Another great game held back by optimization issues.
By Ameer Ammar
I've just gotten done with the first region of Borderlands 4 and so far this game has really surprised me, after feeling completely let-down by Borderlands 3 especially with its writing that overall dragged down even its great gameplay, I had little hope for BL4 to be able to pull back and make a story that at the very least took itself seriously and I am so glad to be wrong. Borderlands 4's story takes itself fully seriously while having jokes that are actually funny and placed at appropiate points, characters take their dire situation fully seriously while still having moments of humor that land completely, I've laughed more at Borderlands 4 in the first 9 hours than I did the entirity of BL3, Your Vault Hunter actively partakes in cutscenes now which is an awesome addition and some dialogue even changes depending on who you're playing, there's also an awesome heist side quest you can undertake that I highly recommend doing early on, if that one side quest is indicative of the quality of side quests for the entire game then they have really nailed it and I am hoping they all are at least as good as that.
As for the gameplay, Borderlands 3 already had fantastic gameplay and BL4 builds upon that with extremely satisfying gunplay, series signature weapons and of course the new Vault Hunters, none of the Vault Hunters in BL3 really spoke to me so I was surprised that Vex, the first VH I picked has been a blast to play, going with an Incarnate build its really awesome to have a Siren again that is more active can be extremely active in combat as a front-liner.
One of the biggest additions is that Borderlands 4 utilizes advanced movement, now on top of double jumping you can dash in four directions, glide and use a grapple hook, the grapple hook is a bit disappointing in that its only for traversal and only used at specific points rather than freely but being able to dash makes a massive difference, encounters here with my specific build geniunely feel like Doom Eternal more than anything else, constantly dashing and dodging attacks while getting up in enemies faces, it's really great stuff and the most fun I've had with Borderlands since 2.
Unfortunately all of this is dragged down by what can only be described as completely cooked optimization, as evident by the current Steam reviews the game is optimized extremely poorly and on PS5 Pro where I'm playing, it isn't much better neither, often dropping to 40-45 fps during boss fights and driving around, with consistent traversal stutters and really low rendering resolution, it is also completely lacking a PS5 Pro enhancement which is super strange. none of this is helped by the fact that Borderlands 4 lacks a motion blur setting or FOV setting on console, they have addressed that they are looking into adding the latter soon but its important to note that the current default FOV is equivelant to aiming down sights in other games, if you have any motion sickness then completely avoid this game until its fixed.
Overall I am really enjoying Borderlands 4 so far, but its optimization difficulties 100% need addressing and I am hoping Gearbox can quickly patch this game to run better as otherwise, this is the best Borderlands experience since BL2 and feels like the sequel to that game that I've been waiting for so long.