Borderlands Collection: Pandora's Box

I have spent time across most of these games individually, so loading up Pandora's Box feels less like a discovery and more like a reunion -- except this time everything is in one place and the DLC pile is genuinely staggering. What you are getting here is four first-person looter-shooters and two narrative adventure games: Borderlands (Game of the Year Edition), Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Borderlands 3, Tales from the Borderlands, and New Tales from the Borderlands, each with all add-on content available as of September 2023. That includes major story expansions like Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary for BL2, all four campaign DLCs for Borderlands 3, and the full Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep arc. The sheer volume is almost absurd. The core gameplay loop across the mainline shooters is built around class-based Vault Hunters -- each with three distinct skill trees -- procedurally generated weapons from manufacturers like Jakobs, Torgue, and Maliwan, and co-op for up to four players online. The gunplay has that satisfying pop-and-loot rhythm that the series practically invented, and Borderlands 2 in particular remains a near-perfect example of the formula. Handsome Jack is still one of gaming's best antagonists, and the writing across BL2 holds up in a way that the later entries sometimes struggle to match. Borderlands 3 improved gunplay mechanics and mobility substantially -- sliding, mantling, and dual-wielding are all additions -- but many players feel its story and villain work land softer than BL2's. The Pre-Sequel sits comfortably in the middle: shorter, moon-gravity movement adds a fun wrinkle, and it fills in Handsome Jack's backstory in a way that rewards fans of BL2. The two Tales games are a completely different animal. Telltale's original Tales from the Borderlands is a point-and-click narrative adventure with branching dialogue, and it is genuinely funny -- widely considered one of Telltale's best works. New Tales from the Borderlands, developed by Gearbox rather than Telltale, received a much cooler reception: the writing is weaker and the gameplay systems feel underbaked compared to its predecessor. It is the weakest link in the box, but it is included, and some players will want to see the lore through. The honest caveat for this collection is that it adds nothing new. No remasters, no graphical upgrades for the older titles, no bonus content created for the bundle itself. The original Borderlands shows its age visually. If you already own Borderlands 2 and BL3 on Steam, the incremental value shrinks fast -- though Steam does apply a discount based on titles you already own. For a complete newcomer, though, this is an extraordinary amount of content covering the whole arc of the franchise, from its scrappy 2009 origins through to its most mechanically polished entry. The Tiny Tina's Wonderlands spin-off is not included, worth knowing before you assume this is truly every Borderlands title.

Alex · Scout Team

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