Borderlands 3

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Borderlands 3

"You couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo!"

— Zane
Protagonist(s):
Vault Hunters (Classes)
Amara
FL4K
Moze
Zane Flynt
Genre(s): First-person shooter
Action role-playing
Platform(s): macOS
Microsoft Windows
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Stadia
Xbox Series X/S
PlayStation 5
Release Date: macOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
September 13, 2019
Stadia
December 17, 2019
Xbox Series X/S
November 10, 2020
PlayStation 5
November 12, 2020
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Developer(s): Gearbox Software
Publisher(s): 2K Games
Country: United States
Series: Borderlands
Predecessor: Borderlands 2 (chronologically)
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (by release date)
Successor: Borderlands 4 (upcoming)

Borderlands 3 is an action role-playing game developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games in 2019. It is a sequel to Borderlands 2, and the fourth entry in the main Borderlands series. Borderlands 3 was released on 13 September 2019 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, and released for macOS on 30 October 2019. A Stadia port was released on 17 December 2019. Versions for the Xbox Series X and Series S and PlayStation 5 including free upgrades for users on the prior console versions were released on 10 and 12 November 2020, respectively. A Nintendo Switch version was released on 6 October 2023.

Plot

After the discovery of many other Vaults existing across the galaxy, the Crimson Raiders set out to find these vaults. However, a cult formed from the bandit factions of Pandora known as the "Children of the Vault", led by the deranged twins Troy and Tyreen Calypso, catch wind of these plans and go after the vaults as well, leading to a war between the factions. Four new Vault Hunters are recruited by Lilith to help them wipe the twins and the cult off the map and stop them from gaining access to the Vaults.

Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot

With the help of the Vault Hunters, Moxxi decides to rob the Handsome Jackpot, an abandoned casino that was once owned by Handsome Jack. This task has proven more difficult than expected since the casino is infested with Loader Bots, and the casino's patrons have since become insane looters led by a deranged dwarf known as "Pretty Boy".

Guns, Love, and Tentacles

The Vault Hunters receive an invitation from Gaige to participate in Sir Hammerlock and Wainwright Jakobs' wedding on Xylourgos, a frozen and mostly uninhabitable planet. Unfortunately, the wedding is put to a halt when the group finds themselves under attack by a cult known as the "Bonded". It's up to the Vault Hunter to defeat the cult to resume the wedding.

Bounty of Blood

The Vault Hunters travel to the mostly rocky planet Gehenna, which was made mostly uninhabitable thanks to a corporation known as the "Company" conducting experiments on said planet. The Vault Hunters are tasked with protecting the town of Vestige from a cowboy gang called the Devil Riders, who want to take over the planet using the Company's technology.

Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck

After studying the minds of many psychos, Patrica Tannis discovers a certain characteristic present in every one of them that she calls "Vaulthalla". Krieg is the only one willing to allow Tannis to study his mind, resulting in the Vault Hunters being tasked with entering and experiencing Krieg's twisted mind so Tannis can complete her study.

