Hands-on: Borderlands 3 is a bigger, smarter Borderlands 2

Borderlands 3 plays like Borderlands 2 after it took a few years off to eat clean, exercise daily, and read a book. It's bigger and smarter, but deep down inside it's still the same juvenile, violent game that I fell in love with. I'm so relieved.

With Borderlands 3, what you see is what you get. No exploitative microtransactions (cosmetics only) or oblique time-sucking systems masquerading as Content™. It’s just a goofy stat-based FPS you can play with friends. And after playing three hours with two new Vault Hunters and speaking with the creative and art directors, Borderlands 3 is clearly another great excuse to shoot monsters and men while completing quests in search of even stranger guns. Watch our three hours of uncut gameplay to see what I mean. 

Unless you finished Borderlands 2 yesterday, the changes and upgrades won't pop at a glance. There's no major new features, but its weapons are more surprising and refined than ever, combat is more mobile and chaotic, and—the best part—it's not another living game in the vein of Destiny 2 or The Division 2. There’s a lot to dig into. Here's a bird's eye view of all the important changes from Borderlands 2 to Borderlands 3.  If you're jumping back into older Borderlands in anticipation for the sequel, we've gathered Shift Codes for Borderlands 2 that work in 2019.