Mass Effect Andromeda’s story was better than Borderlands 3’s. Never thought I’d say that, but here we are. Gameplay is good tho, as is level design, loot, character configuration, character customization, and the sheer amount of things to do – it’s all great stuff. So if you are considering Borderlands 3, the question is: can you enjoy the looting and the shooting while ignoring the main story, or can you not? If yes, go for the Ultimate edition, since it includes everything.
7/10 from a long-time franchise fan
Total size on my hard-drive: 138 GB (Ultimate edition)

+ + gameplay is smooth, slick, and full of clever options to customize your playstyle. Clearly owes a lot to DOOM, and is better for it.

+ tons of content. There is a lot of stuff to do and places to go.
+ Story DLC are great. New locations, new (good) stories, new loot. Moxxi’s Heist, Guns Love & Tentacles, Bounty of Blood and Psycho Krieg are proof that there are still people at Gearbox who know what Borderlands is all about.
+ Some really killer tracks in the soundtrack. Raid-boss Wotan’s track was so good I never cared how many times I died trying to solo him (spoiler: a lot).
+ tons of farmable bosses and raid bosses in the best Borderlands tradition.
+ You can now fast-travel to any fast-travel-station just by clicking it on your map. You can also fast-travel directly to your vehicle.
+ The bank (where you store stuff in your home base) is now accessible by all your characters, and can store up to 500 items (after upgrades).
+ Still have to press E to open containers, but loot and ammo are automatically vacuumed up. No more holding E to pick up everything within range.
+ Lots of character customizations, from outfits to emotes.
+ Denuvo was removed on January 21, 2021

+/- Graphics are improved (Unreal 4), but at the cost of demanding better hardware. Those who want smooth frame-rates will have to lower settings anyway.
+/- There are over-the-top / colorful / annoying characters in every Borderlands game. That’s a franchise staple. Borderlands 3 is no different. Some people will love them, some will hate them. But the fact that they’re there isn’t a reason to hate BL3 without also hating on the other Borderlands games.

- the story is terrible (long video, but it does spoil the story, so spoiler warning) TLDW stuff happens, and you’ll only have the vaguest notion why or how. If you’re hoping for something on the level of Where Angels Fear to Tread from BL2 (my favorite mission in any Borderlands game from a narrative standpoint), you will be VERY disappointed.
- Ava is as bad as you’ve heard.
- Moxxi? Is that you? Sounds like you. Doesn’t really look like you.
- Lilith? Is that you? Sounds like you. Doesn’t really look like you.
- at least Maya looks & sounds the same. aaaaand… she’s dead.
- DLC skill trees set a dangerous anti-consumer precedent
- Random matchmaking is dead (you can still find people to play with on the forums tho)
- vaults have almost no loot
- Legendaries are EVERYWHERE (except in the vaults)
- True Vault Hunter Mode (TVHM) is just NG+ now.
In Borderlands 2 & Pre-Sequel, Levels 1-30 are the Normal playthrough (analogous to Borderlands 1’s Playthrough 1).
Levels 30-50 are True Vault Hunter Mode (TVHM), with harder enemies, better loot drops, and even some new spawnable bosses that won’t appear in Normal mode (in Borderlands 1 this was called Playthrough 2).
Levels 50+ are Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode (UVHM), with even higher difficulty, and enemies that scale with you (which did not happen in either of the previous modes) (in Borderlands 1, this was known as Playthrough 2.5, since the story did not re-start).
ANYWAY:
In Borderlands 3, max level (72) can be achieved in Normal mode, and there are ‘Mayhem levels’ that increase difficulty and the quality of loot drops. Mayhem levels can be activated in the first playthrough after completing the main story. Mayhem levels also activate enemy scaling. There’s literally no reason to bother with TVHM except to play through the story once more with all your upgrades.
- Borderlands 3 is too easy. In previous Borderlands games, solo players should be 3 levels HIGHER than the specified level of a mission to avoid frustration. In BL3, I was solo-walking through missions 5 levels LOWER than the mission’s level, mowing enemies down without issue. Raid bosses are balanced better, but compared to how easy the rest of the game is they present a massive difficulty spike that caught me unawares.


Linux users: Ran well using DX11, High preset with Ambient Occlusion disabled, and ProtonGE 7-47. Some frame-drops with 20 enemies on-screen if they all have active status effects (most spawns aren’t that large). Otherwise a smooth 60fps with no persistent stutter or frame-time issues. #Arch #Radeon