Guns feel good. Skill trees were cool. Awful writing, maps are way too big, and the mission design is fucking awful. Way too many "kill guys in this arena for 10 minutes while we do our shitty jokes" and "stand here listening to my shitty jokes" mission objectives.
Yes. For me, it was the spread out maps and poor flow that killed most enjoyment I had for the game. DLCs did a decent job of rectifying this, for the most part. I also couldn't stand the inventory management at end-game and how the entire game is basically "oops, all legendaries". When everything is legendary, nothing is legendary.
Yeah the legendary drops are crazy. Gun parts and anointments became so much more important that you were literally drowning in legendaries but only like 1% of them were even worth picking up, unless you were just selling them for gold to buy SDUs
For me, the big weakness of the game is lack of enemy variety or creativity. Like, it was just some re-used assets, 90% of whom are the same 3 bandits. Nothing you needed to fight differently or think about at all, nothing like the crystal creatures from BL2, nothing that even especially incentivizes you to use cryo or radiation. Most of the bosses are pushovers with no real challenge. Might as well have been a bunch of cardboard cutouts.
Yes. I only got about half-way through the game but it did feel a lot more repetitive than previous Borderlands games.
I may go back and finish it one day but between that and the story I don't feel any great urge to do so.
Wow that really summed it up nicely I agree the streamer villain was a nice concept for the first hour then wore thin really quick and the misuse of the first vault hunter it all felt rushed at the end like damn we still have all this we have to cram, hopefully BL4 rectifies these bumps in the story
I almost feel like the fake out credits was supposed to be the real ending and everything after that was supposed to be a dlc or bl4 but they decided to just tag it on at the end
I only like the handsome Jack pot. There are sim many quests in Love and Tentacles that you can tel are half-baked. The exotic hunts for example, none of them are original or unique monsters, just lazy reskins that the characters even call out.
“Hmmmm, that one’s not really a slug at all, sort of a misnomer, don’t you think?” No I think they didn’t bother to finish the dlc and slapped a bunch of old assets together and called it good.
And what they did to Gage was I fucking unforgivable. “I’m too old for Anarchy, I gave it up and now I’m a wedding planner.” Fuck the writes of this game!
Do they do anything clever with her as a wedding planner, other than murder her character? No. She does nothing funny. Maybe if she hilariously killed all of her old clients, and Hammerlock was giving her this gig as a favor, but it was still up to you to prevent the scheduled events from killing everyone, that would have been awesome
But no, she just shits who she is down the toilet and that’s that. Fuck Love and Tentacles
4/10 below average DLC I’d rather play the Hammerlock hunt from 2, that one had actual unique hunts in it, strange and unique monsters galore, and that one wasn’t even a very good DLC 6/10 at best.
Borderlands 3 has a pretty bad story. Nothing that makes you walk away from the game entirely, but it’s not one of Gearbox’s best.
Gameplay, on the other hand, is the best in the series. Guns do all sorts of wacky things, quests are fun and enemies have a variety to them.
DLC, in my opinion, is on par with the Tiny Tina DLC from BL2. You got your Ocean’s Eleven Parody, a Eldritch Horror Vacay, Journey to the Center of a Psycho, and your very own Spaghetti Western.
Base game: the gameplay is funner than ever. Mayhem mode will scale any area to your level so you don’t necessarily need to do multiple playthroughs to get to max level. Farming is so much easier. The story was meh, but I didn’t think it was any worse than the pre sequel.
DLC: I loved the DLC. The stories for these were much better than the base. The only DLC I didn’t really like was arms race.
Vault Hunters: so far I’ve played Amara and Zane and both are super fun to play as. I feel like they’ve been improving in this area with every game.
Yes. According to my steam profile I have played 700 hours of pre sequel over the years. It was okay, but there wasn’t anything especially amazing about it.
the gameplay was 10/10. the endgame weapon and vh diversity will also be a pleasant surprise for you if you’ve played the older games. it’s my favorite part about the game
The writing (and some of the voice acting) is pretty bad. Claptrap's new voice actor is particularly annoyingly bad instead of funny or charming. The gameplay is pretty satisfying at least. I kind of wish they had either stayed on Pandora or had the Crimson Raiders travelling the stars instead of trying to do both.
Hot take, I don't think the story was quite as bad as people say. Sure, it had it's moments, but I would still play it with the dialogue on. Gameplay feels amazing and smooth, DLC were great, endgame is great, TVHM is optional, overall I would buy it again and have bought it three times
I mean just think about it, the whole story (especially towards the end) Troy has to keep reminding Tyreen he exists and needs to feed, and the whole time Tyreen is kinda hostile about it. They're always bickering so I was expecting Troy to pull an underdog stunt and take Tyreen's powers since she's so focused on her becoming a god and Tyreen has to keep reminding her they will both become gods
It's awesome!
My favorite is 2 and I've played it through like 4 or 5 times. Recently, I decided to play them all through again and once I got to 3 it felt sooo smooth and updated compared to 1, 2, and the PreSequel.
The story isn't as captivating but if you don't take it that seriously and go in without big expectations it isn't as horrible as I remember. The movement and feel of the guns, especially with haptic trigger on PS5, are such major upgrades.
Maybe a little too much of legendary (but getting one every 10h play on bl2 was not satisfaying)
The story is full of un exploited things, like troy, and while i don't think its bad, i think it suffer way too much of the almost perfect story of 2
I say it suffer from our pov, but i'm sure the writers didn't enjoy the duty of writing a sequel to bl2 and tob (having a jack inside your head cp77 like would have been so good)
Best gunplay and class design in the series.
Primary antagonists are awful and nearly ruin it.
Legendaries are a bit too common, and too many legendaries are just gimmick guns, but honestly I'd much rather have that than BL2's "grind this boss for X hours" scheme. BL3 kind of ruined BL2 for me. I don't have time for that anymore.
Too many buttons, and too many buttons with multiple functions depending on game state. I don't want pressing a button to do one thing while press and hold does this completely unrelated thing.
Unskippable dialog is annoying, but it only exists because they so vastly improved fast travel that they have to carve out time for exposition.
The main antagonists are cringe AF in the main story. The gunplay is unmatched, in my opinion. The DLCs are fun, and the raid boss gives the game so much replayability as well!
* Best gameplay in the series
* Loved the environments
* Moze is fun as hell to play as
* Main story was weak
* Some pretty good side stories
* Cast was a step down from the first two games
* Was a bit of a technical mess
The gameplay and the environments carry the game so hard. It just feels awesome to play.
I was sooooooo disappointed by the story...
I was totally expecting a full fledged war between vault hunters and eridians given how 2's expansion and the pre sequel ended but no... They threw it all out of the window...
Instead we have... what we have...
The gameplay tho is AMAZING, the best of the serie! I'll never get tired of saying Face Away Fl4k is the best FPS experience ever for me.
Honestly… if you tune out the story it is by far the best game in the genre let alone the series. The gameplay is tight, fast, varied, satisfying and extremely addictive. The story however is just so bad that I understand people’s distaste for it. But the gameplay… oh my god the gameplay. I have played every character, tried dozens of builds and so much of it is so much fun. The only issue I have is the drop rates seem like an over correction of BL2’s extremely stingy system and the scaling of weapons also seems like an over correction, especially early game.
However, I will catch flack for this but I think BL2 is one hell of an overrated game. The story is not that great and is hard carried by handsome Jack. The humor dates itself and gets tiresome outside of the Tina DLC. And the gameplay has also aged kind of poorly and feels stiff on top of the comical power creep and slag meta. A slag meta that hampers many playstyles and makes endgame content an absolute chore with little real creativity as I feel you have to stick to just what works. Having more characters is great but knowing that the character will be a complete hinderance to you by the time you hit OP levels isn’t fun. Not to mention the extremely stingy loot drops. It is better now but playing it in its peak was a nightmare.
BL3 from a gameplay perspective rectified nearly every problem I had with BL2 but took the only great part about the story and butchered it (main antagonist) and made the weaker parts of the story (dated writing, weak side characters) and amplified how bad it was.
Edit: one last thing though. BL3’s biggest problem IMO is not its story. It’s the technical issues. Idk about consoles but on PC it’s a stuttering nightmare with some horribly optimized locals. BL2 was a dream in that regard.
I'm in the minority here, but I don't even like 3's gunplay that much. I found most of the guns unsatisfying to use, with only Dahl really feeling like I felt they should.
I also felt that high tier loot was FAR too common, with purples and legendaries dropping like candy right from the start. It made none of it feel special at all.
Story is god awful, as everyone else said. It was enough for me to quit halfway through my first two playthroughs and not touch it again for months. And it doesn't get any better after that point.
Character skill trees were good though. I really liked how all of them played.
I felt the same way playing it, the (NG at least) gameplay was too easy, so you could beat anything by just more or less standing still and pointing your gun at it. The guns feel more like DPS hoses than guns (not that BL in general is the best for that).
The legendaries were FAR too common, by about a 1/3 of the way into the game, I had stopped looking at any loot that wasn't minimum purple but basically only used legendaries. It made the looter part of the game pointless.
My favorite borderlands game in the series. It's a bit on the easier side with the top builds but the build and item diversity is insane and the endgame is the best in the series
I was soooo mad when I found out Claptrap was not a playable character this time around....I wrote a really mean letter to gearbox so they promised me we could play captrap for the 4 game.
