Borderlands 3 has been one of the most hotly anticipated gaming releases this year. For me personally, of it’s one of the most important of the last decade. Borderlands launched back in 2009, and even then, it’s been about seven years since Borderlands 2. Sure, we have the Pre Sequel as a bit of a stopper in 2014, but honestly, it never really captured my imagination as the main series did.

Borderlands 3

The franchise really set the pace for what is now known as the loot shooter. Millions of guns, or billions, who cares, there’s a freaking lot of em. This is especially true of Borderlands 3, which offers a staggering amount of variety to the fairly randomly generated (albeit, within a rule set for each manufacturer) setup. What you find you may never see again, then again, maybe no other gamer will see that exact combo again, and that’s exciting.

More Loot

The gaming market may have fully embraced the idea of a loot-based shooter, of which there are a fair few now. However, where Borderlands 1 and 2 innovated, Borderlands 3 chooses to take a less aggressive approach. Rather than push the industry to the next level, it tweaks the formula, refines it, but otherwise, leaves it the same. More variations to loot, more of it in general, and a new way to share the loot. Before, what you see on the floor, you shared with your co-op friends. Now you can do that if you want, or you can play in a new mode that spawns unique loot to each player; even in split-screen.

I’ve been playing it co-op with my girlfriend, and we used the unique loot per player option. It simplifies things, as what you see is yours. However, the game lost some of its sharing and caring play aspects for us by doing so. However, if playing online with strangers, this could save some hurt feelings.