Borderlands 4 review – the chaotic, colourful shooter has finally grown up a little | Games

As soon as a video games franchise hits its fourth outing, it’s definitely mature – but maturity is just not a phrase usually related to Borderlands, the colorful and performatively edgy looter-shooter from Texas. This sequence is characterised by a pervasive and polarising streak of distinctly adolescent humour. However in Borderlands 4, developer Gearbox has addressed that concern: it options loads of returning characters in its storyline, however this time round they’re extra world-weary and fewer annoyingly manic. Borderlands has lastly matured, to an extent. And never earlier than time.Borderlands 4 nonetheless flings jokes at you thick and quick, and they’re nonetheless hit-or-miss, however no less than its common humour is a little more refined than earlier than. It retains the distinctive cel-shaded graphical type and gun and ordnance-heavy gameplay that folks have at all times cherished. Certainly, it throws much more weapons at you than any of its predecessors, and with a little bit work at filtering out the very best ones, you’ll discover loads of absolute gems with which to tackle hordes of easy enemies and extra attention-grabbing bosses. An honest storyline emerges after the formulaic first few hours, ultimately sending you off on some sudden, enjoyable and generally gratifyingly surreal tangents.The motion takes place on Kairos, a planet new to the sequence, which feels extra coherent than any of Borderlands’ earlier settings. Kairos’s inhabitants are struggling below the totalitarian yoke of the tyrant Timekeeper, so it’s essential to rouse the downtrodden natives into becoming a member of your resistance motion, liberating tribes of people by eliminating the Timekeeper’s oppressive lieutenants and eradicating surveillance-and-control implants from their necks. The deeper you get into the story, the extra sidetracks and digressions you discover, from dungeon-like vaults stashed with loot to environmental puzzles.You play as considered one of 4 vault-hunters – a Siren with summoning powers, an Exosoldier super-soldier, a hammer-wielding tank referred to as a Forgeknight and a tech-wielding Gravitar. Every has battlefield abilities which can be essential once you’re up towards it, supplying you with the possibility to spawn scythe-wielding phantom reapers, turrets, or defensive shields. The same old high-quality capturing is current and proper, however motion has been enormously improved: you get a grapple, a hover-bike and an enormous jump-and-glide, all of which come in useful within the warmth of frenetic battle and once you’re out exploring. In addition they translate properly to the sequence’ famed co-op play, which helps as much as 4 gamers.Borderlands 4 is a giant sport – the principle storyline takes 20 to 30 hours to finish, and there’s loads to do afterwards. It’s not fully frictionless: generally you must traverse large distances in its missions, and the directional indicator that helps you alongside the way in which is annoyingly erratic. And it has been buggy at launch: taking part in on PC, it has sometimes crashed on me, even after an enormous patch, and early gamers have reported issues with stuttering and different efficiency points. However Borderlands wanted to develop up a bit, and that’s precisely what it has carried out, with out shedding its important attraction. Its top-quality shooter motion could be comfortably acquainted, but it surely’s additionally an terrible lot much less annoying than it was. Borderlands 4 is out now; £59.99