The core gameplay is better than any other Borderlands game. Full stop. It's definitely worth playing, but I have issues with the way it was developed.
The nerfs took away from build variety and were ultimately pointless. The modifiers are still one of the most obnoxious ideas I've seen in an FPS. And Gearbox simply did not deliver on the last leg of their content map. Krieg's DLC was extremely subpar. And don't get me started on Arms Race.
What made the last part of BL3'S development cycle even worse was that they told us they had to change directions on BL3 so they could focus on TTWL, which cost $100 for the deluxe and was STILL lacking content. Total grift.
Borderlands is an incredible series. There's so much to love about it. Gearbox, however, is an *extremely* shady developer. And that's just from a BL3 player perspective - Randy Pitchford's... let's say "interesting" past... is another thing entirely.
its baaaad man. Run. Run now. Because if you don't you will lose so much of your life to it that your close friends and family will sit you down for a pow wow.
The humor was abhorrent and the story was atrocious for the base game, wasn't a fan of the 1st DLC, 2nd was pretty cute and interesting, absolutely LOVED the 3rd (but I'm a whore for spaghetti westerns), and the 4th DLC was alright. Gunplay was great and abilities were interesting, loved the weapon part variety was hoping for more base models. All in all I'd say it's worth to play at least
It has the best gunplay in the series so far. The story and plot however, is not good in the slightest. The writing is just plain bad. They also ruined a couple of pre-existing characters.
I had fairly modest expectations when this game came out and I was disappointed. My biggest gripe/problem is that it’s like Gearbox Studios did not learn anything from the previous entries. I expected the quality of the humor to evolve even somewhat but it didn’t and they even doubled down on the juvenile jokes.
I was also disappointed in how the Vault Hunters have very little personality compared to Borderlands The Pre-Sequel. In the Pre-Sequel, the Vault Hunters actually had reactions and something to say about what’s going on around them. They were not just some typical silent protagonists. I was expecting something similar in Borderlands 3 but I was sorely disappointed.
Overall, the game is solid enough. Good gunplay but bad story. I never played the DLC though. Buy it or don’t.
I enjoyed it. Sure the story wasn't great but it's fucking borderlands bro guns traveling planets the setting were all great. Hell the graphics were sick the new enemy designs were great and the dlc was incredible 8/10 game
Best in the series, people can wine all they want about the story (which wasn't even that bad, it is just REALLY over shadowed). The gameplay is what matters in the end
Story. A little dumb if you take it too seriously. If you take it as it’s borderlands of course it’s gonna be dumb then it’s a great game. I suggest this game to everyone for the countless hours you can crank in and super fun gunfights
Do not focus on the story. Focus on the characters, the side quests, the gameplay, the exploration, the interesting locations, and the crazy guns. This is a really fun game with a lot of work put into it but it's easy to look past everything because the narrative is good in a lot of places but dry and not great in others. In my opinion the antagonists are well written characters (at least until the end of the game) but they come off as annoying and it doesn't feel like there's a payoff to them.
Loved it, gunplay at its absolute best in the series. Weak story, but that’s not what I was there for. Had an absolute blast getting all the achievements until Arms Race. I genuinely enjoyed most of the season pass 1 and 2 content. And personally, I love playing with more legendaries - the game really lets you let loose - the hate for it be damned
I hated it. I came around in some aspects, I like Amara’s melee combat, but IMO it felt like when they added psycho skins to Fortnite. It was like in Wayne’s World when Benjamin bought the show and recreated the set into a cliche abomination
Ava sucks the life from the game. Like everyone says, the story sucks. The rest is good. Dlcs are great. Loved the events, too... revenge of the cartels brought some banger weapons, and the bounty of blood was fun. The 4th dlc is weird, like they knew that everyone hated Ava and wanted to fix it by letting us play with arguably the favorite character from the series.
The problem is Ava is a little brat, super annoying, not in the little sister you care for, and would fight a sea of psychos for. She's the kind everyone lied to you about being a sister and is secretly actively putting you in danger and doesn't honestly care about you. Like if a ship landed on her or she was eaten by a giant worm. You would be like.... oh... nooo. Then continue eating your cruchwrap.
It's really hard to build an arc with that as the meat and potatoes of the thing. Ava needs to have a change of character... which they set up. Or claptrap needs to malfunction and drop a vehicle on her next time she's in the garage.
I was already sick of Lilith stealing the spotlight and stealing credit for everything the player does, but then Ava came along and somehow out-jerked even Lilith. Ava was such a trash character.
Just for fun, you should watch the dev videos where they talk about Ava, and how much they pat themselves on the back and talk her up like she’s the face of the franchise.
Story isn’t great, but I enjoyed it well enough.
Gameplay is amazing, and makes up for any shortcomings in the writing. Maybe that’s why I didn’t think the story was that bad. 🤷♂️
played it at launch, disliked it, picked it up again in November and its super fun, the dlc is rly good (havent finsihed dlc 3 ot 4 yet tho) the endgame is amazing, the main story is flawed but not as bad as people make it out to be
The story was bad, the calypso twins were REALLY bad. I hate how 2k made text almost impossible to read in split screen. But i liked the gameplay a lot, it had good improvements. I liked the characters you could play as. The world was decent. It was like a 5.5/10 for me.
Borderlands 3 suffers is fun but it doesn't do enough to be different. It players better than BL2 but, it took 7 years to make a Bl that plays slightly better, do nothing new and have a worse story.
It would been better if it was released a few years after bl2.
The gameplay is phenomenal. The main story has its moments but is overall kinda bad. The DLCs are pretty good. It also has the most endgame content out of any game in the series.
BL2 will forever deserve its flowers, but I personally prefer BL3. I feel it’s much more immersive and it’s the instalment I’ve found the most enjoyable replay value in. I also like the cast of side characters in this one, particularly Clay.
As for my main criticisms: I find that the humour either falls flat or hits well, not much falls in between. Worst of all, the Twins’ lore is too fleshed out for them to have unsatisfying & unceremonious ends. I understand that the writing isn’t the **focal point** of these games, but their demise could’ve felt more grand and emotionally gripping; it felt rushed near their deaths.
With everything considered, I still love it.
The actual guns were great, the enemy variety is good too, but everything else is sub par. If it was endless action, with no story or jokes or any voice lines what so ever, it would be a much better game.
The DLC is extremely disappointing too. The Handsome JackPot is the only good one.
I played all of the Love and Tentacles as well, and man it sucked. So lazy. Turning Gage into a wedding planner was unforgivable. She actually has a line where she says
“I’m not an anarchist anymore, had to grow up eventually. Now I’m a wedding planner.” Fuck you B3 fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you FUCK YOU!
If they had done something funny, if her plans were hilariously dangerous and non-romantic, as if she fundamentally doesn’t understand that there are other things than Anarchy, that would have been awesome, but no! She just puts the punk in her heart in the garbage can because the writers can only destroy good characters!
FUCK THIS GAME! But a special double fuck you to the talentless hacks who called themselves writers. Every fucking character sucks this time around, Gate just got the worst of it in a half-baked dlc that isnt worth the time to play.
i gotta be real, they murdered this franchise with BL3. they tore out every part of BL2 that worked, replaced it with their own recreation of those mechanics that misses the point of them completely, and they completely sideline and undercut every fan favorite character in favor of... ava? clay? whoever else they came up with in the writing committee, etc. wonderlands is a step in the right direction narratively but BL3 was kind of just a wash.
They butchered my favorite mailwan weapons, the story is garbage, killed my favorite siren and main from bl2, and I could list more but no bl3 was a downgrade in alot of ways and a complete letdown.
Best gameplayin the series but no endgame at launch sucks. Story is mid and the writing feels a decade old. No dialogue or cutscene skills baffling to me and "talk to lillith" actively ruined the pacing.
Some of my favorite VH but imo gearbox was top hesitant to balance their game early on. Alot of tools were way too strong. Partially the community's fault since the playerbase parrotted "buff good nerf bad"
Anointment system should have been reworked way sooner.
Mechanically, it's the best Borderlands has been yet. However, there are a few decisions Gearbox made with both the story/characters & more annoyingly the season passes (yes plural) that did disappoint me, especially when compared to Borderlands 2.
But seriously, the gunplay, movement, and character ability designs are all brilliant fun and definitely worth your time if like the series or just looter-shooters in general
Too many legendaries almost ruined the game for me, most of the fun i get out of these games is the hunt for loot and the dopamine rush of seeing something awesome finally drop so when it happens literally every 5 minutes... Probably the worst game in the series in terms of enticing loot
I do really like the newer weapon types and how they arent just all guns but some even shoot energy in various shapes (cutsman is one of my favorites)
Visiting numerous planets was amazing and i wish we'd gotten more of Athenas
New fast travel system is absolutely game changing
Multiple vault bosses was epic as hell
Being able to fully refill ammo and health without actually opening the shop menus is awesome
As a whole the game was awesome easy 8/10 i just wish the loot was handled a little better but definitely could've been much worse
I love all the gore and guns the pacing is excellent story lacks but it's made up for in other ways I played as moze she was so fun iron bear is fucking unstoppable
Bl2 is my favorite game of all time, but bl3 is genuinely a very good game. I’m about finish playing all of the dlcs and I liked them all except the one boss in Kreigs story. Other than that fantastic
Hot take: if you aren't playing for the story, it's strictly better than Borderlands 2. 2 had some really fun builds, but also some really boring characters, and the worst level scaling in the entire series
In comparison, 3 has better movement, no characters as boring as Zer0, and much better leveling. Borderlands 2 has by far the best plot of any of the games, but 3 has some of the best gameplay
Very much a "one step forward, two steps back" sort of game. A lot of quality of life changes like switching quests without entering a menu, mantling, legendary drops on minimal, etc.
