Borderlands 3 - Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck - Review

It seems a little odd, given the number of expansions that Borderlands has had over the years, that we have never before taken the time to examine what makes a Psycho, well psycho. That is the overarching goal of Patricia Tannis and while it starts out that way, things leave the reservation pretty quickly and that is a good thing.

The story is pretty light, which given the previous expansions for Borderlands 3, feels weird, Tannis has discovered a way to enter the mind of a Psycho and has selected Krieg for the honours, with you being the one to make the dive. The reason why, simple she seeks the way to Vaulthalla, a place known only to the Psycho’s of the universe and whatever it contains within, seems pretty simple, the problem is that you are going into the mind of a Psycho and they’re not known for their rational thought or calm centre. Once you enter the mind, any thoughts you had about this being a trippy little jaunt are quickly disabused and forgotten as things go from weird to weirder and they don’t stop. Your guide on this intracranial expedition is Krieg, at least the half of him that is sane still and Sane Krieg is done with Psycho Krieg, that is the one we know and after a promise is made to help him leave, he helps you enter Vaulthalla, only it is not a straightforward mission.

Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck is actually a bit of a tour of Borderlands, one of the quests has you visiting a Children of the Vault stronghold, another a Hyperion base on some sort of moon and another has you fighting a demonic train, ok I have no idea where that last one comes from. This trip is actually a nice nostalgic voyage, bringing with it a sense of closure for the series, not because I think it is done, but because as far as ways to end a series go, this was about as solid as you can get. The first mission, assaulting the COV castle is pretty straight forward, you move ahead and shoot everything that gets in your way, the catch is how you bust into it, as this is inside of Krieg’s mind, this is his memory of the event, but of course as he is three fries short of a happy meal, things are a little off. The upside is that you never really know what is coming, the downside, enemies spawn pretty much right in front of you, meaning you can never take a break when exploring the memories.

That is perhaps one of the big downsides to it, there are countless times when the game expansion could have taken a few beats and enjoyed what it was presenting, but it pushes forth all the time, keeping you moving forward. Even the side missions, located throughout the main memories, are easy to ignore, mostly requiring you to run back a little bit, or just stand still and listen to the Krieg’s talk. There are some extra missions that will have you return back into the memories and while they are fun, they really only serve to extend the experience. Speaking of extending things, the game throws a lot of boss fights at you and they are boring, no easy way to say it, the reason why is that they are not fun, or inventive, well except maybe the train boss. No the other boss fights are bullet sponges and they are just wasted opportunities, the first bosses you fight had the potential to be something really fun, but it fails.

The bosses, whilst being a low point, are not the big takeaway from this, the experience, which should run you a solid half dozen hours, is just trippy and while there are some visual moments where that stands out, the presentation is pretty muted. I say pretty muted, because when the developers let lose and things go crazy, it is fun and chaotic, heck the opening mission to the expansion screams Serious Sam, well Not-so-Serious Sam, it is still Borderlands. As I mentioned before there are a lot of back to the past moments and even those that were referenced in past games, still look fine here and that coat of psycho paint helps it a treat. The audio is a little harder to explain, there are some repeating effects, thanks to the revisiting of locations, but the main voice comes from Krieg, both versions of him and while the earlier ranting of the psycho version are well psychotic, the more you listen to them and the English translation provided by Sane Krieg, the more they start to make sense, well, something resembling sense.

Every aspect of the game, from the inner mind of Krieg, to the memories and the missions contained within, even the final boss fight location at the edge of Vaulthalla all look like and more importantly feel like Borderlands and that is the main thing to take away, this is still Borderlands. There are countless guns to collect, things to shoot and make go boom and some funny little moments, heck there is even a nice moment for pretty lady to get a better farewell. While I would have loved some out there variety in missions and for them to push forward a little more with the overall gameplay, what is presented is a nice and fun experience and that is what Borderlands does best.

The Score

7.5

Review code provided by 2K

The Pros

+More Borderlands, guns and fun

+Learning more about Krieg in this unique way is very fun

The Cons

+They really didn’t push the envelope of what was possible

+The bosses are boring and basically bullet sponges that require time more than anything else