Which one is the best Borderlands game?

[Q]

Borderlands 1, 2 or 3 ? never played this series before but back then during bioshock 2, the witcher 2, batman arkham games or mass effect 2 this game was like a massive thing but maybe im confused and that was the 1st game? anyways just want to know which game is the greatest.

[Wilson Enjoyer]

Originally posted by Berries and Cream:

Borderlands 1, 2 or 3 ? never played this series before but back then during bioshock 2, the witcher 2, batman arkham games or mass effect 2 this game was like a massive thing but maybe im confused and that was the 1st game? anyways just want to know which game is the greatest.

Tierlist!
1. Borderlands 2: Had fantastic details added to it, Had a lot of work added to it, A lot of great memories from the early days of the xbox :D
2 Borderlands 1: It is the original, But never had what borderlands 2 was, Never will sadly
3. Borderlands 3: It SUCKS, A huge cash grab to get a users money. The only good things were the dlcs
4. Borderlands 1 remastered. Buggy and ♥♥♥♥♥♥
5. Borderlands 4: Will most likely be a cashgrab perusual by this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ company
6: Wonderland, A game that shouldnt have ever been made :/

[Nakos]

Borderlands one is a 2009 game made in UE3. It's primitive by modern standards. It also has a bleak, desolate tone and a very spare, minimalist story. It features excellent PvE gun play for its era. Some fans prefer it, I find it kind of dry.

Borderlands two is 2012, it's the largest of the games (meaning it has the largest amount of content). It has a zanier more colorful world and story and one of the best video game antagonists ever created (Handsome Jack), this is due to a combination of the writing of Anthony Burch and the voice acting of Dameon Clarke. Many (myself included) think of BL2 as the best game in the series.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (BL:TPS) was from 2014, it features some under-the-hood upgrades from BL2, but otherwise looks and plays almost identically. It tells two stories, a framing story set after the events of BL2, and a central story (the main game-play) set prior to BL2. It tells the story of Handsome Jack's rise to power and intentionally casts doubt on whether he should be considered a villain or a victim of circumstance (although it also answers that question if you pay attention). BL:TPS is a superb game that tends to be under-rated, but fan response was poor at the time of release, and it got a lot less development than BL2. What there is is great, but there's less over all content than BL2.

Borderlands three features a new writing team and many new voice actors. It's the first game done in UE4. Game play is fantastic, the game has a liquid smooth feel that the earlier games lack. However, the writing quality is considered by many (myself included) to be vastly inferior to the earlier games. Also, BL3 features differently balanced loot tables and many feel that legendaries and purples drop too often (effectively devaluing them).

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is ... an odd duck. It's a spin-off, and is nominally set in the Borderlands universe, however, what it depicts is Tiny Tina (VA Ashely Burch reprising her role) running a "Bunkers and Badasses" game with two of her friends. Meaning that it's a fictitious game set within a game. It uses many of the same rules as the rest of the Borderlands franchise, but it is technically a game being run by Tiny Tina, who changes and makes up rules as she goes along. The game is built in UE4 using a version of the engine they built for BL3. Personally, I liked TTWL, but it's definitely a spinoff side story rather than part of the main continuity.

BL4 ... still in development, so ... we'll see.

[kukuhimanpr]

b2 had the best overall reception in gameplay and story. b1.5 feels more like b2 dlc focused on handsome jack story and beautiful space vistas. b1 feels more mad max-ish and humble. tftb feels more like a telltale game set in borderlands verse with overall nice story but it has its glaring flaws too.

as for b3, ttwl, and ntftb... b3 gameplay is good and scenery variations are nice... other than that i only feel bad stuff for the other parts of those 3 games... especially their stories...

b4 probably will have similar gameplay feeling as with b3 but with some improvements... other than that, i don't care about the story anymore since b3 had FUBAR'd the story continuity that was nicely built up from its og predecessors.

[itzRiceKrispies]

Overall, BL2 is technically the best. The Pre-Sequel is literally a slightly worse version. Very similar.

Gameplay wise: BL3 technically wins cause UHVM absolutely ruined the BL2 endgame with its asinine insistence on Slag, which was and never will be re-balanced, barring mods. However the story is so unbelievably bad its not even good enough to be a joke & completely ruined any chance BL3 had at being the best game. The Vault Hunters(the ones u play as) are back to BL1 in regards to importance.

