Borderlands 3 (2019) (PC) (Gearbox)
0My biggest complaints about Borderlands 2 were its overall similarity to the first game in the series and its failure to expand the scope, scale and flexibility of the main campaign. I wanted an unpredictable open world with dynamically regenerating quests for infinite endgame looting and shooting, but what I got was yet another linear trudge through mostly static environments with annoying mini-bosses, boring traversal options and uninteresting New Game+ mechanics.
The third entry in the series doubles down on the well-established Borderlands concept and, rather brazenly, opens with an introduction that could have been lifted more or less straight from the 10 year old original game. Granted, the level architecture of the main missions is a bit more ambitious and grandiose this time around and the game looks sharper than ever in 4K. Even so, it's almost impossible to convince yourself that you're playing anything else than a very particular game from 2009.
There's still plenty of fun to be had with the basic FPS/ARPG gameplay - and I hear the later planets in the campaign are significantly different from Pandora - but for someone who wanted Borderlands to keep evolving beyond the core concept introduced many years ago now, the third game's gleeful traditionalism is a bit of a bummer...