I’m not sure if I’ve even talked about it on the blog but I’ve been having a go with Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition, which is I guess some kind of re-master. I’ve never really gotten into Borderlands games, partly because they seem mostly intended for co-op play and partly because the Gearbox sense of humor isn’t really my thing. But after spending a few weeks primarily playing MMOs I was just in the mood for something kind of mindless that involved shooting stuff and I had BL:GotY in my Steam library so I picked that. I know someone who works at Gearbox so I always feel a slight tingle of guilt over not playing their games!

I made it about 14 hours in, and got level 24 or so, and into the 4th area, but I think I may be done. I mean, it did exactly what I was looking for: gave me lots of baddies to shoot without having to go research anything about builds or look anything up. OK I lie, I was struggling to find one hidden item and I looked THAT up, but basically it was just ‘boot up and play’ for a dozen hours.

To be clear this is a lot longer than I’ve played any of the Borderlands games and I’ve at least tried almost all of them (maybe not the Pre-Sequel one) so that’s a win, and I’m not quitting out of any real disappointment with the game. I’m just a little bored. And again, I think that wouldn’t be an issue if I was playing with others.

One of my issues is that the 4th area looks pretty much like the first and second and third areas, and the mobs seem about the same too, just higher level. I guess Pandora is mostly one big biome. I would’ve appreciated a little more variety, but then you have to remember that the game originally came out in 2009. Simpler times back then, eh?

But my bigger issue is the game doesn’t run very well. This version wasn’t developed by Gearbox so I’m not blaming them, but my layman’s sense is that today’s machines are just too fast for the game’s engine. It isn’t that the framerate drops; it’s more like the interface can’t keep up. For instance scrolling through inventory (done via the scroll wheel) is a real struggle. I have to be careful not to turn the wheel too quickly or everything freaks out. Speaking of turning, if I turn my character too quickly the world kind of jitters a bit (though again framerate doesn’t fluctuate) which can make me a tad woozy. There’s also some little UI annoyances like bits that seem like they can be clicked on, but in fact you need to use the keyboard to interact with them:

None of this is a deal breaker and if I didn’t have a zillion other games I’m itching to play I might stick with it for a little longer, but at this point I feel like I’ve seen what the game has to offer me, and I’ve had some fun playing, but now it is time to move on without discovering if Mordecai and Deathwing find that pesky vault. I might come back to it at some point, or more likely give Borderlands 2 another shot just to see what it offers. I have Borderlands 3 on the PS5 but have barely played it. Think I bought it on some super sale. And of course now we know Borderlands 4 is coming. Damn, that’s a lot of Borderlands-ing…