Action · 2025 · Gearbox Software · local · online
Borderlands 4
A shooter with role-playing gear for people who enjoy comparing weapons.
What it is about
Four vault hunters land on a planet ruled by a time-keeper and work their way through his installations. It is told in the familiar comic register, with characters who talk a lot and are rarely quiet.
The core is unchanged: shoot, collect, compare, keep the better piece. What is new is movement and terrain. There is a double jump, a dodge and a grappling hook, and the world is no longer cut into separate zones but hangs together.
For two, split screen works on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series, and online co-op for four works everywhere. The two routes combine: two couples at two televisions make a party of four online.
Our verdict for couples
On Steam this game sits at sixty percent, and that has less to do with the playing than with the frame rate on PC. For a couple on a sofa a different piece of news counts: on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series there is two-player split screen, from day one and not as a later addition. What you play is what Borderlands always was, namely shoot, collect, compare and keep the better gun. Each of you gets your own loot, so there is nothing to negotiate, and whoever goes down is picked back up by the other. Gearbox even thought of the mixed case: two couples at two televisions can link up online as a party of four.
Pros
- Two-player split screen on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series
- Everyone gets their own loot, no arguing over the good gun
- Two split-screen pairs can link up online as a party of four
Cons
- No split screen on PC or Switch 2
- Frame rate is the dominant topic on Steam
- Stutter and lag in shared play are reported repeatedly
Suitable from
Hobby
- Conflict potential
- Harmonious
- Cosiness
- Mixed
- When you can stop
- After 15 minutes
- How long it lasts
- Over 40 hours
What other co-op fans say
The sixty percent on Steam are almost entirely a matter of frame rate. Page after page is about stutter, about shader pre-compilation, and about machines that exceed the requirements and still do not run cleanly. About the game itself people write far more mildly: the new mobility with double jump and grappling hook is considered a clear improvement, and hardly anyone doubts the scope. Shared play has an objection of its own that has nothing to do with frame rate. Lag and rubber-banding among party members are reported more than once.
- “The mobility is a big improvement in fight though, IMO it's done pretty well.”
- “Even if you play just the campaign with most of the vanilla side quest that's 100h.”
- “The game cannot be played by anyone in your coop party due to well known rubberbanding issues.”
- “Performance is mediocre, leaning heavily on upscaling and framegen, even on powerful machines.”
Summarised by machine from 60 Steam reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
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Absolum
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