Borderlands 4 First Impressions

Borderlands 4 is really, really good. Gearbox clearly took the time to learn from their past mistakes in Borderlands 3 and build off the earlier installments to create something genuinely impressive—especially in a looter-shooter space that’s been feeling a bit stagnant lately. The shift to an open-world format is both new and refreshing. The amount of build variety, loot to discover, and things to see and do is striking, and it’s clear that this game is setting a new standard for looter-shooters moving forward.

Step Aside Jack

Starting with the narrative, a frequent criticism of Borderlands 3, the story in Borderlands 4 is vastly improved. For anyone who felt that Borderlands 3 was too campy, heavy on exposition, and generally cringy, this new installment addresses those issues directly. While the series has never been known for strong storytelling, Borderlands 2 stood out mainly because of Handsome Jack’s excellent writing and performance.

Having completed the first main area and the first story boss after around 28 hours of playtime, I can say the main narrative is strong. It establishes interesting characters quickly, with lots of backstory and substance. The main questline keeps a more serious tone, with a few campy jokes thrown in to maintain the series’s signature style. For example, Rush, the commander of the first rebels you meet, makes one joke about protein bars as a stress reliever in the first 28 hours, which is a clear sign that humor is used much more sparingly this time around. Lighter, more humorous content is shifted to side quests, which I think is smart. These side quests include moments like reuniting a disassembled torso and legs, reminiscent of couples therapy, or a bank heist with references to the board game Bop It. Overall, the balance between a more serious main story and playful side quests is well-executed.

Guns, Guns, and More Guns

The gameplay is fantastic. Borderlands 4 builds on Borderlands 3’s systems, evolving the gunplay and action mechanics. You can slide, double jump, glide, and dodge, which at times makes it feel like you’re playing DOOM. Pairing these movement abilities with a wide variety of crazy guns makes combat exhilarating. Gunplay has also never felt better with enemy and weapon feedback finally standing toe to toe with other modern FPS titles.

Action skills are highly customizable, with three per character and numerous augments and skill-tree combinations, especially fun in multiplayer. The new licensed part system allows insane weapon combinations, like guns that fire flaming rockets with minigun barrels or throwing knives that grant automatic crits for a few seconds. The variety never feels overwhelming, and no single weapon type feels like a crutch.

But Can It Run Borderlands?

On PC, I played with a Ryzen 7 7700X, EVGA RTX 3080, and 32GB of RAM, just above recommended specs. The game runs well, generally maintaining 60–70 FPS with DLSS set to balanced and other settings between Medium and High. Minor frame drops occur when loading new areas or during heavy on-screen effects which is understandable but definitely needs a lot of work. While not perfect, the performance is solid and will likely improve with updates. So if performance is very important to you, then this might be a purchase you should wait on.

The Looter Shooter King

Overall, Borderlands 4 is a huge success. From the improved narrative to the dynamic combat and extensive loot variety, it’s easy to recommend. I’m expecting to put around 100 hours into it while preparing a full review, but based on my first impressions, this is a must-play for fans of the series and looter-shooters in general.