Whatever happened to Borderlands and why has it been so mishandled?

Even 10 years ago it wasn’t exactly cutting edge technology and it really should’ve been a proper open world game like GTA. That it wasn’t didn’t ruin anything, but it seemed obvious to everyone that Borderlands 3 would definitely have that. But it didn’t. Borderlands 3 was one of the most disappointing games I’ve ever played. Not because it was awful but because it was such a small step forward from the second one.

It still wasn’t proper open world, it looked pretty much identical to the last one, and it was nowhere near as funny. I still ended up playing it quite a bit, but nowhere near as much as before. Mostly because it was hard to keep my friends interested and Borderlands on your own is not much fun.

It was seven years between the two games and yet to look at them you’d almost think they were yearly sequels, so little did it advance anything. I know it’s not just me and my friends either. Looking at Wikipedia it seems Borderlands 2 sold more than 5 million more than Borderlands 3. But you can tell it wasn’t as popular just from how little everyone talks about it.

It’s a shame because it’s Borderlands which invented the looter shooter concept and yet nowadays everyone thinks it was Destiny. I can’t stand that game though. It takes itself so seriously and is pretty much the exact opposite of Borderlands in terms of style, which is funny for two games that are kind of trying to do the same thing.

You don’t hear much about Destiny 2 nowadays either, I guess because it’s got its fans and it’s just busy keeping them happy, rather than having any hope of getting new ones. That sounds bad but it’s still much better than Borderlands is doing.

Is it going to be another seven years before Borderlands 4? That would put it at 2026, three years from now. To be honest that sounds about right, if not a bit optimistic considering nobody in charge has ever talked about a fourth game and all we’ve had since is that weird Tiny Tina spin-off.

What would I want from a fourth game? A proper open world, obviously, but also an attempt to update the graphics as well. I’m sure they were better in 3 but they didn’t really look like it because of the cel-shading. So the developer really needs to work out a new visual trick to make them look distinctive and different.

Maybe have cel-shaded shadows moving on them or something? Borderlands can look a bit flat sometimes and I’ve seen that kind of effect before on some comic book style games.

I’d also like to see an improvement to the gunplay, which didn’t really change in 3 and is still well below Destiny 2 (I’ll admit that). More and better vehicles would be good and something to really emphasise the co-op, maybe a ship that you need everyone to pilot, like Sea Of Thieves.

Speaking of, you could put rival teams in the game as well, to liven things up. A bit like how multiplayer works in Dark Souls (or Exoprimal, which I’ve been playing a bit lately on Game Pass).

They really need to hire new script writers too, and ideally actual comedians. Borderland 3 was nothing but dad jokes and it got really cringey. There’s so much you could do with a Borderlands but it seems like it’s fading away and people are forgetting it. If they don’t hurry up with a good new game it’ll have to be a reboot, not a sequel. And that seems crazy considering a movie’s meant to be out next year.

By reader Tommy Boy

The reader’s feature does not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.