One Change to Borderlands 4’s Humor Ensures I’ll Be Playing It For Years to Come

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I’ve always loved the quirky and funny style of the Borderlands games, ever since I first played the original back in 2009. I was only eleven at the time, so I probably found anything with a bit of swearing hilarious! But I’ve played the first game several times since then, and its humor still makes me laugh just as much, if not more, each time.

What’s brilliant about *Borderlands* is how it mixes serious, sometimes dark, themes and intense violence with funny jokes and wildly exaggerated characters. This creates a really unique and enjoyable tone that keeps me returning to the series. While the humor hasn’t always been perfect, *Borderlands 4* has made a significant change to the comedy that already has me hooked for years to come.

Borderlands 4’s Lack of Meme-Related Humor Makes It Infinitely More Replayable

Borderlands 3 Had a Meme Problem

A major complaint many fans and I had with *Borderlands 3* was its humor. The game took the series’ already comedic elements and amplified them to an excessive degree. Characters were much more eccentric, the violence was far more over-the-top, and almost every line felt like a forced attempt at a joke.

I played through *Borderlands 3* again to get ready for the new game, and while some of the jokes still made me laugh, most of them didn’t. Actually, the humor feels even less funny now than it did when the game first came out.

Many of the jokes in *Borderlands 3*’s main story (though the writing is stronger in its downloadable content) rely on internet memes that were popular when the game was being made. Since *Borderlands 3* took about four years to develop, and internet trends change so quickly, these references already felt old when the game came out. After six years, they feel even more outdated.

Borderlands 4 Avoids Meme-Related Humor (For The Most Part)

Prior to the release of *Borderlands 4*, the game’s narrative director, Sam Winkler, and lead writer, Taylor Clark, told IGN they wanted to shift away from the over-the-top, meme-heavy humor of *Borderlands 3*. They aimed for a more mature story with the kind of dark comedy that fans of the original *Borderlands* games enjoyed. After playing about 15 hours of *Borderlands 4*, it’s clear the team has successfully achieved this goal.

I genuinely laughed a lot while playing *Borderlands 4*, and only occasionally found the humor a bit much. That’s a big improvement over the game’s previous installment in 2019. *Borderlands 4* also strikes a great balance between its over-the-top silliness and surprisingly heartfelt story moments, making the funny parts even better.

The ‘No Place Like Home’ side quest featuring Claptrap perfectly showcases the game’s strength: it blends Claptrap’s wacky personality with a genuinely touching story about loss and coming to terms with it, creating humor that feels distinctly *Borderlands*. This willingness to prioritize its own brand of comedy is a great sign for *Borderlands 4*. The jokes won’t likely feel stale quickly, and I might even pick up on more details and funny lines on future playthroughs, rewarding close attention to the dialogue.

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2025-09-17 00:10