Borderlands 3 Is Underrated

Despite hearing nothing but bad things about the story for Borderlands 3; "Troy and Tyreen are annoying", "Ava is unbearable" and "The comedy is cringe worthy", etc. I decided to go into the game anyway, because I really enjoyed the previous games and although the comedy has always been very hit or miss, I find the series has a certain charm. The comic book style graphics perfectly suit the over the top humor. Although this entry may have gone too far in a few places, it wasn't the complete disaster that I feared it might be, in fact, I think it's one of the better games in the series.

After finally beating the game, I personally found the story to be quite fun, entertaining and engaging. There are some characters I dislike, Ava for example begins as a very whiny character who I couldn't stand at first, but she mellows out as the plot thickens and becomes more likable. Troy and Tyreen are villains you hate, but mostly because they act like children who just discovered YouTube. There are moments here or there that do deserve at least some criticism, I will admit. Yet as the story progresses, you bump into old characters from the previous games and we learn a lot more about the galaxy of Borderlands throughout too, expanding the lore much further than Pandora and the moon from the Pre-sequel. Soon the stakes are risen as a new threat looms over the galaxy, all life as we know it is at risk! Now we must go on an epic quest across all 4 planets to stop the twins from achieving their desire to become "Gods". Throughout the game major characters, new and old die, and these deaths are treated with a lot of weight, drama and gravitas! The tension builds as plot twists are revealed and the history of vault hunting is explored.

Spoilers: The original Vault Hunter, Typhon DeLeon is revealed to be the father of the twins and when Tyreen kills him, we the player feel a moral duty to defeat her and avenge his death. There is a heavy focus on Lilith and other sirens in this game, we learn that they are rare and are capable of very great things, as well as complete chaos! "With great power, comes great responsibility" one may say. This idea is explored visually as well as metaphorically when Tyreen embraces her full powers in the end and becomes a literal monster herself, known as "Tyreen The Destroyer" who honestly looks like something out of Resident Evil! The final battle is amazing, not just gameplay wise, but also thematically. Good triumphs over evil in the end when you finally slay Tyreen, Lilith regains her powers but has no choice but to sacrifice herself in order to save the galaxy in the end, which makes for a tragic, yet beautiful ending. Sure, some of the characters were a little off, you the player may not have played a big part in the cut-scenes, but in my opinion, Borderlands 3 makes for a nice clean and satisfying end to the Borderlands trilogy.

Story is just one aspect of Borderlands 3, as most of your time is spent leveling up your character, having a blast shooting bandits away with all new and exciting weapons that we've never seen before. The free roaming never gets stale as you're constantly moving from one planet to the next, there are dozens of side missions, all unique and fun to play - these expand the story and lore of the Borderlands universe, there is also a countless amount of collectibles and audio logs you can find in the open world that tell us more about the story. There really is a lot to explore and although the comedy may not be at it's best, if you can look past all of that, you'll find there is a lot of deep world building and intriguing lore behind the silly jokes.