Problematic performance
Difficult to tackle this test without immediately mentioning the element that has made the most debate since the release of the game, namely performance. From the launch, all the players quickly realized that Borderlands 4 was a real optimization disaster that puts all the machines – including the most efficient – at Rude Evidence.
One of the main people responsible for this disaster is an awkward and poorly dosed implementation of certain flagship features of Unreal Engine 5, starting with the global illumination system Lumen. The latter is known to be really greedy – but Gearbox still took the side of forcing its use without offering an alternative not based on Ray Tracing, which imposes a gigantic workload in hardware. In addition, almost all players have been faced with FPS Falls as important as it is unpredictable. And this phenomenon tends to get worse over time, which suggests the existence of large memory leaks.
For reference, the simple fact of stabilizing the framerate above the 60 frames per second was a real Cross Stations on our main test machine, a PC with a RTX 3070 and a Ryzen 7700X. To achieve this, we had to limit all the most demanding graphic parameters such as the shadows at least … and even go into 1080p resolution with the DLSS turning at full speed. Admittedly, it is a graphics card that is starting to date a little – but even the late generation hardware cream is not spared from this carnage.
With a little hindsight, it quickly becomes obvious that Borderlands 4 was fully designed to operate with the support of overchanting technologies Like the Nvidia DLSS or the FSR of AMD, Without real consideration for the native rendering. The engine literally seems to collapse as soon as we try to do without it – proof that Gearbox has only paid very little attention to basic optimization.
You can’t help but find it difficult to excuse in a game like Borderlands. The cartoony and stylized style of the franchise, based on an effective pseudo-cell-shading, has always worked very well so far; The previous opuses generally looked great while remaining much better optimized. In Borderlands 4, The added value is simply too weak To justify these highly problematic performance.
And total dependence on upscaling tools is not without consequences, far from it. Even if these technologies have largely progressed in recent years, they have always tended to cause ghostingsparkles and instability that make the result much less clear and coherent than with the native rendering. And it is particularly painful in an action game as nervous and chaotic as Borderlands, because these visual artefacts directly harm the readability of the action.
A Gunplay with small onions
It is all the more frustrating since if we manage to ignore these shortcomings, Borderlands 4 gameplay is simply fantastic. It must be admitted that if Gearbox has clearly set foot in the carpet with optimization, the studio has signed a hell of a tour de force in the mechanics.
The recipe for the game was truly sublimated thanks to a Gunplay sharper and punchy than everwell served by a Arsenal always infinitely varied and frankly exhilarating. All weapons, from revolvers to snipers, passing by shotguns, offer squarely enjoyable sensations.
The introduction of new mechanics of movement, Like the glider and the air dash, also helps to bring even more dynamism in a game that was already not missing. Add to that interesting, diverse and flexible talent trees that encourage all -out experimentation, and you get a loop of Incredibly addictive and rewarding gameplay which recalls why the series has established itself as a reference of the Looter-Shooter.
A world both too much and not open enough
For the first time, Gearbox has chosen to place his intrigue in a real open world – a big novelty that radically changes the gameplay. At first glance, the size of the environment and the verticality brought by the new movement mechanics are quite stimulating and contribute to proposing a fairly cool experience compared to previous opus opuswhose level design was much more linear.
Unfortunately, this impression collapses in part when one realizes that this format is much more restrictive than one might think. The map is studded with empty and uninteresting areas which are sometimes painful to cross, especially because of the countless invisible walls which make exploration more frustrating than it should have been. So we end up with a artificially stretched map which tends to lack consistency, homogeneity and substance Compared to the environments certainly more linear, but still better constructed previous opus.
A agreed and tasteless narration
And unfortunately, this half-fig, half-grape impression also applies to the last element where this fourth opus was truly expected at the turn: History and narration.
To re -situate the context, the crazy and irreverent humor which is an integral part of the Borderlands DNA touched the bottom in the third opus, with its comedy flush with the daisy, always more exasperating than really fun. Fans of the first hour was therefore waiting for a homecoming with Borderlands 4 … but it is clear that the account is not there.
Certainly, The writing has clearly gained restraint and maturity compared to Borderlands 3 ; But the well -dosed humor of the first two opus always shines by its absence. With a few exceptions, we find ourselves more often to sigh against heavy punchlines than to laugh with a good heart.
The observation is even more severe when lingering on history. Overall, The intrigue is sorely lacking in magnitude and originalitywith its too flat and agreed twists and turns which often fail to surprise or arouse the slightest emotion.
This also applies to the protagonists. Despite the presence of a few sure values like Moxxi and this good old claptrap, and the arrival of some new rather endearing characters like Rafa or Levaine, the cast often has trouble winning.
The Timekeeper, a big villain of this 4th opus, is very representative of these shortcomings. Unfortunately, he suffers from a cruel lack of charisma which makes him not very memorable – especially when compared to the legendary Handsome Jack de Borderlands, who has established himself as one of the most iconic bad guys of the last two decades.
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