Borderlands 4 has a clear brief: keep the dopamine of the franchise’s best firefights, then sand down the bits that made Borderlands 3 feel exhausting. On PS5, that intent mostly lands. The gunplay remains the main event, but it is now paired with more agile movement, a large, continuous-feeling world on Kairos, and a noticeably steadier grip on tone. There are still jokes, still chaos, still loot showers, but the game is happier to let a dramatic beat sit for a moment rather than stepping on it with a punchline.
The catch is technical. Borderlands 4 can look and feel excellent for stretches, then drift into frame rate wobble across long sessions, with a quit-and-restart workaround frequently cited while patches continue to roll out.
Game Snapshot
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K
Release Date: 12 September 2025
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Nintendo Switch 2 version delayed; date TBA)
Price: £69.99/$69.99
Rating: PEGI 18
Genre: First-person looter shooter, action RPG
Length: 25-35 hours (main story) and ~45-55 hours (story + side content)
Install Size: ~28 Gb on PS5
Presentation and World Design
Kairos is Borderlands 4’s biggest upgrade because it changes the rhythm of play. Instead of bouncing between separate zones, the game leans into broader regions and a more open, roam-friendly structure, giving side activities and incidental fights more space to breathe. In a looter shooter, the best sessions are rarely the ones you planned; they are the ones where you spot a landmark, get pulled into a world event, then end up clearing a stronghold on the way back to a vendor.
Visually, Borderlands remains Borderlands: thick outlines, bold colour, and readability that favours fast target acquisition over ultra-fine photoreal detail. The upside is clarity in hectic co-op and strong silhouette work on enemies and weapons. The downside is that the art style can sometimes blur environmental variety, so it is the layout, verticality, and points of interest that keep exploration feeling fresh. Reviews generally agree the shift to a more seamless Kairos makes the series feel more coherent and less scattershot than the planet-hopping structure of Borderlands 3, even if the map can still get busy with icons.
Gameplay and Combat
Borderlands 4 still lives and dies on the feel of shooting, and it largely nails it. The loop is familiar: take a mission, wipe a camp, compare drops, tweak the build, repeat, but the moment-to-moment action has more snap thanks to improved mobility and more deliberate combat spacing. Several reviews highlight the movement suite as a genuine upgrade, with tools like double-jumping, gliding, dodging, and grappling opening up fights as well as traversal.
That extra mobility matters most when enemies push harder. Positioning becomes a choice rather than a limitation, and boss encounters feel more like tests of tempo than simple damage checks. On the progression side, Borderlands 4 leans into build expression: branching skill trees, action skill variants, and gear modifiers form a chunky optimisation layer that rewards experimenting rather than locking you into one obvious path.
The nagging issue is friction around the edges. Borderlands 4 still carries the series’ long-running interface headaches: inventory management can feel slow, comparison readability can be busy, and menus can drag you out of the fun, especially when co-op pacing encourages quick decisions rather than spreadsheet time. It is not a deal-breaker, but it is the clearest “why is this still like this?” moment in an otherwise polished combat package.
Story and Characters
Borderlands 4’s narrative approach feels like a course correction. It is still loud, still stylised, still packed with familiar franchise energy, but it is more willing to be sincere. Multiple reviews note a more balanced tone, where character moments can land without being instantly undercut.
The broad setup is straightforward: Kairos is ruled by the Timekeeper, and the campaign is built around pushing back against an oppressive regime while chasing the series’ usual blend of power fantasy and treasure-hunt momentum. The new Vault Hunters are positioned to carry the story without leaning too hard on legacy cameos, which helps the game feel approachable for newcomers, even if returning faces still appear.
Don’t expect a prestige-drama reinvention. The plot is functional scaffolding for the action, but when Borderlands 4 focuses on character texture and lets world-building do some of the talking, it is markedly easier to stick with than the series’ most grating stretches.
Value and Longevity
At £69.99/$69.99 on PS5, Borderlands 4 needs to justify itself with longevity, and it has the toolkit. Most estimates place the main campaign in the 25–35 hour range, with a longer tail if you engage with side missions and exploration. The ceiling rises sharply for completionists and, more importantly, for anyone who treats Borderlands as a buildcraft hobby rather than a one-and-done story.
The endgame is designed to start sooner and feel less gated, with repeatable activities and smoother entry into higher-difficulty progression. If you like co-op grind and chasing specific drops, Borderlands 4 is built to keep you busy. If you only want a tightly paced campaign and then done, it is still enjoyable, just not exceptional value on its own terms.
Technical Notes
Borderlands 4 supports up to 4-player online co-op and 2-player split-screen on PS5, and it is clearly designed around co-op parity, with scaling and individual difficulty options intended to keep parties together.
On performance, the most widely discussed issue is degradation over long play sessions on console, often attributed by analysts and commentators to a memory-related problem, with restarting the game commonly recommended as a temporary workaround. This does not mean everyone will hit it immediately, but it is prominent enough to be worth flagging for PS5 buyers who tend to play in marathon sessions.
Final Word
Borderlands 4 on PS5 is the most convincing argument in years for Borderlands as a long-haul co-op obsession. It shoots brilliantly, moves better than the series ever has, and uses Kairos’ scale to make the “one more objective” pull feel natural rather than forced. The writing is also more restrained, which helps the characters breathe.
The main caveat is technical confidence. If you tend to play in marathon sessions, keep an eye on patches and expect occasional friction, including the widely reported restart workaround for performance drops. Still, if Borderlands is your comfort food, this is a strong serving.
FAQ
Q. Does Borderlands 4 run at 60fps on PS5?
A. Borderlands 4 includes performance-oriented options on current-gen consoles, but reports show frame rate can degrade after long continuous play, with restarting the game often restoring smoother performance. If you are sensitive to frame pacing, shorter sessions and keeping on top of updates is the safest approach until performance stabilises further.
Q. How long is Borderlands 4?
A. Most estimates put the main story at roughly 25–35 hours, depending on difficulty, how often you detour, and how much side content you sample along the way. If you lean into side missions and exploration, expect closer to 45–55 hours, with completionist play often extending beyond that.
Q. Is there split-screen co-op on PS5?
A. Yes. Borderlands 4 supports 2-player split-screen on PS5, alongside up to 4-player online co-op. It also uses scaling and individual difficulty options to help players with different progression points play together without it feeling like someone is being carried through every fight.
Q. Do I need to play the older games first?
A. Not strictly. Borderlands 4 introduces a new planet, a new central conflict, and a fresh set of Vault Hunters. Returning characters do appear, but the core appeal remains the gameplay loop, and the story is designed to be followable even if you have not kept up with every prior entry.
Q. Should I wait for patches before buying on PS5?
A. If consistent performance is your top priority, waiting is reasonable, as long-session performance drops have been widely discussed. If you can tolerate some rough edges, the underlying game is already strong, and co-op fans will likely get a lot out of the endgame and buildcrafting systems.
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