Whats wrong with Borderlands?
I honestly don’t understand what Gearbox is trying to do with Borderlands anymore.
Borderlands 1 had Atlas as the main corporate villain. Borderlands 2 perfected that formula with Hyperion and Handsome Jack. Even TPS indirectly showed how destructive Dahl really was. The series had a very clear identity built around dystopian megacorporations, Vaults, colonialism, and mercenary wars.
And then Borderlands 3 comes along and somehow DOESN’T make Maliwan the main villain.
To me, that’s still the biggest missed opportunity in the franchise. Maliwan felt like the perfect next step for the series because they were presented as a ruthless high-tech military corporation involved in an actual corporate war and a hostile takeover of Atlas. On top of that, Katagawa honestly felt more interesting and entertaining than the Calypso Twins.
Instead, BL3 focuses mostly on influencer and streamer satire through the Calypsos, which makes the entire tone feel very different from the older games. Earlier Borderlands titles were funny, but the world itself was still treated seriously. In BL3, everything feels much louder, more self-aware, and constantly focused on meme-style humor.
I feel like Gearbox wanted to avoid creating “another Handsome Jack,” but in doing so they lost part of what made Borderlands special in the first place.
And now Borderlands 4 already seems to be changing direction again, which honestly makes it feel like Gearbox itself no longer fully knows what the core identity of the franchise is supposed to be.
Am I the only one who feels this way?
I really don‘t want to give up on this series, but I‘m afraid, that it won’t get better.