Borderlands 4 är verkligen hypat. Når spelet upp till de höga förväntningarna?

Gearbox brings the classic looter shooter back in a big way. Can Borderlands 4 survive the negative backlash and poor performance that has crippled its launch? Or will it become just another corpse for the pile? Read on below to find all the unique twists and turns that Kairos offers, along with a host of new Vault Hunters to add to the cast. Perhaps we’ll even come across an old favorite in the not-too-distant future.

(En svensk, AI-genererad, sammanfattning finner du i slutet av recensionen)

Kairos, a New Adventure

Pandora is old news. After laying waste to its occupants and saving the world time and time again throughout the series, it’s time to branch out and discover an entirely new planet: Kairos. This world is run by a tyrannical dictator called the Timekeeper, who is bent on order and control. New Vault Hunters rise once again to do whatever Vault Hunters always do: raid vaults, cause trouble, and mess things up for the bad guys. Read on below to see how our new set of Vault Hunters stacks up against previous characters in the series.

Vault Hunters

As with all Borderlands titles, you have a wide variety of Vault Hunters to choose from. Below, I will briefly cover how each of the brand-new player characters comes together to make one of the better selections in the series, ranging from the variety of different combat styles on offer and how unique they are from each other.

First, we’ll begin with the character Vex, (the character I believe to be the “main character” of the Borderlands 4 story). Vex is the series titular Siren character, a classic returning class that has been featured throughout Borderlands. The main benefit to Vex as a character is her unique ability to convert her damage type to match her elemental weapon. Facing an enemy with a huge shield? Throw on a shock weapon and Vex will convert all her damage to that element, ripping through shields with lightning speed.

Vex’s unique subclasses center around summoning or simply becoming an eldritch conduit. From summoning reaper clones to blasting foes with offhanded eldritch blasts or simply running rampant with her demonic cat named Trouble, these styles fit the character of Vex to a tee as she leans into the darker, gothic style that the Siren classes tend to.

Next comes Rafa the Exo-Soldier. With his built-in high-tech weaponry and cocky attitude, Rafa brings the comedy to the game. Rafa’s unique trait, Overdrive, increases his movement speed as well as damage from all sources upon using an action skill.

Whether you want to rain down hellfire with his Apohisis Lance Arm Cannon, use shoulder-mounted Peacebreaker Cannons, or drop the guns entirely and go wild with Rafa’s mounted Arc-Knives spinning like the world’s most deadly beyblade Rafa offers a unique sense of speed unlike the other Vault Hunters before him. A thoroughly enjoyable character for both solo and group play, Rafa fits the rogue scoundrel archetype better than any other hunter before him (except perhaps Zane previously).

Harlowe comes in next to a former combat scientist with a burning desire to understand how things work. Harlowe’s trait, Entanglement, does exactly what it says on the tin, trapping multiple enemies and sharing damage between them. Harlowe is far more geared toward group play than a solo experience, coming complete with additional shields with her Flux Generator traits and Zero-Point status, which immobilizes enemy movements at a moment’s notice before eviscerating foes with her patented CHROMA Accelerator. She lays waste to all before her.

Finally, we come to the big man, Amon, the tank of the group. Amon is unique when it comes to his traits, having up to three possible combinations based on his choice of abilities. Amon is ideally designed for group play, soaking up damage with his unique blend of Forgeskills and shields. While slower than the other Vault Hunters, Amon has a much more sustainable health pool that will surely appeal to players who like to take things more slowly, soaking up damage rather than dashing around avoiding it. From taking the fight up close and personal with his Forgefist, defending his allies with his Forgeshield, or simply dropping everything in favor of throwing axes at his foes, Amon is a highly customizable tank with tools to suit any Vault Hunter’s needs.

While I enjoyed every Vault Hunter on offer, I did gravitate toward playing Vex as well as Rafa for the majority of my playthrough. Vex in particular seems to have the campaign tailor-made for her above all the other characters. I do feel some Hunters, particularly Amon, could use some damage buffs overall to fit a more solo playstyle. The unique features of each Vault Hunter bring yet another enjoyable experience to the Borderlands series.

Endgame Content

As with all the previous titles in Borderlands, once you complete the campaign (which is admittedly quite short in comparison), the game doesn’t end. Once the campaign is completed, several other endgame content options open up to the player, allowing them to farm as well as re-fight all previous bosses. This allows you to not only finish leveling your chosen Vault Hunter to the max level but also to test your skills in harder and harder encounters to fully kit out your Vault Hunter of choice. From repeating encounters with Moxxi’s Encore to repeating missions on harder difficulties, there is still plenty of content for players to take part in before Gearbox decides to add in Raid content and DLC content later down the line.

