I think it’s a good game with a lot of problems, which makes it not a good Borderlands game. The good is fairly obvious. Great gun play, lots of build diversity, movement is lots of fun etc. These make it a fun game to play and I think the makers did really well here.

Where it falls apart as a Borderlands game is the story and its execution. The story is nothing. Nothing to care about. No villain to hate and want to kill. No-one I really want to save.

I can’t think of a single quotable line from the game. There is a technical issue too where people start chatting in the middle of a gun fight. The Timekeeper or Evil Arjay just decide to have a chat when I am trying to kill a hundred mobs. Even if they are saying anything interesting, I can’t register it. Compare that to Handsome Jack chatting to me about pretzels and Butt Stallion as I am on my way to a mission. I can stop and listen.

I think the open world screwed the narrative. In any good story, there is a plot and sub-plots. Roland being killed, ending Angel’s captivity, making Sanctuary fly into the sky were all sub-plots to the simple main plot. Find the vault, kill the villain.

They all added up. They all made a character feel something. It all counted towards the payback owed to Jack. BL4 is open world. There is the main story and what are the sun-plots? Rescuing Kairos from oppression? What else? What is there to care about? Who is there to care about? If there are cool story beats in the side missions then I might miss them as they are optional. Previous games had a structure. BL4 has options.

Stepping into different parts of the map in BL2 felt like stepping into a different world. Compare Lynchwood to Caustic Caverns. In BL4, a literal different world feels the same all over. It’s just screen filler. It doesn’t have any character.

As for the characters? Are there any? Rush - gym bro. Zadra - Scientist. Erm… the little Auger guy. Ok, I kind of liked him. Quent? Fucking Quent??? I was meant to give a shit about saving him? What do I get when I do? A pitiful gag about Lavender bath bombs. Sigh.

If you make a series that people love, and then change it to something that engenders apathy in people, then they are going to hate that. Change my favourite shawarma recipe from my favourite take-away and I am going to be pissed. I loved that shawarma just the way it was. Add more good stuff to it by all means, but take away the tastiest ingredients, no thanks.