Looting? Check. Shooting? Double check. Unhinged humour and Claptrap yelling in your ear? Oh yeah, we are talking about Borderlands 4. As someone who’s been a big fan-girl of the Borderlands franchise since day one, I went into Borderlands 4 cautiously optimistic - especially after Borderlands 3 left me with a weird “meh” feeling.

Thankfully, Borderlands 4 by Gearbox Software and 2K Games is the comeback tour the series desperately needed. And it brought new jokes, bigger guns, and slightly fewer fart jokes. That’s growth. Also, you can pet your companion, Trouble, if you play as Vex the Siren so need I say more?

Story: Vault Hunters Assemble (Again)



Set six years after the events of Borderlands 3’s “Moonfall” chaos, this new chapter throws us onto the planet Kairos - a beautiful but deadly world where things go sideways faster than Claptrap gets stuck on stairs.

You’re once again stepping into the boots of a fresh Vault Hunter, this time going up against a mysterious dictator called The Timekeeper and his loyal band of cultists known as The Order. The goal is to stop the bad guy, find the Vault, and shoot everything that moves along the way. Classic Borderlands stuff.

What’s new is the tone: Borderlands 4 is darker. But thankfully the humour hasn’t left, it’s just matured. Instead of relentless toilet humour, we now get more twisted, tongue-in-cheek gags. I actually laughed with the game instead of cringing into the void.

Gameplay: Loot, Shoot, Repeat



If it moves, shoot it. If it glows, loot it. If it talks too much, lower the volume slider (more on that later).

Combat feels tight, punchy, and rewarding - especially on normal difficulty, where fights offer just the right mix of chaos and challenge. Whether you’re solo or co-op, the gunplay hits that satisfying “click-clack-BOOM” rhythm we love.

Exploration has received a massive quality-of-life buff too, since there are no more loading screens between zones. The open world is seamless now, so you can sprint across missions without portal interruptions or awkward elevator moments. It's the kind of change that makes you realise how much time you used to waste - and suddenly it's 2AM and you’ve been playing for six hours. Whoops.

Visuals: Same Vibe, New Shine



The iconic graphic-novel art style is back and looking sharper than ever. Think classic Borderlands, but with a makeover - higher detail, more colour depth, and environments that pop. Kairos is a visually diverse playground full of things to blow up and loot, and the updated look gives it all a slick, modern polish.

UI: Needs a Bit More Thought

I won’t sugarcoat it - the user interface is... a challenge at first. It’s not awful, but it’s definitely not intuitive right out the gate. Expect a bit of fumbling around menus until muscle memory kicks in. Still, once you figure it out, it stops being a problem - yet I still find myself tabbing out of where I need to be because I press R1 instead or R2, making inventory clean-up take far longer than it should (not just because I can’t decide what to keep and what to sell - don’t call me out like that).

Vault Hunter Squad Goals



There are 4 playable Vault Hunters at launch:

Rafa – The Exo-Soldier (mech-y and shooty)
Harlowe – The Gravitar (gravity powers = floating chaos)
Amon – The Forgeknight (hammer time!)
Vex – The Siren (because what’s a Borderlands game without a Siren?)

Each character has three skill trees to mix, match, and max out depending on your playstyle. Want to play it safe with range damage? Go for it. Want to be a melee menace who flings enemies into the air like ragdolls? That’s valid and very satisfying. The build flexibility is a big win, and switching between skill trees keeps the game feeling fresh long into your playthrough.

Sound Design: Claptrap, You Little Gremlin



Sound-wise, Borderlands 4 delivers where it counts. Ambient audio is immersive and gunfire sounds satisfyingly crunchy, yet sometimes I kept spinning around due to phantom sounds, so there are perhaps a few tweaks needed there by the developers.

The best new feature, however, is a volume slider just for Claptrap. And yes, he reacts in real-time as you lower his volume - whining like a needy toaster. It’s petty. It’s perfect. It’s the audio control feature we never knew we needed.

Performance: Mostly Polished, With a Few Memory Leaks



At launch, the PC version caught some bad publicity for performance issues, but credit where it’s due - Gearbox patched things quickly. On PS5, the game runs like a dream most of the time. However, there is a known issue with memory leaks - especially if you have a marathon play session. Basically, the longer the session, the choppier it might get. So yes, the ancient gamer wisdom of “save and restart every few hours” still applies here. Hopefully, this issue will be sorted out in the coming patches.

Co-op: Now With Less Loot Rage



Teaming up with friends? Borderlands 4 absolutely shines in co-op. You can play with up to three other players, with:

- Level scaling (so newbies aren’t useless)
- Personal loot drops (no more racing your buddy to that legendary gun)
- Seamless story co-progression

Whether you’re storming the Timekeeper’s fortress or getting sidetracked by a vending machine side quest, co-op is peak fun - chaotic, balanced, and stupidly entertaining.

Final Verdict

Borderlands 4 is the redemption arc this franchise needed. It’s not just more of the same - it’s a smarter, slicker, and more self-aware Borderlands that brings the series back to form without losing what made it special in the first place. It still leans into the weird, but it’s doing it with a wink now instead of a whoopee cushion. Combine that with improved combat, better world design, and a new cast of chaotic Vault Hunters, and you've got a game that’s well worth your time (and a few late nights).

Reviewed by Sheree Steenkamp | PS5 Review code provided by 2K Games | Borderlands 4 is now available at Nexus Hub for R1,399 or R2,399 for the Super Deluxe Edition