Borderlands 4 has received its first story pack. Along with new story missions, weapons, and enemies, there is also a new vault hunter. However, the DLC is not well received on Steam.
What kind of DLC is this? With Story Pack 1: Mad Ellie and the Jammer Chamber
released on March 26, 2026, it is the first major story DLC for Borderlands 4, bringing more content than previous vault hunter packs. Included are:
- C4SH as a new vault hunter
- A new area
- New main and side missions
- New collectibles
- New bosses and mini-bosses
- New gear and cosmetics
The entire story pack costs €30 if you don’t have the vault hunter pack or purchased the Super Deluxe Edition. Although this looks like a full DLC on paper, it hasn’t been well received on Steam and by many fans.
This is by no means worth 30 dollars
What is the problem with the first major story pack? On Steam, the DLC currently (as of March 28, 2026, 09:30 AM) has only 34% positive out of 202 reviews. Thus, the game is rated mostly negative
. Looking at the reviews, the length of the DLC is particularly criticized. Some users mention that you can finish the main story in less than 3 hours.
Another negative factor seems to be the price. Even the positive reviews criticize the price of €30 for a game that costs €70 without discounts.
As user Tricylce Enjoyer writes in his review: This is by far not worth 30 dollars, lol. It feels shorter than a BL2 DLC campaign, and those had at least one, if not two raid bosses. C4SH is great, and the level cap increase is nice, but compared to the other outstanding DLCs of the series, it feels … okay?
Like Tricycle Enjoyer, other positive reviews also praise the new playable character C4SH. However, you cannot buy him separately and must purchase the entire story pack.
Did the DLC manage to increase player numbers? Looking at the player numbers on SteamDB, you can see a small jump. While the player numbers previously ranged between 2000 and 4000 players, it peaked at up to 14,800 concurrent players in the last 24 hours.
The previous bounty packs could not achieve such an increase. But even the small increase achieved is still far from the 300,000 players that Borderlands 4 celebrated at launch.
DLCs were a highlight in the predecessors
What does MeinMMO editor and Borderlands fan Nikolas Hernes say about the response to the DLC? To see the DLC received so poorly makes me a bit sad. For me, the DLCs in Borderlands 3 and especially in Borderlands 2 were the major highlights, surpassing even the main titles.
When I think of the pirate DLC in 2 or the western DLC in 3, I realize how great DLCs Gearbox has delivered. The DLCs in the predecessors were not just small new contents; they were improvements for the main game, and the first story pack for the 4th part seems unable to achieve that.
I am happy that C4SH is well received, but since he is only available with the story pack, the negative response casts a shadow over him.
I hope that Borderlands 4 can recover well with upcoming updates because it has the potential to be a really good loot shooter that just needs a bit more love.
But what do you think? Have you played the DLC, or have you completely turned your back on Borderlands 4? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments. Another loot shooter is also making a comeback with a new mode: The Division 2 has created a masterpiece with a new mode and I wish that it were its own game
