Top 10 Worst Things About Borderlands 3
Borderlands 3 in many ways is a disappointing game from the franchise. This list will be going over some of the biggest flaws, I, and others have with it.
One of the worst stories for a video game ever written. It's got plot holes, terrible lines, terrible characters, horrible misuse of other characters, and lame boss fights at times. The writing makes no sense whatsoever. They've forgotten what made Borderlands 2 so impactful and decided that this game was the only way to follow it up.
If they make Borderlands 4, please have a great villain that's not a Twitch streamer.
The Calypso twins are just bad villains. Wannabe Twitch streamers with no personality, except maybe Troy, but even then barely. Tyreen's issues stem from being imprisoned on a planet or something - just daddy issues, I guess.
Also, the way they talk is so annoying that you wish Handsome Jack would return and kill them off. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen at all. Instead, you just hear them talk and talk until you kill them at the end. Killing a Borderlands villain is usually satisfying. Not the case with this one, though.
I thought that being a siren was a rare thing, but that's not the case in this one. Apparently, Tannis is a siren for some reason. Amara is a siren, Lilith is a siren, and even Ava is a siren.
Lilith makes sense, but Ava? Why the hell is she a siren? Makes zero sense. Isn't Tannis some researcher? She's just a siren because screw it, I guess.
Troy is the only one of the two twins that had potential. Imagine if he killed her off, established himself as the main threat, and proved to be more than just a parasite. Towards the end, he starts talking more and wants to establish that he can be taken seriously.
This is the first time where it feels like the writers studied character arcs. It gets wasted after a lousy boss fight that kills him off and makes Tyreen the main threat.
Borderlands humor has always been lowbrow, but this entry lacks the originality and cleverness that makes the jokes in older installments funny.
Borderlands is known for having great humor, which was established in Borderlands 2. The humor in this one just feels like it was written by a 13-year-old. Fart jokes? Seriously? And meme humor? I thought Borderlands was supposed to be entertaining, not the opposite.
The tradition of killing off a character in Borderlands is normal. It happened with Roland, Handsome Jack, Pickle, and loads more. The difference is that Roland's death actually meant something to the story and established Jack as a serious villain.
Maya gets killed because of Ava's complaining. She tries to save Ava but dies from getting touched by Troy Calypso and fades away into dust. Maya's death happens with no build-up and is a bad way to write off a character.
With the exception of Baylex and maybe the guy that Hammerlock had a crush on, most of the new characters here are garbage. The Calypso twins are so poorly written and uninteresting. Katagawa feels like a Rhys clone minus the polish and charisma. The girl that works for Rhys is forgettable, and most of the new Vault Hunters just feel uninteresting.
The Vault Hunter (aka you, the player) barely gets acknowledged or addressed in the story. As for why, I'm not even sure. Even Borderlands 2 and The Pre-Sequel acknowledged the Vault Hunter and had some banter with the player.
Borderlands 3 barely does this and acts like the player doesn't exist in the slightest.
In a lot of the cutscenes, it feels like the player characters just cease to exist.
Characters such as Moxxi, Eli, Zer0, and even Maya barely do anything in the story. Brick, Mordecai, and Tiny Tina show up once, and then that's it. The story focuses on Lilith, Tannis, and Ava. Ava is one of the most insufferable characters in a Borderlands game since Pickle from the Pre-Sequel.
What's that? You want Rhys and Vaughn to do something? Too bad they show up every now and then... and that's it.
I'm not gonna lie. I did have some fun with the DLC of BL3, especially The Handsome Jackpot, which focuses on Moxxi and Timothy Lawrence (Jack's doppelganger). Playing through that and some other DLC was fun.
But at the same time, when a DLC storyline is more interesting than the main storyline, you know there were issues with the base game.
Ava could have been a good character if she was kept in the apprentice archetype and had better, less cringey writing. It felt like they were speedrunning her character development and skipping all the parts that would make her a likable character.