I don't know where to start with my review of this game. I probably went overboard with my idea of what "100%" means in the context of a Borderlands game, but I will say that I went out of my way to complete all quests on Playthroughs 1 and 2 for all four characters. This is supposedly how Borderlands games are meant to be played with their emphasis on replayability and encouraging you to try out all the characters. This game was an absolute nightmare to complete.

I guess the first problem I have with this game is the level design. It seems rather stupid to criticize the areas you explore in a game that is literally set in the desert, since it should be expected that the locations will be barren wastelands. However, I was really surprised by just how dull and same-y every area feels. The few exceptions to the bland level design come in the form of a snowy area that you reach near the end of the main story and only spend a short while traversing. The music does not make anything better as it is very lowkey and doesn't change depending on whether you are in combat. I got so tired with the music after my first full playthrough that I just had it turned off for all remaining runs.

Next, I can talk about combat and weapon systems. I'm pretty sure that in this game's marketing, it boasts the fact that there are millions of unique weapons that you can come across via searching chests and killing enemies. It is a good idea in theory, but in practice I did not find that many cool weapons to replace existing ones that I was already using during my playthroughs. So, oftentimes I would be sticking with the same set of weapons for large chunks of the game. Digging deeper into the weapons system, there are eight types of weapons in the game, along with grenades. I would probably say, from my experience, the only "good" weapon types are revolvers, shotguns, and submachine guns. Even then, the "good" weapons are finicky. Sniper rifles in this game are a complete joke with the horrible flinching that occurs when you get hit by enemies, and my recollection is that there are no skills in any skill tree that address the flinching. Rocket launchers half the time miss the target even when you aim at their feet. The Eridian weapons are dreadful and take forever to recharge their shots, making them effectively useless. Enemies in this game are varied, which I actually do really appreciate, and the ones that wield weapons can all have unique weapons. However, I have to talk about how terrible the Crimson Lance are. They are very annoying bullet sponges that can destroy you in a few shots. Possibly the worst type of them all is the one that carries a physical shield because they have horrible head hitboxes. The Eridian guardian enemies are pretty creative but have terrible hitboxes as well.

Now, I can briefly talk about the characters you play as. You have four characters to choose from; Mordecai, who has a pet bird named Bloodwing that you can sic on to enemies; Roland, who has an automated turret; Lilith, who is a "Siren" that can go invisible and run very fast; and Brick, who has a "berserk" melee ability. The character I probably enjoyed playing as the most was Lilith, as it felt like she could actually deal with enemies pretty effectively. The other three felt oddly weak to play as. On the subject of characters, there are a lot of forgettable characters in this game. "Bosses" have no real weight to them and often just look like normal enemies. The supposed main antagonist of the main story, Commandant Steele, has very limited voice lines and you don't even fight her in the story. Only a few allies in this game are memorable and come back in later installments in the Borderlands series. The story of the game is pretty simple, your band of "vault hunters" is looking for "The Vault" which is rumored to hold many treasures. On the way to it, you fight through hordes of bandits, private military forces employed by the big weapon manufacturers, and alien creatures. Quests in the main game can be very tedious, but not quite as tedious as some that you find in the DLCs.

The DLCs for this game are all around pretty boring and/or frustrating. The General Knoxx campaign is maybe not as boring, but it is very aggravating as it is centered on the Crimson Lance. This expansion is the only one to include driving, and actually adds some much needed variety to the vehicles. With that said, it is a particularly annoying DLC as you are forced to drive on long roads to get to different areas because there are no fast travel stations. In fact, there are NO fast travel stations in ANY of the DLCs, aside from the one at the beginning of each of them which are meant to get back to the main campaign areas. Back to General Knoxx, the quests that you find towards the end are the worst offenders as they have you farming enemies with no ability to make progress on other quests. This DLC also has the worst arena in the entire game, the Circle of Duty. I don't know how anybody is supposed to complete the Circle of Duty solo with the staggering number of Crimson Lance enemies the game throws at you, so I had to cheat to get this questline done. This DLC introduces the "raid boss" which is a staple of the franchise. Also terrible.

Moving on to the other DLCs, there is the Underdome. The Underdome is an arena run by Mad Moxxi which has you fighting waves of increasingly stronger enemies with modifiers that change up the playstyle. Also terrible. There is the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned DLC, which is just really dull and is a product of a time that was dominated by zombies in entertainment. Contains an annoying fetch quest where you collect brains. Just play the Left 4 Dead games, really. Lastly, there is the Claptrap DLC which is probably the most enjoyable one, for what little that means. This DLC has you fighting forces of brainwashed people and creatures under the influence of Claptrap, who is staging a revolution on Pandora. It's actually pretty funny, creative, and has some good references. Contains an annoying fetch quest where you collect robot parts. Also has a really tanky final boss.

I want to close off my review of this game by noting that it also has some sort of memory leak that starts to destroy your frames after you travel between areas in the game too many times. So on top of the laundry list of problems I have mentioned, there is lack of optimization as well. If you want to play a good Borderlands game, play literally any of this game's successors. You will be doing yourself a favor.

Boring, glitchy and coop lag is bad for players that are not the host.

Cant play the game when i decline the terms of service. Unplayable ! shame... at least the og is still good