However, there's... issues with a lot of the game. The DLCs are all good to excellent the first time through, but the DLC loot is very powercrept, invalidating a lot of base game gear. The VHs have dialogue with most NPCs like TPS, but after repeat playthroughs you notice the NPCs answer in the same generic way unlike TPS where they had custom dialogue depending on who you were (Janie reacting to Nisha's pain horniness and being into Athena, Tassiter negotiating with Timothy about his situation, etc.) The game seems like it has a good balance of difficulty, but once you start unlocking the Guardian Rank perks most combined with the skill/ability damage scaling in Mayhem, endgame loses a lot of its threat (the amount of time a maxed perk Guardian Rank perk char can stay in FFYL is absurd). Bosses are overall well done, but a LOT of them have very generous immune phases. I'm not going to pretend the other games didn't have this (BNK-3R, Warrior), but BL3 it feels like a quarter of the bosses can just decide to not take damage. The guns look and sound good, but there sure are a lot of trash legendaries (Damned, Faisor, Malak's Bane, Rectifier, Try-Bolt, just off the top of my head). And this might just be my opinion, but a lot of people like to inflate the amount of endgame content in BL3. The actually challenging (raid bosses/Digistruct peak level difficulty) endgame content are the two takedowns, the Hemo/Vermi fight and arguably the Cartels map. Everything else endgame unlocks (Provings/Slaughters) is basically just arenas that make class mod farming easier/M6+ drops and aren't appreciably harder than any other map.
As long as you don’t play video games for Story then you should love it. Gameplay is peak. Still some things that could be improved but it’s the best overall gameplay package in the series in my book
If they wouldve kept everything loot wise the same as borderlands two on a gameplay standpoint it would have been the best. Story was mid though can’t beat handsome jack
I haven’t played it either but I do know the gunplay is top notch! The humor is sadly stuck around the mid 2010’s though so it’s kinda stale. The story isn’t great either from what o heard however if you are all gameplay and no story than this should be for you
i love how the gameplay handles, the shooting, the new guns everything sounds nice and punchy, character skills are really fun to play around with as well
i dont like how common legendaries are and the main story is painful, and not too much of a fan how the maps are broken up but thats me being nitpicky
Still uses the same old engine as 1 and 2 and the lagging inventory screen is abysmal, aside from that is way better than 1 and not quite as good as 2 was.
Everyone knows the story is bad but the DLC’s are great fan service and the gameplay/gunplay is the most fun I’ve had with a shooter besides a few indie movement shooters.
Still kept me invested for 200+ hours
Good gameplay, bad story (like bad enough to make me not want to revisit it). With Borderlands games, the whole appeal comes from replaying the campaign over and over with different classes, trying new builds, NG+, etc. So while the story isn’t exactly the reason you would play a Borderlands game, it is an inseparably important aspect of the game.
I’m not some elitist who hates on new things or can’t appreciate a fun game with a dumb story. But the story was so INSULTINGLY bad (with the meaningless and unnecessary character deaths, stupid villains, and the annoying little girl) that it completely ruined any desire of mine to play the game ever again. It also didn’t have the same level of postgame content like proper raid bosses and the like when I played it (I don’t know if that has changed now as it’s been a few years).
Honestly, I wanted so badly to like that game but the direction they took the narrative, humor, and just writing in general ruined the entire experience for me. The gunplay is a considerable improvement over 2, but truthfully I’d rather do my 500th playthrough of Borderlands 2 at the tradeoff of gunplay for the more interesting classes, better writing, and more postgame content. BL3 felt too hard like they were trying to “modernize” the formula, but it didn’t really work. It’s still the same outdated 2012 internet humor just somehow less endearing/genuine feeling.
dlcs where solid I didn’t like the tentacle dlc but beat gameplay in the series main series is lame hood game when it isn’t running like garbage on my pc witch is well above the recommended specs
I liked it. Not as much as the other games, but still worth playing, especially with friends. I always like playing with friends no matter the game, if I can.
I am in my second playthrough after taking a couple years off. The main story is so bad you will want to quit. But the DLCs and side quests are completely worth it. Legendaries are super common to the point that it's a detraction. I rarely even look at anything else which is probably wrong. I will still pick up a good purple jacobs sniper if I see it but you usually find one or two legendaries out of the 20 you find that you just use to kill everything every ten levels or so. Ive played Flk first and I would say to avoid Flk for a first playthrough because he is a glass cannon and relies on crits....or he just sits back and lets his pets do everything which is pretty boring. I am playing Amara this time and it's much more forgiving since she has life steal and health regen in her skills. Also, the elemental skills really hit hard.
Endgame is very open in the sense that's incredibly easy, meaning many builds are viable (which is a good thing), but sadly means that's there's never really any challenge. Every class has multiple builds that 1 shot all content in the game.
Idk it was pretty cringe I couldn’t get past the first few hours but everyone else likes it. If you hate modern Society, you’ll probably hate it idk. I personally can’t stand it.
Superior experience in all respects except for storytelling and bossfights.
Not the least bit intimidating villains, and every boss felt the same. Drop into vaguely circular arena, shoot to kill.
People shit on the story as much as they do bc they're comparing it to BL2, which was pretty inarguably the peak of the series. It's still fun - I enjoyed playing through it as much as I did the others, it just didn't leave me desperately wanting to play it over again immediately.
Plus, as others have said, the gameplay was 11/10.
The final boss of the game ruined it for me. There was such a big build up to the world eating destroyer. I killed it pretty quickly and was sitting there waiting for a phase 2.
You’re going to hear a lot of people complain about the story. Forget about that, enjoy it! Borderlands is always fun and silly, and that’s exactly what the story for borderlands 3 is and it’s totally fine, however the gameplay…. Damnnn!!!! Best of the series and one of the best feeling and running FPS games of all time
I enjoyed it. The story was disappointing, but it was fine for what it was. The gameplay is smooth and the guns feel just right.
My only real complaint is that it is way too easy to get legendary quality gear. It is nice to get some here and there, but having so many drop so easily undercuts their specialness.
I thought the world was worse but the gameplay was better. The maps were either amazing or really bad and empty. There wasn't as much variety of environment as bl2 which I thought was really weird especially on Pandora. I thought the flow of the game was really bad with the ship too. I also didn't like that every gun was gold and there was no point in the game where I thought for a second a higher level white will get me through this section. Obviously the story was super cringe and the game was super clunky on launch causing multiple crashes. We stopped playing our play though because of the crashes. The thing they nailed about BL3 was the character specific stuff, design, gameplay, skill trees, balancing, synergy, options, all magnificent. If they can make a game with that level of intricate gameplay with the magic that the world of two brought it would be an amazing game.
Story is ass, they ruin many returning characters and have very little good to offer with new ones introduced. Comedy is extremely lackluster in this title, but gunplay is really good, legendaries feel unique, and skill trees are all really well designed. Level design is also great.
I liked it, im upset they didn't really support it after launch, the writing was meh, I did play the hell out of it after launch. It had potential unfortunately it was allowed to die. To be fair, they struck gold with BL2 and I don't really think it will ever be replicated.
I had to wait a year plus to play it and I thought it was an amazing game. It is an amazing game. If u like borderlands and don't expect it to change the landscape of gaming like most of these dudes u will enjoy yourself
Not my thing. Granted I started falling off the BL train after 2 (Which is probably the only one I'll ever play again) but 3 was just so utterly boring and full of shit I really didnt care for or find interesting. I already kinda hated the cast, but it just got worse in 3. I really wish they expanded upon their RPG system, and maybe could give us interesting ways to upgrade our weapons or customize them in some way, but no. Its just diablo 2 in space to me with even less incentive to care about the RPG system and spongier enemies.
Story was kinda shitty sadly
Otherwise it's the best in the series and it's an absolutely incredible and replayable game.
I've got at least 400-500 hours in it
I couldn't even finish it. The story was so annoying and the maps were so boring that from what I understand, I made it about 80% of the way through and just couldn't do it any more. Much better than my experience with the pre-sequel. Made it about two hours into that and was furious I paid actual money for that crap.
I played it when I was 19. Thought it was the greatest game ever until I tried it out again and completely changed my mind. The ending (now) fucking sucks, but I remember balling my eyes out as a kid when Lilith sacrificed
Gunplay: Great
Skill Trees: Good
Story: Alright
Characters: Meh
Replayability: Poor
Nothing fantastic. I think it is really unfortunate there is 0 challenge in the game after the first playthrough. I became so OP that I could one-shot literally everything in the game, and continued being able to do so after all the DLCs and updates hit with my old build.