Why It Rocks, Boyo

Game

  1. The gunplay is made even better. A cover system is introduced, players can slide across the ground, and many guns can be switched between different firing modes. The weapons have even crazier and more interesting effects as well:
    1. Guns that shoot more guns. (Eridian Fabricator)
    2. Guns that shoot in a firework-like pattern.
    3. Guns that shoot differently with each shot.
    4. Grenades that create hazardous fields such as ice shards. (Whispering Ice)
    5. An SMG that turns into a spider-like robot that helps in fighting enemies when thrown. (The Boo)
    6. A rocket launcher that shoots homing saw blades instead of rockets. (Agonizer 1500)
  2. The weapon manufacturer gimmicks are expanded upon from the previous games, making each manufacturer more unique and fun to try out:
    1. Hyperion weapons still keep their reverse accuracy, but their initial accuracy was made much better compared to the previous games' iterations, they also gain a weapon shield that activates upon aiming down sights with limited durability. Weapon shields differ in functionality depending on type.
    2. Jakobs weapons no ricochet bullets to nearby enemies every time you score a critical hit, rewarding accuracy and increasing its crowd control capabilities.
    3. Vladof weapons still have high fire rates, but now feature miscellaneous secondary weapons for their alt-fire like grenade launchers, mortars, and even extra barrels.
    4. Torgue weapons can now shoot either impact gyrojets that explode on contact or sticky gyrojets that explode when the gun is reloaded or switched, sticky gyrojets not only have quicker rates of fire but also have much faster projectile speeds and receive damage increasing their stuck to a target, making Torgue weapons far easier to use against faster enemies. Due to explosives being recategorized as generic splash damage instead of an individual element, these weapons are now also available in all the other elements.
    5. Tediore weapons have more than one "reloading" method, instead of simply being thrown like a grenade and exploding, a Tediore gun can home in on the enemy and explode, create a singularity and explode when being shot at after thrown, or transform into a small walking turret or a flying gun-drone to assist you in battle.
    6. Maliwan weapons now have a charge time to shoot or can be charged to deal more damage. Most now even have a second element as their alt-fire mode to boost their versatility.
    7. Dahl weapons can now switch from 2 of the 3 firing modes: burst fire, automatic or semi-automatic, instead of automatically switching to burst fire when aiming down sights. This made Dahl's weapons far less clunky to use and is a literal godsend for their sniper rifles.
    8. Atlas returns with full force from Borderlands. Their new weapons are generally elemental, but have tracking accessories and homing bullets to ease usage.
    9. COV weapons are motor-driven and draw ammo directly from your inventory, meaning that never need to be reloaded, but can overheat and have to cool down or be repaired. So as long as you're not too trigger-happy, you can fire a COV weapon continuously without ever needing to reload.
  3. There is far more loot to collect, as there are now around 1 billion types of gun varieties that can be obtained. Enemies, bosses, and other loot sources also contain far more loot than before.
    • When playing with other players, they each get their set of loot to collect as long as the game is set on Cooperation mode, meaning that "loot ninjas", players snatching loot from each other, are no longer a problem.
    • There's also a Lost Loot machine in Sanctuary III that retrieves high-grade loot that players might have missed.
  4. Each Vault Hunter now has multiple action skills, similar to Claptrap's randomized packages in The Pre-Sequel, although the player can now choose what action skill they want to use instead of it being random. Skills are more balanced so they all feel worthy of having, allowing for more possibilities for powerful builds.
    • The Designer's Cut DLC adds a fourth skill tree to each Vault Hunter.
  5. A new element called "radiation" is introduced to replace the old Explosive element, which hurts enemies that are near the enemy that has been inflicted with it.
