The series of Borderlands since its first chapter has been a great success among the public, thanks to its direct way of proposing a comedy that is never out of place. The Gearbox guys try to replicate the success obtained with the first two chapters of the series, finally releasing the third main chapter (since the last title is Pre-Sequel, intermission chapter between the first and second Borderlands).
Whenever the development team returns to the "battlefield" they always propose something new and fun. We were curious to find out if Borderlands 3 it was up to its predecessors, if the originality proposed earlier had been overtaken again by proposing something almost completely new.
Precisely for this reason, we decided to review Borderlands 3 for you, which amused us throughout its duration. Happy reading and beware of Claptrap!
The new hunters of the crypt
The series has always had two elements behind the narrative: the crypts and the crypt hunters. The beginning tells us how old hunters were in search of the famous crypts and how these are scattered in the immense planet of Pandora.
We are told that there have been two groups of crypt hunters, the first that gutted an alien threat (the protagonists of the first Borderlands) and the second managed to take down an evil tyrant called Handsome Jack (those of the second chapter).
Terror in the lands of Pandora
Now to threaten the new crypt we find ourselves in front of the twins Calypso, two madmen who want to conquer all the power in the lands of Pandora and to do so, they are tearing the whole population with their misdeeds. The new "bad guys" are rendered in a very modern way, since they make use of elements of the current generation such as Social Networks, thus making a mockery of today's web stars.
If you have played the other chapters of Borderlands, you will be happy to know that in a certain arc of the game, we will find ourselves in front of old acquaintances to ask them for their support in our crazy mission. In fact, the siren will come to our aid Lilith and the team of Crimson Raiders, which we had the opportunity to deepen during Borderlands 2.
The old quality past
The unfolding of the events flows smoothly, even if on the whole the story does not shine for originality, but above all the two new Villain are not up to the irreverent Jack the Handsome, who managed to entertain the player until the end with his extravagant interventions in the least opportune moments.
I Calypso twins they are discreet characters, but who for a long time will lack originality, making every radio intervention almost annoying.
As insane as it may sound from the start, the narrative of Borderlands it hides emotionally strong moments within itself, which try to convey an important message to the gamer. To complete the game it took us about thirty hours to finish the story and we tackled the missions in both co-op and single player mode to give you more coverage.
As for the background, everyone is well taken care of with the exception of the Calypso twins, which turned out to be just a side dish for plot purposes. Honorable mention to Claptrap, who has kept the fun of the series alive from the very beginning.
A disarming variety
In this chapter we will have the opportunity to explore not only Pandora, but also other planets full of interesting details. It is nice to see how the secondary missions have been taken care of properly, many of these hide some interesting sub-stories, although among the missions there will be those purely demented in pure Borderlands style.
Performing secondary tasks is also a way to delve into what lies behind the world of this third chapter, trying to find out as much detail as possible about our allies and the choices they have made in the past. Completing the side missions is definitely an important part to fully enjoy the experience of Borderlands 3.
We enjoyed it very much the presence of some cinematic cut-scenes within the main story, which manage to enhance the most important moments of the narration, also thanks to the Unreal Engine 4 which enhances the quality of the polygonal models.
Winning team gets better!
The hand feeling with the pad is the same as its predecessors. In terms of gameplay we have had improvements in the shooting phases, creating a much more fluid and functional gun play, especially for long range weapons.
Playing the title, you can feel in the first few hours how much more they are dynamic game actions, especially when using special skills.
Character growth plays an important role, we will have three skill trees available for each class and we will be able to choose the special ability to use in battle. In addition to the main skill we will have a series of skills that will work as active and passive, thus modifying the build of our character.
The Level Cap is fixed at fifty, so we will have to choose carefully the skills to learn, as many will remain blocked (at least for the moment). If you are not satisfied with the build, the ability to reset the skill tree from the appropriate menu will also be available in this chapter, thus resetting your character.
The character we used to tackle this adventure was the Mermaid Amara, which is all about melee attacks and short ranged weapons. Here too it will be possible to customize your character at any time, just use the appropriate dispenser and select the element that we want to modify of our character.
The movements of our character are much more fluid than the previous chapters, among the new functions the possibility of being able to use the slide, an important element during the most chaotic assaults, has been added.
The enemies that haunt the world of Pandora are very lethal, we had quite a few problems, even in cooperative mode, with low-level enemies that managed to drain our energy with very few hits, despite being leveled at the right point to be able to face the mission.
The experience is much more satisfying and satisfying, the level of challenge is always between medium and high, becoming more fun when facing it in the company of a friend.
Interactivity for all tastes
The game world is full of elements with which it is possible to interact, this means that the world is "alive" and that the various elements on the screen do not give that feeling of "fake" and structured just for the occasion. Even with the secondary characters it will be possible to interact, talk and learn more elements about the story of Pandora through the dialogues.
Unfortunately we cannot say the same about artificial intelligence, we will often find ourselves in front of enemies who, looking for the player, despite this being in front of them, remain motionless.
Unfortunately the game also suffers from some rather noticeable drops in framerate and annoying, we have faced our adventure on the version for PlayStation 4 Pro and Flat, but we have found that the slowdowns are much more evident on the normal version of PlayStation 4.
To this must be added the presence of a myriad of bugs, which often lead us to reset the game from the last checkpoint, making the progress of the game frustrating.
Technical sector
The Unreal Engine 4 employed for Borderlands 3 it is pleasant to see, but unfortunately it shows some uncertainty in the smoothing of some elements on the screen, treated only marginally and show a disarming paucity of details when compared to the rest that is present on the screen.
The polygonal models are almost all well made, despite this it is possible to perceive a slight "difference" between the main and secondary ones, which result in almost a different style.
Note of merit also to the Italian dubbing, which is very expressive and which gives the right emphasis to the character played. The soundtrack is an important condiment for the series and again it has succeeded in its intent to propose a great OST it's valid.
Final Comment
In conclusion we were satisfied with the third installment of Borderlands 3 developed by Gearbox, the story is quite interesting, even if the presence of two not-so-brilliant antagonists fails to elevate everything as it should.
To all must be added the presence of several annoying bugs that undermine the gaming experience. Fortunately, the gameplay has taken several steps forward and matured in the right way, making the action much more eventful.
We hope that the development team will be able to patch the problems currently present, but for the moment, we would like to promote the current product of Borderlands 3.
