Game #900: Borderlands 3

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 I've loved Borderlands ever since the first game, so to say that expectations were high for Borderlands 3 is an understatement. Randy Pitchford is a highly controversial guy, Borderlands 2 was quite probably made with Aliens: Colonial Marines money and 2K Games isn't the best publisher around, but I had high hopes for the game. And, thankfully, it met most of them.

 First the story.... it's not written by Anthony Burch, the guy that pretty much gave Borderlands a personality. The new group of Vault Hunters are now fighting against the Calypso Twins, a sibling duo of Streamers that want to find a Vault. Live Streamers are dumb(Sorry) so I think the premise had some potential, but I think they didn't make the most of it. Troy, the male twin, was actually rather compelling, since he is a parasite, quite literally needing his twin sister to survive.. but he gets his own development making him a much more interesting villain than his sister. The story has a very Girl Power vibe that I can't say I enjoyed. Everyone is a Siren now, characters you new as well as new characters, Sirens for everyone. Y'know how Sirens were the rarest beings in the universe? Not so much now. Look, Borderlands has been very woke since Borderlands 2, but it felt natural. Anthony Burch decided that most people in Pandora were gay, and it was an interesting choice that he pulled off very well, regardless of how you feel about him. Both male and female characters were given the same importance. It was done well, it didn't feel forced. In this game, the only NPCs with any real importance to the plot are female. Lilith returns as the leader of the good guys, Tannis gets upgraded to second-in command, there's a new kid Ava that Maya is training, Ellie has a ton of speaking parts, etc etc. Not to say that there aren't relevant male characters in the game, just that they are never as useful, powerful or as smart as the girls, and they don't get as much screen time. Make of that what you will, in my case, I thought it was too forced. That said, let's be honest, I never played these games for their story. BLands 2's Handsome Jack, as well as the added personalities to the original Vault Hunters were just icing on an already delicious cake.

 I also didn't like how the game added even more scenes to the first game's vault hunters while somewhat ignoring the rest of the cast. Mordekai and Brick make a few appearances, obviously Lilith plays a huge part in the plot.... but where's Axton? Salvador? Gaige? Krieg makes a small appearance through audio logs, while Maya and Zer0 get a few scenes. While I didn't like the Pre-Sequel all that much, I wouldn't have minded seeing its surviving vault hunters return, namely Athena and Jack. To be fair, Aurelia makes a decent, memorable appearance which I felt was very appropriate and satisfying. I don't know, the Pre-Sequel ended on a somewhat promising scene featuring all the good guys together and I would've liked to see them all return.

 The game plays pretty much exactly like Borderlands 2 but with some interesting tweaks. For instance, every vault hunter has access to THREE different possible Action Skills, and every character's works a bit differently. My boy, Zane, for instance, can forgo grenades altogether and equip another action skill. As you put points on every skill tree you'll also gain access to secondary effects you can equip to your action skill. For instance, Amara's could potentially change her action skill entirely. Honestly, this was pure brilliance, as it makes developing your characters even more rewarding. On another note, I am playing the base game, while I've always played the Complete Edition of every Borderlands game, so the 50 level cap hurts, so many abilities I could not mix together. Made me realize how dumb this arbitrary cap is, because with every Borderlands game they up the cap with every piece of DLC they release, so why not remove it from the get go? Makes no sense.

 Other new gameplay additions are the ability to see your feet(Hey! It's cool!), climbing on top of objects by pressing X near the border of whatever you want to climb on top to, an offensive slide by crouching while sprinting, and the pre-sequel's slam attack that isn't half as useful without moon gravity. On another note, the game has an entire section played with moon gravity, but without the dumb Oxygen limit, that shows how good the Pre-Sequel could have been.

 There was much hoopla around how you'd be travelling planets in Borderlands 3, but in practice, they are just different maps. While Pandora was a desert world it wasn't quite lacking in variety since they always found excuses to have you go through different environments, so, in my opinion, this adds nothing to the game. On the other hand, every map has multiple mini-objectives, finding info-pedestals, finding dead claptraps, climbing towers... and they reward you with a hefty XP bonus, and sometimes rare guns, so it rewards exploration.

 There were some smaller tweaks too, that while not very impactful on the game, were fun additions nonetheless. Firstly, there's dismemberment, enemies will now lose body parts in gratifying explosions of blood depending on where you shot them when you killed them. And then.... you can find and equip different paintjobs on your guns! It sounds lame, but it's actually really neat, having gold and/or rainbow colored guns is SO cool.

 Surprisingly for a game that boasts so many guns, I felt like I was using the same kind of guns throughout most of the game. Every time I found a better assault rifle, it simply was the same rifle I was already using but with better stats. On the other hand, when I found new stuff... boy was it interesting! You can find elemental guns with TWO elements, and you can toggle between them at will! There are new guns that don't have clips, BUT they overheat after a while. There are guns that work like grenades when you reload them. There's fun new stuff, there definitely is, but after I entered the final stretch of the game(Say... the last 5-6 story missions) it felt like the fun new stuff had run out and I was stuck with the more mundane guns.

 The game did fall short in other aspects, namely... performance. Split-screen has lag when going through menus, and the inventory screen messes up the item icons when you equip or unequip something, which is just ridiculous. Some quests got bugged so I had to exit-and-re-enter the area to refresh them, and I came across an annoying sound bug at least twice that required closing and reopening the game. The game could've really used a little more time in the oven. I was also a bit let down by the graphics. I'll never put graphics on a pedestal, but it really didn't feel like a 'new' game.

 And that's the thing with Borderlands 3, for as much as I enjoy Borderlands as a whole, and as much as I appreciated the new bells and whistles.... it does little to differentiate itself from Borderlands 2. At the end of the day I felt like I was playing more Borderlands 2, which isn't a bad thing considering it's one of my favorite games ever, but I won't lie, I was expecting something more. But hey, I got my hands on a shotgun that fired circular saws, you can't beat that. I hope they release a 'Complete' version soon with all the extra maps, skill trees and higher level cap, maybe the extra content will make me like the game more, since a higher level caps means more skills to stuff into my character, as well as more chances to get crazy dumb guns.

 8.5