Since 7 PM, Steam players are allowed to download and start Borderlands 4. Naturally, many players are immediately turning their first impressions into user reviews. Unfortunately, currently not even half of the ratings are positive.
What causes the hangover mood at release? Those who have read the test by our shooter expert Dariusz might already suspect: While Borderlands 4 does many things right in terms of gameplay, the technology of the loot shooter is disappointingly mixed.
Like Dariusz, many other Steam users report weak performance manifesting in severe FPS drops. However, there are also buyers suffering from crashes or who can’t even start the game.
“Don’t buy it yet”
What is the community saying? As of now (September 11, 2025, 7:46 PM), only 42 percent of the 151 reviews on Steam are positive.
- woliver2301 reports on Steam: “Unreal Engine 5 is top-notch again. The game crashes on startup, I haven’t played a single second. 9800X3D and RTX 5090, so it’s unlikely to be that. Don’t buy it yet, it’s currently highly discouraged! Fortunately, I got it for free as part of the Nvidia promotion.”
- Rej criticizes the performance on Steam: “Terrible optimization. Another victim of Unreal Engine 5. Not worth buying in its current state unless you have a NASA PC.”
- Rubrum Liquidum93 reports on Steam about another problem: “Not playable, as after shading, the message appears that profiles cannot be saved. Stop releasing games that don’t work.”
Bear in mind that the small number of reviews so far only represents a small part of the buyers. Currently, according to steamdb.info, there are nearly 160,000 players online in Borderlands 4 on Steam. Trend: rising.
Also, make sure you have the latest drivers installed for your graphics card. If necessary, wait for the first updates, which should already bring improvements for performance.
If you are new to Borderlands or are having difficulties in your first hours in Borderlands 4, I have gathered some tips that should hopefully help you and ease your entry into the loot shooter: 15 tips you should know before starting Borderlands 4
