Shooting Up the Galaxy in Borderlands 3

After prematurely ending my latest Mass Effect adventure I decided that I would do something that I can't remember doing for a very, very long time--paying full price for a brand, spankin' new game.  That game is Borderlands 3 and I'm currently enjoying the looting, shooting madness that is the core of the series.  I haven't quite finished the full story, but I feel like I'm getting close.  My initial impressions are a bit mixed.

One of the first things I have to admit is--yes, I did opt to go over to the dark side and buy it on the Epic Games store.  I don't fully understand the weird, internet nerd-rage over purchasing games from Epic and felt absolutely no qualms about doing so.  I would prefer to have all my games on Steam, but seriously, I already have a decently sized collection of game launchers (let's list them all for funsies--Bethesda, Origin, Battle.net, GOG, Uplay, Steam, and now Epic)--what's one more?

The monastery on Athenas is particularly beautiful.

For my first playthrough, I went with my stock favorite class from the series--the Siren.  Amara is the glowingly tattooed, super-buff Siren whose powers allow her to sport an array of magical arms to smash or grab enemies.  Her talent trees can see her abilities molded into the more offensively oriented or into the traditional Siren strength of crowd control.  Boringly, I decided to go with the tree that summons a giant hand to grab and lock enemies into place--it's handy for temporarily disabling powerful enemies while you mop up the lesser baddies.  The major downside in solo play is that bosses are mostly immune to the grab ability.

An addition to the talent system are augmentations which can be unlocked at specific junctures of the talent tree that you choose--your character can equip three.  My Amara has an augmentation that will spread any elemental damage to other enemies in a close vicinity; her second one turns her grasping hand into a singularity that will pull enemies and items (like elemental barrels) into its field; and the last one will automatically grab another enemy if the enemy being grasped is killed.  These augmentations can be swapped easily as new ones are unlocked.

For the most part, Borderlands 3 feels like more Borderlands.  The most notable changes, for me, have been the addition of more varied environments (it's so nice not to be on Pandora again!) and vastly improved gun play.  Borderlands 3 keeps the series staple aesthetics--there's still a slightly cartoony/hand-drawn feeling to the game--but the game takes you to new and beautiful places.  At my current place in the story I've started on Pandora and traveled to Promethea--a sprawling, futuristic (and slightly ruined) landscape filled with neon-lit skyscrapers; I've blasted Maliwan soldiers at a scenic monastery on the planet Athenas; and I've defeated a massive vault guardian in an Eridian vault.  The game looks great and fans of the series will definitely appreciate the frequent changes of scenery.

This is Hermes.  You can pet him/her!  Super cute.

The most enjoyable aspect of the game has been the vastly improved gun play.  The guns in Borderlands 3 feel much more satisfactory and realistic than they did in previous games (I mean, as realistic as whacky guns that shoot swords and sawblades can).  There's just something better about the way they fire and the way they impact enemies--I've always felt that when compared to other shooters Borderlands was weak in this aspect.  Headshots and explosions result in chunks o' enemy...everyone loves chunkiness.

I'm also happy to report that so far I haven't had any technical issues.  I have read some reports of console players having resolution issues and technical hiccups.  One review I read specifically mentioned the fact that PC reviewers were given a very strange (and unfinished) version of the game to review.  If you're on a decent PC, you should be fine.

Before I render my final verdict on Borderlands 3 I want to finish up the main story.  It feels nice to be back in that crazy world, but I'm not sure that the new game brings anything shockingly new or refreshing to the series.  We will see.