Tech: Borderlands 3 review

I never got into the previous Borderlands titles, but due to pandemic cabin fever, my friend and I have been playing a lot of Borderlands 3 and its DLC. It seems time for a review since we completed the latest DLC, "Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck," a week ago:

If you've never played a Borderlands game, it's a co-op looter shooter that plays a lot like a first-person Diablo. Instead of swords and shields, you're using guns and grenades, but you're still picking up color-coded loot - a lot of color-coded loot.

While the basic gunplay mechanics are the same for all characters, there are four different character classes each with unique skills and abilities. We much preferred the robotic "beastmaster" FL4K and the "operative" Zane for the wacky ways they can manipulate the battlefield: FL4k has a teleporting pet minion to wreak havoc on enemy back lines, and Zane sets up nigh-impenetrable force fields and deadly decoys.

In such a long game (40 hours per playthrough, including the DLC), there's going to be a lot of variation in the quality of the content. The base game and two of the DLCs, Moxxi's Heist of The Handsome Jackpot and Bounty of Blood were decent fun, while the Guns, Love, and Tentacles DLC was a surprisingly poignant Lovecraftian look at the fears that come before a wedding. The only dog of the bunch was Psycho Krieg, which we found to be uninteresting both in terms of gameplay mechanics and story.

Ratings: 

85/100 (base game)

85/100 (DLC 1 - Moxxi's Heist of The Handsome Jackpot)
90/100 (DLC 2 - Guns, Love, and Tentacles)

85/100 (DLC 3 - Bounty of Blood)

80/100 (DLC 4 - Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck)