Borderlands 4

Borderlands 4 takes you to Kairos, a planet ruled by a dictator called the Timekeeper, where you join the Crimson Resistance as one of four new Vault Hunters in a seamless open world with no loading screens. On paper, this is everything fans asked for. In practice, it's Borderlands doing its best impression of a modern looter shooter while still clinging to humor that peaked in 2012. The grappling hook traversal is genuinely fun, and exploring Kairos without a single loading screen is impressive tech. But impressive tech doesn't mask the fact that the writing thinks yelling louder makes things funnier.

The gunplay is where Borderlands 4 actually delivers. The loot pool is absurd in the best way, co-op for up to four players remains the ideal way to play, and the moment-to-moment shooting feels tighter than anything Gearbox has shipped before. The Vault Hunter classes are well-differentiated, and the skill trees offer real build diversity. When you're in a groove. Running, gunning, looting. It's hard to argue this isn't a good time.

But the performance issues are inexcusable for a 2025 release. Frame drops in busy areas, texture pop-in that would embarrass a last-gen title, and co-op desync that turns boss fights into slideshows. The story stumbles into 'the impending end of the universe' territory with all the subtlety of a Torgue explosion, and the Timekeeper is a villain who thinks being quirky is a personality. Borderlands 2 had Handsome Jack. Borderlands 4 has... this.