some others.

My one complaint: no on-screen Rhys and Vaughn interaction. Come on now.

The best way to enjoy this game is to completely mute the voicelines and turn off subtitles, so you don't have to listen to some of the cringiest fucking dialogue and """humor""" ever put in a video game.

I WOULD put this as a positive review since the gunplay is actually pretty good, but I refuse to give Gearbox and Randy Pitchford a positive review since they're everything wrong with the gaming industry condensed into one company and one incredibly greasy """""""""""""""man""""""""""""""""

Lots of great improvements from BL2. I think Gearbox did a fantastic job of listening to their player base, and improving upon a game play formula people enjoyed in the past, and made a fresh new game out of it.

My personal favorite improvements in BL3 include multiple action skills per character, action skill augments, character class mods now invest points into skills without the need of upfront skill point investment. These improvements open an insane variety of potential builds to contribute to Borderlands' addicting game play. The DLCs in BL3 are also fantastic.

What I DON'T like about Borderlands 3 is the endgame. Specifically mayhem mode. Borderlands 2 endgame was difficult enough to make you think strategically about how you engage in combat, and how you go about building your character to gain full benefit from all skills and equipment. The last thing I want is a bunch of gimmick modifiers added at random to throw everything off and have me redo and nitpick all my previous gear/skill choices. Luckily, Borderlands 3 still has great endgame game play without the use of mayhem mode.

Also I don't know if this is factually correct or if its just a feeling I have.. but Borderlands 3 seems to be incredibly saturated with legendary weapons. By the time I was level 50 (in a game with a 72 lvl cap) my entire arsenal was nearly all orange. With every character.

Red chests and bosses drop legendaries too often. Ammo vending machines seemed to almost always have a legendary grenade mod for sale as well. Kind of numbs you to any excitement you're supposed to have when you finally see orange drop after a tough boss fight.

Overall I do love the game. I think its a decent improvement from BL2. Even with how absolutely goated of a game BL2 is.

i hate that i can't give this game a negative recommendation because i genuinely think it's really great and an improvement over the others in many ways but a bunch of it is so crap it just pisses me off so much.

don't come into this game expecting a good story. don't come into this game expecting a decent story. expect a story. the story of all time. that's what it is. a story that drags on for way too long. and ruins part of the mystique of a concept i genuinely found amazingly cool.

okay, well, gameplay. the gameplay is a significant improvement with the new mobility options that you're given, something i had been wanting since i played borderlands 1, which was like... around a month before playing this, so, i'm not exactly a sage of the borderlands. but one thing i will say, i genuinely HATED!!!!! HATED!!!!!!!! HATED!!!!!!!!! how many legendaries this game dropped me!!! it was TOO MANY!!! i didn't LIKE IT!!!!!! i ended up ONLY USING LEGENDARIES!!!!! because i like being STRONG!!! but i was TOO STRONG!!! i felt PRESSURE. to USE. those LEGENDARIES.

and what the HELL was up with this game's dlc, huh? vault cards, seasons, and all that, it was so confusing for me as a new player, and i couldn't really distinguish what was dlc and what wasn't!!! what a mess!!! but the story dlcs, they were great, maybe my standards had been lowered immensely by the calypsos mere existence, but i had a lot of fun with the dlcs! of course, more handsome jack content and i'm immediately engaged...

too many psychos. just too many psychos.

don't even talk to me about this game's final boss... or even main story bosses in general. just don't. i miss the sentinel.

boring story, confusing non-story dlc content, but it's still a damn good game.

TERRIBLE OPTIMISATION THOUGH!!!! IT TOOK AGES OF MESSING WITH THE SETTINGS TO GET A SEMI-COMFORTABLE FRAMERATE!!! AND I WAS WAITING FOR UP TO A MINUTE JUST TO LOAD SOME AREAS!!!!! IF I WANTED TO WAIT THAT LONG TO LOAD A GAME, I'D PLAY GENSHIN IMPACT ON A HARD DISK DRIVE!!!!!!!!!!!

and what did they do to claptrap, man. i'm not insane right? they definitely upped claptrap's awfulness to an insane degree in this game, right??? i remember he was stupid a little shit but he had a good heart when it REALLY mattered, but in this game he just comes off as a total ass!!!! if i could just not consider this game canon, oh i so would...

but, despite my grievances, it's still a good game i can't deny that. it's a lot of fun, especially when you don't have to think "oh shut UP tyreen" every few minutes GOD i hate her.

3/3.3 i would still die for tina

A fun new unique experience to the Borderlands franchise.
The new open-world exploration, encouraging players to explore and complete challenges on each map, unlocking new guns, and customizations.
The gun play and player interactions is by far the best so far.
Only thing that sucks is the obnoxious twin tiktok streamers constantly talking.
8/10 overall, very fun, refreshing, and obscure game!

Longtime Borderlands fan. After trying this game, hating it, trying it again after I forgot how much I hated it, hating it again, and repeating a couple of times, I finally realized that it's a pretty good shooter IF you skip all of the cutscenes, mute all of the voices, and ignore all of the cringeworthy story, at least until you get to the legit excellent wild west DLC.

But I can't give it a thumbs-up if you have to do all that to enjoy it. It's a big step down from BL2 or the pre-sequel, and it will make you hate the world and characters you used to love. And Lilith's an idiot now.

While the gun-play is phenomenal, this game's writing is genuinely the most mind-numbing suicide-inducing piece of ass I've ever had the displeasure of being subjected to. Dipping my balls into hydrochloric acid while watching my entire family burn would actually be a more enjoyable experience.

Gunplay is good.
Gun Design Kinda Bad for some manufacture.
Char Design is Good.
Mayhem Level is a bad change.
Dialogue is very very VERY bad.
Ava is a profesional gaslighter, fucking bitch.
and this review make me want to TALK to Lilith.

It's hard to describe...
The game FEELS better than borderlands 2, but it also FEELS so much worse

I think the issue comes down to the ADD, causal-player game mechanics, which focus more on making sure the player is being entertained with pretty colours and big damage, rather than attempting to create any meaningful challenge

Even if you just look at the improvements in BL3 over BL2, I STILL prefer the way BL2 does it...

bottom line, play BL2 instead

Also, the story is absolute unmitigated garbage, but you probably already know this by now

This game is just bad.
It falls short of the other titles before it, and is just a bug filled mess.

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.