There are a lot of massive games coming out in 2025. We’re almost through the juggernaut of February, but March isn’t slowing down with Split Fiction and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, while we know Xbox is building momentum (admittedly often through cross platform games on Game Pass), PlayStation has a triple-A double header, Nintendo is launching a new console with what is likely a bumper catalogue, and there’s the small matter of GTA 6 (and Half-Life 3 and Hollow Knight: Silksong and maybe even Bloodborne Remastered right?!).

But through all of this, the most interesting game of the year is, I would argue, Borderlands 4. Not the best. Not the highest selling. Not the most experimental or boundary pushing or creative. Simply the most interesting. I say this because I have no idea what to expect, and that’s a rare thing in gaming. Most of the releases we’ve had this year have been in line with expectations, and I think I can probably call the other big hitters right now too.

Most Big Games Are Predictable. Borderlands 4 Is Not.

Let’s take a look at what we’ve had so far. Dynasty Warriors: Origins has had a bump in popularity but alienated some hardcore fans, a very predictable outcome given the game advertised itself as streamlining the experience while upping the scope. Avowed, the RPG from the people who made The Outer Worlds, has been nitpicked because of its similarities and shortcomings to Bethesda games, been praised for its combat though the clunk has not gone unnoticed, and is a very fun setting to run around in but ultimately feels shallow – so, it’s The Outer Worlds.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is great so long as you liked the first one and way too complicated if you didn’t. Civilization 7 is a fantastic game that everyone thinks you shouldn’t play for several months, which we all knew would happen because it’s a Civ game. I can keep going like this.

Nintendo’s franchise games will be excellent apart from the one that over commits to whatever the Switch 2’s new gimmick is and there’ll be a weird game we’ll all forget about. Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be fun but dated and all anyone will talk about is things they’ve decided to be angry about. GTA 6 will be the biggest video game ever and this, its hype, and its competent gameplay with intricate technological peacocking and an edgy story will convince a lot of people (including possibly myself) that it’s also the best video game ever.

Of course, this might not happen. The Switch 2 could pull a Wii U and the games might suck. GTA 6 might do a Cyberpunk 2077 (though many were happy to crown that the best game ever despite obvious flaws). Assassin’s Creed could finally evolve. But I think we all broadly feel the same way about the biggest games coming out this year – even people who may not like GTA 6 are expecting it to be massive, cutting edge, and be heaped with praise.

Does Borderlands Hold Up In 2025?

But what does anyone think of Borderlands 4? Of all the triple-A games launching this year, it seems like the one where people have no idea what the game will look like, play like, or feel like. Is Borderlands too far gone now and only able to be a parody of itself? Would a back to basics Borderlands even work, or is that the only path to success? Is Borderlands even Borderlands without the Impact Font era humour, and is it now so old that that humour has swung back around to being funny?

I didn’t love Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands or New Tales From The Borderlands, but I think that’s less because I’m going off Borderlands and more because those games weren’t great. But I did still love Borderlands 3, which is in contrast to a lot of older Borderlands fans who hit you with a shy “yeah the first two were okay when I was a kid, but now I have more mature tastes, like leatherbound books”. 3 was the best selling game in the series, but is often looked upon as the embarrassing black sheep of the family.

I get it. Borderlands 3 isn’t as good as the first two games, and in 2019 its humour was dated, as opposed to potentially being considered ‘retro’ these days. The looter shooter genre itself is an odd beast these days too, even ignoring the Face McShooty silliness of Borderlands. It’s a single-player loot game designed to be played in four-player couch co-op, where the guns are earned by killing enemies, exploring caves, or making tactical upgrades, not by completing seasonal events or watching sponsored Twitch streams or buying virtual currency. The world Borderlands grew up in is gone, if it ever grew up at all.

This makes it a fascinating game. If you told me you’d been to the future and saw what score Borderlands 3 got, there’s not a number between 60 and 92 that would surprise me. If it were 69, I’d say that was at least a poetic death for Borderlands. Obviously I’d be surprised that you’d been to the future at all, and that of all the information you’d chose to bring back it was the Borderlands review score, but the number itself would not be surprising. Don’t tell me what happens in the new season of Yellowjackets!

Where was I? Oh yeah. Borderlands 4 is going to have one of the most unpredictable launches of the year, and it might tell us a little bit about where modern gaming stands. Borderlands has always fitted multiplayer-esque mechanics into a single-player experience, but are we more or less likely to embrace that in a medium that has shifted wholesale into pushing multiplayer anyway? Will Borderlands humour land in 2025, or will Gearbox predict that it won’t and change what Borderlands is to suit? Will it score the fabled 69 review score, and other such questions? I doubt Borderlands 4 will be my favourite game this year, but depending on what happens, it might be my favourite game to think about.