Borderlands 3 – The Death Of A Franchise

A review of the worst Borderlands game

Borderlands 3 Lilith

<div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;deals jeg&lowbar;deals&lowbar;float clearfix">&NewLine; <div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;dealsheader clearfix">&NewLine; <div class&equals;"dealstitle">&NewLine; <h3>Borderlands 3 DEALS<&sol;h3>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;storeinfo">&NewLine; <ul class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;storelist">&NewLine; <li>&NewLine; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;steampowered&period;com&sol;app&sol;397540&sol;Borderlands&lowbar;3&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" class&equals;"storename">Steam<&sol;a>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"priceinfo">&NewLine; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;steampowered&period;com&sol;app&sol;397540&sol;Borderlands&lowbar;3&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" class&equals;"price">&dollar;59&period;99<&sol;a>&NewLine; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;steampowered&period;com&sol;app&sol;397540&sol;Borderlands&lowbar;3&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" class&equals;"productlink">VIEW<&sol;a>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <&sol;li>&NewLine; <&sol;ul>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <&sol;div><p><em>Banner artwork by <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;deviantart&period;com&sol;monorirogue">MonoriRogue<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>WARNING&colon; This review contains HUGE spoilers for Borderlands 3 and other Borderlands games&period; Do not read if you don&&num;8217&semi;t want spoilers&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Thanks to my friend Kira for providing screenshots and for playing this with me&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There aren&&num;8217&semi;t words enough to describe how hyped I was for Borderlands 3&period; Borderlands is a very special franchise to me&period; It was one of the first franchises I got into after building my first proper gaming PC&period; I had put a lot of money&comma; time&comma; and effort into building that PC&period; And Borderlands symbolized not only gaming on that PC but also was something my friend Kira helped get me into&period; I associate the series mostly with spending time with my best friend&comma; laughing at stupid memes and jokes&comma; and just having a good time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;26060750&sol;Borderlands-2-screenshot&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-large wp-image-163797" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;26060750&sol;Borderlands-2-screenshot-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Borderlands 2 screenshot" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">An Obsession<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Borderlands was a game I enjoyed but Borderlands 2 <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;borderlands-2-review&sol;">was an obsession<&sol;a>&period; Having over 1000 hours in it on Steam&comma; and not counting how much I&&num;8217&semi;ve also played it on my PS Vita&comma; I can easily say that Borderlands 2 is one of my most played games since its release&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a game where I&&num;8217&semi;ve played every class&comma; mastered everything&comma; and I still wanted more&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;rampage-reviews-borderlands-pre-sequel-pc-video-review&sol;">The Pre-Sequel<&sol;a> helped fill that need for more Borderlands&comma; and I would lie if I didn&&num;8217&semi;t say I loved that game as well&period; Despite its short length and not hitting as many high notes as Borderlands 2&comma; I did enjoy it for what it was&period; It gave some insight into characters we didn&&num;8217&semi;t know much about and helped expand on Handsome Jack&&num;8217&semi;s lore&period; And truth to be told&comma; I still think Handsome Jack remains one of the best-written villains of all time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That opinion didn&&num;8217&semi;t change when Telltales released Tales From The Borderlands&period; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;laughing-vault-tales-borderlands-season-one-review&sol;">That game<&sol;a> was something else entirely&period; With its cast of characters and unique spin on the Borderlands universe&comma; I fell in love with the game for its humor&period; It was different but still very reminiscent of what we saw in the main series&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But all of this could never prepare me for what Borderlands 3 would end up being&period; After all the hype&comma; after the Handsome Jack saga had thoroughly ended&comma; I never imagined how much damage Borderlands 3 would do to the franchise&period; After having completed its main story&comma; I can say with a high degree of certainty&comma; that Borderlands 3 killed the franchise for me&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;26060954&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-39-24&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-large wp-image-163798" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;26060954&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-39-24-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Borderlands 3 Tyreen" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">The Problem With Writing<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Borderlands 3&&num;8217&semi;s main issue is its story&period; Both in its writing and presentation&comma; this has to be the worst story of the franchise&period; There is a lot to go over here&comma; so this might