Hundreds of players are currently writing negative reviews about Borderlands and accusing the loot shooter of espionage.
Which game is it about? Borderlands has been flooded with negative reviews on Steam for several weeks now. Borderlands 2 is particularly affected. In the course of the review-bombing, over 760 negative reviews have been written in the past 30 days. Borderlands 1 has also been hit with over 220 critical reviews.
In fact, the Borderlands series is very popular, and particularly Borderlands 2 is considered by fans to be one of the best loot shooters of all time. On the review platform metacritic, the loot shooter has a score of 89 for the PC version, making it better rated than Borderlands 1 (81), Borderlands 3 (81), The Division 1 (80) and 2 (82), as well as Destiny 2 (83).
Borderlands 2 is especially loved by many players for its humor and characters like Handsome Jack. The variety of playable builds and the wide selection of weapons are often praised as well. Accordingly, it has landed high in the ranking of all Borderlands games by MeinMMO author Max Handwerk.
Players complain because Take-Two changed a text
What is behind the negative reviews? A few weeks ago, players on Steam began writing negative reviews for Borderlands 2. The criticism arose following a YouTube video in which the content creator criticized changes to the EULA of the game made by Take-Two Interactive – the publisher of Borderlands. The video gathered around 478,000 views in 3 weeks.
Players particularly criticize two new clauses:
One clause supposedly requires that Take-Two gain access to information such as your name and your IP address. As a result, players call Borderlands 2 in their reviews things like malware or spyware (see Steam).
The second criticized clause prohibits the use of cheats, mod menus, and similar tools that would disturb other players from playing the game as intended. (via take2games.com). They fear this would harm the mod community of the game, and players now face penalties if they use any mods.
What is true about the community’s criticism? The first criticized clause, which supposedly grants access to personal data such as your name, address, phone number, or IP address, is not even included in the current Terms of Service from Take-Two. These were last updated on February 28.
If you search for “Phone number” in the Terms of Service from Take-Two using the keyboard combination CTRL+F, you will not find any clause that states: Take-Two will be able to access this information from you. However, there is a clause that requires you to create an account to use certain services and provide your name and email address during account creation. You certainly know this process from many games.
Moreover, it is not uncommon for games – especially their anti-cheat systems – to retrieve your IP address. Ubisoft explains this in their EULA on Steam, but also Bungie for the use of BattlEye in Destiny 2.
The wording of the second criticized clause suggests that you are only not allowed to disturb other players, gain an unfair advantage while playing, or get paid content for free – for example, through cheats, mod menus, or unauthorized mods. This could mean that authorized mods can still be used under certain circumstances. However, the wording is not clear in this regard, making the general use of mods at your own risk.
You will not use exploits or illegal or unauthorized means to affect or adversely influence the ability of other users to utilize the services as intended, to gain an unfair advantage while playing, or to gain access to virtual items or other content to which you have no valid claim. This includes the use of cheats or so-called “mod menus”, unauthorized mods, hacks, glitches, or other technical exploits, as well as phishing, scamming, or social engineering.
The Terms of Service from Take-Two that apply to Borderlands are also expected to apply to GTA 6, as the company is also the publisher of Rockstar Games.
Borderlands 4 is expected to be released in 2025, the latest installment of the popular loot shooter for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. You can read the most important information already known about the game on MeinMMO: Borderlands 4 will be released in 2025 – All information about release, characters, trailers