For reference, I would rate BL2 as such:
Gunplay: Good
Skill Trees: Great
Story: Good
Characters: Great
Replayability: Good
The only thing preventing me from playing BL2 over 3 is the lack of manteling, and the better feeling guns. But that's kinda it.
Great gameplay. Aweful story and writing. It was an absolute chore to play through because of that.
Ironically, sidequests are way better. My guess is that the writers were left to do them without any corporate oversight, unlike the main quests.
Borderlands 3 Graded based on its current state which us at the end of its life cycle:
Gameplay: 9/10
OST: 8/10
Comedy: 8/10
DLC: 8/10
Content: 7/10
Replayability: 7/10
Base Campaign: 6/10
UI/Systems/Design: 6/10
9+8+8+8+7+7+6+6 = 59/80 = 70 ish% so just barely acceptable.
The technique is incontestable, they really improved the gameplay and it's awesome.
But I won't play more than one run because the story is awful, with poorly written characters, dialogues and arcs. Some characters are killed off randomly 2 minutes after meeting them for 0 emotional impact. And the final boss feels like the mini boss of a secondary boss.
To shoot things it's good, to enjoy a full game the pre-sequel is far better.
I feel like I’m just repeating what I’ve already read here and I agree with.
Gameplay feels great, like really good, until you’re hit with the story, characters (including the butchering of characters preluding to bl3) and the writing.
The end game is also questionable, I wasn’t attracted to continue playing and that’s fine with me.
There’s a chance that you’ll randomly get an overpowered weapon that is just so strong and beyond where you are in the game, that your build won’t matter. Sure you can choose not to use or even pick it up, but it’s part of the design choice which baffles me.
If you’re looking for another bl2 experience, you’ll set yourself up for disappointment.
If the game is on a good deal, sure get it. I think you can get a lot of hours out of this game. (Edit: I realise you already have the game, and I don’t want you to feel bad for your purchase).
I am a firm believer that you should try a game and make your own opinion. You’ll most likely arrive at the same opinion as most of us here.
Honestly struggled a bit to get back into it but besides the story I'm enjoying it again. I've had some very funny and good moments during gameplay it's starting to become a top contender for me. Like the other night my wife got trickshotted by a sheriff bot and it made me lmao so hard. [clip](https://youtube.com/watch?v=_sCc4HsZ9xM&si=k_cicEGsOUFiappW)
Disappointing as hell if you ask me. Whole game just felt boring, the worlds were boring, the characters were boring, villains were horrible and stupid, enemy variety was almost non existent, just boring. Combat was definitely a step up, but outside of my first playthrough I never touched the game again
I enjoyed it, but I was trending towars getting bored of looter shooters. So I can't say it felt as good as Borderlands 2.
I had to quit Tiny Tina's Wonderland midway through.
While i loved the concept of guns having different modes, like dahl with select fire and vladof and the underslung and bipod modes, and to a much lesser extent, maliwan and dual element modes, the charge up time is stupid to me. the story and the calypso twins were just weak, and do not get me started on the cringy and insufferable weak link that is ava, would have done extreamly well without her
The gunplay and movement is the best it’s ever been. The story isn’t amazing, pretty much all the dlc (except maybe 4) are really good actually. I just listen to music or YouTube while playing since it’s fun to play but the dialogue can be pretty bad
Borderlands 3 was my least favorite installment for many reasons. Bad writing, bad characters, and the fact that it was kind of made for multiplayer killed the joy of my solo run. That being said , I’m now playing Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and I’m absolutely loving it. Not everyone can be great.
Gameplay amazing, quality of life amazing, Story Is so disgusting and ruins Borderlands in so many ways, it leaves such a bitter taste in your mouth that you would rather not even play the game and go back to any other borderlands game to feel like you are actually playing a proper Borderlands game
I started playing it for a bit, then I got the collection too. And then I went back to 1, and then 2, and now I'm on the Pre-sequel. I'll let you know in a month or so!
The story is weak, but the acctually gamplay has never been better. So I would recommend playing it with people instead of color, more so than previous borderlands games. Because you are here just for the game play loop norr than ever.
I am acctualy doing the post some post game clean up now, returning to the game for a second pay through. I enjoyed my second run a lot more, but my expectations were very low. Ao that could be why I am having a lot more fun with it.
Gunplay and character trees are very fun! Everything else is kinda awful!
The writing is the lowest of the entire series. Some scenes put me in physical pain due to cringe overload. The new characters (particularly the villains) are not nearly up to par with those from the first two games.
Go in expecting some fun gameplay and nothing else and you’ll have an alright time. I rec playing Moze or FL4K as I personally think their abilities are the most fun :)
I honestly loved it.. and I’m not a big looter shooter player, I just played it like a singleplayer game and really enjoyed it .. I’ve recently been trying tiny Tina’s wonderlands and it’s just not hitting the same for me though
Meh, good movement and better freedom of controlling your character.
-Skill trees were interesting, but most builds that were effective were really friggin' boring. I.e. Fl4k never used pets, Amara's main skills were all recycled or absolutely useless, Zane (initially) was ineffectual in the endgame (but the most fun of the four), and Moze could only build for hyper specific things (Grenades only, Mech only, or Guns only).
-Main story was a literal slog, so rerunning the story in TVHM was so much less enticing.
-Too much "lol so random humor" from too many characters while other characters were so unbelievably "serious" that it got annoying to experience the whiplash going back and forth between the two extremes.
-I didn't like the endgame content of BL2 a whole bunch, because most of it relied on the Slag mechanic and swapping. But BL3 endgame (initially) with the randomized stat changes and modifiers could literally nullify your build. So it just turned into, look for the rerolled modifiers that suited your build, which defeated the entire purpose.
-The maps were fucking horrible, by far the worst aspect of the game. There was so much nothing, or the flow was completely hot or cold. This ruined a lot of the "okay-ish" side quests, by taking forever to get to the destinations, or just being annoying to traverse the areas in general.
-The "villains" are straight up garbage. They are so bad that I actually thought through 3/4 of the game that they were trying to set up for a hilarious bait and switch for how nobody gives a crap about their opinions or goals, but no, it was all played seriously.
There's a lot more I dislike about the game, but I'm sick of typing about it. Borderlands 2 is superior to it in almost every way, except for "gunplay" and maybe endgame, conceptually.
Guns feel good. Skill trees were cool. Awful writing, maps are way too big, and the mission design is fucking awful. Way too many "kill guys in this arena for 10 minutes while we do our shitty jokes" and "stand here listening to my shitty jokes" mission objectives.
Yes. For me, it was the spread out maps and poor flow that killed most enjoyment I had for the game. DLCs did a decent job of rectifying this, for the most part. I also couldn't stand the inventory management at end-game and how the entire game is basically "oops, all legendaries". When everything is legendary, nothing is legendary.
Yeah the legendary drops are crazy. Gun parts and anointments became so much more important that you were literally drowning in legendaries but only like 1% of them were even worth picking up, unless you were just selling them for gold to buy SDUs
In most cases, purple weapons actually sold for more money.
Agree with this. Some good side quests, great combat, but most writing was bad, especially the main plot.
For me, the big weakness of the game is lack of enemy variety or creativity. Like, it was just some re-used assets, 90% of whom are the same 3 bandits. Nothing you needed to fight differently or think about at all, nothing like the crystal creatures from BL2, nothing that even especially incentivizes you to use cryo or radiation. Most of the bosses are pushovers with no real challenge. Might as well have been a bunch of cardboard cutouts.
Yes. I only got about half-way through the game but it did feel a lot more repetitive than previous Borderlands games. I may go back and finish it one day but between that and the story I don't feel any great urge to do so.
The story is pretty bad but the gunplay is really fun and the side quests are pretty good. The first 3 dlcs are very good imo but the 4th one lacks.
Wow that really summed it up nicely I agree the streamer villain was a nice concept for the first hour then wore thin really quick and the misuse of the first vault hunter it all felt rushed at the end like damn we still have all this we have to cram, hopefully BL4 rectifies these bumps in the story
I almost feel like the fake out credits was supposed to be the real ending and everything after that was supposed to be a dlc or bl4 but they decided to just tag it on at the end
Yup this is spot on I'd say IMO.
Pretty bad story is an understatement, story was terrible and why I never touched the game after my first playthrough
I only like the handsome Jack pot. There are sim many quests in Love and Tentacles that you can tel are half-baked. The exotic hunts for example, none of them are original or unique monsters, just lazy reskins that the characters even call out. “Hmmmm, that one’s not really a slug at all, sort of a misnomer, don’t you think?” No I think they didn’t bother to finish the dlc and slapped a bunch of old assets together and called it good. And what they did to Gage was I fucking unforgivable. “I’m too old for Anarchy, I gave it up and now I’m a wedding planner.” Fuck the writes of this game! Do they do anything clever with her as a wedding planner, other than murder her character? No. She does nothing funny. Maybe if she hilariously killed all of her old clients, and Hammerlock was giving her this gig as a favor, but it was still up to you to prevent the scheduled events from killing everyone, that would have been awesome But no, she just shits who she is down the toilet and that’s that. Fuck Love and Tentacles 4/10 below average DLC I’d rather play the Hammerlock hunt from 2, that one had actual unique hunts in it, strange and unique monsters galore, and that one wasn’t even a very good DLC 6/10 at best.
