Yeah, 3 and 4 were way too zany, you couldn't get immersed at all. 2 had the perfect blend of GTA and wackiness, which let the wacky stuff accent the game without you growing tired of it.
3 was worse. They practically flanderized every existing character. Even the Pre-Sequel was better on the writing front, and that game killed the studio (2K/Gearbox Australia).
The gameplay itself is good, as are the environments and (somewhat unexpectedly) the writing for a lot of the stuff that isn't the main quests, so I doubt Gearbox made any less than they expected on it, but as long as Pitchford owns the studio I can't imagine the series improving on the plot/writing. If they hadn't managed to hit it big with the first two games the studio would be shuttered by now, as basically everything else they've worked on (as far as I'm aware) has been a moderate success at best.
Yeah, 3 and 4 were way too zany, you couldn't get immersed at all. 2 had the perfect blend of GTA and wackiness, which let the wacky stuff accent the game without you growing tired of it.
Borderlands 2 had a very similar problem
3 was worse. They practically flanderized every existing character. Even the Pre-Sequel was better on the writing front, and that game killed the studio (2K/Gearbox Australia).
I forgot there was a borderlands 3 tbh
The gameplay itself is good, as are the environments and (somewhat unexpectedly) the writing for a lot of the stuff that isn't the main quests, so I doubt Gearbox made any less than they expected on it, but as long as Pitchford owns the studio I can't imagine the series improving on the plot/writing. If they hadn't managed to hit it big with the first two games the studio would be shuttered by now, as basically everything else they've worked on (as far as I'm aware) has been a moderate success at best.
Its hard to imagine thats the same studio that bought out Duke4 when it did. Now its a hotbed of social extremism.