If you want better crash stability
Choose The Rogue Prince of Persia. It scores 5.0 vs 2.8 for crash stability, with a 4.0 overall score.
Borderlands 4 Review
Bottom Line
Choose Borderlands 4 for fast looter-shooter combat, rich builds, co-op, and a rewarding open world. Skip it if poor performance, bugs, UI friction, or uneven endgame depth would sour the fun.
Best for
Best for Borderlands fans and looter-shooter players who value fast gunplay, deep builds, co-op sessions, and a large activity-filled world. It especially suits players willing to tinker with gear and settings.
Not for
Not for players who need polished performance, clean menus, seamless co-op stability, or a deep endgame immediately. Story-first players may also be disappointed by the uneven narrative response.
Verdict
Reviews frame Borderlands 4 as a major gameplay rebound built on punchy gunplay, stronger movement, deep skill trees, and a loot chase that often restores the series’ addictive pull. The tradeoff is that its best systems sit beside rough edges: performance varies sharply by platform and hardware, menus frustrate frequent loot sorting, and some endgame or navigation choices feel undercooked. Story reception is split, with several reviewers praising the more grounded tone while others find the narrative thin or less memorable. Overall, the evidence points to a highly fun looter-shooter whose combat, co-op, and buildcrafting shine brightest when technical issues stay out of the way.
Feature Scorecards
Summary
90 reviewed features-
Very positive 4.5-5.022 (24%)
-
Positive 3.5-4.435 (39%)
-
Neutral 2.5-3.423 (26%)
-
Negative 1.5-2.48 (9%)
-
Very negative below 1.52 (2%)
Pros highlights
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Movement is widely praised as a major upgrade, with gliding, grappling, dashing, and vertical combat making fights and traversal feel faster and more dynamic.
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The loot system is heavily praised for addictive drops and build-defining combinations, though several reviewers dislike weak legendaries, bad guns, or rarity balance.
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Combat is the strongest consensus point: reviewers praise punchy gunplay, chaotic fights, and responsive shooting, despite a few concerns about repetition or tuning.
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Open-world design is broadly praised as a smart evolution for the series, yet several reviewers criticize emptiness, old-fashioned structure, or frustrating traversal barriers.
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Skill tree depth is a major strength, with reviewers repeatedly praising broader trees, build variety, and meaningful character experimentation.
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Writing quality is mixed but often improved over prior entries, with praise for stronger humor and tone balanced by complaints of bland or bad writing.
Cons highlights
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Performance optimization is the most repeated concern, with reviews ranging from smooth experiences to severe stutter, bad optimization, and hardware caveats.
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Narrative quality is strongly divided: reviewers praise the grounded tone and progression while others call the story dull, thin, or weakened near the end.
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Difficulty balance is divided: reviewers enjoy tougher challenge in places, but criticize level spikes, bullet sponges, damage scaling, and lack of difficulty options.
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Boss design is mixed: some reviewers praise new mechanics and serious fights, while others complain about excessive health, weak scale, or tedious phases.
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Crash stability varies widely, with some reviewers reporting no crashes and others citing crashes, black screens, or crash-related lost rewards.
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User interface design is one of the clearest pain points, criticized as poorly conceived, flat, slow, or a step backward despite one positive UI comparison note.
Compared With Category Average
Compared with other Video Games, this product is above average in monetization fairness, microtransaction impact, grind level, near average in open-world design, narrative quality, below average in polish, world interactivity, level design.
Comparison summary
90 compared features-
Above average 0.4+ pts higher33 (37%)
-
Same as average within 0.3 pts25 (28%)
-
Below average 0.4+ pts lower32 (36%)
Largest category differences
| Attribute | This product | Category average | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| polish | 1.0 | 3.6 | -2.6 |
| monetization fairness | 5.0 | 3.1 | +1.9 |
| world interactivity | 2.0 | 3.9 | -1.9 |
| level design | 2.0 | 3.8 | -1.8 |
| accessibility options | 2.0 | 3.8 | -1.8 |
| microtransaction impact | 5.0 | 3.2 | +1.8 |
| environmental detail | 2.5 | 4.3 | -1.8 |
| save system reliability | 1.3 | 3.0 | -1.7 |
Consider This Instead
If you want better movement feel
Choose Street Fighter 6. It scores 5.0 vs 4.5 for movement feel, with a 4.2 overall score.
If you want better bug frequency
Choose Marathon. It scores 5.0 vs 2.1 for bug frequency, with a 3.8 overall score.
If you want better performance optimization
Choose Ghost of Yōtei. It scores 4.9 vs 2.7 for performance optimization, with a 4.4 overall score.
Compared in Reviews
Products reviewers directly compared with this model, grouped into quick takeaways.
Borderlands 2
- Worse: gunplay The review says Borderlands 4’s gunplay improves on the jump from Borderlands 2 to Borderlands 3.
- Better: story and villain highs The review likes Borderlands 4’s story but says it does not match Borderlands 2’s high point.
- Similar: side mission writing The review says side missions resemble classic Borderlands and Borderlands 2 mission writing.
Borderlands 3
- Worse: overall sequel improvement The reviewer describes Borderlands 4 as an improvement over Borderlands 3.
Destiny
- Compared: open-world looter-shooter structure The review frames the game as combining traits associated with Destiny, Halo Infinite, and DOOM Eternal.
FAQ
Is Borderlands 4 fun to play?
Yes. Most reviewers praise the core fun factor, especially the combat, movement, loot chase, and build experimentation.
How is the performance?
Performance is the biggest caveat. Evidence ranges from smooth experiences to severe stutters, frame drops, crashes, and hardware-specific problems.
Is the story better than Borderlands 3?
Many reviewers think the writing and tone are more grounded and less grating, but others still call the story dull, thin, or uneven.
Is co-op good?
Co-op is often praised as a major strength, but several reviews report lag, desync, progression issues, or other online problems.
Does the open world work?
Often, yes: reviewers like the freedom, activities, and rewards. The main complaints are rough navigation, restrictive terrain, and occasional emptiness or filler.
How strong is the endgame?
Endgame evidence is mixed. Some reviewers call it robust or addictive, while others say it is thin, weak, or too dependent on repetitive farming.
Sample Expert Reviews We Analyzed
These are a few of the reviews included in our analysis.
Video Reviews
YouTube - Arekkz Gaming
- Review score
- 3.8
Article Reviews
pcgamer.com
- Review score
- 2.6
rpgwatch.com
- Review score
- 2.8
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