  6. The graphics are vastly improved from the previous games thanks to them being on a newer generation of consoles, and the character models are even more detailed than ever, all while still retaining the cel-shaded and cartoony look.
    • The lighting includes far more color than before to add to the realism.
    • Guns also have tons of detail to them.
    • The overall design of the game's areas is full of detail and is of a much larger scale than the environments in the previous games. Some highlights include Athenas, Jakobs Estate, and Meridian Metroplex.
  7. The gun sounds are vastly improved, before, all the guns from the same manufacturer and of the same type produce identical firing sounds. The new firing sounds are far more realistic and can differ depending on what parts the gun has, making them far more entertaining to shoot.
  8. The game doesn't just take place on Pandora like the first two games, you are allowed to travel to other planets mentioned in previous titles such as Promethea, Athenas, Eden 6, etc on your own Starship, the Sanctuary III. Each planet features its distinct biome and enemies.
  9. Character customization is expanded upon even more. Players can now customize their rooms by decorating them and displaying their prized gear on the wall.
  10. When viewing a weapon up close, players can also examine each part to see how those parts affect the stats of the weapon.
  11. Some missions are very large-scale, something which was not seen in previous Borderlands games. One example includes missions having action-packed chase sequences in them.
  12. When streaming the game, the chat can type in commands that affect the gameplay like spawning in enemies and altering their stats, or spawning in piñatas that provide good loot.
  13. Many fun boss fights that utilize very different tactics from each other to shake up the gameplay and make them more memorable.
  14. Although most of the new characters are bad, BALEX is a pretty likable and funny character. Ice-T (who portrayed Detective/Sergeant Odafin "Fin" Tutuola in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) does a good job at voicing him, which adds more charm to the character.
  15. There exist a multitude of fun Easter Eggs and references to other franchises. Some examples include
    1. The Hellwalker shotgun referencing the Super Shotgun from Doom.
    2. A pair of bosses that parody Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith from Rick and Morty.
    3. A character who is a parody of Tommy Wiseau.
    4. The Freeman rocket launcher parodying its equivalents in the Half-Life series.
  16. Just like the previous games, the soundtrack is great and focuses more on techno and other types of electronic music.
  17. Players can now fast-travel from anywhere on the map instead of having to go to a fast-travel station. Players can also fast-travel to their vehicles now. When reloading to the game, players will respawn at the nearest New-U station instead of the Fast Travel, this finally solves the Checkpoint Starvation that all past Borderlands games suffered from, and makes farming certain bosses far less time-consuming.
  18. Players no longer have to pull up the menu of vending machines to buy ammo or restore health, as there is now the option to simply buy and refill their ammo or health.
  19. The animations have improved significantly, and ragdoll physics is utilized more frequently.
    • The most noticeable improvement in animation is the playable Vault Hunter's movements. Players can even see their legs and shoes now.
  20. Unlike other recent looter-shooter games, this game contains no microtransactions at all and requires the player to do very little to no grinding at all (much like the previous Borderlands games).
  21. Like Borderlands 2, Gearbox paid homage to a dedicated fan who passed away before the game could be released, the fan, Trevor Eastman, was allowed to play a preview build of Borderlands 3, and is permitted to name a gun after himself.
  22. Gearbox did a better job at buffing certain underwhelming legendary weapons compared to Borderlands 2, sometimes even turning some of the worst legendary gear into some of the best.

