Bolt into action and grab every gun
By Paul Hunter
I've spent the past week jumping into Borderlands 4 on PS5 and I'm buzzing with excitement. Gearbox takes the looter-shooter template and stretches it across Kairos, a big, fractured planet that rewards curiosity. The main hook is simple: you join the Crimson Resistance and hunt down Vaults while chasing better gear.
You pick from four Vault Hunters—Amon, Harlowe, Rafa and Vex—each with three action skills that demand active use and teamwork to shine. Combat is quicker with extra movement options and a broader set of customisation choices. Guns fall from every enemy like confetti, and alternate fire modes keep loadouts interesting.
The world is full of side missions, hidden Vaults and emergent events that make wandering feel alive. I kept calling in my mount, zipping between biomes and stopping for odd quests more often than expected. Co-op works well in split-screen or online sessions, and raid encounters give groups a real reason to coordinate.
Presentation and voice work gave many scenes a proper punch, and the variety of regions makes exploration fun. I found myself testing builds and replaying missions just to chase upgrades. Is Borderlands 4 worth your trip to Kairos on PlayStation 5 and endless amounts of loot hunting? Let’s find out!
The story in Borderlands 4 hooks you with a clean premise: a planet ruled by the Timekeeper, people controlled with Bolts, and a resistance that needs your help. I appreciated that it’s trying to tell a focused tale while keeping the laughs in check.
This time around, the humour is less shouty and more situational. I often laughed at a short, well-placed gag and then moved on without feeling pummelled by jokes. New faces like Rush, equal parts leader and gym rat, and Zadra, a quirky scientist, add personality and flavour to each scene. There are callbacks to past instalments, including of course the smart-mouthed ClapTrap, which will hit right for longtime fans.
Side missions were my favourite storytelling spots. I stumbled into a quest involving a sentient missile and another Claptrap-focused episode that surprised me with their ingenuity and wit. Those moments felt clever and sometimes sweet. There are also heists that reward you with gear and tiny tasks like dunking or praising art that add flavour to the world. Cutscenes also place you more directly in events, so you feel less like an observer and more like a participant.
The shift toward tighter writing and better-placed humour makes the story one of the game’s strengths and perhadps the series' best. It delivers character moments and side quests that stick with you. The ending could use a touch more weight, but the journey across Kairos is very rewarding.
Borderlands 4 tightens the shooting loop while widening how you move through combat spaces. Mobility additions like dash, glide, double jump and grapple change encounter design. The summonable hoverbike cuts travel time and supports fast-paced engagements. These systems let combat breathe in a larger open world.
The four Vault Hunters really change how you approach fights. Amon, a Forgeknight, favours close-range work with two elementally charged axes. Harlowe performs gravity-based damage and supplies buffs to nearby allies. Rafa operates as a nimble exo-soldier whose Arc Knives let him dash and perform melee strikes. Vex channels Siren abilities and brings familiars that can explode, distract or grow larger to control fights. Each Hunter has three action skills that form distinct build paths and encourage synergy.
Loot design remains central. Enemy and boss defeats trigger cascades of weapons, shields and consumables. Many guns include alternate modes and randomly rolled perks. Manufacturer tendencies influence available attachments, meaning you often adapt your build around a favourite brand. The ordinance slot consolidates grenades, launchers and heavy weapons into a single choice, reducing menu clutter and making them a snap to toggle to.
Progression offers extreme flexibility. You can respec at hubs for a fee, replay missions for rewards and unlock post-campaign options that let you begin a new run at a higher level. Raid-style encounters and repeatable Vaults provide end-game goals for farming top-tier gear.
Taken together, the gameplay forms a well-tuned loop: navigate with agility, select a Hunter archetype, test weapon synergies, and repeat encounters to refine a build. Personal experiments with Vex’s familiars and Rafa’s Arc Knives showed the potential for both clever combos and hectic spectacle. The endless variety of tools and loot keeps experimentation compelling even dozens of hours into the game and I'm still regularly getting surprised.
Visually, Borderlands 4 pushes the franchise’s comic-book look into its strongest showing yet. The cel-shaded style returns, but improved textures and lighting bring extra clarity to environments. Kairos shifts from dense jungle to open farmland, military bases to urban areas, and each region reads as its own place. That thrilling contrast encourages you to keep moving and to check each corner of the map.
Character models stand out. The four Vault Hunters have distinct looks and detail that really stand out during combat. Enemy design also shines: robotic troops feel cold and precise, while the Rippers’ psychos move with wild energy—one new enemy even performs a wild breakdance attack that is as odd as it is memorable. These choices make encounters visually varied and always entertaining.
Special effects also deliver the spectacle. Explosions, weapon flares and melee shot visuals give fights punch and dramatic moments. Music and voice acting are clear highlights; the score supports climatic scenes and the cast gives memorable performances that lift key beats.
The technical side, however, does need a bit of work. Heavy effect scenes can push frame rates down, while NPCs and enemies occasionally clip through geometry in ways that can be funny but also distracting. On PS5, I encountered a couple of crashes during during the campaign, forcing a hard reboot.
Still, the presentation largely succeeds at making Kairos feel alive. The top-notch art direction and stellar audio work hand-in-hand to create memorable areas and set-piece fights.
Final Score: 9/10 - Amazing
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K
Genre: First-Person Shooter, Looter Shooter
Modes: Single-player, Multiplayer
A key was provided by the publisher.
By Paul Hunter
I've spent the past week jumping into Borderlands 4 on PS5 and I'm buzzing with excitement. Gearbox takes the looter-shooter template and stretches it across Kairos, a big, fractured planet that rewards curiosity. The main hook is simple: you join the Crimson Resistance and hunt down Vaults while chasing better gear.
