Things I'd Like To See Improved Upon In Borderlands 3

As of this weekend I'm deep into my first playthrough of Borderlands 3 on the PS4. I chose to go with FL4K as my first character, and for the most part he's been a decent choice though a bit squishy when it comes down to survival. That having been said I chose to go with a high crit build, and didn't optimize my skill trees for the pets or health bonuses. Even so I'm doing alright solo, and as I've said I'm deep into my playthrough. Having completed all side missions along the way as they became available along with key story missions when said side missions were done. Seeing most of my friends whiz past me in rank during my own progression due their grinding approach outside of the main campaign leaves me a little envious, but being the OC (obsessive compulsive) guy I am I wanted to do a complete playthrough before going into the alternative grind centered modes. My approach has served me well to that end.

When it comes to the flaws I mentioned briefly on Twitter I've run into some issues in my playthrough that I think could use some adjustment. For starters the map, and navigation thereof is confusing at times even with the map being layered, and points of interest marked clearly. I think the winding pathways definitely play a role in that confusion. Some sort of in-game compass or onscreen pointer would be a nice addition if it weren't too "in your face". Along with that there is an issue (in my opinion) with the boss difficulty scaling on solo. Bosses that aren't even end game focused prove to be as difficult as you'd expect the main endgame villains to be. I told my friend Trouble that if the end boss battle wasn't as hard as the earlier problematic ones I was going to be pissed. I think some of the bosses definitely need health, and damage output adjustment.

Aside from those two complaints I think the loot RNG needs a fix as well. Currently I find myself getting white, green, and blue tier weapons with the occasional purple and orange drops thrown in. Where the biggest problem occurs for me is in the level at which these weapons drop. Doing older side quests, and main missions I find a lot of the loot to be dropping at a lower level than my highest current weapons and gear. Having access to billions of guns that are of no use does a player little to no good when they are searching hard for something scaled up to the point they need it to be.

Technical issues such as menu lag, and the inability to pick up certain loot are also a problem worthy of addressing. At one point in a key story mission I was actually unable to pick up the key item,because the prompt did not appear for me to do so. I had teleport back to the same area to get the prompt to show up. In my case it was fortunate that the item in question wasn't far from the spawn. I've also noticed in my looting of Sanctuary that certain things found in lockers won't have pick up prompts either making them impossible to retrieve. It's definitely one of the bigger issues seeing as it effects progression within the main campaign.

For now that's the only issues I've run into. I know there are likely more problems out there, but I haven't witnessed them myself. I will say though that my friend has stated concerns about the ammo economy in the off-story modes. She struggled to keep enough ammo to make it through to the end, and it is very frustrating for her when the goal is to clear waves of enemies with a team. I do understand some character builds can help with the ammo issues as can some of the gear, and guns, but not everyone is going to be equipped to handle an abrupt ammo shortage in a wave to wave fight where there's no ammo refill stations or drops from enemies. In fact my friend suggested that enemies should drop ammo abundantly as well, especially in the wave based mode. Hopefully Gearbox reads this, and takes note. It would help the game to be more enjoyable, and much less frustrating than it currently is.