Story

  1. Roland's Rest is a nice tribute to the deceased namesake character and even includes heartwarming messages from others on his memorial statue.
  2. The Director's Cut fixes Maya's death to be much more impactful and even makes Ava a lot more tolerable. Sadly, this is locked behind a paywall of $15.

Bad Qualities

Game

  1. The story is a downright abysmal and infuriating mess that is riddled with plot holes and illogical moments, making matters worse is that Borderlands 3 is supposed to be the most story-centric game of the franchise. Because of how bad it is, it has its section on how terrible it is.
    • Gearbox, in its infinite wisdom, decided to assign four people to the task of writing the most important storyline in one of its greatest franchises. And of these four people, only one has written for a video game beforehand, the others are utter and complete greenhorns.
    • Fortunately, this story is more tolerable than this abomination.
  2. Unlike the previous games, most of the humor here is not funny at all and is instead just either obnoxious, nonsensical or relies on unfunny/outdated pop-culture references and memes.
    • Also unlike the previous games, this game commonly utilizes toilet humor, which is regarded as the lowest form of humor.
  3. David Eddings, the voice actor of Claptrap, doesn't return to reprise his role thanks to Randy Pitchford being an abusive manchild. The new voice actor poorly resembles what Claptrap used to sound like.
  4. Unlike Borderlands 2, True Vault Hunter Mode has been made irrelevant thanks to Mayhem Mode.
  5. Optimization is not that good. The frame rate often drops, especially when navigating the menus and when playing on split-screen. The PC port requires extremely high system requirements for the maximum graphic settings, and even then frame-rate issues are still present.
  6. Mayhem Mode, the endgame of Borderlands 3. While arguably better balanced than Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode from Borderlands 2 due to the enemies not possessing health regeneration, has its fair share of problems.
    • The biggest problem is the difficulty modifiers, which are forced upon you at all Mayhem Levels at first. At Mayhem Level 1, you can roll for only a beneficial modifier, but at higher levels, the game will roll as many as 4 modifiers, all of which are detrimental, and you the player cannot decide which modifiers to pick, besides rerolling for a new set of modifiers. This annoyed a lot of players as it corrupts the classic Borderlands experience, and adds a large amount of unnecessary and often irritating gimmicks that artificially increase the difficulty.
    • Making matters worse is that some of the modifiers can make the game virtually unplayable. Such as a now removed modifier that gives the enemy a 30% chance to deflect bullets back at you, a modifier that disables Fight For Your Life, and a modifier that adds a short-lived but stackable damage resistance to enemies every time they're hit and thus making automatic guns unusable.
    • Thankfully, Mayhem Level 11 was eventually introduced, which offered the difficulty of Mayhem 10 but without any modifiers at the cost of halving the drop rate bonuses. But to the overwhelming majority of players, this is far more preferable.
  7. The Anointed variants of the COV bandits are considered the worst enemies in the franchise by many players for reasons:
    1. They are ridiculously large bullet sponges, especially at later levels. They can also shake off any elements, particularly fire attacks, which is completely unfair as they are flesh enemies (although a patch made them no longer immune to cryo attacks). Not helping much is also the new status effects that cause enemies to scream constantly, which is annoying and can even hurt the players' ears at high volumes.
    2. They have unfair attack patterns including an annoying phase-walking power, an energy orb that can't be destroyed, and in Milliant's case, an invulnerability shield that deflects almost all weapon projectiles. They can even down players in one or two hits on Mayhem Mode. The Anointed Militants are the biggest case as upon the game's release, they were outright broken, as they spam their immune phases constantly and slow the gameplay to a crawl.
    3. The way they spawn is entirely based on luck, as the game spawns them in the most unpredictable places. The Anvil level, for example, has an obnoxious amount of Anointed in Mayhem mode, which can be deadly to unprepared players.
    4. Their loot drops are very poor and often barely worth it unless you're playing in Mayhem mode, which makes killing them a chore.
    5. On their own, they are lore-breaking and illogical. As mentioned above in BQ#1, the fact that Troy Calpsyo can empower and give siren powers to the Calpsyos' followers by using Maya's Phaselocking is borderline nonsensical, considering that such an ability had never been brought up in previous games. All of these problems were why they were never seen again in the DLCs.
  8. The UI and map problems from previous games return here:
    1. The menus that display a gun's statistics getting cut off are back.
    2. The menu UI is far too focused on visuals than navigation, which makes going through the menus (especially the inventory) clunky.
    3. The maps are even worse designed here than what they were before. They now have verticality, making the maps 3D, but the different parts connect poorly, and the ability to twist and rotate the map in all directions can make things more confusing.
  9. There is a handful of bugs and glitches, some of which can be game-breaking like falling out of the world or missions soft locking, forcing a player to reload their save.
  10. Although traveling to different planets is nice, they all play out similarly to each other, making it feel like the player is just going to different parts of Pandora rather than entirely different planets.
  11. While still pretty fun to playthrough, the mission formula hasn't changed that much from previous games, as most missions still consist of going to a specific place and killing enemies or collecting specific items.
  12. There's some political correctness thanks to Gearbox's increasingly pro-political beliefs, one example includes the midgets now being called "tinks" (short for "tinkerer", despite "tink" sounding even more offensive ironically).
  13. Radiation and Cryo are poor, irrelevant elements. Radiation is best described as a utility element, it only deals moderate additional damage to shields and has a minor weakness to armor, but Radiation element weapons have lower base damage compared to other elemental weapons, and the radioactive explosions they trigger on killing an enemy isn't that powerful. Cryo on the other hand has more base damage than other elemental weapons, can freeze enemies in place (depending on the weapon's cryo efficiency), and has a minor damage boost against armor in exchange for a weakness against shields, but lost the splash/crit damage bonus on frozen enemies and is only usable with melee builds. While they have some bonuses in TVHM they are largely power-crept by corrosive/shock weapons.
  14. The DLC is very overpriced here, with it being more than the price of previous games and having less content, there's even two Season Passes.

