Borderlands 4 and the Timekeeper Tango: Loot, Lore, and Lunacy
Crash-landing onto the fractured planet of Kairos, Borderlands 4 wastes no time unleashing its signature cocktail of cel-shaded carnage and chaotic charm. This latest looter-shooter epic invites Vault Hunters to defy a tyrannical Timekeeper, rally rebel factions, and hoard alien tech with gleeful abandon. From grappling hooks to gravity-defying gunplay, every moment in Borderlands 4 feels like a neon-drenched sprint through madness. We dove deep into its seamless world to uncover whether the mayhem still hits like a critical headshot or misfires into mediocrity.
Borderlands 4 Review Pros
- Fantastic cel-shaded graphics.
- Download size.
- Platinum trophy.
- Shift integration, where you can update your name, redeem codes for keys, and look at reward history.
- Graphics preset – performance or quality.
- Accessibility options – subtitles, subtitles background opacity, subtitles colour, menu text scaling, subtitles Colourblind support, subtitles text size, and force bold text option.
- Audio sliders for – master, music, sound effects, dialogue, and audio language. You can set the audio to mono, and there are nine mix presets – notch 80z, tinnitus relief targeted, tinnitus relief general, sensory comfort, misophonia relief, hyperacusis relief, ear fatigue reduction, bass reduction vestibular, and none.
- Colour options – high contrast HUD, high contrast reticule, friendly reticule colour, enemy reticule colour, and neutral reticule colour.
- Gameplay options – radar display can be set to radar or compass, reticule position can be set to centred or offset, and gore can be censored.
- Network settings – character switch prompts, shift profile visibility, favourite friends notifications, voice chat, voice chat volume, hide local names, and hide friends’ names.
- HUD calibration screen to line it all up.
- Brightness slider.
- Splitscreen Co op support, and you can set the orientation to horizontal or vertical.
- General settings – map zoom speed, vibration, enable adaptive triggers, and screen shake intensity slider. Show menu tutorials, hide tutorials, compass vertical indicators, and ECHO location path visibility duration. All tutorials can be reset individually.
- Movement options – toggle crouch, toggle sprint, enable dash, camera head bob, grapple view tilt, and mantle with forward.
- Aiming options – toggle ADS, ADS snap to target, aim assist, and aim recentering.
- Cursor settings – cursor speed, Invert X and Y axis, cursor friction, and cursor idle pulse.
- Camera settings – Invert axis and sensitivity sliders, Invert forward movement and strafe movement, Deadzone sliders for each stick, and toggle glide.
- Controller settings – stick and driving presets (default/southpaw/old school/old school southpaw), and you can remap the controls.
- Dialogue sliders for – player voice, player efforts, player callouts, combat voice and Claptrap.
- Sound effect sliders for – players’ weapon trims, Explosions trim, user interface trim, outgoing damage trim, incoming damage trim, and mute hit marker.
- Music sliders for – menu music, game music, cinematic music volume, and boss music trim.
- Speaker identity on/off, and speaker identity colour.
- First-person looter shooter gameplay.
- Tutorial pop-ups as you play.
- Three game difficulties – Easy, Normal and Hard. This affects damage taken, loot rarities, etc.
- Party privacy – friends only, invite only, public, and local only.
- Excellent voice work.
- In-game cutscenes and character interactions, along with a few cartoon-like set pieces.
- Four all-new characters and classes to play as – Vex the Siren, Amin the Forge Knight, Rafa the Exo Soldier, and Harlowe the Gravitar.
- You can skip the cutscenes and click through conversations.
- Echo 4 is your flying robotic counterpart and will fly around with you. He can alert you to points of interest and drop down a trail for you to follow to destinations.
- Do-Over devices are where you respawn after you die and pay a fee.
- EXP pops up as you earn it.
- A full, glorious 3D world.
- The map uncovers as you explore and fills in with points of interest.
- Repair kits are assigned to the d-pad and can heal you quickly. This is a huge deal, as the previous games relied only on picking up heal kits.
- Anything that can be looted (and there’s a lot of it) will show a green light on it.
- Loot outside of gear and weapons is automatically picked up if needed, so things like money and ammo.
- Play how you want and do as you please. You only get locked into something when on a mission.
- Main story missions and many, many optional side missions to find and trigger.
- Full mission management system, and you choose what to track.
- Weapons and gear will show stats, use green and red text to denote good or bad on a pop-up before you pick it up. You can pick up and store or pick up and equip guns there and then.
- Customisation screen for weapons, Echo 4, and your character for each part – head, body, and style, then you can colour them.
- All new, easier to read menu system, and the load out screens in particular are a lot better.
- Each character has 3 of their own unique skill actions, and you can select which one to equip and use the skill tree associated with it.
- Use your hook to grab small explosive barrels and then throw them at enemies.
- Safe houses can be found. Find and insert the data key card to take it over. When you own it, it installs vending machines, is a fast travel point, and can increase your inventory storage.
- Glide is a new action for every character, so you can fly a little bit and get over huge drops.
- The handling of the guns is massively improved and rather impressive. Every gun feels unique, but they handle really well and have a satisfying kill marker noise.
- You can climb certain walls and use your hook to help give the world a lot more verticality.
- Handy mission markers show up on the screen when close, but show up on the compass when far. The compass also shows enemies.
- All enemies show a health bar, and any hits like critical will bang up the text.
