Key Highlights:
- Borderlands 4 is the biggest Borderlands launch yet.
- However, the game has a ton of negative reviews on Steam.
- Much of this can be attributed toward performance woes.
The newest entry in the Borderlands franchise aims to keep the core formula untouched, while toning down on the (often cringey) slapstick humor, making for what could be the best Borderlands to date.
Gearbox Software has mostly achieved this in Borderlands 4, with the game gaining a strong start on Steam and other platforms, in addition to having very positive scores across the board. This was unfortunately accompanied by a slew of negative user reviews for the game on platforms such as Steam, which seem to tell a different tale.
Borderlands 4 Launches To ‘Mixed’ Ratings on Steam
Borderlands 4 is the biggest Borderlands launch ever, amassing over 200,000 players in an all time peak. The game has been massively successful so far, despite controversies and an initial, lukewarm reaction to the game.
This is sharply contrasted by the presence of numerous scathing reviews on Steam. The game suffers from a Mixed rating on the popular PC gaming platform, with complaints being drawn to its terrible PC performance and optimization.
Borderlands 4 is being described as what could be perhaps the most unoptimized Unreal Engine 5 game yet, and there’s a lot that point to the same. The game runs quite poorly, and is subject to frequent crashing, making for a frustrating experience.
Also Read: Nintendo Direct Scheduled For September 12 Likely to Shed Light on Major Upcoming Releases
This is regardless of what PC hardware you own, and the game requires beefy specs across the board. This is all while managing to look barely better than the now 6 year old Borderlands 3.
The game is expected to reportedly fix these issues with the massive day one patch, which is yet to be released. That being said, Borderlands 4 seems like a surprisingly fun time, if the same Steam reviews are to be believed.
The game is a marked improvement over the previous trilogy, offering fresh gunplay and a story that doesn’t seem to be bogged down, and is far more grounded. However, until these performance issues are properly addressed, it’s really hard to recommend Borderlands 4 to anyone.
Unreal Engine 5 Performance Woes Continue
This isn’t the first Unreal Engine 5 game to have controversies regarding its performance. However, Borderlands 4 might just be the worst example yet. The game mandates some rather beefy PC system requirements, which is painfully represented in its resource hungry nature. It also performs just as horribly as you’d expect.
The game requires heavy use of upscaling (DLSS/FSR) and frame generation to ensure smooth performance, which is quite undesirable, since it brings additional latency and ghosting to the image. Not to mention the generally softer nature of the image generated.
This is also starting to become a pattern in modern Unreal Engine games, where almost every major AAA release is followed by a series of bugs and performance issues. The rather excellent Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater also had its fair share of issues, and the list dates further back.
Epic Games CEO, Tim Sweeney had remarked that the fault lies with developers themselves, who refuse to optimize their games until the very last moment, which does hold some truth to it.
After all, companies have willingly chosen to rely on methods such as DLSS and frame generation to compensate for poor optimization. Modern games tend to barely hit a stable 60 frames per second on most hardware.
However, this has been seen to exhibit in Unreal Engine 5 games the most, which really makes one wonder if it is also the game engine’s nature at fault here.