Story

  1. Most of the plot twists and other important events feel forced as if they only exist to advance the plot.
  2. Not only that, but most of the twists and revelations are extremely obvious and predictable. Some examples include:
    • During the mission "Atlas, at last", the game tries to make the player believe that Zer0 has betrayed Atlas in favor of Maliwan, but as if the writers would turn a badass character into a serial killer, it's extremely obvious that this isn't Zer0, but rather Katagawa Jr, the secondary antagonist, who ultimately is exposed when the real Zer0 saves Rhys and later claims to have gone radio silent before.
    • Tannis is a Siren because of her using Siren powers such as contacting the Vault Hunters the way a Siren normally would before revealing this plot twist, completely ruining said twist.
    • During the mission "Hammerlocked", Wainwright Jakobs states that he sent a trio of mercenaries to rescue Sir Hammerlock - namely Brick, Tina, and Mordecai - all instantly given away by their somewhat obvious codenames.
  3. Most of the characters introduced here are very unlikable and/or annoying, and a bunch of the returning characters are similarly made unlikable and/or obnoxious. The problem with most of them is that they're almost always over-the-top acting to make them funny, something that was present in only a few characters in the previous games not make the over-the-top acting overused.
  4. The Calypso twins are easily the worst villains in the Borderlands franchise and are often compared to the Blazkowicz twins from Wolfenstein: Youngblood. Like the Blazkowicz twins, they are incredibly childish, immature, annoying, and try way too hard to be funny, with their attempts at humor falling very flat every single time. Most of their lines are also extremely cringeworthy, such as their quote "Like, follow, and obey."
    • Throughout the game, Troy went through a character arc that was setting him up to be the true main antagonist upon realizing he didn't need to rely on Tyreen. Unfortunately, this potentially good arc is completely ruined during the boss fight with him, where he dies and never completes this arc. Meanwhile, Tyreen never goes through any arc, which doesn't help in making her less bland.
    • Ava. No words on this page can describe how terrible she is.
    • Vaughn went from being a very smart, but rather cowardly accountant to a complete nutcase whose lifestyle is almost no better than that of a bandit's.
    • Lilith went from being incredibly powerful to being laughably incompetent and doing nothing aside from giving the Vault Hunters missions. From the very start of the story, Lilith claimed that she was so focused on finding the Vault Key that she didn't even notice that Pandora was changing and that the CoV was organizing. Considering how bandits form the overwhelming majority of Pandora's population, this made Lilith look incredibly incompetent.
    • All of the character development Aurelia gets during The Pre-Sequel is thrown out the window in this game. She's now just a generic villain who isn't above killing her own family, for no particular reason either (although The Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel has implied that Alistar and Aurelia always found each other disagreeable). What's worse is that the game's trailer suggested that she and Hammerlock improved their relationship and now work together.
    • Typhon DeLeon, who is among the few likable NPCs introduced in this game (alongside BALEX, Wainwright Jakobs, the Vault Hunters themselves, and Clay), gets killed shortly after his introduction, which feels like a complete waste of his character.
    • The endings of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Tales from the Borderlands are completely ignored here, with this game's story doing its own thing while the plot points from said games get left completely unanswered and ditched.
  5. Most of the franchise's major characters are underutilized in favor of Lilith, Tannis, and Ava (with the former two already having enough time to shine in the previous installments). Even fan favorites such as Claptrap, Brick, Mordecai, and Tina hardly appear.
    • Most of the Vault Hunters from Borderlands 2 and those from Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel who have survived as well as Fiona from Tales from the Borderlands don't even appear in the base game, and are instead regulated to the DLCs (Gaige, Krieg, Timothy Lawrence). It is justified that Nisha and Wilhelm can’t return since these two were killed in Borderlands 2, and probably Athena also can’t return since she is living a life with her wife Janey Springs. Some of them aren't even mentioned once such as Salvador and Axton.
      • This large number of absences rendered the Watcher's statement about the Crimson Raiders needing all the Vault Hunters they can find in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel completely pointless, along with the fact that it took seven years for the Crimson Raiders to find just four Vault Hunters.
    • Axton and Salvador would eventually return in the second season pass but only as hosts for a battle royale.
