Borderlands 4 breaks franchise records despite having "Mixed" reviews on Steam. Read on to learn more about the game’s performance issues and how it holds up despite the optimization problems.
Borderlands 4 Mixed Reviews
Performance and Optimization Issues Plague Launch Day
Borderlands 4’s launch day is off to a rocky start, with fans raising concerns about the game’s performance. As of writing, the game has "Mixed" reviews on Steam; 43% of those are negative.
According to players hours after launch, the game is poorly optimized. [Problem 1, Problem 2, and Problem 3] plague the game despite meeting recommended system requirements. One review noted that even though they had an RX 6900 XT graphics card (which is right around the recommended AMD RX 6800 XT/NVIDIA RTX 3080) and had the graphics turned down to Low, they still couldn’t hit 60fps.
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford previously said on Twitter (X) that fans should have realistic expectations for the game’s performance, especially on lower-end machines. He also promised that the game’s day-one patch would resolve the performance issues that were seen on its preview build.
While the mentioned day-one patch has yet to arrive, fans continue to criticize the game’s performance. With the optimization issues the game has, its price once more became a talking point within the community. This has been controversial ever since Pitchford stated the pricing is not a problem for "real fans."
Still Breaking Records
Despite mixed reviews, Borderlands 4 continues to break franchise records, becoming the most-played title in the series' history. According to SteamDB, Borderlands 4 reached an all-time peak of over 200,000 concurrent players within its first nine hours.
In comparison, Borderlands 2 peaked at 124,678 players, while Borderlands 3 peaked at 93,820 on Steam. Pitchford said on Twitter (X) that this count could go further, as Borderlands 3 reached its peak during the weekend of its Tuesday release.
Although the game is currently plagued with technical issues, fans admitted that the game itself is a step up from previous Borderlands titles. They stated that the gameplay and story were fun, highlighting the well executed humor in the narrative, and improvements in the gunplay.
Unfortunately, these are all "narred" behind Borderlands 4’s optimization problems, which will hopefully be resolved when the day-one patch is released.
Cinematic Launch Trailer Features Mayhem-Fueled Action
Regardless of the issues mentioned above, Borderlands 4’s launch came with an all-new cinematic trailer that features the game’s mayhem-fueled action, featuring all the Vault Hunters front and center. Beyond the four playable Vault Hunters—Vex, Rafa, Amon, and Harlowe—the game also sees the return of Borderlands 2’s bartender, Mad Moxxi, and the annoyingly charismatic robot, Claptrap.
The 1-minute video showcased battles of the protagonists against the Time Keeper, all from Claptrap’s point of view. With a new planet to explore in Kairos and new items and weapons to loot, Borderlands 4 promises to be the pinnacle title of the series.
Borderlands 4 is now available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. To stay up to date with the latest information about the game, check out our article below!
Source:
Borderlands 4 Steam page
Borderlands 4 SteamDB charts
Randy Pitchford Twitter (X) post on Borderlands 4 Breaking Records
Borderlands 4 - Official Cinematic Launch Trailer