- Many explosive barrel types and gun ammo types like kinetic, corrosive, fire, etc.
- You can pause the game in single player.
- Dopamine-fuelled level-up notifications.
- Earn exp and level up to increase stats, unlock new abilities, and get skill points.
- Take on optional side missions like – acquire, bounty, and Patrol. They will show the difficulties and rewards before you take them on.
- Buy and sell at vending machines. A nice new feature is that you can now sell all unequipped items in one go!
- Find Silos in the world to get possible key fragments and other rewards.
- Echo logs are audio logs giving back story or fun little anecdotes.
- Open world, and you can actually go wherever you want when you want.
- Unlock a hyper bike vehicle that can shoot missiles and machine guns. It’s not particularly strong, but it does get you somewhere fast. You can spawn it on command.
- World bosses will randomly appear and are in their own boss bubble. They are huge encounters, but give loads of loot and rewards.
- Press up on the d-pad to do a scan of the area and get icons for loot and points of interest.
- Even after being heavily fatigued with the series, this is the shot in the arm it needed, and for me, I found it a game I wanted to keep coming back to.
- Puzzle elements are scattered around the world and are usually self-contained within an area.
Borderlands 4 Review Cons
- Text scale gets a warning that it improves readability, but it can mean text will override itself and make a mess of bunched-up text.
- A lot of settings to go through, I mean, it’s a good thing, but man, I always felt like I missed something.
- Claptrap is still just as annoying!
- Getting knocked out of a boss bubble is almost instantly a fail or a boss health reset, and it’s really annoying.
- Nailing down how to read the radar and signs for finding key fragments is so tricky and not straightforward.
- At times, the verticality can be the enemy, as it’s hard to distinguish which level the item or point is on.
- Too many times, I would have a sequence bug out, and I had to reset the area in order to try again, or I would have sections where a door or switch wouldn’t activate.
- A lot of bullet sponge sequences.
Related Post: Borderlands 3 Ultimate Edition Review (Nintendo Switch OLED)
Borderlands 4
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K
Store Link:
Borderlands 4 Review
Summary
Borderlands 4 – The Thrills and Highlights of Gameplay:
Borderlands 4 drops you straight into the fractured chaos of Kairos, where looter-shooter madness meets vertical gunplay and grappling hook acrobatics. You’ve got four fresh Vault Hunters: Vex, Amin, Rafa, and Harlowe, each packing three unique skill actions and a glide mechanic that lets you soar past the usual terrain traps. Combat is slick, responsive, and finally feels like every weapon matters. Explosive barrels can be snatched and lobbed mid-fight, safe houses double as fast travel and vending hubs, and Echo 4 keeps you on track with trails and alerts. Loot glows green, EXP pops like dopamine, and the world bosses drop fat stacks of gear. It’s open-world mayhem with actual freedom to go anywhere, do anything, and only lock into missions when you choose. From puzzle zones to hyper bikes with missile launchers, Borderlands 4 finally nails the “play your way” promise.
Borderlands 4 – Where It Falls Short: Key Negatives:
Despite the polish, Borderlands 4 still stumbles in a few places. The radar and key fragment signs are a nightmare to decode, and verticality, while cool, can be a pain when trying to figure out what level loot or objectives are hiding on. Boss bubbles are brutal; get knocked out, and it’s either a fail or a full health reset. Text scaling can glitch menus into unreadable messes, and the sheer number of settings feels like a rabbit hole you’ll never fully explore. Oh, and Claptrap? Still a grating presence. Bullet sponge enemies drag out fights, and some UI elements feel like they’re fighting you more than helping.
Borderlands 4 – Immersive Story and Narrative Elements:
The Timekeeper Tango sets the stage for a rebellion-fueled sprint through Kairos, with rebel factions, alien tech, and a tyrant to topple. Echo logs scatter lore and weird anecdotes across the map, while cutscenes and character interactions add weight to the chaos. You can skip or click through dialogue if you’re in speedrun mode, but the voice work is top-tier and the cartoon set pieces land with flair. It’s a story that doesn’t just lean on humour; it builds tension, stakes, and actual narrative momentum. Borderlands 4 finally treats its plot like more than a punchline.
Borderlands 4 – Visual and Performance Aspects:
Cel-shaded carnage has never looked sharper. Borderlands 4 offers performance and quality presets, a full 3D world with vertical traversal, and a HUD that’s finally readable. Accessibility is king here, with audio sliders, colourblind support, subtitle tweaks, and even tinnitus relief presets. Guns handle like a dream, with satisfying kill markers and distinct feedback across ammo types. Splitscreen co-op is back, and you can even flip orientation. From adaptive triggers to camera deadzone sliders, it’s a shooter that respects your setup and lets you fine-tune every twitch.
Borderlands 4 – Overall Verdict: Is It Worth Playing?:
Borderlands 4 isn’t just another loot grind; it’s a full evolution. The childish humour hasn’t vanished, but it’s been tempered by a more serious tone, smarter mechanics, and a world that finally feels alive. It’s a looter-shooter that’s grown up, ditched the forced gags, and embraced actual gameplay depth. Whether you’re chasing platinum trophies or just want to throw barrels at bandits, Borderlands 4 delivers chaos with clarity. It’s the most refined entry yet and proof that the series can mature without losing its soul.
Back of the Box Quotes:
“Borderlands 4: Where looter-shooter lunacy finally gets serious.”