  6. Maya, one of the most popular characters as well as one of the few voices of reason, gets killed off in just about the most anti-climatic and forced way imaginable. She dies because of Ava's disobedience, recklessness, and arrogance, which also makes her death downright infuriating for all the wrong reasons. Worst of all, the writing takes Ava's side and blames Maya's death on Lilith.
    • It isn't even explained how Ava managed to get to Promethea's Vault in the first place owing to her terrible capabilities. Considering that she was supposed to be on the bridge and being watched by Lilith, the fact that she managed to sneak away made Lilith look like an incompetent oaf.
    • Why didn't Maya try to let go of Troy when she found out Troy could steal her powers?
    • Why did the twins have to defeat and weaken Lilith to steal her powers, but not for Maya? Perhaps to demonstrate their dominance?
    • Troy can kill and disintegrate sirens when he steals their powers. This brings up two questions: Why does Troy rely on Tyreen when obtaining siren powers? Why didn't the twins disintegrate and kill Lilith when they drained her powers?
  7. As mentioned below, the Vault Hunters are nowhere to be seen during the cutscene. If they had any sort of involvement, Maya would almost certainly still be alive, though this is still somewhat debatable as Nyriad's leech powers they have could technically kill anything.
  8. The funeral scene that happens afterward is completely ruined by the unnecessary need to shove as much unfunny humor in the scene as possible. None of the other characters aside from Lilith, Tannis, and Ava say anything during this scene (including Zer0).
  9. As mentioned above, Tannis is revealed to have been a Siren this whole time, which is just an unnecessary deus ex machina that comes with a fair share of plot holes.
    • Tannis gained Angel's powers before the story even started. So why didn't she ever use her powers to help the Crimson Raiders or the Vault Hunters before revealing her powers? She wasn't at the frontlines so there's no risk of the COV reaching her that easily.
    • Since Tannis had technopathic abilities from Angel's powers, she could've easily escaped Carnivoria (a gargantuan machine) by herself instead of having to get rescued by the Vault Hunters, as she would have just manipulated it psychically.
  10. The Destroyer is suddenly alive again, even though Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel made it very clear that it is dead because Handsome Jack revealed that he went into the Vault of the Destroyer to take its eye and use it as Helios' main weapon after the BL1 vault hunters slew it. If the Destroyer was still alive, there would have been no Eye of Helios since nobody was there to weaponize it.
  11. As mentioned before, the playable Vault Hunters barely factor into the story, and suddenly cease to exist when a cutscene happens. A lot of the conflict and problems the Crimson Raiders run into could've easily been resolved had the new Vault Hunters played any role in the cutscenes. The only exception to this is during a cutscene where Troy Phaselocks the Vault Hunters at the Jakobs Estate, where quite literally nothing can be done until Wainwright Jakobs distracts him with a shotgun blast to the stomach.
  12. The lore about the Sirens went from being mysterious to straight-up confusing.
    • Neither the Sirens nor any of the Eridians know about the origins of the Sirens or their purpose, making it feel like they now exist for the sake of existing.
    • Siren power succession was never clarified, as in the case of Nyriad and Angel. Maya and Ava imply that when a Siren dies, they pass their powers to a target of choice instead of acquiring some randomly at birth in previous games.
    • Suddenly seven sirens can now exist at the same time instead of 6. It's never explained if Troy Calypso counts as being one of the seven sirens either, though he was born while still attached to Tyreen. Neither is it explained whether the 7th Siren is Nyriad herself since she has sealed herself away in Nekrotafeyo's Vault.
  13. Eridium boosts the powers of Sirens, but some Sirens like Maya and Tyreen are both somehow far more powerful than other sirens without having to use Eridium. Why this is the case is completely unknown.
    • Maya states that the reason why Ava is her apprentice is because Ava is going to be a Siren in the future. This brings up a few questions: How does Maya know that Ava will become a Siren? How does Ava become a Siren? How come Ava has yet to become a Siren even though the previous Sirens became Sirens the second they were born?
      • This plot device is completely pushed to the side when Maya states that she will "talk about it later".
    • Ava eventually becomes a Siren by simply touching Troy's body after he's killed. There's no need to explain how nonsensical this is at this point.
    • They now can open portals to other locations, another power that was never shown nor mentioned.
  14. The Calypso twins reveal that Eridium could've been used to make them more powerful instead of stealing the powers from Vault monsters and other Sirens, making them going after those Vaults (as well as Maya's death) completely pointless.
    • As seen in other games, however, Eridium only temporarily boosts a Siren's powers by a fairly moderate amount, not permanently boosting their powers drastically.