get a bit lengthy and spoilery&period; But bear with me&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The problems show up very soon after starting the game&period; Apparently the Crimson Raiders have just been sitting on the vault key they discovered at the end of Borderlands 2 for a while&period; So when you join them is when they suddenly decide they need a ship and traveling to other planets&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This is because of the rise of the game&&num;8217&semi;s main villains&period; Tyreen and Troy Calypso&period; Having risen to stardom through the EchoNet&comma; they have become a cult among the bandits&comma; who sees them as Gods since both are sirens&period; And how do they seek to use their powers&quest; To take over the galaxy&comma; of course&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And the villains are the weakest part of the game&comma; and honestly the source of why it&&num;8217&semi;s so bad&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t mean that as in they are effective villains&comma; I mean that as in the writing itself tries so hard to make them into legitimate villains that it comes off as contrived&period; And the satire on current streaming culture is entirely wasted since it never plays any major part in the plot&period; It only comes off as shallow&comma; never going far enough to make any actual social commentary&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;26062014&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-42-23&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone wp-image-163799 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;26062014&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-42-23-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Sirens" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">The Removal Of The Player<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>It is during the first battle with the villains you start to see the trend of the game&period; And one of the first glaring issues&period; The cutscenes are completely non-interactable&period; During any cutscene in this game&comma; the camera leaves your perspective and focuses on what&&num;8217&semi;s going on&period; The problem with this is that it effectively removes the PCs from the story and renders them entirely helpless&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the older games&comma; the story would usually take place in front of you and acknowledge your presence&period; You were a vault hunter&comma; you were integral to the story of the game&period; You were there to help the NPCs and the games acknowledged that&period; In Borderlands 3&comma; this is completely thrown out the window&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the cutscene after fighting the Calypso twins for the first time&comma; Lilith is rendered powerless&period; This is treated as if she has the life energy sucked out of her and she falls to the ground&period; She reacts by acting like she can&&num;8217&semi;t do anything now&comma; despite the fact Lilith was an extremely capable gunfighter in the first game and clearly knows how to handle a gun&period; This kind of writing persists through the entire game&comma; and it never&&num;8230&semi; NEVER EVER gets better&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And here&&num;8217&semi;s the thing&comma; if the PCs were there&comma; they wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t just stand and watch this happen&period; We would try to stop them&comma; and if the game actually acknowledged the PCs being there&comma; the story would&&num;8217&semi;ve ended there&period; The writing itself RELIES on the complete removal of the player from the story&period; It separates the story from the gameplay&comma; and only allows you to interact with it when it serves it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;26063100&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-13-48&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-large wp-image-163800" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;26063100&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-13-48-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Pop" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">The Systematic Ruining Of The Lore<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>And this is also where we see that the game has one single agenda&period; It almost seems like the people at Gearbox took the criticisms about Anthony Birch&&num;8217&semi;s writing as saying they should do everything they can to ruin his established characters&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s almost a sense of vitriol not only towards Anthony Birch&&num;8217&semi;s humor but also his established lore&period; Heck&comma; the Calypso twins feel like pale imitations of Handsome Jack&comma; ripping off his entire purpose but without any of his charisma&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Handsome Jack was a character you loved to hate&period; He was revered and popular because you could feel his charisma&period; But the Calypso twins have zero likeability to them&period; They are annoying&comma; in your face&comma; and never ever feel funny or witty in the way Jack did&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Characters in Borderlands 3 speak and act completely out of character compared to how they acted in Borderlands 1 and 2&comma; and even the other games&period; Lilith isn&&num;8217&semi;t the only siren to get rendered helpless early on&period; But she at least survives&period; Maya dies early on in the game&comma; in an extremely anticlimatic manner that almost&&num;8230&semi; no&comma; not almost&period; It TOTALLY undermines her entire character&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The only reason