Do I Even Like Borderlands Anymore?

Our interests often change and fade, ebbing and flowing as the years pass. The fixations you had as a teenager are likely not the same as they are now. I can’t think of a game franchise that more closely embodies this idea for me than Borderlands. The legendary post-apocalyptic series was a shooter franchise I enjoyed quite a bit when I was younger. It’s a damned good FPS series, with a fair amount of replayability in each entry. However, what makes Borderlands so synonymous with its era in gaming is the large amount of humor injected into its writing. For better or worse, this is what Borderlands is known for amongst people today, perhaps even more so than its stellar gunplay.

When a game decides to live and die by a design choice, or simply decides on a given direction at all, it will inevitably reach the "die" of that expression, with a sudden downfall eventually rearing its head. If you’ll forgive a sports analogy in this gaming piece you’re so kindly reading, I’d compare this to the rise of three-point shooting in the NBA. Sure, the pacing and game flow are better, statistically and from the eye test alone, the rise of three-point shooting dominance is much more enticing than the plodding style of basketball we were subject to in the past, but once those shots stop falling, whether from an off-night or otherwise, you ‘die’ by the three.

Too Much of a Good Thing

I bring up the basketball example not to shoehorn in a reference to a sport I love (definitely not), but because Borderlands isn’t too different when you put some thought into it. When you rely heavily on subjecting the player to constant silly nonsense and time-capsule humor, eventually your jokes simply won’t land. Your audience will outgrow that phase of humor, or you’ll go overboard to a point where it is utterly grating to hear.

Borderlands did accomplish action-comedy quite well, at least for a while. Borderlands 2 is renowned even today for being a fantastic game of its time. That is especially miraculous when you consider how loaded the FPS and shooter market was in 2012. Dishonored, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Halo 4, Spec Ops: The Line, Far Cry 3, and even Mass Effect 3 all received releases that year, and yet Borderlands 2 remains one of its most memorable games. But then Borderlands 3 died by that focus on comedy, souring the opinion many had of the series.

Haven’t you noticed that a new Borderlands game is releasing in 2025? It seems rather muted, doesn’t it? It’s almost as if nobody cares anymore about the franchise. The awful attempt at a film adaptation certainly didn’t help, but I suppose many don’t really acknowledge that anyway. No, Borderlands 3 already damaged the franchise’s reputation before any Hollywood cash-ins could even be considered. Borderlands 3 went far overboard with humor and nonsense, needlessly killing off characters in ways that provided no driving force to the plot.

Think of it this way: Borderlands 2 is Thor: Ragnarok and Borderlands 3 is Thor: Love and Thunder. It was simply too much of something that did well, and so was destined to fail. I try my best to understand the artistic vision of the people behind these games, but I admittedly fail to see what the writing in Borderlands 3 was attempting to accomplish. It felt very out of touch with what resonated with people in 2019. 

Despite the QoL changes made to the core gameplay of Borderlands in the third entry (fourth if we’re counting the Pre-Sequel), I was so put off by the writing decisions that the game felt shallow as a result. The gameplay was better, yes, but it was not a dramatic shift forward whatsoever. I've continuously attempted to push the game’s awful plot out of my mind in some vain attempt to pretend it doesn't exist, that it's a fib and fabrication formed by the internet.

This is indeed in vain, though, for every time I think of the franchise nowadays my mind instantly goes to those awful antagonists in the form of the Calypso Twins, whose humor felt outdated by at least 3-4 years even in 2019. That’s a problem. I’m sure many feel similarly. Your franchise now invokes that memory for many, and it fuels the kind of numbed reactions to Borderlands 4 we’ve seen thus far. Personally, I reacted to Borderlands 4’s announcement almost negatively. Why should I go back to this series? I simply don’t trust Gearbox anymore to deliver something of substance, and why would I?

It begs the question, actually...

Do I Even Like Borderlands Anymore?

