Borderlands 4 evaluation – the chaotic, vibrant shooter has lastly grown up just a little | Video games

Once a video games franchise hits its fourth outing, it’s actually mature – but maturity just isn’t a phrase typically related to Borderlands, the colorful and performatively edgy looter-shooter from Texas. This sequence is characterised by a pervasive and polarising streak of distinctly adolescent humour. However in Borderlands 4, developer Gearbox has addressed that problem: it options loads of returning characters in its storyline, however this time round they’re extra world-weary and fewer annoyingly manic. Borderlands has lastly matured, to an extent. And never earlier than time.

Borderlands 4 nonetheless flings jokes at you thick and quick, and they’re nonetheless hit-or-miss, however no less than its normal humour is a little more refined than earlier than. It retains the distinctive cel-shaded graphical type and gun and ordnance-heavy gameplay that individuals have at all times beloved. Certainly, it throws much more weapons at you than any of its predecessors, and with just a little work at filtering out one of the best ones, you can see loads of absolute gems with which to tackle hordes of simple enemies and extra fascinating bosses. A good storyline emerges after the formulaic first few hours, finally sending you off on some surprising, enjoyable and generally gratifyingly surreal tangents.