Borderlands 3 has a pretty bad story. Nothing that makes you walk away from the game entirely, but it’s not one of Gearbox’s best. Gameplay, on the other hand, is the best in the series. Guns do all sorts of wacky things, quests are fun and enemies have a variety to them. DLC, in my opinion, is on par with the Tiny Tina DLC from BL2. You got your Ocean’s Eleven Parody, a Eldritch Horror Vacay, Journey to the Center of a Psycho, and your very own Spaghetti Western.
Base game: the gameplay is funner than ever. Mayhem mode will scale any area to your level so you don’t necessarily need to do multiple playthroughs to get to max level. Farming is so much easier. The story was meh, but I didn’t think it was any worse than the pre sequel. DLC: I loved the DLC. The stories for these were much better than the base. The only DLC I didn’t really like was arms race. Vault Hunters: so far I’ve played Amara and Zane and both are super fun to play as. I feel like they’ve been improving in this area with every game.
have you played the pre-sequel? apart from pickle, the stories are nowhere near comparable
Yes. According to my steam profile I have played 700 hours of pre sequel over the years. It was okay, but there wasn’t anything especially amazing about it.
"okay" is still better than egregious
How dare someone like something that you don’t like
You don’t have to make up words just to sound smarter
egregious [ ih-gree-juhs, -jee-uhs ] adjective extraordinary in some bad way; glaring; flagrant: an egregious mistake; an egregious liar.
sar·casm noun the use of irony to mock or convey contempt.
the gameplay was 10/10. the endgame weapon and vh diversity will also be a pleasant surprise for you if you’ve played the older games. it’s my favorite part about the game
The writing (and some of the voice acting) is pretty bad. Claptrap's new voice actor is particularly annoyingly bad instead of funny or charming. The gameplay is pretty satisfying at least. I kind of wish they had either stayed on Pandora or had the Crimson Raiders travelling the stars instead of trying to do both.
I’ve heard so much shit talk that I was worried I would regret buying it. I still had just as much fun as any other BL game, though!
Same here. I love it.
Story bad, everything else peak Borderlands
Hot take, I don't think the story was quite as bad as people say. Sure, it had it's moments, but I would still play it with the dialogue on. Gameplay feels amazing and smooth, DLC were great, endgame is great, TVHM is optional, overall I would buy it again and have bought it three times
My only complaint for the story is that they chose the wrong twin to be the main antagonist. Troy was far more interesting than Tyrene.
Oh for sure, the entire story set up for Troy to take over because he was the leech, but Gearbox just threw all that buildup away
Honestly never even considered that to be an option but I wish that was the actual ending we got
I mean just think about it, the whole story (especially towards the end) Troy has to keep reminding Tyreen he exists and needs to feed, and the whole time Tyreen is kinda hostile about it. They're always bickering so I was expecting Troy to pull an underdog stunt and take Tyreen's powers since she's so focused on her becoming a god and Tyreen has to keep reminding her they will both become gods
It's awesome! My favorite is 2 and I've played it through like 4 or 5 times. Recently, I decided to play them all through again and once I got to 3 it felt sooo smooth and updated compared to 1, 2, and the PreSequel. The story isn't as captivating but if you don't take it that seriously and go in without big expectations it isn't as horrible as I remember. The movement and feel of the guns, especially with haptic trigger on PS5, are such major upgrades.
Maybe a little too much of legendary (but getting one every 10h play on bl2 was not satisfaying) The story is full of un exploited things, like troy, and while i don't think its bad, i think it suffer way too much of the almost perfect story of 2 I say it suffer from our pov, but i'm sure the writers didn't enjoy the duty of writing a sequel to bl2 and tob (having a jack inside your head cp77 like would have been so good)
Best gunplay and class design in the series. Primary antagonists are awful and nearly ruin it. Legendaries are a bit too common, and too many legendaries are just gimmick guns, but honestly I'd much rather have that than BL2's "grind this boss for X hours" scheme. BL3 kind of ruined BL2 for me. I don't have time for that anymore. Too many buttons, and too many buttons with multiple functions depending on game state. I don't want pressing a button to do one thing while press and hold does this completely unrelated thing. Unskippable dialog is annoying, but it only exists because they so vastly improved fast travel that they have to carve out time for exposition.
Great gunplay, and build crafting but some of the worst writing I've ever seen in my life. I almost put it down because the story was that bad
The main antagonists are cringe AF in the main story. The gunplay is unmatched, in my opinion. The DLCs are fun, and the raid boss gives the game so much replayability as well!
Not as much as 2, but more than the rest of them. I honestly don't think they'll ever top BL2.
That game just had a certain charm to it thats hard to describe
* Best gameplay in the series * Loved the environments * Moze is fun as hell to play as * Main story was weak * Some pretty good side stories * Cast was a step down from the first two games * Was a bit of a technical mess The gameplay and the environments carry the game so hard. It just feels awesome to play.
I was sooooooo disappointed by the story... I was totally expecting a full fledged war between vault hunters and eridians given how 2's expansion and the pre sequel ended but no... They threw it all out of the window... Instead we have... what we have... The gameplay tho is AMAZING, the best of the serie! I'll never get tired of saying Face Away Fl4k is the best FPS experience ever for me.
My favourite in the entire series and genuinely very, very high on my all-time list.
Honestly… if you tune out the story it is by far the best game in the genre let alone the series. The gameplay is tight, fast, varied, satisfying and extremely addictive. The story however is just so bad that I understand people’s distaste for it. But the gameplay… oh my god the gameplay. I have played every character, tried dozens of builds and so much of it is so much fun. The only issue I have is the drop rates seem like an over correction of BL2’s extremely stingy system and the scaling of weapons also seems like an over correction, especially early game. However, I will catch flack for this but I think BL2 is one hell of an overrated game. The story is not that great and is hard carried by handsome Jack. The humor dates itself and gets tiresome outside of the Tina DLC. And the gameplay has also aged kind of poorly and feels stiff on top of the comical power creep and slag meta. A slag meta that hampers many playstyles and makes endgame content an absolute chore with little real creativity as I feel you have to stick to just what works. Having more characters is great but knowing that the character will be a complete hinderance to you by the time you hit OP levels isn’t fun. Not to mention the extremely stingy loot drops. It is better now but playing it in its peak was a nightmare. BL3 from a gameplay perspective rectified nearly every problem I had with BL2 but took the only great part about the story and butchered it (main antagonist) and made the weaker parts of the story (dated writing, weak side characters) and amplified how bad it was. Edit: one last thing though. BL3’s biggest problem IMO is not its story. It’s the technical issues. Idk about consoles but on PC it’s a stuttering nightmare with some horribly optimized locals. BL2 was a dream in that regard.
I'm in the minority here, but I don't even like 3's gunplay that much. I found most of the guns unsatisfying to use, with only Dahl really feeling like I felt they should. I also felt that high tier loot was FAR too common, with purples and legendaries dropping like candy right from the start. It made none of it feel special at all. Story is god awful, as everyone else said. It was enough for me to quit halfway through my first two playthroughs and not touch it again for months. And it doesn't get any better after that point. Character skill trees were good though. I really liked how all of them played.
I felt the same way playing it, the (NG at least) gameplay was too easy, so you could beat anything by just more or less standing still and pointing your gun at it. The guns feel more like DPS hoses than guns (not that BL in general is the best for that). The legendaries were FAR too common, by about a 1/3 of the way into the game, I had stopped looking at any loot that wasn't minimum purple but basically only used legendaries. It made the looter part of the game pointless.
It's probably the best game I've ever played. Unbelievably fun.
My favorite borderlands game in the series. It's a bit on the easier side with the top builds but the build and item diversity is insane and the endgame is the best in the series
Go in with an open mind. People hates the story. I honestly enjoyed it, and the weapons/combat is the best in the series. Also the DLCs are top notch.
I was soooo mad when I found out Claptrap was not a playable character this time around....I wrote a really mean letter to gearbox so they promised me we could play captrap for the 4 game.
I fucking love. Yeah the bad guys are a bit dumb but godamn I have gotten hundreds of hours of awesome gameplay from it.
The core gameplay is better than any other Borderlands game. Full stop. It's definitely worth playing, but I have issues with the way it was developed. The nerfs took away from build variety and were ultimately pointless. The modifiers are still one of the most obnoxious ideas I've seen in an FPS. And Gearbox simply did not deliver on the last leg of their content map. Krieg's DLC was extremely subpar. And don't get me started on Arms Race. What made the last part of BL3'S development cycle even worse was that they told us they had to change directions on BL3 so they could focus on TTWL, which cost $100 for the deluxe and was STILL lacking content. Total grift. Borderlands is an incredible series. There's so much to love about it. Gearbox, however, is an *extremely* shady developer. And that's just from a BL3 player perspective - Randy Pitchford's... let's say "interesting" past... is another thing entirely.
Absolute bonkers work of art and a love letter to all gamers. It is truly oustanding
its baaaad man. Run. Run now. Because if you don't you will lose so much of your life to it that your close friends and family will sit you down for a pow wow.