This is a terrible feeling to have. It's as if happy memories were stripped from my brain, or forgotten in the wind. I’d compare it, honestly, to my feelings around Overwatch. I grinded Overwatch so hard from 2016 through late 2019 that I must refrain from writing my hours placed into the game here for fear of embarrassment. Once the game became stale, though, I suddenly saw my friends become disinterested and unenthused. They moved on. I tried to hold on, I really did, for quite a while longer, and when Overwatch 2 released, I gave it a fair shake! Though try as I might… I don’t love Overwatch anymore. Overwatch 2 has improved recently with the addition of Perks and the Stadium mode, but I cannot bring myself to play it. Talking about it even, if you'll forgive the hyperbole, feels like stirring up memories of an estranged ex. It was such a significant portion of my life, after all.

What immediately struck me about Borderlands 1, not long after you begin doing missions in Fyrestone, was how utterly lonely it feels.

I feel similarly about Borderlands as a franchise. All of my memories of it feel hollow, scattered in ruins of joyful moments that are so far out of reach. My memories of Borderlands are akin to crumpled paper balls in a waste basket. I asked myself, “Do I even like Borderlands anymore?” I had to know, so it was time to venture there again. I went all the way back to 2009, to the original entry of the series, in hopes of finding some semblance of the enjoyment Borderlands once gave me.

It’s been a long time since I replayed the original Borderlands. It was released at a time when the younger version of myself was preoccupied with many bigger, more popular games. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Grand Theft Auto IV’s DLC, The Sims 3, and even Minecraft captured my attention at the time, so I never really went back to Borderlands. There were so many fantastic games you could get lost in at the time (2010 and 2011 in particular) that once Borderlands even crossed my mind again, the sequel had already been released. So, I figured it time to give it the fair shake it deserves in 2025.

Revisiting the Loneliness of Pandora

What immediately struck me about Borderlands 1, not long after you begin doing missions in Fyrestone, was how utterly lonely it feels.

Is this partially due to playing this game solo? Perhaps, to some extent, but I believe the tone Borderlands 1 presents is starkly more intriguing compared to later entries in the series. Despite the inherent silliness of the small number of characters you’re introduced to, the game invokes a sense of loneliness that is hard to describe. When I’m walking around the desolate wastes of Pandora, I really get this almost melancholic feeling, or perhaps not quite that, but rather an overbearingly noticeable and longing sense of unease. There was something here that is no longer here. If I were playing a game such as Journey or even Fallout, this feeling would be a more apt description, I suppose. For Borderlands, it took me off guard, and I genuinely needed time to figure out what this feeling was.

I did eventually put my finger on it. In terms of tone, structure, and emptiness, Borderlands 1 feels much like a dead MMO. 

It’s in the way quests are handled, for instance. NPCs don’t really have anything to say to you when handing out quests beyond a few generic lines. Towns in the game feel empty and barren. Fyrestone, in particular, doesn’t have a soul in sight beyond Ned and Claptrap. Even when Marcus opens his shop in Fyrestone, you never actually see him there either. There’s nothing in the explorable areas of any significance, importance, or intrigue beyond enemies and loot. Though their design structuring may vary, all the explorable areas have the exact same desolate aesthetic and often blur together while running around Pandora.

The lack of dialogue means that any semblance of plot you’re getting requires you to listen to the few lines of dialogue you do get, and to actually read the quest logs in the tab where they’re found. Not that the game’s plot is too interesting anyway; the game doesn’t really have an antagonist for most of its playtime and only drops one on you in the final 2 hours or so, and it turns out to be the owner of a voice you've heard only once before. I’m keeping this spoiler-free, so I cannot get into it further, but believe me, there’s not much to talk about here as it is. 

Oddly, I actually enjoy that sense of loneliness. The dead MMO feeling is almost a novelty. There’s no antagonist calling you at random intervals to deliver empty and unintimidating threats. Any dialogue from NPCs feels like a rare treat rather than commonplace background noise. More importantly, that criminally underrated original soundtrack gets to shine through here. The soundtrack in Borderlands 1 reminded me quite heavily of the nostalgia I have for the early entries of Fallout, the isometric games by Interplay Entertainment.

We have to remember that Borderlands really cemented the identity of the looter-shooter genre.

