Fourderlands is the best 7/10 I've ever played, and is another great example of where Steam needs a 'meh' button.
Generally, if you like BL3 or Tiny Tina's, and you want more of that you'll like this. If you thought that BL3 had too much story & personality youre in luck! BL4 has way less of both. If you just want to punch the gun box over and over again, BL4 is another chance to do that! In broad strokes, BL4 is an excellent, perhaps even top tier FPS entry. The combat has all the pieces. Each of the 3 major factions (and many sub factions) have very unique enemy types and interactions which keep every combat arena fresh. This is doubly true of places where the factions interact and where you can get 3 or 4 way battles. This gels well with the loot you get, which gives you tools to pick apart groups of enemies and beat them down. There is a story here, some cool moments and good vibes, and if you found the story of BL3 annoying (many did) this tones it down from 11 to 8 or 9. And as a coop game, its super fun. I've actually done most of my playtime in coop and have enjoyed it.
But in the details the game falls apart. Its buggy as hell. The breadcrumb trail to missions is often drunk and breaks super easily. I've had bosses glitch out and just stand there till I delete them. Enemies will fall through the world, or get stuck behind terrain, or just not load in any AI behaviors and stand by their spawn doors. This can be SUPER annoying when you have to kill enemies to progress, maybe half the time this ends with you hunting for the one bad guy whose AI broke. One specific propaganda tower (side mission type) cant be completed for me because it gets stuck at 75%. Maybe an enemy is breaking, maybe the quest. I've had missions not play story audio. Sometimes things just happen and I have to ask 'is this intended behavior, am I not getting the puzzle, or is the game just broken.' And usually its about 1/3rd to each, which is too much. But when it works, boy it works. The combat can be very tactical. The combination of abilities, grenades, and gunplay can be quite satisfying. When the music hits, youre bouncing around the arena, and everything is working right, the game is a solid 9/10.
Beyond this the game is just, IDK, pointless. There hasn't been a lot of change in the BL formula in the last decade, and its really starting to strain against core design limitations. On my current char I have $100m space bucks. Because I can't spend it, because vendor loot is 99% useless. I only spend cash when I die. But if I don't need money why I am picking up any loot at any point? The only loot that matters *at all* is the loot that makes your numbers bigger. Thats bad when the selling feature is 'lots of guns to loot.' Past the starter quests, 90% of loot I get is not at all useful for my class. But not only is loot a core selling feature, getting a spin on the loot wheel is the primary reward to any activity. And its kinda pointless. Even worse, unlike in most FPS where you get a feel for guns, you are getting so much loot and swapping so often you keep a good gun for, maybe, 20 min before you drop it for a new gun with a bigger number. Do you hate the new fire mode (like the Order charge rifles, which are horrid)? Too bad! Does it not jive with your build? Maybe the next will! Who cares! None of it matters. Just make the number bigger. Nothing is permanent, nothing matters, nothing sticks with you. What the game needs is the freedom for me to rebuild my own guns, but they cant do this because the battlepass is selling you premium legendaries and anyway modifying anything serious with your guns just further breaks the loot wheel. So, like, what exactly is the point of all this? Oh and the class skill tooltips are badly written to the point that its impossible to know how to build characters. What does "+6% kill skill effectiveness" actually mean? Who knows, BL doesnt seem to. Worse still, the shooting controls are horrid on a controller. This was a problem Halo 1 solved in 2001, but here IDK whats off but its one of the worst feeling shooters I've played in a decade and no amount of settings changes seem to fix that. Because shooting feels so bad, you really just want to spray and pray from the hip. What, you keep getting purple sniper rifles?
Thankfully the story is ALSO bad. Or, flat, more specifically. Because of how poorly the Twins in BL3 were received, every character in BL4 is now very safe, generic, and flat. Personality and edges were sanded down, and the game is just a wet fart in terms of content. There are cool moments, nice set pieces, hype moments, but it never goes anywhere or does anything with it. Gearbox and do some cool DBZ style action direction, but like the gun wheel you just see it and move on. The side content varies from bizarre and surreal to sad, experimental, existential, etc. Some of that content, like 'The Boss' storyline where you help a gangster get his, is pretty fun. All of this is cut out at the knees with some really aggressive millennial toilet humor. If youve never played BL, its Marvel humor with more cursing and poop jokes. And if you hated it in BL3, its still here in BL4. Is it funny when I shoot the ripper and they shout 'agh, hamburgers!'? Sometimes, but there is so much of it that doesnt land.
So do I recommend BL4? No. If you havn't beaten BL3 I don't think BL4 is worth playing, not because you MUST KNOW THE STORY, but because BL3 is more stable, the same gameplay, and you can get way cheaper. There is nothing in BL4 that matters, or is worth caring about, outside of the combat balance & class building. Which is either the same or better in the older, cheaper titles. The sole use case for this game, IMHO, is you want a good coop game with a buddy. I have put a ton of time into this so far, but most nights I end up feeling like I'd rather have played Darktide or some other coop experience.
