It has been seven years since Borderlands 2 came out. I still remember being excited, waiting for that day to come when seventh grade me got to play the follow-up to one of my favorite games of all time, Borderlands. It definitely lived up to my expectations. Running as Salvador, the juiced up gunzerker, I have many fond memories of playing through the game and beating every single expansion. Years later however, I wasn’t very excited for Borderlands 3. I played a tiny bit of the pre-sequel (a sort of sequel/full game sized expansion to 2) but it never grabbed me. Then Tales from the Borderlands came out, a Borderlands tale that checked all the boxes.

Borderlands 3 just came out, and I found myself not that hyped for it. The older I get, the less disposable time I have, so I really don’t have much time to play video games anymore. Being a loyalist to the series though, I still picked the game up. It does not disappoint.

The gist of Borderlands is that it is a looter shooter. The game takes place on the fictional planet of Pandora (and other planets near it). You get to choose four classes, for 2 it was the siren (a sort of magic user), the gunzerker (tank class), zero (the ninja) and the soldier (support). For 3 you are again given the choice of four. Amara, a damage and pain tolerance focused magic user, Moze, a scrappy gunner armed with a mech suit, FL4K, a robot with pet skags (the Borderlands equivalent of feral wolves), and Zane, an agent with abilities apt to the name.

So far, I have played as Amara the siren, and while not nearly as fun as the gunzerker, running into enemy’s faces with a shotgun and being able to withstand tons of damage is very gratifying. With a whole new arsenal of diverse weapons, you are constantly being rewarded. I can be holding a double barreled shotgun at one time, then in a second, an assault rifle that doubles as an auto-shotgun. Speaking of that, there are several quality of life improvements that are thoroughly appreciated. Going back to the second installment, one thing I noticed was the sluggish movement speed, and like other things, 3 fixes that problem.

Another thing I really enjoy about Borderlands as a whole is the cheesy humor, and for 2, especially its story. The villain Handsome Jack was awesome, and definitely one of the better villains in recent gaming history. While you don’t need to have any experience with the games to enjoy this one, the story is a long running one and an understanding of it is imperative if you want to get full enjoyment out of the game. The villains that succeed Jack are worthy successors as well.

Overall, there really isn’t anything keeping me from liking “Borderlands 3.” It improves upon almost everything from the predecessor and that’s all I want out of a sequel.

Edited by Adam White, Jackson Woods, Brianna Smith, Jessica Galvin