The soundtrack is perfect for a desolate wasteland setting, with a dark and gritty undertone. It gets the tone perfectly too, switching to more rock-based tracks whenever you’re engaging in combat. It’s a soundtrack that really works and fits exceedingly well within the game! With how barren the world of Pandora feels, the soundtrack really accentuates those feelings of loneliness.

What also shines is the core gameplay. It speaks a lot to the series as a whole when I say that they really nailed what the formula should be, right off the bat. The gunplay is simply fantastic; punchy and satisfying in all the right ways, while also being perfectly paced. Each weapon class feels viable and like something you can build around. The different weapon brands having their unique quirks is such a small but really cool piece of worldbuilding.

For example, weapons from X brand tend to function X way, which is really cool! Although many may critique the visual chaos of damage numbers popping up all over the screen when dealing damage, I don’t find it to be particularly intrusive. Once you have a really good build set in stone and are aware of what weapons your class is geared towards, seeing the damage numbers pop as you melt down enemy health bars is worthy of a chef’s kiss. 

We have to remember that Borderlands really cemented the identity of the looter-shooter genre. Yes, there were some games prior that were shooter-based Action-RPGs, but the concept of a looter-shooter wasn’t really crafted together until Borderlands came onto the scene. Even as of 2025, when I think of looter-shooters as a subgenre of shooters, I think of Borderlands, as I’m sure many people do.

That feedback loop of each area filled with enemies and tons of lootable boxes for ammo and guns is fantastic and simply a joy to play. Personally, I really loved the Double Anarchy SMG’s raw damage output combined with the Class Mod for my Siren that upped its damage by 44%. With those in hand, enemies just melted before me.

I’m grateful the core gameplay of Borderlands is so good even today, because the game has many issues otherwise. One such example is that the vehicular combat leaves much to be desired. It feels geared more towards co-op players, as if there was no consideration made for how solo players would use the vehicles. If playing solo, you’ll have to park your ride at certain points in order to hop into the gunner seat to fire the vehicle's turret, leaving you open and vulnerable to enemy attacks. It’s a mind-boggling gameplay decision, only amplified when you get to the missions that require you to do vehicular combat. Although I’m sure it’s fun in co-op, it doesn't translate well to single-player.

The game is also a bit of a technical mess at times. While aiming, I’d have these odd, hard swings to the left or right, as if someone suddenly turned my Aim Assist up to 200. Certain side quests were straight-up bugged and required a restart. It’s rather telling when even the Enhanced GOTY edition of the game is having technical issues, chief among them a memory leak, much like Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. If you do not restart the game every two hours or so, the frame rate will plummet. I found this out firsthand when my 120+ fps on Ultra suddenly tanked down to 20-50 fps during an extended play session, and remained there even when I adjusted the settings to Medium.

If I had known this going in, I wouldn’t have bothered with the ‘Enhanced’ edition. I’m not sure why this hasn’t ever been acknowledged by Gearbox or even straight-up fixed with how severe the issue is. In terms of general gameplay, I also noticed AI behavior for enemies was poor, with enemies often getting stuck on objects. Enemies will sometimes not notice you approaching and simply stand around aimlessly. Many enemies have generally poor pathing; I recall one particular enemy attempting to phase into its cover and repeatedly getting stuck in the animation as a result, causing it to jitter up and down. A few of the game’s bosses feel as if they don’t even attack or hit you, not that they’re much of a challenge anyway. It’s common for enemies and the player to get stuck on random pieces of the environment.

That’s a lot of technical issues, I know. If I were reviewing the Enhanced GOTY edition of the game specifically, I would give all of that more flak for how much of a mess it is at times. But, to be fair, it is playable so long as you dodge around that memory leak. However, I’m reviewing and looking at the original Borderlands from 2009 here. Even if some of these issues are inherited from the original, I do like cutting slack when it comes to older games. And to my knowledge, the memory leak, which is the biggest issue, seems to be exclusive to the Enhanced GOTY edition.