BL1 is, sadly outdated. :'( By comparison it has not aged well & its story is bare bones. Not as bad as some critics say, but the Vault Hunters themselves are basically non-existent.

I don't know enough about the rest to rank them.

[itzRiceKrispies]

Originally posted by Bill Nye The Science Guy:

4. Borderlands 1 remastered. Buggy and ♥♥♥♥♥♥

Just a heads up, they updated the Enhanced edition on Steam and as long as ur version of Microsoft C++ is 2022 or newer it should work no problem. I do know what u r referring to though. God my 2018 & 2016 Redist had people running upside down 15 feet in the air and shooting me thru the ground/walls/sky, different parts of the map; from across the map. Not to mention the sudden CTD's. ♥♥♥♥ was awful, I mean outright un-playably awful.

[Pocahawtness]

Originally posted by Berries and Cream:

Borderlands 1, 2 or 3 ? never played this series before but back then during bioshock 2, the witcher 2, batman arkham games or mass effect 2 this game was like a massive thing but maybe im confused and that was the 1st game? anyways just want to know which game is the greatest.

Borderlands 1 is excellent, but it's unrefined and clunky. BL2 has much better mechanics albeit it loses a little of the atmosphere that BL1 has. BL2 has the unfortunate Slag which is a serious pain. But to compensate it has some fantastic raid bosses. BL3 has the best mechanics, but no story, no soul and a ton of irritating characters.
They are all fun to play but I think it's fair to say that most people liked BL2 the best.

[FlowerFacer]

Borderlands 2 is the best. Can't get enough of it, I always go back to it even though it is 13 years old. I love the writing, Handsome Jack's villain arc is the best and generally it will always be an all time favorite for me. The gameplay in Borderlands 3 is better, yes - but the writing is absolutely awful and cringey. Therefore even with Borderlands 2 being a much older game is still wins by par. I hope Borderlands 4 won't disappoint but my expectations aren't high with the movie being an absolute piece of garbage haha

[Starbug]

Borderlands 2
Borderlands 3
Borderlands 1
Borderlands Pre Sequel.

[Radiowavehero]

Get pandora box collection on sale , honestly borderlands 2 and the pre-sequel alone are worth it but you might as well get everything , borderlands 3 is very divisive but some people enjoy it.

If I could only recommend one game and I wanted to give people the best impression I would pick borderlands 2 , it has tons of content , tons of mods , it's older but still holds up to 3 and it has the best writing and voice acting.

[Kobeth]

Borderlands 1 didn't age so well. It's not bad but really outdated by today's standard.

Borderlands 2 has the best story with a great antagonist, but it is also outdated by today's standard because it's missing many quality of life improvements from subsequent titles. The balance is also a mess in endgame because of many different factors to be honest but the main one is the annoying Slag mechanic being put at the center of gameplay balance. Also getting to the endgame in itself is tedious, extremely grindy, and overall annoying.

Borderlands 3's main story is pretty bad and the characters are annoying, but it features what I would consider the best gameplay in the series with many quality of life improvements over previous entries. Also, once you already have a max level character, you have the option to create other characters already at max level with the main story already completed, so it at least partially fixes the issue of the bad story because you only ever have to play through it once.

[Palehorse]

For me:

- Borderlands 2.
- Claptastic Voyage DLC.
- Borderlands.
- Borderlands 3.
- Tales from the Borderlands.
- Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! (I only mention this one because, well, because I played it and my main and favorite characters were Lady Aurelia and Claptrap, I played with the other characters out of obligation to get 100%).

I haven't played Tiny Tina's Wonderlands or New Tales From the Borderlands, so I don't know how good they are.

This is my opinion and I respect the opinions of others.

[smokerob79]

1 was the best game......2 was them trying to go crazy.....3 has the best gun play......and the pre garbage was really bad to the point i have less then 20 hours in it......

[Casurin]

i would like to say TPS but it is just too short and overal too little content to keep going - so BL2 it is.
TPS is just the better BL2 in general, the main-story is not as good as BL2 and there is only 1 real story-DLC but for what it is worth Claptastic IS claptasticly good - better than TTAoDK. But just the lack of anything to do is... there is a reasony why i have multiple times more hours on BL2 than TPS.

[kukuhimanpr]

claptastic dlc is the best borderlands games expansion dlc for me. particularly with its claptrap digistruct mindscape world design.

[tdutton]

BL2.
Anyone says different, they are lying.