  15. The Crimson Raiders didn't look for the missing Vault Key until they recruited the new Vault Hunters. Why they decided to not look for it during the seven years is never explained, since they are beyond capable of doing so.
  16. Rhys tells the Crimson Raiders that Atlas (before his takeover) discovered a Vault while building their city on Promethea. Instead of trying to open it, they instead just ignored it and built over it. Why didn't they just try to open that Vault instead of the one they tried to open in the first Borderlands? This renders the Crimson Lance's role in the said game completely pointless if Atlas had quick access to another vault (provided they obtain all the key fragments, though one was beyond their reach on Promethea, and the other got stolen by Maliwan).
  17. It's never explained how the Calypso twins managed to unite every single bandit gang on Pandora, and how the Crimson Raiders didn't find out about this until just now.
    • It also isn't explained how they allied with Maliwan, or why Maliwan decided to get involved in the COV's plans despite being in a dispute with the Atlas Corporation. This was likely done so the Vault Hunters have to battle against a corporation like in the previous games (which was Atlas in Borderlands, Hyperion in Borderlands 2, and a rogue Dahl detachment in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel), but with the aforementioned problems, their role as an antagonistic faction feels forced.
  18. The COV somehow knows about the Vault map despite never acquiring the Vault Key beforehand, and the knowledge about the map being kept a secret to only the Vault Hunters.
    • Speaking of the COV going after the Vault Key, the COV has about 10 billion members, yet none of them managed to find the key for years. Considering the ludicrously high number of members spread all across the planet, it should've taken them no more than a month, if not a mere week to find the key, especially since the key wasn't even hidden, it was just lying in the middle of a desert with what is hinted to be Bandit settlements nearby.
  19. There is a tendency for the characters to tell the players the obvious. One such example is Tannis telling the players that the Calypso Twins are sirens and are going after the Vaults.
  20. Throughout the story, players can find logs about Typhon DeLeon, the first Vault Hunter. The problem here is that these logs are purely optional to find, and are often hidden, which will lead to players who didn't find these logs confused about his sudden intro late in the story.
  21. When Lilith confronts the twins early on in the game, she brings the Vault Key with her instead of leaving it with Tannis, which is just plain stupid because that allows the twins to easily take the key.
  22. As shown in the previous games, Lilith can teleport things close to her (including people) to another location, yet this game shows that she can teleport anything, regardless of distance, to anywhere she wants. This teleportation ability could've solved most of the conflict present in the previous games if she had just used these powers.
    • This same problem also exists with Maya's Phaselocking ability.
    • Considering how insanely overpowered these abilities are now, how come the Calypso twins never used these powers (aside from kidnapping Tannis) to easily kill the Vault Hunters?
  23. The Vaults in this game contain nothing interesting or valuable in them at all unlike the Vaults in the previous games, it's just mostly green (or higher rarity) gear. Since they aren't Eridian, they should not even appear in the first place.
  24. There are also apparently locations to other Vaults inside the Vaults themselves, something that wasn't present nor mentioned in the previous games.
  25. The monsters that are in the Vaults are said to power the Vaults but said vaults continue to function even after they are slain.
  26. Very inconsistent pacing. When on Athenas, the pacing is too fast which results in Athenas getting severely underutilized. Eden 6 sufferers the exact opposite problem, where the pacing gets so slow to the point that barely anything related to finding the Vault happens here in favor of nonsensical side-plots that only exist to pad out the story.
  27. In addition to the major moments of illogic that ruin the story, there are also a ton of minor illogical/nonsensical moments throughout the story.
    • When deciding on an official name for their starship, Lilith calls it "Sanctuary" in honor of the town with the same name in Borderlands 2. The problem here is that the real name of the ship just so happens to be "Sanctuary III", completely ruining Lilith's line.
    • Despite being a Siren herself, Amara is never acknowledged as one throughout the entire story.
    • When first meeting Zer0, Zane mentions that they know each other from the past, yet both of them act like they've never met before aside from that mention.
    • When Katagawa Jr. introduces himself, he essentially acknowledges that the Vault Hunters are Maliwan's and COV's biggest threat, yet claims to overlook that completely.
