The first Borderlands 3 reviews dropped overnight. Unfortunately, we were not among the outlets to get an early review code (no Australian outlets were). These were apparently reserved for select US outlets and they were provided codes under some pretty insane stipulations (more on that here).
19 reviews are currently live on Metacritic with it currently sitting on an 85. For comparison sake, Borderlands 2 ended up with a 91 and Borderlands ended up with an 93, so it appears to be somewhere between the original and the sequel.
IGN gave the game a 9/10 and said: “Borderlands 3 sticks to its guns and outdoes itself with an amazing arsenal of weapons, humor, and missions.”
Forbes gave the game a 9/10 and said: Borderlands 3 does not feel like a total transformation for the series, just an evolution. And that may leave some part of it stuck in the past, but overwhelmingly, it’s a game that’s still a blast to play, particularly for those into the loot shooter genre.
Game Informer gave the game an 8/10 and said: Borderlands 3 does not feel like a total transformation for the series, just an evolution. And that may leave some part of it stuck in the past, but overwhelmingly, it’s a game that’s still a blast to play, particularly for those into the loot shooter genre.
Gamespot also gave the game an 8/10 and said: Borderlands 3 has a few stumbling blocks when it comes to bosses, but these fights are overshadowed by the game’s rewarding gunplay and over-the-top humor. The game’s character-driven narrative acts as a satisfying finale for the loot-shooter franchise, and the new mechanics and features–especially the reworked skill trees and weapon manufacturer effects–give you plenty of agency in how you want to play through it. If you’ve never been a fan of the franchise, it’s unlikely Borderlands 3 does enough things differently to change your mind, as the game best excels at continuing what the series has always done: deliver a humorous tall tale of misfits looting and shooting their way to heroism.
USgamer gave the game an 8/10 and said: Borderlands 3 is more Borderlands, and all the loot that entails. This proper sequel improves upon the formula with more guns, but more importantly, a stretch of unique planets to kill enemies on. The new planets offer more visual variety and a great evolution of enemy encounters. The tuning is clearly meant for more than one player, making a punitive experience at times for the solo Vault Hunter. Despite the formula growing a bit stale, Gearbox has expanded upon it in the right way, resulting in a great Borderlands experience.
PCgamer gave the game a 6.3/10 and said: An endless font of bad jokes and cool guns in the series’ most vapid story yet, Borderlands 3 skates by on watching numbers fly and goons explode.