the Calypso twins are so powerful is not only because the player character is completely removed from any cutscene with them&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s also because the writing just says &&num;8220&semi;they can do anything&comma; so your favorite character is gonna die now&&num;8221&semi;&period; This also works the other way around though&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;26064032&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-52-47&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-large wp-image-163801" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;26064032&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-52-47-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Tannis" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">The Wrong Lead Character<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Tannis was never a character that was meant to play a major role&period; She was a side character who had some strong quirks&comma; and while she did play a major role in the events of the previous games&comma; she was never intended to be a major character&period; This is what changes in Borderlands 3&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Tannis is revealed&comma; in a way that comes completely out of leftfield&comma; to be a siren&period; Not only is she a siren now&comma; she apparently was one all along&period; And despite inheriting Angel&&num;8217&semi;s powers from the previous games&comma; she apparently can do shit that we never saw Angel do&period; None of this was ever foreshadowed in the earlier games&comma; and none of this makes any sense for her character&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The problem with Tannis&&num;8217&semi; character is she isn&&num;8217&semi;t charismatic&period; By design&comma; she&&num;8217&semi;s an Asperger&&num;8217&semi;s case that would never like herself being in the lead role&period; She prefers studying&comma; she prefers burying herself in projects&period; The way she&&num;8217&semi;s not only taking but embracing a lead role in this game makes zero sense for her character&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The only reason Tannis is given the lead role is because of Lilith taking such a backseat when it makes no sense for her to do so&period; It was where my disappointment really grew in the game&&num;8217&semi;s writing&period; Like I said&comma; it completely undermines everything set up from previous games and ignores a lot of character traits&period; It even straight up gets a lot of facts wrong which annoyed me even further&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;26065140&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-29-12&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-large wp-image-163802" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;26065140&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-29-12-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Car Jump" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Skin Deep<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Truth to be told&comma; all of the writing in Borderlands 3 is shallow&period; I won&&num;8217&semi;t deny there was a lot of stupidity and memes in the older games&comma; but under all that was heart&period; There was a lot of genuine emotion in the older games&comma; and that&&num;8217&semi;s entirely missing in this game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When Roland died&comma; it mattered&period; It had ramifications on everyone in the story&period; Hell&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s still a statue of him in Borderlands 3&comma; with Tiny Tina writing a message she misses him on the statue&period; The way his character death was treated was beautiful and served as the emotional core of Tiny Tina&&num;8217&semi;s &&num;8220&semi;Bunkers &amp&semi; Badasses&&num;8221&semi; DLC in Borderlands 2&period; It was the truth behind it all&comma; and when revealed provided an intensely emotional moment that still sticks with me to this day&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When Scooter died in Tales From The Borderlands&comma; it redeemed his entire character&period; He went from being an inbred redneck to being an inbred redneck with a huge heart&period; That entire moment was the highlight of his entire character arc&comma; a moment that will make me see his character in a different light&period; Under all his redneck gearhead jokes was a genuine heart&comma; and that&&num;8217&semi;s more than I can say about the writing in this game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But then&comma; after playing through the game&comma; and seeing it end with my favorite character from Borderlands 1 sacrificing herself&comma; after a boss fight where she went against everything in her character&comma; I felt like there was nothing left&period; Maya was dead&comma; Lilith was dead&period; And none of it felt like it made any sense or even mattered&comma; it only did because the writing was so bad that it had to rely on these moments to attempt an emotional moment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;27061721&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-52-06&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-large wp-image-163817" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;27061721&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-52-06-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"AssTrap" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Some Glimmers Of Good Writing<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>That&&num;8217&semi;s not to say that all the writing is bad&period; Most of the problems lay with the main story arc&period; But around that are glimmers of actual good writing and good