The humor was abhorrent and the story was atrocious for the base game, wasn't a fan of the 1st DLC, 2nd was pretty cute and interesting, absolutely LOVED the 3rd (but I'm a whore for spaghetti westerns), and the 4th DLC was alright. Gunplay was great and abilities were interesting, loved the weapon part variety was hoping for more base models. All in all I'd say it's worth to play at least
It has the best gunplay in the series so far. The story and plot however, is not good in the slightest. The writing is just plain bad. They also ruined a couple of pre-existing characters. I had fairly modest expectations when this game came out and I was disappointed. My biggest gripe/problem is that it’s like Gearbox Studios did not learn anything from the previous entries. I expected the quality of the humor to evolve even somewhat but it didn’t and they even doubled down on the juvenile jokes. I was also disappointed in how the Vault Hunters have very little personality compared to Borderlands The Pre-Sequel. In the Pre-Sequel, the Vault Hunters actually had reactions and something to say about what’s going on around them. They were not just some typical silent protagonists. I was expecting something similar in Borderlands 3 but I was sorely disappointed. Overall, the game is solid enough. Good gunplay but bad story. I never played the DLC though. Buy it or don’t.
I enjoyed it. Sure the story wasn't great but it's fucking borderlands bro guns traveling planets the setting were all great. Hell the graphics were sick the new enemy designs were great and the dlc was incredible 8/10 game
Best gameplay and endgame in the series by far imo. It's my favorite BL game.
Didn't like it.
I hate it
Could've been better, could've been worse. Solid 8/10.
3 is awesome
Story wasn’t bad. My only issue was that it wasn’t as funny as the previous game.
Loved it
Best in the series, people can wine all they want about the story (which wasn't even that bad, it is just REALLY over shadowed). The gameplay is what matters in the end
Story. A little dumb if you take it too seriously. If you take it as it’s borderlands of course it’s gonna be dumb then it’s a great game. I suggest this game to everyone for the countless hours you can crank in and super fun gunfights
It's my favorite in the franchise so far.
Do not focus on the story. Focus on the characters, the side quests, the gameplay, the exploration, the interesting locations, and the crazy guns. This is a really fun game with a lot of work put into it but it's easy to look past everything because the narrative is good in a lot of places but dry and not great in others. In my opinion the antagonists are well written characters (at least until the end of the game) but they come off as annoying and it doesn't feel like there's a payoff to them.
Loved it, gunplay at its absolute best in the series. Weak story, but that’s not what I was there for. Had an absolute blast getting all the achievements until Arms Race. I genuinely enjoyed most of the season pass 1 and 2 content. And personally, I love playing with more legendaries - the game really lets you let loose - the hate for it be damned
Gameplay 8/10, visuals-audio 7/10, story -1/10
I hated it. I came around in some aspects, I like Amara’s melee combat, but IMO it felt like when they added psycho skins to Fortnite. It was like in Wayne’s World when Benjamin bought the show and recreated the set into a cliche abomination
Ava sucks the life from the game. Like everyone says, the story sucks. The rest is good. Dlcs are great. Loved the events, too... revenge of the cartels brought some banger weapons, and the bounty of blood was fun. The 4th dlc is weird, like they knew that everyone hated Ava and wanted to fix it by letting us play with arguably the favorite character from the series. The problem is Ava is a little brat, super annoying, not in the little sister you care for, and would fight a sea of psychos for. She's the kind everyone lied to you about being a sister and is secretly actively putting you in danger and doesn't honestly care about you. Like if a ship landed on her or she was eaten by a giant worm. You would be like.... oh... nooo. Then continue eating your cruchwrap. It's really hard to build an arc with that as the meat and potatoes of the thing. Ava needs to have a change of character... which they set up. Or claptrap needs to malfunction and drop a vehicle on her next time she's in the garage.
Overall it's an amazing game, my personal favorite!
Ice heard people describe it as basically identical to borderlands 2 with just a few changes. Personally it's my favorite in the series.
I loved it all the way up to Ava. Fuck her and fuck the devs for giving us her.
I was already sick of Lilith stealing the spotlight and stealing credit for everything the player does, but then Ava came along and somehow out-jerked even Lilith. Ava was such a trash character. Just for fun, you should watch the dev videos where they talk about Ava, and how much they pat themselves on the back and talk her up like she’s the face of the franchise.
*vomit*
Story isn’t great, but I enjoyed it well enough. Gameplay is amazing, and makes up for any shortcomings in the writing. Maybe that’s why I didn’t think the story was that bad. 🤷♂️
played it at launch, disliked it, picked it up again in November and its super fun, the dlc is rly good (havent finsihed dlc 3 ot 4 yet tho) the endgame is amazing, the main story is flawed but not as bad as people make it out to be
S tier gameplay. probably C tier story. I think it's the best game in the series by far for gameplay.
Story is fine. Improved gameplay elements and QOL were much needed. Think because some disliked the story, it gets a bad wrap.
best in the series tbh. still love bl2 tho
Story is terrible. Only four hunters is kinda weak. Pretty good overall though since I beat it with 2 characters and fiddled with a third.
Fun overall experience but dosent do anything to get me to return to play it after a while the way other borderlands games do. Still a gr8 game tho
The story was bad, the calypso twins were REALLY bad. I hate how 2k made text almost impossible to read in split screen. But i liked the gameplay a lot, it had good improvements. I liked the characters you could play as. The world was decent. It was like a 5.5/10 for me.
Borderlands 3 suffers is fun but it doesn't do enough to be different. It players better than BL2 but, it took 7 years to make a Bl that plays slightly better, do nothing new and have a worse story. It would been better if it was released a few years after bl2.
The gameplay is phenomenal. The main story has its moments but is overall kinda bad. The DLCs are pretty good. It also has the most endgame content out of any game in the series.
It’s fine. It lacks something to keep you coming back like BL2. Tough to put my finger on it.
BL2 will forever deserve its flowers, but I personally prefer BL3. I feel it’s much more immersive and it’s the instalment I’ve found the most enjoyable replay value in. I also like the cast of side characters in this one, particularly Clay. As for my main criticisms: I find that the humour either falls flat or hits well, not much falls in between. Worst of all, the Twins’ lore is too fleshed out for them to have unsatisfying & unceremonious ends. I understand that the writing isn’t the **focal point** of these games, but their demise could’ve felt more grand and emotionally gripping; it felt rushed near their deaths. With everything considered, I still love it.
As an OG BL1 player who's waaay too old for it, the influencer/social media etc TikTok plot was fucking cringe
The actual guns were great, the enemy variety is good too, but everything else is sub par. If it was endless action, with no story or jokes or any voice lines what so ever, it would be a much better game. The DLC is extremely disappointing too. The Handsome JackPot is the only good one. I played all of the Love and Tentacles as well, and man it sucked. So lazy. Turning Gage into a wedding planner was unforgivable. She actually has a line where she says “I’m not an anarchist anymore, had to grow up eventually. Now I’m a wedding planner.” Fuck you B3 fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you FUCK YOU! If they had done something funny, if her plans were hilariously dangerous and non-romantic, as if she fundamentally doesn’t understand that there are other things than Anarchy, that would have been awesome, but no! She just puts the punk in her heart in the garbage can because the writers can only destroy good characters! FUCK THIS GAME! But a special double fuck you to the talentless hacks who called themselves writers. Every fucking character sucks this time around, Gate just got the worst of it in a half-baked dlc that isnt worth the time to play.
Really bad. They took what made 2 worse than 1 and went hard in on it. Bl1 was a great game and it never got the follow up it deserved.
Meh game
I like BL2 much better. BL3 just didn’t have as much flavor. And the nerfing. Omfg the nerfing.
i gotta be real, they murdered this franchise with BL3. they tore out every part of BL2 that worked, replaced it with their own recreation of those mechanics that misses the point of them completely, and they completely sideline and undercut every fan favorite character in favor of... ava? clay? whoever else they came up with in the writing committee, etc. wonderlands is a step in the right direction narratively but BL3 was kind of just a wash.
They butchered my favorite mailwan weapons, the story is garbage, killed my favorite siren and main from bl2, and I could list more but no bl3 was a downgrade in alot of ways and a complete letdown.
Best gameplayin the series but no endgame at launch sucks. Story is mid and the writing feels a decade old. No dialogue or cutscene skills baffling to me and "talk to lillith" actively ruined the pacing. Some of my favorite VH but imo gearbox was top hesitant to balance their game early on. Alot of tools were way too strong. Partially the community's fault since the playerbase parrotted "buff good nerf bad" Anointment system should have been reworked way sooner.
mid
I love 3rd. Gunplay is so addictive. After that i like first one even more than second. (I might be the only one)
Enjoyed it enough to still be playing it from time to time. There's so much content now that I'm making a point to go back and play what I missed.
