Out of all main titles in the franchise, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (or Borderlands: TPS for short) always felt like the odd one out, as most fans usually tend to talk about Borderlands 1-3 instead. This might be because developer Gearbox Software wasn’t solely responsible for Borderlands: TPS since 2K Australia co-developed the game, but also because Borderlands: TPS didn’t really do anything to progress the franchise formula – which makes it feel less like a mainline title but more like a big expansion instead. Coupled with the unusual storytelling that takes place before and after the events of Borderlands 2 at the same time, it seems that Borderlands: TPS was mostly made for fans of the looter-shooter franchise in order to bridge the long time before Borderlands 3 would arrive.

As the name suggest, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is split into two parts narratively: The actually playable portion of the game is set before the events of Borderlands 2 and allows players to experience how popular villain Handsome Jack rose to power. However, the non-flashback parts of the story happen a lot later, after the events of Borderlands 2, as these cutscenes are set between the third episode of Tales from the Borderlands and Borderlands 3 instead. To keep things simple, all of this just means that Borderlands: TPS should only be played AFTER Borderlands 1 & 2, if you want to experience it’s story in the best possible way.

While the story and writing of Borderlands: TPS never really hit the same heights as other franchise titles - especially Tales from the Borderlands - for me, it’s still an enjoyable yet drawn-out trip to Pandora’s moon Elpis and the Helios space station. Having played through the game once during its launch on PlayStation and now once more on PC many years later, what most stuck with me is how nicely many of the prequel elements actually added to the events in Borderlands 1&2: There’s Jack’s story of course but there are also other notable answers to open questions like what is actually powering the Helios laser, for example.

On the downside, the story of Borderlands: TPS unfortunately suffers from big pacing issues. Even if you’re not the type to tackle all side-quests the minute they appear, the main story still moves at a snail’s pace at times, as fulfilling simple objectives usually turns into an unnecessarily lengthy affair. Coupled with the same mission objectives almost every time (“shoot X, stand here, press button”) and a visually-boring setting, it’s fair to say that Borderlands: TPS can occasionally test the patience of even the most devoted fans. If the gameplay received some meaningful updates, the feeling of repetitiveness might’ve been less of an issue, but unfortunately this isn’t the case.

To put it bluntly, Borderlands: TPS feels way too similar to Borderlands 2 in terms of UI and gameplay, to the point where it might as well be a huge expansion. Apart from the new locations and story, the main differences between Borderlands: TPS and Borderlands 2 are the inclusion of O2 kits, a new vehicle (“Stringray”), a new elemental effect (cyrogenic instead of slag) and a new weapon type (laser). Furthermore, the “Grinder” machine allows the player to “recycle” weapons and receive new ones in return.

While most of these additions are self-explanatory and mostly okay – I personally never cared for the Stingray – the O2 kits are a different story. Due to the space setting, many environments in the game feature low gravity and no air, which is where the O2 kits come in: Not only do they provide air for a certain time until they need to be replenished (thankfully, running out of oxygen only makes the player’s character gradually lose health instead of instantly killing them), they also function like a jetpack and allow for various air manoeuvres (e.g. hovering, air dashes) as well as ground slams.

This might sound like a huge gamechanger on paper but in practice, O2 kits are more of a slight modification to the core Borderlands gameplay. Searching for air is nothing more than a slight annoyance and the increased air manoeuvrability is certainly nice to have but also limited to the point where you’re still mostly going to stay on ground. Overall, Borderlands: TPS still mostly plays like Borderlands 2: do quests, fight the same few enemy types, level up, invest points in three skill trees, use increasingly better procedurally generated weapons and so on. The gameplay loop is still fun, sure, but if you’ve played a lot of Borderlands 2 before, you probably want something a bit more different instead – like the refinements that Borderlands 3 brought to the gameplay.

There’s one aspect of Borderlands: TPS that proves to be a real downgrade compared to Borderlands 2 however: It’s level design. While the map UI is as unhelpful as ever, especially since you can’t track objectives of multiple quests at once, the individual levels range from way too big and boring to small and needlessly complicated/annoying to navigate. As mentioned before, they’re also visually boring, with the same few barren environments more or less repeated instead of doing something more interesting – a shame, compared to the many different environments showcased in Borderlands 2.

On a more positive note however, Borderlands: TPS runs well on a SteamDeck OLED using Proton Experimental: My playthrough at a native 1200x800 resolution and with almost all settings maxed out resulted in a nearly flawless 60 FPS experience. Strangely, the game likes to restrict itself to just 45 FPS upon a restart at times – this was easily fixed by adjusting the SteamDeck screen refresh rate from 60hz to another number and back to 60hz in the SteamDeck settings however. I found the SteamDeck to be a great fit for Borderlands: TPS, although I have yet to try using it during a co-op playthrough.

Concluding, Borderlands: TPS is a decent title for fans of the franchise that just want more Borderlands. It’s not suited for newcomers due to its story structure and might feel a bit dated if you’ve played Borderlands 3 beforehand, but it’s quite enjoyable if you’re not expecting it to be more than a slightly adjusted Borderlands 2 experience.

One of the "cool new features" is the oxygen bar in outer space stages

Pre-Sequel was in the safe zone for many people...
it seems to be a Borderlands 2 DLC rather than an actual new game.
good sense of humor
heroes with good gameplay but not that charismatic... except for Claptrap because of his fan base
The setting is kind of bland.
presenting the same technical problems as Borderlands 2

but in fact...it doesn't stop you from playing... I give it a 7.6

claptrap is best girl