characters&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A lot of the humor feels a bit more mature than Borderlands 2&period; While I was a huge fan of the humor in Borderlands 2&comma; I also feel like it could get a bit much at times&period; With Borderlands 3&comma; I felt the humor was more character-driven&period; And I&&num;8217&semi;m not gonna lie&comma; while some jokes don&&num;8217&semi;t land at all when they land they can get a pretty big laugh out of me&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And some characters are really well written&period; Typhon DeLeon is a character that you initially discover through audio logs he has left behind&period; He is a legitimately funny character that I loved listening to&comma; and when you actually meet him&comma; he just becomes even greater&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Without spoiling too much&comma; I can say he was easily one of my favorite NPCs but&&num;8230&semi; yeah&comma; he dies too&comma; which is a complete waste of his character&period; Did I mention the problem with characters just getting killed off for stupid reasons&quest; Let&&num;8217&semi;s get on to talking about what makes this game good&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;26065542&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-23-42&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-large wp-image-163803" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;26065542&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-23-42-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Borderlands 3 Enemy" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Unique Weapons And Improvements<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>With the story being the weakest aspect of the game&comma; the game at least has a saving grace&period; For the most part&comma; I would say Borderlands 3 has the best gameplay in the series&period; There is a lot to dig into here as well&comma; but unlike the story&comma; I feel most of it is great&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are a lot of quality-of-life improvements in this game that kinda makes it hard for me to go back to previous games after this&period; One major feature is being able to suck up Eridium crystals as well&comma; which in previous games you had to manually pick up&period; You also automatically suck up ammo from chests now&comma; which is another welcome feature&period; And driving over money lets you automatically pick it up as well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The combat has also seen an overhaul&period; Weapon manufacturers were made way more distinct in Borderlands 2&period; And that was one of those highlights of Borderlands 2 for me&period; But Borderlands 3 takes everything a step even further&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In Borderlands 3&comma; each manufacturer adds even more uniqueness to their products&period; For example&comma; Tediore guns now talk when you throw them out&comma; and some of them even act as turrets&period; Maliwan guns can have multiple elemental effects that you can switch between&period; Dahl weapons have multiple firing modes&period; It seems every weapon has an alternative mode you can enable&comma; which makes combat a lot more dynamic and satisfying&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Bandit weapons have been replaced by COV weapons&comma; COV &lpar;cult of the vault&rpar; being basically the bandit faction in Borderlands 3&period; These weapons kind of expand on the trend of large ammo capacity by foregoing magazines entirely&period; The downside is the guns can &&num;8220&semi;break&&num;8221&semi; which is kind of a lie&period; They don&&num;8217&semi;t break as much as this is just a typical &&num;8220&semi;overheat&&num;8221&semi; mechanic&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;27070537&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-32-45&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-large wp-image-163818" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;27070537&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-32-45-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Butt Shot" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Smooth As Butter<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>If there is one way I could describe combat in this game&comma; it would be smooth&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s fast&comma; frenetic&comma; very similar to how it played in Borderlands 2&period; But it&&num;8217&semi;s really&comma; REALLY smooth and satisfying&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You can now slide in addition to the regular moveset from older games&comma; which adds a lot of speed to the gameplay and new tactics&period; There are even mods that add elemental effects to your slide&comma; further incentivizing sliding into enemies as an attack&period; You can also slam by jumping and crouching&comma; a mechanic that debuted in The Pre-Sequel and while I am happy to see it return here&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s not something I ended up using a whole lot&period; But it&&num;8217&semi;s nice to have it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And the way all these attacks chain together&comma; the way heads explode when you shoot them&comma; the sound effects&comma; and hugely satisfying gunplay just makes this easily the most fun I&&num;8217&semi;ve had in the series in terms of gameplay alone&period; Like&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m not lying when I say this game is straight-up gun porn&period; And a lot of the legendaries I found were extremely fun to use and even ended up lasting for almost 10 levels before they became