W gameplay L writing

Story is very bad and cringey. If you're a returning player of the series as me, you will feel straight up insulted. There's also Denuvo as an anti-piracy measure so beware of that.
As for the producent, Gearbox, I wouldn't trust it as a company - they seem to fall out out of touch with players' expectations and are very predatory in their DLC/season pass practices. Oh and did I mention they put this game on Epic exclusively for HALF A YEAR?
Well, on the flip side, gunplay is good, maps are bigger, there are more options in skill trees and legendary drop rates have been uped considerably. Some people might not like these higher odds, but in my opinion it's a good change. It makes casual playthroughs much more interesting and diversed, while veterans of the series have to grind so much less to get that perfect gear.

Because of all the stuff surrounding this game it's hard to recommend it to anybody, even when the gameplay is good.


Some afterthoughts:
If not for Gearbox making bad choices (terrible writers, Epic exclusive, DLC pricing) and the performance being crippled by Denuvo, I think this game would've become the next big thing back when it was released. It really is such a shame for a game with gameplay this solid to end up forgotten like this. I honestly hope the majority of this game's staff finds a new job where their talents are not wasted on pleasing a bunch of higher-ups.

Yes, negative thumb only for the "attention"- is one review in a thousand even allowed to say this? Let me have some copium for the hours spent. This one is a shiny toy... maybe too shined.
For starters, it should go without saying--Butt: The technical prowess here is *good*. To the point that I still wanna call it out. Action with highly sculpted characters of Sergi Brosa? Sign me in, been drooling over the dude's art on reposting deviant accounts since the 10's. The maps, movement, no brain shooting, sound design and music...feels good. Also feels like the budget... which you can also feel alongside the stuttering and loadtimes. Features of the heft?

With all this outta the way, what it comes down to me is this> The few times I play this without a podcast or album in the background is to listen to the fx and its own music for a change, dialogue is *always* muted, which pains me for the VA casting. Can't stress enough how insufferable any of the writing is, I mean it, every single character was done dirty, trying too hard is not rockbottom enough for any of the meagre charisma the other games managed to muster that this ~iteration~ now completely butchers and parades along hours and hours of "content" that I wished I cared for at least a bit, as in the previous ones, but now I feel I have to skip to continue the "fun" no brainer shooting. As a feedback, on the slim chance this gets picked up by the Algo they will use for directing the next one--wtf are we even typing; Have you guys not watched toystory? Imagine some execs didn't... A plastic toy without a kid's soul is just plastic...and this one is a gun, which is troubling for all the fetish it gets. Let the writing team cook, ok??