    • Katagawa has a laser on Skywell-27 that he will use to destroy Atlas' HQ's defenses, and it is powered by a Vault Key fragment. This is nonsensical because the fragment by itself is powerless, it only has power when the key is fully assembled and charged. Even then, the laser is pointless as he doesn't use it to nuke Atlas HQ instantly. It is implied, however, that Katagawa merely wanted to forcibly absorb Atlas and not have it obliterated in the beginning until after Rhys and the Vault Hunters destroyed his yacht Zanara.
    • After Maya's death, the Crimson Raiders try to contact Sir Hammerlock about a Vault on Eden 6, but they find out that the COV have captured Hammerlock infiltrated the Jakobs corporation, and killed their CEO within a matter of mere minutes, which is illogically fast lest their presence were existent some time before the events if the game.
    • Troy's Phaselocking can be used to empower those who got locked, something that didn't exist in the previous games.
    • Montgomery Jakobs, the previous CEO of Jakobs, left a record that gave the locations of the Vault key fragments for Eden 6's Vault, knowing that the COV is coming for the Vault. Considering how impossibly fast the COV arrived and infiltrated the Jakobs Estate, how did Monty produce it at Lightspeed? While it made sense that Monty would want his allies (Clay, Wainwright, etc) to learn of it, the COV could have also stolen it considering their prevalence in the mansion.
    • Before fighting Aurelia, she shoots Hammerlock, but after the battle, Wainwright appears to be wounded.
    • The Vault Hunters and Crimson Raiders didn't even bother to check to make sure Tyreen (who was unconscious at the time) was dead after they killed Troy. They didn't even do anything to try and stop her after she revealed herself to still be alive.
    • Tyreen absorbs Troy's Siren powers even though Ava already did so.
    • Typhon DeLeon somehow knows that the Great Vault is going to be opened despite being on a planet very far away from Pandora and Elpis, making it impossible for him to see or hear anything about it. And how does he know that opening the Great Vault will destroy the universe?
    • The Crimson Raiders find Nekrotafeyo because of a beam linking it to Elpis, but what do those two planets have anything to do with each other, and what's the point of this beam?
    • It is mentioned that absolutely no one besides a handful like Typhon DeLeon knows where Nekrotafeyo is, yet when the Vault Hunters arrive on the planet, Maliwan structures are already scattered throughout the place.
    • Tyhpon activates a grenade in Tyreen's face, which doesn't even hurt her. She then Phaselocks the explosion despite having never acquired Phaselocking abilities (since Ava absorbed Troy's Phaselocking power).
    • It's possible to fuse with the Destroyer, another plot element that is never mentioned once beforehand.
  28. Because of these problems (along with the unlikeable characters), this makes the main story missions not as enjoyable as they should be.
  29. The ending is an insulting cliffhanger. It's never revealed what happened to Lilith, and Ava out of everyone becomes the leader of the Crimson Raiders despite having done nothing but cause trouble for them.
    • Once Tyreen the Destroyer is killed, its dead body suddenly disappears after the cutscene showing its death ends.
    • There was no build-up throughout the story of Lilith sacrificing herself to save Pandora.
    • Even though Pandora was in danger of getting destroyed, none of the characters there attempted to flee to Sanctuary to get to safety.
    • How were the other planets shaking even though they were in no danger? And how did the characters on the other planets see what was happening to Pandora and Elpis?
    • There is no explanation as to how Lilith was able to stop Elpis from destroying Pandora.
    • The game pretends that the ending is fantastic with how it's played out and "Girl On Fire" from Alicia Keys in the credits, which isn't the case at all.

Reception

Borderlands 3 was met with a mostly positive reception from critics and a mixed reception from fans. The improved gameplay was the most praised aspect, while humor, lack of innovation, and the story were the most common points of criticism. On Metacritic, the PS5 port has a Metascore of 91/100, an 81/100 on PC, a 78/100 on the PS4, and an 82/100 on the Xbox One. The users scores were lower, with a 7.2/10 for the PS5 port, a 5.3/10 for the PC port, a 5.8/10 on the PS4 port, and a 5.4/10 on the Xbox One port.[1][2][3][4] So far, Borderlands 3 is the fastest-selling game in the franchise, with around 5 million sales within five days of the game's release.[5] The game sold almost 8 million copies before the end of 2019.[6]

Videos

Overall

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DLC

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References

  1. ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-5/borderlands-3
  2. ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/borderlands-3
  3. ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/borderlands-3
  4. ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-one/borderlands-3
  5. ↑ https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/350947/Borderlands_3_has_sold_over_5_million_copies_in_five_days.php
  6. ↑ https://www.vg247.com/2020/02/07/red-dead-redemption-2-29-million-borderlands-3-8-million/

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