Over the weekend, the Nerd Caster team purchased and played the new Borderlands 3 game for PC. Most of the team has played Borderlands 1 and 2, but I (Joe) have not. This review is coming from a first time player of the franchise and what I think about the game so far. I have no background on the series and have not watched any videos about the franchise before purchasing the game. The only information I had about the game going into it was that it can be played multiplayer with up to four friends and that it takes place in a post-apocalyptic world that is not Earth. Now that you know my background, let me get on with the review.
**POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD**
I started playing the game in a single-player mode on normal difficulty. There are four characters you can choose from and each has different abilities:
- Amara – The Siren
- FL4K – The Beastmaster
- Moze – The Gunner
- Zane – The Operative
I chose the gunner character, Moze. Moze has the ability to call upon a mech to help in battle. Because of the mech, she is a more offensive character who can get right in the middle of battle. When surrounded by enemies the mech is a great tool to take them out more easily then just trying to run and gun around.
The gameplay was simple enough, run around and shoot/kill things. The controls were also easy to pick up. Standard WSAD for movement and mouse for camera and shooting. It is like every other First Person Shooter (FPS) game on the market for PC. The only real issue with the controls was that the melee attack is set to the V key which for me is uncomfortable. It was a simple config change to move it to my mouse thumb button.
After getting the config under control and running around for a few minutes just to get the hang of things, I made my way into battle. The battles at the start weren’t overly difficult and the game progressed with the fights getting increasingly more difficult. The game wasn’t too easy where I could blow through each section, but wasn’t hard enough that I couldn’t complete the task. That would be short-lived though.
In the second boss battle, MouthPiece, the escalation of difficulty rose tremendously. The game became very frustrating as it seemed damn near impossible to beat this boss on your own. After dying more times than I could count, I had to go to the internet and figure out what to do. Everything I read had players working in a multi-player setting to take down the boss. This is when I realized I should be playing with friends. It was then that I learned the story mode was also the multi-player mode.
The game is not like Overwatch, Fornite, etc. where the multi-player is just a 4v4 or 6v6 team vs team game. The multi-player aspect is part of the storyline of the game. It is more comparable to FPS meets Couch Co-Op hack and slash. As a player, you can team up with friends to run through the storyline vs just a war shooting game.
I had a friend jump in my game as we were close in level and continued playing. We made our way back to MouthPiece and took him down with slight ease. I say slight ease because we did die once or twice, but as long as 1 person stays alive in battle the dead player will respawn and join in the battle. The battle will continue as normal and the boss will not have regained his health (as what happened when playing solo). The game became somewhat enjoyable again.
That’s about as far I got into the game.
The biggest issue I have with Borderlands 3 is the constant loss of ammo. Having to find ammo around the map with multiple people needing ammo becomes difficult. Everyone is scurrying to grab as much as they can to continue fighting. I have a huge issue with having to hunt/find ammo in FPS games like this. Not only does it add to a game of hide-and-seek to find bullets but is frustrating as hell when you do find a chest containing ammo and it has already been depleted by another player. I much prefer games, like Overwatch, where ammo is unlimited.
I am also not a fan of the upgrade system in the game, it’s simple enough, but is overwhelming in the sense of what to upgrade first. Being a gunner, the character has choices up upgrading Bottomless Mags (minigun), Demolition Woman (grenade launcher), and Shields of Retribution (Shields).
So far I have opted to put all my skill points (which is what you get when you level up) into Bottomless Mags. I am not sure if this is how it should be done, but I like to Max out a choice, then move on to the next. So after I completely fill out the Bottomless Mags upgrades, I will move onto Demolition Woman or Shields of Retribution and max that out. There is a lot to upgrade in each and will take a bit of time to do so. At level 11 I have not even made my way to the second tier in the Bottomless Mags skill.
The game, on the whole, is good. Not great, but good. I see myself playing with friends until the storyline is complete and then I probably won’t pick up the game again. The replay value comes in if you want to play a different character or help others get through the story. Once I complete the story though, I don’t have any intention of playing a different character or helping strangers complete the game.
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