The Borderlands series has always been known for its crazy mix of wild shooting action, colorful characters, and sarcastic humor.
In this review, we’ll look at the overall balance, how the game plays, chaos of exploiting systems, and whether Borderlands 4 works as both a shooter and a playground of pure madness
First Impressions and Setup
Right away, the game hits you with classic Borderlands style: dry humor, casual attitude, and a knowing wink at the “optimization” problems that plague modern PC games.
But these complaints fade into the background when you’re excited to jump into Gearbox’s newest loot-filled shooter.
Our player character is Rafa, showing that the game works well on different platforms and with any character choice.
Playing on “Hard” difficulty should be tough, but it becomes almost meaningless — not because enemies are weak, but because the game’s systems are ridiculously easy to exploit.
Core Gameplay: Gunplay, Builds, and Early Exploits
Early in the game, we take on small enemies and a popular boss called Splash Zone. Armed with just a basic sniper rifle and a simple taser, even tough enemies go down easily.
The shocking success comes from our build — a perfect mix of low-level gear, shield tricks, skill combinations, and creative rule-bending.
The Build Breakdown
- Under-leveled Weapons: We kept using a level 23 Rusted State Fluy — almost ten levels below our character — but it still works great because of…
- Amp Shield: When full, gives 50% (and later up to 100%) extra damage to your first shot.
- Combat Stim: Next shot after usage deals an additional 200% damage.
- L Valiente Skill: Adds 60% extra damage at max shield.
- Alchemical Dog of War Enhancement: Tasers deal an extra 50% damage.
Put all these together, and even “outdated” weapons become incredibly powerful, especially against early bosses.
The Taser Revolution
What starts as a casual mention of taser attachments quickly gets out of hand.
A single taser shot, with all our damage bonuses stacked up, deals hundreds or even thousands of damage per second.
Add the ability to fire multiple tasers at once (thanks to Gearbox’s generous design), and you’ve got a pocket-sized weapon of mass destruction.
Enemies at any level, including bosses, get destroyed by this combo. The only thing holding us back? A short wait time between taser shots.
But for creative players, limits are just suggestions
The Exploiter’s Paradise
What makes this playthrough special isn’t just combining damage bonuses, but our enthusiasm for finding and testing increasingly broken exploits — much to our joy and the horror of game developers.
Exploit #1: The Leap Year Enhancement–Unlimited Ammo Glitch
We found the “Leap Year Enhancement,” which gives you a 30% chance that your next shot won’t use any ammo (when firing a fully charged shot with an Order weapon).
Mix this with a weapon that has a special magazine that removes the charge requirement, and you get a full-auto sniper that almost never runs out of bullets.
The real magic trick: If you switch weapons while this “free ammo” effect is active, it stays active for all your weapons — giving you unlimited ammo for everything, including the powerful taser.
No waiting, endless zapping.
The outcome?
Bosses melt, difficulty disappears, and you become a walking cheat code.
Exploit #2: The Looming Sand Saber Songbird–Infinite Damage Stack
The ultimate mischief comes from the Looming Sand Saber Songbird, earned after lots of grinding.
This pistol has a special ability: switch away from it, switch back, and you get 100% more damage for five seconds. But here’s the kicker — the damage boost stacks endlessly if you keep switching during the weapon’s firing animation, adding more and more damage to the gun’s base power.
The result?
With enough weapon swapping, bullets can deal millions of damage per shot.
Even after fast traveling, the boost stays active (until you exit to the main menu or do certain actions). This means an endless parade of enemies and bosses dying in one hit — the perfect example of “flawless game balance.”
Endgame Chaos: Overtime and Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode
The adventure doesn’t stop when the main story ends. Instead, the player jumps into “Ultimate Vault Hunter” mode — Borderlands’ version of New Game Plus, where enemies match your level, loot gets better, and things should get harder.
But armed with infinite-damage weapons and bottomless ammo, even these supposedly tough enemies fall like bowling pins. No matter what special abilities or effects they have (including spawning black holes when they die), the gameplay becomes less about staying alive and more about putting on a comedy show.
Even dangerous situations, like accidentally falling off cliffs or dealing with respawning enemies, are met with playful jokes and creative editing. This lighthearted approach never feels mean — instead, it highlights what many fans love about Borderlands: its willingness to be absurd and let players experiment, break things, and have a laugh.
Visuals, Performance, and Technical Observations
A constant theme throughout the gameplay is the game’s poor optimization, with players suffering frame rate drops (“15 FPS cutscenes, my favorite!”) even on powerful computers.
While these moments are treated as jokes, they highlight a real problem with many big-budget PC games today: they look great but don’t always run smoothly at launch.
Visually, the game keeps its classic cartoon-style look, chunky weapon designs, and comic book-style environments. Special effects from electricity, damage types, and huge attacks light up the screen, adding to the mayhem as enemies and bosses get destroyed in increasingly flashy ways.
Game Balance: Satire or Critique?
Borderlands has always walked a fine line with “balanced” gameplay — its loot-based systems are designed to occasionally make players feel unstoppable. What the player did was push these systems to their absolute limits, and sometimes beyond.
By stacking bonuses, getting unlimited ammo, and boosting damage to ridiculous levels, they revealed how fragile the game’s balance really is.
These exploits aren’t just bugs; they show the complex web of interactions and edge cases that developers have to consider if they want any real balance in a game that encourages players to optimize and experiment.
But the player never treats this as a failure or criticism of the developers. Instead, it’s a celebration of randomness and what happens when you mix a fun shooter with unpredictable random systems, open mechanics, and a creative mindset.
Criticism and Observations
Despite the fun, Borderlands 4 still has some issues:
- Performance Problems: Even with top-tier hardware, players might experience stuttering and low frame rates, especially during big scenes or cutscenes — a problem that affects many modern games.
- Too Easy to Exploit: While entertaining for chaos-seekers, unlimited exploits can ruin the challenge and replay value for players who want a fair fight or meaningful progression.
- Loot Quality Issues: The “hoarding” mentality — keeping old gear for potential exploits — can be a double-edged sword, making inventory management annoying and making meaningful loot upgrades less exciting when old items work better than new ones.
- Story Impact: By breaking the game, boss fights and important story moments lose their dramatic punch, reducing the emotional impact of plot points in favor of mechanical spectacle
Borderlands 4: A Playground for Chaos, Not Perfection
Borderlands 4, is less a refined shooter and more a wild experiment in how far game systems can be pushed, exploited, and effortlessly broken.
While not “balanced” in any normal sense, the game succeeds as a playground for those who love to poke, experiment, and ultimately outsmart the developers.
This review captures why Borderlands works: it gives you freedom, silliness, and a chance to create your own legendary gameplay. Then no matter what type of player you are, the game gives everyone something to cheer for throught its gameplay.
