Borderlands 3: Was the Season Pass Worth It? | Game Rant
Borderlands 3's Season Pass has come and gone, and now all four DLC packs are out for players to enjoy. With all four DLCs in the books, many fans are looking back on their experiences with the post-game additions and evaluating their experiences. The final DLC, Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck, left many fans wanting more—and a similar sentiment was had regarding the Bounty of Blood DLC as well.
This led to a large portion of the fanbase questioning if the Season Pass was worth the cost of entry. Now's the time to do a retrospective on the DLCs and how the fanbase received them, and if the Season Pass was a success or not.
Moxxi's Heist was the first Borderlands 3 DLC introduced with the Season Pass, and it certainly set the bar high for what fans expected from the future content drops. Players joined up with Moxxi and returning fan-favorite Timothy Lawrence to take over Handsome Jack's beloved space-casino that was left dormant following his demise in Borderlands 2. DLC 1 was well-received by many, seeing it as a fun, welcome change to the generally lackluster story that Borderlands 3 brought to the table. The DLC's writing felt like a true heist movie, which fans really enjoyed.
This DLC also introduced a ton of new and returning Legendary weapons that fans could grind for, giving players something to work toward after completing the DLC's relatively short story. The character writing was on-point, and the narrative was well constructed, especially considering the length of the DLC. Overall, Moxxi's Heist had many fans believing that the Season Pass would be bringing great installments the entire way through.
Guns, Love, & Tentacles was Borderlands 3's venture into eldritch horror and was both visually and narratively much different than anything Gearbox had attempted with the series to this point. This DLC features the wedding of Sir Hammerlock and Wainwright Jakobs, but as they arrive to their wedding venue on the strange planet of Xylourgos, things take an unexpected turn for the worse for the grooms-to-be. The Vault Hunters team up with former Vault Hunter-turned-Wedding Planner Gaige to put a stop to the mysterious Cult on Xylourgos and make sure Hammerlock and Wainwright get their happy wedding.
Guns, Love, & Tentacles has both excellent story and character writing, including some of the best side quests in the entire game. All of the characters fit the strange and unsettling environment, but still manage to bring that silly Borderlands charm that fans expect from Gearbox. The DLC was very well-received, and continued the trend of strong DLCs from Gearbox going into the last half of the Season Pass.
By this point in the Season Pass, fans got the general idea that Gearbox was doing each DLC based on a genre, and Bounty of Blood was Gearbox's take on the Western. This also marks the start of Gearbox working from home due to COVID-19, and the DLC even features a COVID-19 Easter Egg poking fun at the whole situation. Bounty of Blood featured a slightly darker narrative, with side quests that balance out the narrative with humor.
Generally speaking, Bounty of Blood was less well-received compared to the first two DLCs, and featured a slightly shorter story than the first two. This very well could be attributed to COVID-19 complications, as many games featured setbacks because of the pandemic. While a lot of the Legendary items that were introduced in this DLC were fantastic, many fans finished the DLC and were left wanting something more.
The final DLC of the Season Pass featured a beloved fan-favorite character, Krieg the Psycho, giving many fans high hopes for this expansion. After all, Borderlands 2's final DLC was Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep and was widely seen as one of the best DLCs of all time. Needless to say, expectations were high, perhaps too high considering this DLC was predominantly worked on and launched in the midst of a pandemic. DLC 4 received a large number of complaints pertaining to its length.
Players could blitz through the story in record time, and many of the side-quests were just sitting around talking to the two Kriegs. The writing for DLC 4 was done quite well, and it did a good job at fleshing out a character that many fans wanted to learn more about. It also featured a lot of that Borderlands humor with humorous depictions of beloved characters like Brick and Mordecai. The pandemic's influence can be felt hard in this DLC, and a lot of fans were left disappointed, though that is partly due to mismanaged expectations.
Following the release of the Krieg DLC, Gearbox confirmed that a new standalone DLC was coming in the near future, and it will bring a new game mode and new additions to the game. Additionally, each Vault Hunter will be getting an extra Skill Tree in the upcoming DLC. While few details are currently available about the skill trees (outside of FL4K's new Loader Bot pets and Gravity Action Skill), these new trees will likely bring a lot of new interesting ways to play the existing Vault Hunters. Additionally, Gearbox announced that Borderlands 3 would be getting a free next-gen update once the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S hit the streets.
After the Krieg DLC, many fans are on the fence about buying more DLC for Borderlands 3. Fans should keep in mind that the Season Pass did bring a lot of new content to the game that was overall very well received, and it's worth remembering that the latter two DLCs were released while the Gearbox staff was working from home due to COVID-19. While that may not excuse all of the DLCs shortcomings, these DLCs also help fund other free in-game events and updates like the Bloody Harvest event or the Revenge of the Cartels event that many fans quite enjoyed.
Those events may not have been possible without the additional funding from the Season Pass. Overall, the Season Pass added a ton of new content to Borderlands 3 totaling up to many more hours of gameplay, plenty of new gear to grind for, fun new builds to try, and new areas to explore. For the price, it certainly seems like players got their money's worth even if the last two DLCs were hit by COVID-19 a bit more than fans were expecting.
Borderlands 3 is out now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One. PS5 and Xbox Series X versions are in development.
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