Borderlands, as the sum of its parts, unfortunately, doesn’t do enough overall to be particularly mind-blowing. I quite enjoyed replaying it, and it’s a great game, but it’s not something that you’ll find all that memorable. This is largely due to that barren loneliness of it; while I personally like how barren it feels, I don’t think that sense was entirely intentional. If the consoles at the time were capable of it, perhaps those NPCs in towns wouldn’t be so static in place. Maybe if they had more of a budget, they wouldn’t have to skimp on voice acting throughout the game.

I believe this is the case because of the game's various DLC, where Gearbox unfurled their wings and seemed able to make more of the game they intended. It’s a weird conundrum, isn’t it? One of the key things I loved about this game was most likely unintentional, so how much credit does that aspect deserve? To me, it's still worthy of credit because that’s the game they shipped, and it's what I ended up playing.

New Content or More of the Same?

There are four DLCs for the original Borderlands: DLC 1 is The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned; DLC 2 is Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot; DLC 3 is The Secret Armory of General Knoxx; and DLC 4 is Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution. DLC 1 was released on October 15, 2009, close to Halloween. The last DLC was released in August 2010. They’re intriguing because you can witness Gearbox slowly evolving the game into what their vision truly was, which was later fully realized in Borderlands 2.

The first DLC is delightful! The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned is, as expected,d a zombie-centric DLC, and it's a lovely little time. However, I wanted it to be a little better than it actually ended up being. It has a whimsically spooky aesthetic, which is a very refreshing shift from the plain wastelands of the rest of Pandora. It respects your time and has the expected amount of missions for a DLC, with a final boss at the end. The plot is lacking, but aside from that, it's all I reasonably ask for or expect from a DLC.

My real issue with The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned is the amount of enemy spam. I get the idea behind it; they’re zombies, after all, so they should indeed appear in hordes. But with how quickly enemies respawn, the DLC soon becomes taxing to play. By that point, my guns were quickly cutting through enemies like butter, especially being overleveled after completing the main game’s storyline and side quests. The enemy spam wasn’t challenging or difficult in any way; it was merely annoying. There were these raven-like enemies called ‘Corpse-Eaters’ that attacked in really large hordes, and were so abundant that they dropped the frame rate whenever they were attacking me. I thought the little spooky enemy swaps were cute, though, such as the “WereSkag” or the “Skellerakk”. But, ultimately, it's the enemy spam that is the bane of this mostly ‘fine’ DLC. 

I’d love to go over DLC 2, Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot, but I unfortunately cannot. For some reason, this DLC is completely bugged for me, and I can’t even play it. After the intro cutscene, I didn’t see Moxxi or any other prompt to start the DLC. All the exits from the Underdome are red and locked, meaning I can't exit through them. I figured I’d come back to this later to see if it fixed itself, but after doing the entirety of DLC 3, I came back to find the same issue. It’s very unfortunate, but from what I remember of this DLC, it isn’t much more than a glorified arena mode. That’s not really a bad thing in and of itself, but it's not really interesting either.

I find both the 3rd and 4th DLCs to be most fascinating, because they feel as if they’re the missing link between Borderlands 1 and 2. Considering the sequel's absence of a lot of the slapstick and humorous dialogue in the vanilla Borderlands 1, I grew curious to see where Gearbox shifted the tone to what we experience in Borderlands 2. The Secret Armory of General Knoxx is where we see the start of this. The antagonist will call you and taunt you. The jokes are more abundant (although many don't land for me, personally), and the NPCs actually talk much more than they do in the vanilla game. 

What I’m looking for in a DLC is some variation from the base game in terms of aesthetic, gameplay, or enemies.

Unfortunately, DLC 3 is bogged down by large swaths of highway roads, which are very linear driving segments separating the small number of playable areas. These sections are incredibly dull, especially since you’ll be forced to go back and forth along them several times throughout the DLC’s story. It gives you a new vehicle called the “Monster”, with the intention of helping you blow up the cars and drones that attack you along these roads, but the Monster has the armor of a paper plane. You’ll take much more damage than expected, making it more practical to just drive past many of the threats on these highways with the aptly named “Racer” vehicle you eventually gain access to.

