My personal ranking of all the borderlands games
Tales/new tales- telltale game, don’t care if the new one was made by someone else, that style is garbage.
Bl1- It’s important to note straight away, tbjs was not the first borderlands I played, and I think nostalgia is a big part of the reason it’s so frequently looked back on more favorably than it deserves. Might be unpopular, but this game has possibly aged worse than any other video game in history. The gameplay is incredibly monotonous, build and enemy diversity is practically nonexistent, and it has none of the complexity in overall combat we got in later installments. I understand that is because thjs was the first one, but that just adds to how poorly the game has aged. There is absolutely nothing about this game that wasn’t improved on later in with its direct sequel. Borderlands 2 is the direct superior in every possible way. The loot system introduced was certainly amazing for the time, but it’s not that time anymore. I’ll never understand how people criticize wonderlands or early bl3 for no dedicated drops while maintaining that this one holds up. it has by far the worst loot system in the series for the simple reason that it’s practically nonexistent. Unique weapons don’t feel unique at all. It’s biggest issue by far is just how badly it aged, and I know I sound like a broken record repeating. The near-absence of a story or proper endgame certainly doesn’t help. Aside from tales/new tales, this is the only borderlands game ive never actually beaten, Ive never been interested enough to bother.
BLTPS- I’m not factoring mods into this ranking, which is why this one tanks so hard. Without the patch this game is borderline unplayable. At the very least in bl1, legendaries didn’t have dedicated sources but actually dropped relatively frequently. In tps, almost nothing has a dedicated source, but legendaries are still very rare unless you spend hours read-only farming the grinder, which is not particularly fun. What it certainly has over bl1, though, is drastically improved gameplay. Jack (I am counting dlc) is one of the best designed characters in borderlands history. His skill tree is incredibly well put together. The severe lack of overall content and again the problematic loot system seriously hurt this game overall. Seeing jack’s backstory is also very well done, and makes the game certainly worth playing. I’ll just say it now, from tps onward, I absolutely love all these games.
Bl3- This game’s biggest issue by far is Replayability. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but trying to play through this game on a fresh character just feels like an absolute chore. Maybe it’s the overly complex structure of pretty much everything that makes me just not motivated at all to try and invest in a new character. Pretty much all of my playtime is on flak, I’ve never even beaten the game with a different character, I’m not sure if I’ve even gotten as far as Athenas. Still, in terms of overall gameplay, 3 is arguably the best of the whole series. The “visual pollution” issues people have I’ve never really understood, it’s never bothered me that much. It’s wonderfully fast paced with immensely dynamic and well designed combat. The biggest issue, as I mentioned before, is the absurdly over complication of pretty much everything. Getting a “perfect“ class mod or artifact now requires getting the exact passives out of 973 billion options. Boosting skills also pretty much makes zero difference unlike virtually every other borderlands. it’s much more effective to find stronger passives, seeing as how they can give as much as +64% damage. The story, obviously, is pretty bad.
Wonderlands- I will never understand the absurd amount of hate thjs game got and continues to receive. I’d be willing to make the argument that in terms of its first play through, this is the best borderlands to date. It maintains a lot of the same mechanics from bl3, obviousky a very good thing, while adding even more. Spells and melee weapons add whole dynamics to the combat. I liked anoints, my only issue with them was that there were so many it was almost impossible to get the one you wanted. Wonderlands keeps that system and the passives on armor/rings/etc, but immensely simplifies it all. This makes a huge difference in actually getting the stuff you want and makes the overall experience far more enjoyable. The loot luck system I also think is severely under appreciated. It makes it so that as you progress, you find continuously higher quality weapons, not just better kinds of them. It makes nonunique items parts of runs again, which bl3 kind of did away with. Ironically, playthroughs of wonderlands are more unique than the other games specifically because of the greater emphasis on non unique items. The skill trees and action skills overall are incredibly well designed, and the story is strong. I personally love the chaos chamber, but I also have almost seven hundred hours poured in suicide squad, so the chaos chamber isn’t much of a “grind” compared to that. Each class feels genuinely unique and are overall the most balanced in the series (although that’s not really saying much).
Bl2- I reinforced my windows. Not really much more I can say about this game that hasn’t been said. Pretty much as close to perfection as you can get, my only gripe is that endgame funnels your “options“ pretty considerably, its either use the bee shield and abuse the lady fist, or don’t kill anything. The raid bosses are also more of a chore than anything else. Making a normal enemy and giving it 7 trillion health (that’s not hyperbole) is not a well designed boss fight. also axton sucks.
Bl4- it’s still being updated, so it’s a little unfair to include it at all. The base game that we have, however, absolutely floors every other borderlands game. In case it wasn’t obvious already, I don’t really care much about story, but this game has the best one of the series and it’s not even close. The gameplay is incredibly well designed, with drastically improved movement options and amazing weapons as a whole. It wasnt a refinement of the amazing groundwork of bl3, like that game was with bl2, it was a reinvention in the best meaning of the word. the biggest issue, easily, is the lack of enemy diversity in general, but it’s more than made up for with the highly dense, mlre fast-paced, clearly doom inspired advancements in gameplay. The characters are unique, complex, and allow for incredible creativity. It avoids the funneling every other game falls victim to where it’s basically the same two or three builds thst are even potentially viable at endgame, and every single update has added significantly more and been a considerable improvement. I do agree with the common complaint that the open world was not a great idea, and the map seriously needs more fast travel, but everything else is so good that complaining about that really just comes off as obnoxious.
also I’m just saying it here, review bombing any of these games, ESPECIALLY for the 2k user agreement, is very childish.