Borderlands 3 Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

3. Open-World Exploration Feels Worthwhile

Borderlands has never been known for its story, but the various planets you get to visit are always loaded with an immense amount of detail.

Coming from BL3's aesthetic steering entirely into overly inky comic book panels and cel-shading, the worlds themselves benefit from considerable draw distance. Caves and ravines pop with neon colours as purple or blue lighting guides you towards a small piece of lore or weapon you wouldn't always find.

It lets you stumble into mission areas ahead of time, have fun clearing out bandit camps, level up or acquire collectibles and better skills, all feeding back into that core progression.

Borderlands knows its a sandbox, and when combat is this immediate, each world being so enjoyable is just icing on the cake.