obsolete&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;27071142&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-17-25&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-large wp-image-163819" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;27071142&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-17-25-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Eridium Statue" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Vaults Of Disappointment<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The game does however have one major disappointment that I can&&num;8217&semi;t overlook&period; With all the hype about the game having more vaults to find on all these planets&comma; you visit&comma; actually finding these vaults in pretty much every case is disappointing&period; Like&comma; sure they look amazing and have great aesthetics but&&num;8230&semi; listen for a second&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The loot you find in these vaults is largely common or uncommon loot&comma; with maybe 1 or 2 rares&sol;ultra rares&period; No legendaries that we ever found and a minuscule amount of Eridium &lpar;with some vaults not even supplying ANY Eridium&rpar;&period; The rewards for getting into these vaults are so piss poor and meager that you actually get better loot just stalking Randy Pitchford on Twitter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Like&comma; I wanna stress why this is such a huge disappointment&period; In every single Borderlands game&comma; you play a vault hunter&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s not just a generic title they give you&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re in this for the vaults&period; The vaults are the sole motivator for your adventures&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So doesn&&num;8217&semi;t it pretty much go against the entire nature of why these characters are doing what they do when the vaults don&&num;8217&semi;t even feel rewarding to discover&quest; Like&&num;8230&semi; if I was a vault hunter and this shit happened&comma; I would just give up and take up something more rewarding&period; Like&comma; Typhon DeLeon gives you a gun that takes Eridium and can spew out Legendaries at will&period; THAT GUN ALONE IS MORE REWARDING THAN THE VAULTS IN A GAME REVOLVING AROUND VAULT HUNTERS&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;27072211&sol;20200925185038&lowbar;1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-large wp-image-163820" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;27072211&sol;20200925185038&lowbar;1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Borderlands 3 Vault" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">The Worst Boss Fights<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Borderlands 3 also sets another annoying trend&period; It goes way too overboard with bosses suddenly becoming immune to ANY attack&period; For no good reason other than the developers just going NOPE like that angry bratty kid during recess&comma; they decide you can&&num;8217&semi;t even harm the boss anymore during a scripted event&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This kinda plays into how much the game neuters players in this game&period; You feel immensely powerful thanks to the various gameplay mechanics&comma; but the game just arbitrarily either decides you cannot interact with the story&comma; or cannot do shit to attack the boss&period; It feels incredibly cheap&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And that&&num;8217&semi;s what makes the boss fights so frustrating&period; You know there is no good reason the boss should be immune for way too long&comma; and it only happens because the bosses are so fucking weak and easy that if the immunity wasn&&num;8217&semi;t there they would go down far too quickly&period; Though I dread to see how boss fights go when their health is boosted on True Vault Hunter Mode with added difficulty&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The boss fights are more a test of patience than any actual challenge&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m not sure how we went from something as awesome as the Ultimate Warrior in Borderlands 2 to pretty much every single boss fight in Borderlands 3 boiling down to waiting for the immunity to drop&comma; fire your guns&comma; rinse and repeat&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;27082107&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-23-42-2&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-large wp-image-163828" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;27082107&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-23-42-2-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Mouthpiece" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Vault Hunters<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The VHs themselves are a pretty solid bunch here though during my playthrough I only used Moze so for that reason I&&num;8217&semi;m only going to focus on her particular skill set&period; But it serves as an example of how the skill trees work in this game&comma; so a lot of this can apply to the other hunters as well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You have 3 different skill trees similar to previous games&period; Though unlike previous games&comma; you now also have 3 separate skills as well&period; Depending on your vault hunter&comma; this can give you either 3 different abilities&comma; or in the case of Moze affects which weapons she has installed on her Iron Bear power armor&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You can switch between these different abilities at will as well&comma; which makes speccing your VH a lot more dynamic&period; And each skill tree not only has branching skills like in the previous games that you can upgrade but also tiers that add modifiers to your