Borderlands 3 Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

2. NPC Characters Are Punchy & Memorable

NPCs are just as important to any long form video game experience - especially an open world with hub elements - as any main character, villain or motivating factor.If the central mission space you're returning to over and over is literally lifeless, what's the point?

Thankfully, in taking Borderlands action to space; plopping you on a spaceship and letting you jet to various planets, it's a godsend that Gearbox picked their finest characters to accompany you.

One is Claptrap, who even though his voice actor (now Jim Foronda) has been changed, is still written with the same mix of relentlessly chirpy confidence and macabre intentions as before. Another is Ellie, the overweight juggernaut of a lady who's just as obsessed with bedding half the populace as saving the cosmos.

They're just the tip of a very memorable, enjoyable iceberg, and when team banter is going as strong as the characters themselves, it propels you from one situation to the next with a huge smile on your face.