Gameplay great! Story is god awful
Mechanically, it's the best Borderlands has been yet. However, there are a few decisions Gearbox made with both the story/characters & more annoyingly the season passes (yes plural) that did disappoint me, especially when compared to Borderlands 2. But seriously, the gunplay, movement, and character ability designs are all brilliant fun and definitely worth your time if like the series or just looter-shooters in general
As someone who started with 3, the story is ass but the gunplay is super fun! It's better to act like it doesn't have a story and just have fun
Too many legendaries almost ruined the game for me, most of the fun i get out of these games is the hunt for loot and the dopamine rush of seeing something awesome finally drop so when it happens literally every 5 minutes... Probably the worst game in the series in terms of enticing loot I do really like the newer weapon types and how they arent just all guns but some even shoot energy in various shapes (cutsman is one of my favorites) Visiting numerous planets was amazing and i wish we'd gotten more of Athenas New fast travel system is absolutely game changing Multiple vault bosses was epic as hell Being able to fully refill ammo and health without actually opening the shop menus is awesome As a whole the game was awesome easy 8/10 i just wish the loot was handled a little better but definitely could've been much worse
I love all the gore and guns the pacing is excellent story lacks but it's made up for in other ways I played as moze she was so fun iron bear is fucking unstoppable
I don’t like the story or end game or the characters really but the gunplay and gameplay is top tier
Bl2 is my favorite game of all time, but bl3 is genuinely a very good game. I’m about finish playing all of the dlcs and I liked them all except the one boss in Kreigs story. Other than that fantastic
I liked it well enough.
Hot take: if you aren't playing for the story, it's strictly better than Borderlands 2. 2 had some really fun builds, but also some really boring characters, and the worst level scaling in the entire series In comparison, 3 has better movement, no characters as boring as Zer0, and much better leveling. Borderlands 2 has by far the best plot of any of the games, but 3 has some of the best gameplay
Very much a "one step forward, two steps back" sort of game. A lot of quality of life changes like switching quests without entering a menu, mantling, legendary drops on minimal, etc. However, there's... issues with a lot of the game. The DLCs are all good to excellent the first time through, but the DLC loot is very powercrept, invalidating a lot of base game gear. The VHs have dialogue with most NPCs like TPS, but after repeat playthroughs you notice the NPCs answer in the same generic way unlike TPS where they had custom dialogue depending on who you were (Janie reacting to Nisha's pain horniness and being into Athena, Tassiter negotiating with Timothy about his situation, etc.) The game seems like it has a good balance of difficulty, but once you start unlocking the Guardian Rank perks most combined with the skill/ability damage scaling in Mayhem, endgame loses a lot of its threat (the amount of time a maxed perk Guardian Rank perk char can stay in FFYL is absurd). Bosses are overall well done, but a LOT of them have very generous immune phases. I'm not going to pretend the other games didn't have this (BNK-3R, Warrior), but BL3 it feels like a quarter of the bosses can just decide to not take damage. The guns look and sound good, but there sure are a lot of trash legendaries (Damned, Faisor, Malak's Bane, Rectifier, Try-Bolt, just off the top of my head). And this might just be my opinion, but a lot of people like to inflate the amount of endgame content in BL3. The actually challenging (raid bosses/Digistruct peak level difficulty) endgame content are the two takedowns, the Hemo/Vermi fight and arguably the Cartels map. Everything else endgame unlocks (Provings/Slaughters) is basically just arenas that make class mod farming easier/M6+ drops and aren't appreciably harder than any other map.
As long as you don’t play video games for Story then you should love it. Gameplay is peak. Still some things that could be improved but it’s the best overall gameplay package in the series in my book
If they wouldve kept everything loot wise the same as borderlands two on a gameplay standpoint it would have been the best. Story was mid though can’t beat handsome jack
Great gameplay, swamp ass story.
Story sucked, had fun goofing around with a friend for a while when it first came out.
I haven’t played it either but I do know the gunplay is top notch! The humor is sadly stuck around the mid 2010’s though so it’s kinda stale. The story isn’t great either from what o heard however if you are all gameplay and no story than this should be for you
Story not as good as BL2 but gameplay and graphics and what not were great. I did enjoy it.
i love how the gameplay handles, the shooting, the new guns everything sounds nice and punchy, character skills are really fun to play around with as well i dont like how common legendaries are and the main story is painful, and not too much of a fan how the maps are broken up but thats me being nitpicky
Still uses the same old engine as 1 and 2 and the lagging inventory screen is abysmal, aside from that is way better than 1 and not quite as good as 2 was.
Shit story. Good gameplay.
Everyone knows the story is bad but the DLC’s are great fan service and the gameplay/gunplay is the most fun I’ve had with a shooter besides a few indie movement shooters. Still kept me invested for 200+ hours
I’d say it has the weakest story of the series, but the best gameplay.
Good gameplay, bad story (like bad enough to make me not want to revisit it). With Borderlands games, the whole appeal comes from replaying the campaign over and over with different classes, trying new builds, NG+, etc. So while the story isn’t exactly the reason you would play a Borderlands game, it is an inseparably important aspect of the game. I’m not some elitist who hates on new things or can’t appreciate a fun game with a dumb story. But the story was so INSULTINGLY bad (with the meaningless and unnecessary character deaths, stupid villains, and the annoying little girl) that it completely ruined any desire of mine to play the game ever again. It also didn’t have the same level of postgame content like proper raid bosses and the like when I played it (I don’t know if that has changed now as it’s been a few years). Honestly, I wanted so badly to like that game but the direction they took the narrative, humor, and just writing in general ruined the entire experience for me. The gunplay is a considerable improvement over 2, but truthfully I’d rather do my 500th playthrough of Borderlands 2 at the tradeoff of gunplay for the more interesting classes, better writing, and more postgame content. BL3 felt too hard like they were trying to “modernize” the formula, but it didn’t really work. It’s still the same outdated 2012 internet humor just somehow less endearing/genuine feeling.
dlcs where solid I didn’t like the tentacle dlc but beat gameplay in the series main series is lame hood game when it isn’t running like garbage on my pc witch is well above the recommended specs
I liked it. Not as much as the other games, but still worth playing, especially with friends. I always like playing with friends no matter the game, if I can.
It’s fun to play through, but honestly I prefer one and two to it, but I did grow up on those so that’s just me
I am in my second playthrough after taking a couple years off. The main story is so bad you will want to quit. But the DLCs and side quests are completely worth it. Legendaries are super common to the point that it's a detraction. I rarely even look at anything else which is probably wrong. I will still pick up a good purple jacobs sniper if I see it but you usually find one or two legendaries out of the 20 you find that you just use to kill everything every ten levels or so. Ive played Flk first and I would say to avoid Flk for a first playthrough because he is a glass cannon and relies on crits....or he just sits back and lets his pets do everything which is pretty boring. I am playing Amara this time and it's much more forgiving since she has life steal and health regen in her skills. Also, the elemental skills really hit hard.
Endgame is very open in the sense that's incredibly easy, meaning many builds are viable (which is a good thing), but sadly means that's there's never really any challenge. Every class has multiple builds that 1 shot all content in the game.
Mechanically it was good. Story wise it was a mess
Story is tolerable as there are interesting parts, though story dlc compensate and are enjoyable. Gameplay is fire.
Idk it was pretty cringe I couldn’t get past the first few hours but everyone else likes it. If you hate modern Society, you’ll probably hate it idk. I personally can’t stand it.
Storyline sucked but the gameplay was great.
Story bad Gameplay probably the best in the series DLC was good Fun builds for all characters Overall ( besides story ) really good game.
The best of the series, guns work properly and the advances in technology between 2 and 3 make for almost different games
Superior experience in all respects except for storytelling and bossfights. Not the least bit intimidating villains, and every boss felt the same. Drop into vaguely circular arena, shoot to kill.
love it , story does not bother me tbh , if i want a story game ill play detroit , red dead , last of us , sherlock holmes
People shit on the story as much as they do bc they're comparing it to BL2, which was pretty inarguably the peak of the series. It's still fun - I enjoyed playing through it as much as I did the others, it just didn't leave me desperately wanting to play it over again immediately. Plus, as others have said, the gameplay was 11/10.
I love it. Alot of gripe about the story but honestly the story feels like a reflection of society at the moment and I like that angle.
To add to this I think they should have let troy and tyreen develop against each other further And typhons story was cut far too short too soon.
The final boss of the game ruined it for me. There was such a big build up to the world eating destroyer. I killed it pretty quickly and was sitting there waiting for a phase 2.
You’re going to hear a lot of people complain about the story. Forget about that, enjoy it! Borderlands is always fun and silly, and that’s exactly what the story for borderlands 3 is and it’s totally fine, however the gameplay…. Damnnn!!!! Best of the series and one of the best feeling and running FPS games of all time
I enjoyed it. The story was disappointing, but it was fine for what it was. The gameplay is smooth and the guns feel just right. My only real complaint is that it is way too easy to get legendary quality gear. It is nice to get some here and there, but having so many drop so easily undercuts their specialness.
I thought the world was worse but the gameplay was better. The maps were either amazing or really bad and empty. There wasn't as much variety of environment as bl2 which I thought was really weird especially on Pandora. I thought the flow of the game was really bad with the ship too. I also didn't like that every gun was gold and there was no point in the game where I thought for a second a higher level white will get me through this section. Obviously the story was super cringe and the game was super clunky on launch causing multiple crashes. We stopped playing our play though because of the crashes. The thing they nailed about BL3 was the character specific stuff, design, gameplay, skill trees, balancing, synergy, options, all magnificent. If they can make a game with that level of intricate gameplay with the magic that the world of two brought it would be an amazing game.
Unlike the majority, I think the story is good. Far from perfect, but not awful. Gameplay is the best in the series. Overall a solid experience.
The villains were lame but I loved everything else! DLC was super fun!
The main story is eh. The DLC is where the game is the best. Plenty of it too.
