Borderlands 4 turns off your mind and activates the enjoyable

I like me a stupid-ass motion film. Something the place the plot is skinny whereas the muscular tissues and accents on all of the henchmen are thick as hell. Think Broken Arrow or Eraser — motion pictures that have been artistically and typically commercially horrible however however thrilling watches that you just forgot about virtually instantly after leaving the theater.

Borderlands 4 is the online game equal of that film. Is it artistically inventive? No. Profound in its narrative? Nope. Innovative in its gameplay? Not actually. Fun? Absolutely. And actually, that’s all you actually need out of a Borderlands recreation.

If you’re new to the Borderlands sequence, it’s a looter shooter that enables solo play or as much as four-player co-op. In each recreation, you play a vault hunter — adventurers who journey to harmful planets looking for legendary vaults that promise nice energy and treasure. For B4, that method’s been modified up a little bit bit. You’re nonetheless a vault hunter trying to find the vault on the planet Kairos, however you’re far more all for settling a rating with the planet’s immortal dictator: The Timekeeper.

To take him down, you possibly can select one of many recreation’s 4 vault hunters, every with their very own particular skills. There’s Amon the Forgeknight, who swings an enormous ax. Rafa the Exo-soldier offers injury with large shoulder-mounted machine gun turrets and vitality blades. Vex the Siren makes use of magic to challenge a ghostly and lethal physique double, whereas Harlowe the Gravitar kills issues with science by means of her big-ass gravity gun.

The Borderlands sequence has at all times had cool-ass participant characters, however I’m a easy lady; I see a Black lady like Harlowe, I choose her. But it speaks to the unimaginable expertise of the Gearbox character designers that I really hesitated earlier than touchdown on her.

No dumb motion film could be full and even enjoyable with out quips, one-liners, and gags, and Borderlands 4 isn’t any completely different. Early on, Claptrap, a small however mouthy robotic who serves as the sport’s central quest giver, instructed me that crazed gang members stored splatting off the partitions of a close-by cliff. I had no response when I discovered a physique, cartoonishly posed with its legs sticking straight up out of the bottom — that’s the sort of sight gag I count on in Borderlands. But I had a real guffaw once I regarded as much as see a smear of blood that regarded similar to the messes bugs depart behind on my windshield.

The sequence’ earlier entries have suffered for his or her heavy utility of humor (keep in mind Claptrap’s “I’m dancin’! I’m dancin’!”), however fortunately B4 workouts restraint with its silliness such that it doesn’t really feel oppressive.

In interviews, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford touted that the sport incorporates over “30 billion guns.” While nobody’s ever gonna be capable of take a look at that, I do very a lot get pleasure from Borderlands’ weapons and taking pictures motion. My private downside with shooters is that they’re usually so fiddly, requiring near-perfect accuracy and consciousness of 1’s environment to outlive an encounter. In firefights I panic, taking pictures off on the hip and spinning round in circles to see what’s killing me. It’s not nice; I usually don’t survive.

But in Borderlands, I used to be not penalized for being a spray-and-pray-er. My provide of ammo and my well being was functionally inexhaustible. No matter what number of bullets I took or shot, I simply stored going, kinda like Keanu Reeves in John Wick or Daniel Radcliffe in Guns Akimbo.

I additionally dearly love that the weapons themselves have personalities as decided by their producer. When I choose up a Jakobs gun I do know I’m gonna get an old-timey piece completed up with quaint American cowboy aptitude. When a Tediore gun runs out of ammo, I don’t reload it; I get to throw it to deal an additional little bit of “fuck you” injury.

I haven’t performed a lot of Borderlands 4, about 10 hours, a few of which was divided throughout the completely different characters to get a really feel for his or her play fashion. I haven’t felt a lot of what’s supposed to tell apart B4 from its predecessors, apart from the extra refined humor. In older video games, transitioning between areas meant spending time on a loading display screen. That’s principally gone, but it surely’s not a big change. I even have a grappling hook and a glider, which add a neat wrinkle to exploration, however once more, they don’t make the sport really feel completely different or higher. They really feel like issues which have been put there as a result of that’s what we count on in our large AAA video games now.

But spamming unholy quantities of bullets like a stormtrooper at a taking pictures vary, that’s what I come to Borderlands for. That hasn’t modified, and the sport is best for it. I do know it doesn’t sound like a praise once I say Borderlands 4 is a dumb motion film. But typically it’s sufficient that you already know precisely what you’re gonna get with a recreation, no fuss, no muss, no bullshit. Sometimes I simply wanna make issues go increase, and Borderlands 4 makes issues go increase actual good.

^{Borderlands 4 can be launched on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X / S on September twelfth. It’s coming to Nintendo Switch 2 on October third.}