Overall, I enjoyed these additions in Borderlands 4 more than previous titles, as it made farming and leveling for selected pieces of gear a lot more relaxed and far easier to do than ever before. I was, however, extremely annoyed with replaying previous sections of the game, as unlike playing during the campaign, these missions do not contain any saving points. This means that these missions, which you could previously take at your leisure, could now become lengthy encounters that could take 20–40 minutes at a time, with some missions being even longer. The inability to save during these missions became very annoying after a while, particularly some of the later ones that have ridiculous requirements and time constraints. Quitting to the menu or closing the game will not return you to the previous location as it does in the campaign but will reset the mission, meaning all the effort you put into it is now completely null and void.

This negativity aside, I very much enjoy the current endgame content on offer in Borderlands 4, and seeing all the unique Legendary weapons as well as gear, I can’t wait to see what Gearbox can come up with when it comes to Raid content, as long as they fix the several glaring issues that the game has been plagued with since launch.

Conclusion

While I enjoyed my time with Borderlands 4, to say that the game is in a good state would be a complete lie. Below, I will list some of the variety of issues that I faced during my playtime. Please bear in mind this is from the PS5 version (the console the game was ideally designed to run on). While I’ve heard that the PC version is currently in tatters, I know that even the PS5 and more particularly the PS5 Pro Model are also facing these issues. I hope that Gearbox takes the time to fix these issues promptly, as it’s clear from the experience that Borderlands 4 needed more time on the shelf before release.

Frequent Audio breaks: not only during story conversations but also just in general encounters located in the later regions of the game.
Broken Mobs (Boom Turrets and Artillery Turrets specifically): aiming through walls and under the map to hit the player character through means that should not be possible.
Broken Hitboxes: (particularly noticeable on the later bosses). This one was a source of express annoyance to me and only appears to happen during phase transitions. This occurs more frequently on some of the later bosses in the game and I would say is one of the things Gearbox will resolve post-haste as it makes the game unplayable at times.

These are just some of the main issues I faced during my time playing Borderlands 4. That being said, there are plenty of issues and bugs that need to be patched out and will take Gearbox a long time to do so. Is Borderlands 4 a fun game? Yes, but for a lot of people, the game is currently in an unplayable state for them, and the comments made by Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford are not doing anything to make the community feel better about the situation.

Overall, at this point, I can’t recommend Borderlands 4 in its current state. Despite enjoying it, the longer I play, the more issues and bugs I run into that just ruin the experience as a whole.

AI-genererad sammanfattning på svenska

Borderlands 4 är verkligen hypat. Når spelet upp till de höga förväntningarna?

Borderlands 4 återuppväcker den klassiska looter-shooter-genren, men lanseringen har drabbats av negativ kritik och dålig prestanda. Denna recension utforskar Borderlands 4 med fokus på dess funktioner och brister.

Spelet utspelar sig på en ny planet vid namn Kairos, som styrs av den tyranniske Timekeeper. Spelarna kan välja mellan en ny uppsättning Vault Hunters:

Vex, huvudpersonen, är en Siren som kan omvandla sin skada för att matcha sitt elementära vapen, vilket gör henne mycket anpassningsbar.

Rafa, en Exo-Soldier, bidrar med komik och högteknologiska vapen, vilket ger en snabb och fartfylld spelstil.

Harlowe, en stridsforskare, är specialiserad på gruppspel, där hon fångar flera fiender och fördelar skadan mellan dem.

Amon, tanken, är långsam men mycket hållbar, utformad för att absorbera skada i grupp med sina anpassningsbara Forgeskills.

Jag tyckte om de nya karaktärerna, men ansåg att Vex var den enda med en kampanj skräddarsydd för mig, och att Amon kunde behöva skadebuffar för solospel.

I slutspelet kan spelarna slåss mot bossar igen och upprepa uppdrag på svårare svårighetsgrader. En stor brist är dock avsaknaden av sparpunkter i dessa upprepbara uppdrag, vilket gör dem långa och frustrerande att spela om man slutar.

Som slutsats tyckte jag att Borderlands innehöll alldeles för många buggar. Här listas några problem:

Frekventa ljudavbrott under konversationer och strider.
Trasiga mobbar som kan skjuta genom väggar och terräng.
Trasiga hitboxar på bossar, särskilt under fasövergångar, vilket kan göra spelet ospelbart.

Trots de roliga karaktärerna och vapnen kan Jag inte rekommendera spelet i dess nuvarande skick, med hänvisning till de många buggarna som förstör upplevelsen.