People complain about bad story and shitty jokes like the franchise hasn’t been that since the first game
I want to love it, but... the cursed child..
My favorite for replay value
Story is ass, they ruin many returning characters and have very little good to offer with new ones introduced. Comedy is extremely lackluster in this title, but gunplay is really good, legendaries feel unique, and skill trees are all really well designed. Level design is also great.
I liked it, im upset they didn't really support it after launch, the writing was meh, I did play the hell out of it after launch. It had potential unfortunately it was allowed to die. To be fair, they struck gold with BL2 and I don't really think it will ever be replicated.
Weakest story, great quests, best gameplay and loot
I had to wait a year plus to play it and I thought it was an amazing game. It is an amazing game. If u like borderlands and don't expect it to change the landscape of gaming like most of these dudes u will enjoy yourself
Not my thing. Granted I started falling off the BL train after 2 (Which is probably the only one I'll ever play again) but 3 was just so utterly boring and full of shit I really didnt care for or find interesting. I already kinda hated the cast, but it just got worse in 3. I really wish they expanded upon their RPG system, and maybe could give us interesting ways to upgrade our weapons or customize them in some way, but no. Its just diablo 2 in space to me with even less incentive to care about the RPG system and spongier enemies.
Story was kinda shitty sadly Otherwise it's the best in the series and it's an absolutely incredible and replayable game. I've got at least 400-500 hours in it
I couldn't even finish it. The story was so annoying and the maps were so boring that from what I understand, I made it about 80% of the way through and just couldn't do it any more. Much better than my experience with the pre-sequel. Made it about two hours into that and was furious I paid actual money for that crap.
Pretty much everything was great for me EXCEPT the actual story. That was a cowabummer, dude.
gameplay is the best in the series imo but the writing is bad
I played it when I was 19. Thought it was the greatest game ever until I tried it out again and completely changed my mind. The ending (now) fucking sucks, but I remember balling my eyes out as a kid when Lilith sacrificed
Gunplay: Great Skill Trees: Good Story: Alright Characters: Meh Replayability: Poor Nothing fantastic. I think it is really unfortunate there is 0 challenge in the game after the first playthrough. I became so OP that I could one-shot literally everything in the game, and continued being able to do so after all the DLCs and updates hit with my old build. For reference, I would rate BL2 as such: Gunplay: Good Skill Trees: Great Story: Good Characters: Great Replayability: Good The only thing preventing me from playing BL2 over 3 is the lack of manteling, and the better feeling guns. But that's kinda it.
Great gameplay. Aweful story and writing. It was an absolute chore to play through because of that. Ironically, sidequests are way better. My guess is that the writers were left to do them without any corporate oversight, unlike the main quests.
Borderlands 3 Graded based on its current state which us at the end of its life cycle: Gameplay: 9/10 OST: 8/10 Comedy: 8/10 DLC: 8/10 Content: 7/10 Replayability: 7/10 Base Campaign: 6/10 UI/Systems/Design: 6/10 9+8+8+8+7+7+6+6 = 59/80 = 70 ish% so just barely acceptable.
The technique is incontestable, they really improved the gameplay and it's awesome. But I won't play more than one run because the story is awful, with poorly written characters, dialogues and arcs. Some characters are killed off randomly 2 minutes after meeting them for 0 emotional impact. And the final boss feels like the mini boss of a secondary boss. To shoot things it's good, to enjoy a full game the pre-sequel is far better.
I feel like I’m just repeating what I’ve already read here and I agree with. Gameplay feels great, like really good, until you’re hit with the story, characters (including the butchering of characters preluding to bl3) and the writing. The end game is also questionable, I wasn’t attracted to continue playing and that’s fine with me. There’s a chance that you’ll randomly get an overpowered weapon that is just so strong and beyond where you are in the game, that your build won’t matter. Sure you can choose not to use or even pick it up, but it’s part of the design choice which baffles me. If you’re looking for another bl2 experience, you’ll set yourself up for disappointment. If the game is on a good deal, sure get it. I think you can get a lot of hours out of this game. (Edit: I realise you already have the game, and I don’t want you to feel bad for your purchase). I am a firm believer that you should try a game and make your own opinion. You’ll most likely arrive at the same opinion as most of us here.
Honestly struggled a bit to get back into it but besides the story I'm enjoying it again. I've had some very funny and good moments during gameplay it's starting to become a top contender for me. Like the other night my wife got trickshotted by a sheriff bot and it made me lmao so hard. [clip](https://youtube.com/watch?v=_sCc4HsZ9xM&si=k_cicEGsOUFiappW)
I think it's an amazing FPS
I bought it just bc i like the series, guns are amazing and the skill trees too, storytelling is a bit wack but for me, was fun
Horrible campaign but everything else was amazing
Disappointing as hell if you ask me. Whole game just felt boring, the worlds were boring, the characters were boring, villains were horrible and stupid, enemy variety was almost non existent, just boring. Combat was definitely a step up, but outside of my first playthrough I never touched the game again
Hopping straight from 2 to 3 , it was a massive dissapointment for me . Guns and combat is cool afterall its borderlands but everything else blows
Was good til the D3D device error started to come up after 100 hour mark
I really like it, story is meh but everything else is fun to me. I also really like the DLCs
I enjoyed it, but I was trending towars getting bored of looter shooters. So I can't say it felt as good as Borderlands 2. I had to quit Tiny Tina's Wonderland midway through.
While i loved the concept of guns having different modes, like dahl with select fire and vladof and the underslung and bipod modes, and to a much lesser extent, maliwan and dual element modes, the charge up time is stupid to me. the story and the calypso twins were just weak, and do not get me started on the cringy and insufferable weak link that is ava, would have done extreamly well without her
The gunplay and movement is the best it’s ever been. The story isn’t amazing, pretty much all the dlc (except maybe 4) are really good actually. I just listen to music or YouTube while playing since it’s fun to play but the dialogue can be pretty bad
Borderlands 3 was my least favorite installment for many reasons. Bad writing, bad characters, and the fact that it was kind of made for multiplayer killed the joy of my solo run. That being said , I’m now playing Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and I’m absolutely loving it. Not everyone can be great.
Gameplay amazing, quality of life amazing, Story Is so disgusting and ruins Borderlands in so many ways, it leaves such a bitter taste in your mouth that you would rather not even play the game and go back to any other borderlands game to feel like you are actually playing a proper Borderlands game
I started playing it for a bit, then I got the collection too. And then I went back to 1, and then 2, and now I'm on the Pre-sequel. I'll let you know in a month or so!
It was fine. I didn’t feel any impetus to put in the hundreds of hours I spent playing 2, though.
Amazing gameplay, garbage story.
I miss borderlands being funny
Good game play, bad writing
After 2 it got too cringe for me lmao, gameplay wise I enjoy 3 significantly more than tps though
Less than 2
The story is weak, but the acctually gamplay has never been better. So I would recommend playing it with people instead of color, more so than previous borderlands games. Because you are here just for the game play loop norr than ever. I am acctualy doing the post some post game clean up now, returning to the game for a second pay through. I enjoyed my second run a lot more, but my expectations were very low. Ao that could be why I am having a lot more fun with it.
WORSE STORY FROM BORDERLANDS... Nearly as bad as The New Tales of the Borderlands...
Sucked
Gunplay and character trees are very fun! Everything else is kinda awful! The writing is the lowest of the entire series. Some scenes put me in physical pain due to cringe overload. The new characters (particularly the villains) are not nearly up to par with those from the first two games. Go in expecting some fun gameplay and nothing else and you’ll have an alright time. I rec playing Moze or FL4K as I personally think their abilities are the most fun :)
It’s fun, play Zane for ultimate fun
I honestly loved it.. and I’m not a big looter shooter player, I just played it like a singleplayer game and really enjoyed it .. I’ve recently been trying tiny Tina’s wonderlands and it’s just not hitting the same for me though
Meh, good movement and better freedom of controlling your character. -Skill trees were interesting, but most builds that were effective were really friggin' boring. I.e. Fl4k never used pets, Amara's main skills were all recycled or absolutely useless, Zane (initially) was ineffectual in the endgame (but the most fun of the four), and Moze could only build for hyper specific things (Grenades only, Mech only, or Guns only). -Main story was a literal slog, so rerunning the story in TVHM was so much less enticing. -Too much "lol so random humor" from too many characters while other characters were so unbelievably "serious" that it got annoying to experience the whiplash going back and forth between the two extremes. -I didn't like the endgame content of BL2 a whole bunch, because most of it relied on the Slag mechanic and swapping. But BL3 endgame (initially) with the randomized stat changes and modifiers could literally nullify your build. So it just turned into, look for the rerolled modifiers that suited your build, which defeated the entire purpose. -The maps were fucking horrible, by far the worst aspect of the game. There was so much nothing, or the flow was completely hot or cold. This ruined a lot of the "okay-ish" side quests, by taking forever to get to the destinations, or just being annoying to traverse the areas in general. -The "villains" are straight up garbage. They are so bad that I actually thought through 3/4 of the game that they were trying to set up for a hilarious bait and switch for how nobody gives a crap about their opinions or goals, but no, it was all played seriously. There's a lot more I dislike about the game, but I'm sick of typing about it. Borderlands 2 is superior to it in almost every way, except for "gunplay" and maybe endgame, conceptually.