I'm not more than, like, five hours into this game but it feels kind of weird? They've tried to jazz up the guns with some odd magick-y effects but a lot of them just feel ineffectual and odd to use, like the weird spread shotgun effect that you see a bunch of early on. The overworld map feels true to tabletop gaming but also just breaks up a lot of the action for little real reward; it's a Borderlands game and I should be shooting stuff instead of...not shooting stuff.

I think the bigger thing for me here is, again, the writing, which seems pretty bad! It's also incredibly intrusive in the same way it was in BL3, where you are just being talked at non-stop from Tina and Will Arnett (who I don't mind in general but just comes across as incredibly smarmy here, which is saying something for a Borderlands game) and the other people at the D&D table and etc, etc. It's odd how much time you have to spend after getting some quests before you can run off and shoot stuff again! Like you're just sitting around waiting for an NPC to tell you about their plans before your checkpoints actually update and you can run off to start blazing your guns. I don't expect Borderlands humor to ever really jibe with mine, and indeed it's a pretty direly unfunny affair so far, so at least they could maybe try to talk a little less in between all the shooting.

I dunno! It's not great! It's still Borderlands so it's fun to shoot things, although even that is kind of weird since the generic enemies seem to have more health than I recall and also they seem to scale up to your level, often popping in at a level above yours. Takes a while to kill normal enemies, which doesn't feel great!

At least it doesn't have Claptrap, I guess.

I've put a fair amount of time into it so far. Finished the campaign and have delved deep into the endgame stuff. Gotta disagree about the writing. It's dorky as I hell but I found it enjoyable. Granted, most of it is not laugh-out-loud funny, but I like the breezy, lighthearted nature of it. It's just fun, and I think way less grating than any of the past games could be. I also find it easy to tune out and ignore if I'm not feeling it. At the very least, I think the main cast did a wonderful job and actually had some good chemistry together.

Also, I think this game is far better at getting you into the action quickly than any other game in the series. Think about all the gigantic, empty levels for using vehicles that this game doesn't have. The overworld makes this game really move. Can't disagree about the NPCs yammering at you though.

I know what you mean about the combat early on. The basic mobs feel ever so slightly tanky at the start. Also, the early game is weird because it slowly doles out the different manufacturers over a couple hours, making the early loot pools small and lacking in variety. Things definitely get better as it goes, though. The spells are probably my favorite addition to the game. There's a ton of different ones and some of the legendary ones are super fun.

Anyway, the campaign is fairly short and easy. I was surprised at the amount of side stuff, though. There are several sizeable zones that are only for side quests, and many of the quests are as robust as the story missions. The game seems pretty small in comparison to the main series but it's very densely packed.

As for the Chaos Chamber...I can't believe how much i like it. I wasn't planning on playing as much of this as I've ended up, but that shit is fun. It needs an increase in mob density in a lot places but it offers a rewarding challenge the campaign does not. It's also fairly deep and has some fun secrets. It's far and away the best endgame stuff the series has had so far. So if you just want action, power through the rest of the story and get to the Chaos Chamber.

And don't worry, Claptrap makes a couple of (optional) appearances.

I think it’s overall not that great. Maybe I’m not a fan of the borderlands formula, I just feel like the shooting aspect of this shooting game feels kind of old and lacking innovation or modernization. Guns never feel particularly powerful, instead it always seems like you’re chasing slight upgrades that quickly get outpaced by the scaling of enemies. Speaking of which, enemies dart around in a way that makes them mostly annoying to fight, and their large health pools make some fights take much longer than they need to be.

Character leveling is not a fun experience. Most class upgrades are essentially small stat increases, and at no point have I really felt their impact. If levels came frequently that could be fine, but time between levels is pretty large compared to other loot games I’ve played. I don’t look forward to leveling, instead it just sorta happens and I plug in a point somewhere in the 5-6 options I don’t really have any interest in and move on.

Also inventory management (at least on console) feels bad. Not the worst, but not well thought out either.

The story I don’t mind so much. It’s kinda cringe at points but the VO is fun. I love ttrpgs and fantasy, so I was hoping for more of that kind of feel and character options, but really it just has an aesthetic of a ttrpg rather than any real mechanics. No character choice beyond upgrading stats, no dialogue options, no branching paths, at least 6 hours into the game. If anything it’s the antithesis of a ttrpg or dnd-style game. It’s quite literally just borderlands + fantasy tropes.

Also I particularly hate the character creator. Everything looks bad, characters look very samey across classes since their profiles are so similar, and the only real changes I can make to my appearance is the pattern on my clothing.

@killem_dafoe: I'm definitely looking forward to some of the later game stuff and hope that I'm not completely misjudging it based on the first few hours! We'll see!

One aspect of this series that drastically needs an overhaul is the UI, though. Doing pretty much anything with your equipment is an absolute chore at best and a nightmare at worst. Maybe it's just the widescreen but UI elements will overlap and obscure each other constantly and it's just a PITA to work with even with MKB.

@rorie: Oh dude, absolutely. I've always been pretty tolerant of the BL games' UI, but this is the first time where I just feel this straight up isn't working anymore. There are three new categories of loot in this game. Gear is dropping CONSTANTLY and in very large volumes. I feel like they were aware of that though, because your starting inventory is like three times bigger than the other games. Filling it up and going through all of it is such a pain in the ass late in the game. At the very least, they need a "Pick Up as Junk" button.

Yeah, this has been my problem with Borderlands kinda the whole time, and even though this Tiny Tina game is more "fantasy" focused, they haven't really made it more of an RPG (either in character building or in true role playing). Borderlands is still like 95% shooter, 5% RPG, and I can't maintain interest in leveling a character where the builds/classes all feel like "guy with gun" with minor stat differences and only a single activated ability to differentiate them. I had to accept that Borderlands is just not for me, because at this point, it doesn't seem like Gearbox has any interest in overhauling that formula they established in 2009.

I wish another dev would take a crack at doing shooter-RPG where there's a better balance of the two ideas, but even Destiny, The Division, Outriders, etc. are still missing the mark based on what I've seen of them.

I play all of the Borderlands games co-op with my wife and we're not too far in this one yet. I think we're around chapter 5 atm. Here are my ramblings.

What I like so far:

The overworld aspect is cool and no driving! I couldn't stand the large mostly empty maps that needed a vehicle for traversal in old BL games. The UI speed is improved from BL3, its not slow and laggy like it was in that one. I don't find the NPC's, quest givers, Tiny Tina and game players to be as annoying. They pop in and out but they don't go on super long diatribes like they all did in the last game. Having magic is cool, plus they are usually on a quick cooldown means multiple uses in a fight. Not having to worry about having grenades is good since they were usually a gimmick in themselves.

What I don't like:

Similar to what others have said, all the guns suck so far. They barely do anything, plus the AI now run and jump around like bunny rabbits on crack. Is there less loot? I don't know, there feels like less loot in this game. Maybe because the guns aren't very good and the melee is very weak as well. The UI is cumbersome and still very hard to read especially in split screen which is how I always play these games. I was wondering where all the gun manufacturers were, so they slowly release them? That blows, what was the thinking behind that?