Borderlands 4: PS5 Review

Developed by Gearbox
Published by 2K 
Platform: PS5

The Borderlands franchise has been long-known for its over-the-top mentality and its insanely fast looting and shooting.

This fourth entry - coming after the film version of the game massively flopped - sees you taking on the role of a Vault Haunter and transports the action to Kairos, away from the world of Pandora which has been home to much of the previous action.

Joining up with Claptrap's Crimson Resistance (a chance for the irritating robot to continue, well, irritating) the game pits you into a quest to overthrow the mysterious Timekeeper and his army of synths, as well as liberate the inhabitants of Kairos.

Moving away from Pandora's helped with the look of the game which has now brought in the looks of forests and far-away lands with their fauna, rather than the somewhat brittle and sandy lands. It's here that the colour's somewhat returned to the game - and while obviously a lot of the action is focussed on the shooting and subsequent looting, it's great to take in new environments around.

The open-world setting's also provided a blast of fresh air to Borderlands too, with different ways of getting around, plenty of options to look around and plenty of different spaces to explore generally making you feel like the gameplay's been improved from the ground up. Grappling hooks help and the smooth transition between areas does as well.

But at the end of the day, what matters among the offbeat humour, is the combat.

And it's good to report that it's lithe, responsive and has a wide range of weapons to use and bullet sponges to soak up the subsequent ammunition. Pistols, submachine guns - the list goes on and the perks that come with them are also great to play the game with.

From a chance to get a second wind if you're near death (providing you can find a victim in time) and loot being kept to one side, Borderlands 4 squarely has an ethos of going back to its roots.

But as with the franchise, you can use different Vault Hunters,  each of which comes with their own specialty skills, playstyles and skill trees.

These are Vex the Siren, Rafa the Exo-Soldier, Amon the Forgeknight, and Harlowe the Gravitar. (A new paid DLC out in early 2026 will also feature an additional playable character, C4SH the ex-casino dealer bot to ensure the game's roadmap).

A great return to form - whether solo or with friends - Borderlands 4 shows Gearbox knows what it's doing with this title - and fans can breathe a sigh of relief that by tweaking the formula, it's paid off mightily.