You pick from four Vault Hunters—Amon, Harlowe, Rafa and Vex—each with three action skills that demand active use and teamwork to shine. Combat is quicker with extra movement options and a broader set of customisation choices. Guns fall from every enemy like confetti, and alternate fire modes keep loadouts interesting.
The world is full of side missions, hidden Vaults and emergent events that make wandering feel alive. I kept calling in my mount, zipping between biomes and stopping for odd quests more often than expected. Co-op works well in split-screen or online sessions, and raid encounters give groups a real reason to coordinate.
Presentation and voice work gave many scenes a proper punch, and the variety of regions makes exploration fun. I found myself testing builds and replaying missions just to chase upgrades. Is Borderlands 4 worth your trip to Kairos on PlayStation 5 and endless amounts of loot hunting? Let’s find out!
The story in Borderlands 4 hooks you with a clean premise: a planet ruled by the Timekeeper, people controlled with Bolts, and a resistance that needs your help. I appreciated that it’s trying to tell a focused tale while keeping the laughs in check.
This time around, the humour is less shouty and more situational. I often laughed at a short, well-placed gag and then moved on without feeling pummelled by jokes. New faces like Rush, equal parts leader and gym rat, and Zadra, a quirky scientist, add personality and flavour to each scene. There are callbacks to past instalments, including of course the smart-mouthed ClapTrap, which will hit right for longtime fans.
Side missions were my favourite storytelling spots. I stumbled into a quest involving a sentient missile and another Claptrap-focused episode that surprised me with their ingenuity and wit. Those moments felt clever and sometimes sweet. There are also heists that reward you with gear and tiny tasks like dunking or praising art that add flavour to the world. Cutscenes also place you more directly in events, so you feel less like an observer and more like a participant.
The shift toward tighter writing and better-placed humour makes the story one of the game’s strengths and perhadps the series' best. It delivers character moments and side quests that stick with you. The ending could use a touch more weight, but the journey across Kairos is very rewarding.
Borderlands 4 tightens the shooting loop while widening how you move through combat spaces. Mobility additions like dash, glide, double jump and grapple change encounter design. The summonable hoverbike cuts travel time and supports fast-paced engagements. These systems let combat breathe in a larger open world.
The four Vault Hunters really change how you approach fights. Amon, a Forgeknight, favours close-range work with two elementally charged axes. Harlowe performs gravity-based damage and supplies buffs to nearby allies. Rafa operates as a nimble exo-soldier whose Arc Knives let him dash and perform melee strikes. Vex channels Siren abilities and brings familiars that can explode, distract or grow larger to control fights. Each Hunter has three action skills that form distinct build paths and encourage synergy.
Loot design remains central. Enemy and boss defeats trigger cascades of weapons, shields and consumables. Many guns include alternate modes and randomly rolled perks. Manufacturer tendencies influence available attachments, meaning you often adapt your build around a favourite brand. The ordinance slot consolidates grenades, launchers and heavy weapons into a single choice, reducing menu clutter and making them a snap to toggle to.
Progression offers extreme flexibility. You can respec at hubs for a fee, replay missions for rewards and unlock post-campaign options that let you begin a new run at a higher level. Raid-style encounters and repeatable Vaults provide end-game goals for farming top-tier gear.
Taken together, the gameplay forms a well-tuned loop: navigate with agility, select a Hunter archetype, test weapon synergies, and repeat encounters to refine a build. Personal experiments with Vex’s familiars and Rafa’s Arc Knives showed the potential for both clever combos and hectic spectacle. The endless variety of tools and loot keeps experimentation compelling even dozens of hours into the game and I'm still regularly getting surprised.
Visually, Borderlands 4 pushes the franchise’s comic-book look into its strongest showing yet. The cel-shaded style returns, but improved textures and lighting bring extra clarity to environments. Kairos shifts from dense jungle to open farmland, military bases to urban areas, and each region reads as its own place. That thrilling contrast encourages you to keep moving and to check each corner of the map.
Character models stand out. The four Vault Hunters have distinct looks and detail that really stand out during combat. Enemy design also shines: robotic troops feel cold and precise, while the Rippers’ psychos move with wild energy—one new enemy even performs a wild breakdance attack that is as odd as it is memorable. These choices make encounters visually varied and always entertaining.
Special effects also deliver the spectacle. Explosions, weapon flares and melee shot visuals give fights punch and dramatic moments. Music and voice acting are clear highlights; the score supports climatic scenes and the cast gives memorable performances that lift key beats.
The technical side, however, does need a bit of work. Heavy effect scenes can push frame rates down, while NPCs and enemies occasionally clip through geometry in ways that can be funny but also distracting. On PS5, I encountered a couple of crashes during during the campaign, forcing a hard reboot.
Still, the presentation largely succeeds at making Kairos feel alive. The top-notch art direction and stellar audio work hand-in-hand to create memorable areas and set-piece fights.
The Verdict
Borderlands 4 focuses on the series’ strengths while smoothing past rough edges. Combat benefits from added mobility and four distinct Vault Hunters, each with three active skills that reward experimentation. Loot remains central; weapons drop with varied perks keep loadouts constantly feeling fresh. Visuals and voice work give Kairos character, and co-op and raid encounters greatly extend the replay loop. Shortcomings include performance dips and a few persistent bugs, but nothing that can't be fixed with inevitable future patches. For fans of Borderlands or high-energy looting-shooters, this is the series at its absolute best, serving up endless satisfying play.Final Score: 9/10 - Amazing
Borderlands 4 details
Platform: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PCDeveloper: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K
Genre: First-Person Shooter, Looter Shooter
Modes: Single-player, Multiplayer
A key was provided by the publisher.