existing abilities&period; In the case of Moze&comma; this means her guns can fire different ammo&period; The customization here is the deepest we&&num;8217&semi;ve ever seen in the series and I&&num;8217&semi;m not gonna lie&comma; I love it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And then there&&num;8217&semi;s the Guardian Rank system&comma; which is similar to the Badass system from Borderlands 2&period; After completing the main campaign&comma; you unlock the Guardian Ranks&comma; which is a system that lets you upgrade your core stats across all your vault hunters&comma; or even add entirely new abilities to all of them&period; Having character-wide abilities like being able to move freely in second wind&comma; or respawn from second wind with full health is amazing and I love this additional layer of skill trees&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;27073414&sol;20200926192541&lowbar;1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-large wp-image-163821" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;27073414&sol;20200926192541&lowbar;1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Guardian Ranks" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Character Customization<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Character customization is also something I love in Borderlands 3&period; You can now fully choose which colors appear on your skins&comma; each skin looks far more unique from each other than in Borderlands 2&comma; and even your guns can be customized this time around with custom skins and trinkets&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You can even customize your echo device with custom skins&comma; which is entirely pointless but cool&period; Seriously&comma; if you love customizing your vault hunter&comma; this game is excellent at supplying that&period; The Borderlands series has always been great at letting you personalize your vault hunter&comma; so seeing Borderlands 3 just run with this concept is great&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;27073736&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-28-41&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-large wp-image-163822" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;27073736&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-28-41-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Clockwork Orange" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Voice Acting Greatness<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>I also really&comma; REALLY wanna say that aside from the writing&comma; the voice acting in this game is great&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m not even gonna bother slamming any performances here&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s all really good&period; I wanna highlight that Team Fourstar of Dragonball Z Abridged fame is in this game&comma; and they all deliver solid performances&period; I was surprised by how many YouTube celebrities there were in this game&comma; though it&&num;8217&semi;s nice seeing them represented&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Truth be told&comma; the sound design as a whole is really good in this game&period; Legendaries now drop with a satisfying DING and even show up on your minimap&period; Weapons all sound as they should&comma; with no particular weapon sounding bad&period; And listening to the psycho voice lines in this game is as worthwhile as it has ever been&period; Some serious gold here&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The music is also really good&period; The track record for music in the Borderlands series has been really solid since the first game and Borderlands 3 is no exception&period; I actually found myself bopping my head to some of the tunes in this game&comma; and that&&num;8217&semi;s always a good thing&period; Heck&comma; you even have a boss fight against a boss that uses music as a weapon&comma; so the way music is sometimes integrated into the game is very cool&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;27074205&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-15-28&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-large wp-image-163823" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;27074205&sol;photo&lowbar;2019-10-20&lowbar;12-15-28-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Cult of the Vault" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Final Thoughts<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>As a whole&comma; Borderlands 3 is a great game with a terrible story&period; The story unfortunately is why I have to call this game a disappointment and the death of the Borderlands franchise for me&period; The story is way too occupied trying to be &&num;8220&semi;cool with the kids&&num;8221&semi; to feel genuine&comma; and the moments that are good aren&&num;8217&semi;t good enough to make up for the numerous pointless character deaths and the fact the player character is entirely removed from the story during cutscenes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If Borderlands 3 had more competent writing&comma; I would easily call this the best in the series&period; Hell&comma; going by gameplay merits alone I would recommend the game&period; But if any of what you&&num;8217&semi;ve read about the story deters you then at least you know what you&&num;8217&semi;re in for&period; If you have any emotional investment in the franchise like I do&comma; this game will utterly enrage you and destroy your soul&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That being said&comma; that does not account for the DLCs&period; Having played a bit of the DLCs so far&comma; I can actually say the writing in them is a lot better&period; And I remain hopeful that whatever future adventures we see in the series can