The highways all have military checkpoints that you can (and sometimes have to) clear out for loot. The 3rd DLC doesn’t really do much beyond that, even with its storyline. If it had fast travel points that allow you to bypass these highways, I’d enjoy it much more, but for some reason, Gearbox became really stingy with fast traveling in these DLC areas, and the only one you’ll find is in the hub area where you first arrive. I thought The Secret Armory of General Knoxx would have the most potential based on first impressions, but I was ultimately disappointed. 

DLC 4, then, is centered around Claptrap and is somewhat of a collage of the first and third DLCs, design-wise. It maintains the Borderlands 2-like humor and silliness of DLC 3, but is on a much smaller scale like DLC 1, with an even shorter set of missions. There’s really not much to say about Claptrap’s Robot Revolution, unfortunately. You kinda get the gist of what it’s going to be within the first 2 hours. If you love Claptrap, you’ll love this one, but overall, it's just fine, no better or worse than DLC 1.

I was left really disappointed by these four pieces of content. What I’m looking for in a DLC is some variation from the base game in terms of aesthetic, gameplay, or enemies. Fallout 3 does this really well; The Pitt, Point Lookout, Mothership Zeta, and Operation Anchorage feel significantly different from the base game, which makes them feel very fresh to play. They somehow take Fallout 3’s formula and expand on it in a very creative way, which is thrilling and intriguing when it comes to gameplay.

DLC 1 of Borderlands 1 has a nice, new aesthetic but reuses a lot of enemies, while DLC 3 reuses the vanilla game’s barren aesthetic. DLC 4 does both, although it does feature the addition of an annoyingly winding cave early on as well. None of these DLCs do anything to shake up the core gameplay of Borderlands 1. I’m not asking to drastically shift the way the game plays, but rather for a change-up of the structure, make things more linear, or put me in a unique situation. Don’t plop me into three hub areas back to back and have me go outwards from that hub area for each mission. It’s simply not fun after playing the vanilla game for so long.

It Was Fun, But...

Although the core Borderlands gameplay is fun, there is only so much of it one can reasonably take. By the time I was nearing the end of DLC 4, I found myself desperately wanting to move on from Borderlands 1. I contemplated the idea of whether or not I was burned out, since I was admittedly grinding the game. But when I took a break and returned, I still wished for it all to be over.

Look, I love doing side quests in games. I love becoming overpowered as long as it's earned, and grinding outside quests is part of that. While I did all of the side quests for the first DLC, I simply couldn’t bear the incessant highways of the third. I skipped all of them, and by the time I reached the fourth DLC, I didn’t even want to think about side quests any longer. I can’t express enough how tapped out I was. It was odd that someone like me, who is usually thorough with side content, skipped it entirely. It’s all left me very conflicted about my feelings towards Borderlands. 

I do want to insist that Borderlands 1 is a really great game, and I’m of the mind that its Metascore (84) is about dead-on. I enjoyed most of my time with it, but I’m still skeptical about whether or not I like the series as a whole. While playing the DLCs, it became clearer to me what vision Gearbox had for its games, and I was beginning to question if I enjoyed it, especially since I wasn’t really having fun towards the end of my time playing. The jokes weren’t really landing for me, but humor is subjective. I suppose to make a fair assessment, I’ll have to go and replay the other games in the series, which I intend to do. For now, though, I feel somewhat hollow having completed Borderlands 1. It's a feeling I can’t quite explain, but it certainly doesn’t feel good.

I must propose the question again to myself:

Do I Even Like Borderlands Anymore?

I genuinely don’t know how to answer that. I thought I’d be able to know after playing Borderlands 1, but now, more than ever, I’m so confused about what this series really means to me, despite enjoying most of my time with it. While I do want to replay the other games in the series, I’m not particularly looking forward to doing so. I don’t know how to answer the titular question here, and that makes me utterly sad to admit.

And yet there’s a part of me, deep down, that desires to keep re-exploring the series, in hopes of capturing that fleeting feeling I had for it once again, as if I might resurrect those memories from dust.