repair the devastating damage done by the main campaign in this game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And this is usually where I say if I recommend a game or not&period; But I am honestly stumped here&period; Borderlands 3 is a game I both love and hate in equal measure&period; So make up your own mind here whether you should buy this or not&period; I honestly feel like this game has both the best and the worst of the Borderlands franchise&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But one thing is for sure&comma; things will never be the same&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;review&lowbar;wrap">&NewLine; <h3 class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;review&lowbar;subtitle">The Review<&sol;h3>&NewLine; <h2 class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;review&lowbar;title">&NewLine; Borderlands 3&NewLine; <&sol;h2>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;reviewheader clearfix">&NewLine; <div class&equals;"review&lowbar;score score&lowbar;avg">&NewLine; <span class&equals;"score&lowbar;value">6&period;3<&sol;span>&NewLine; <span class&equals;"score&lowbar;text">Score<&sol;span>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"desc" style&equals;''>&NewLine; <p>Borderlands 3 is a massively conflicting experience&period; The story and writing are the worst in the series&comma; with the game completely ruining everything set up in previous games with an astonishing disregard for its fanbase&period; It does also feature the best gameplay in the series&comma; with a huge amount of customization&comma; fun combat&comma; and great side characters&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;reviewdetail clearfix">&NewLine; <div class&equals;"conspros">&NewLine; <h3>PROS<&sol;h3>&NewLine; <ul><li><i class&equals;"jegicon-check"><&sol;i> Amazing combat and gameplay in general<&sol;li><li><i class&equals;"jegicon-check"><&sol;i> Huge amount of customization<&sol;li><li><i class&equals;"jegicon-check"><&sol;i> Great voice acting<&sol;li><&sol;ul>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"conspros">&NewLine; <h3>CONS<&sol;h3>&NewLine; <ul><li><i class&equals;"jegicon-cross"><&sol;i> Horrible writing with the worst written villains in the series<&sol;li><li><i class&equals;"jegicon-cross"><&sol;i> Lack of satisfying rewards for exploring the vaults<&sol;li><li><i class&equals;"jegicon-cross"><&sol;i> Kills off beloved characters without good reason<&sol;li><li><i class&equals;"jegicon-cross"><&sol;i> Too much Claptrap<&sol;li><li><i class&equals;"jegicon-cross"><&sol;i> Bosses using immunity too much<&sol;li><&sol;ul>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;reviewscore jeg&lowbar;reviewbars clearfix" data-scoretype&equals;"point">&NewLine; <h3>Review Breakdown<&sol;h3>&NewLine; <ul><li>&NewLine; <strong>Story<&sol;strong>&NewLine; <span class&equals;"reviewscore">3<&sol;span>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;reviewbar&lowbar;wrap">&NewLine; <span style&equals;"width&colon; 30&percnt;" class&equals;"barbg"><&sol;span>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <&sol;li><li>&NewLine; <strong>Gameplay<&sol;strong>&NewLine; <span class&equals;"reviewscore">7<&sol;span>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;reviewbar&lowbar;wrap">&NewLine; <span style&equals;"width&colon; 70&percnt;" class&equals;"barbg"><&sol;span>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <&sol;li><li>&NewLine; <strong>Graphics<&sol;strong>&NewLine; <span class&equals;"reviewscore">7<&sol;span>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;reviewbar&lowbar;wrap">&NewLine; <span style&equals;"width&colon; 70&percnt;" class&equals;"barbg"><&sol;span>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <&sol;li><li>&NewLine; <strong>Sound &amp&semi; Music<&sol;strong>&NewLine; <span class&equals;"reviewscore">8<&sol;span>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;reviewbar&lowbar;wrap">&NewLine; <span style&equals;"width&colon; 80&percnt;" class&equals;"barbg"><&sol;span>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <&sol;li><&sol;ul>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;deals clearfix">&NewLine; <div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;dealsheader clearfix">&NewLine; <div class&equals;"dealstitle">&NewLine; <h3>Borderlands 3 DEALS<&sol;h3>&NewLine; <p>We collect information from many stores for best price available<&sol;p>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"bestprice">&NewLine; <h4>Best Price<&sol;h4>&NewLine; <strong class&equals;"price">&dollar;59<&sol;strong>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;storeinfo">&NewLine; <ul class&equals;"jeg&lowbar;storelist">&NewLine; <li>&NewLine; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;steampowered&period;com&sol;app&sol;397540&sol;Borderlands&lowbar;3&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" class&equals;"storename">&NewLine; <img class&equals;'store-icon' src&equals;https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;01&sol;18183253&sol;steam&period;png alt&equals;'Steam'&sol;> Steam&NewLine; <&sol;a>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"priceinfo">&NewLine; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;steampowered&period;com&sol;app&sol;397540&sol;Borderlands&lowbar;3&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" class&equals;"price">&dollar;59&period;99<&sol;a>&NewLine; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;steampowered&period;com&sol;app&sol;397540&sol;Borderlands&lowbar;3&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" class&equals;"productlink">Buy Now<&sol;a>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <&sol;li>&NewLine; <&sol;ul>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine; <&sol;div>

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