There's a distinct anachronistic feeling one may get whilst playing Borderlands 3: Guns, Love, and Tentacles. Game developers and the industry as a whole have moved forward, ushering in a new decade of unsavory business practices and perpetual technological innovation. And yet Gearbox Software is still in 2014. The entirety of Borderlands 3 feels as though it's half a decade too late, what with its relatively unimpressive graphics (albeit good art direction) and humor that fits snuggly on your father's Facebook page. What is most surprising though, is the fact that the game is complete, fully playable and rife with content. On top of that, there isn't a store peddling cosmetic items for real money (or worse, XP boosts and skips). The antiquated nature of Borderlands 3 has become its saving grace.

The same can be said of Guns, Love, and Tentacles, the second of four planned DLCs that can be bought separately (or in a season pass) for fifteen dollars. Gearbox is comfortable with repeating a similar formula, and with that comfort comes precision and little fat. There is no Borderlands 3 battle pass in sight. In fact, just about every feature offered was previously seen in Borderlands 2. This could be nostalgia for a simpler time where investing full-price in a game meant receiving a fully complete product. Thousands of gamers were spurned by other looter shooters; after all, most of them require upwards of a year of updates just to enter a consistently playable state. With the "games as a service" mantra being reiterated time and time again, this step into the past is not just welcome but needed.

Guns, Love, and Tentacles sees the vicious vault hunter take on a more philanthropic demeanor. Their mission is to assist in the execution of a beautiful wedding... which just so happens to be in a frozen wasteland, Xylourgos, that has a dollop of a Lovecraftian curse infecting it. While familiar bandits and psychos do roam, deadlier creatures skitter about in the darkest, most betentacled corners of this ten-hour DLC. Some aren't so hidden, as the entire zone has an ancient, frozen God looming over it that creates a unique set piece in a series that has become progressively better at crafting memorable locations. Xylourgos, especially in its first half, features some of the most creative areas in the entire franchise. A particular standout is a sleepy village that calls back to Lovecraft's own Innsmouth both in aesthetic and philosophy. Traversing through the inky depths of this lost village is eerie in its own right, as ramshackled homes sit atop splintering wood and cobblestone streets with many, lucid citizens huddled in their homes. The unfortunate souls still parading around the dim streets are all cursed in some way. One could mistake it for a horror game if not for the irony and self-awareness that ensconce ever facet of Borderlands. Innsmouth becomes the titular Cursehaven, and every character is zany and overacted. An immovable lampshade is draped over this DLC, creating for surface-level parody and less-than-inspired humor.


Thankfully, Guns, Love, and Tentacles is relatively unabrasive in its story; especially by comparison to the main campaign which lapsed into painful cringe every so often. The second DLC features the least obnoxious set of characters (dare I say likable?), such as Hammerlock and his soon-to-be-husband Wainwright. Gaige, a vault hunter from Borderlands 2, makes a flat return in this DLC, offering up some of the least engaging aspects of the story. Meanwhile, the lodge owner, Mancubus Bloodtooth, is a one-note joke that doesn't outstay his welcome; a deliciously dark character that revels in foreshadowing his own evil, and yet never ceases to be anything but helpful. The story is not loud enough to be distracting or quiet enough to be forgotten. It is, however, an improvement on the base campaign.

With that said, Borderlands is played for its gameplay. The colorful characters are just one feature of a perpetually quirky world that refuses to ever be anything but raucous. That world houses all the running, gunning, and looting that the series has become known for. Borderlands 3 has remained a default improvement over its past titles. Much like Borderlands 2 was essentially Borderlands 1 with improved weapon mechanics, some additional systems, and build diversity, Borderlands 3 does to two what two did to one: iterate and perfect. Everything is ratcheted up. Weapons are more bizarre, abilities are more diverse, and builds are easily understandable and endlessly amusing. This new DLC adds more of the same while increasing the level cap to 57 and adding just enough to play around with to tune your character's already expansive build.

On top of that, Borderlands 3 saw a marked improvement in its boss fights. Guns, Love, and Tentacles continues this streak with solid boss encounters that never lapse into tediousness (thanks to a lack of bullet sponge enemies). The mechanics, while simple, offer enough tension to continuously demand improvement from the player. A single difficulty setting in the base game allowed Gearbox to finely tune fights. With more of the same comes an issue of burnout for long-time players. Ten hours of new content doesn't quite feel so new to people who have sunk hundreds of hours into building their unstoppable vault hunter. Therefore, the DLC could see better praise from newer or returning players. With two more DLCs sure to be equally alluring (for better or for worse), users should be aware of what the season pass has to offer. Much like the first DLC, Guns, Love, and Tentacles becomes a welcome, albeit static addition.


The replayability of Borderlands 3 lies with the feeling of constant progression and unique modifiers in the form of mayhem mode. Then, if one wishes, they could activate a new game plus version of Borderlands where they can replay the campaign on a harder difficulty with increased potential for powerful rewards. The distinguishing factor is in its completeness, even if it doesn't have the same bombast that is found in similar, competing titles like Destiny 2. The reality is that Borderlands 3 offers the most content, and with this new DLC, a thirty-hour journey has become a forty-hour one, and an already respectable roster of unique items has become the series' most impressive collection of unique loot to date. One can only hope that Gearbox adapts to better methods of storytelling as the humorous approach to a looter shooter is still a rarity in today's market. Ultimately, losing interest in the story is little trouble since the gameplay is as entertaining as it has always been.

Borderlands 3: Guns, Love, and Tentacles is available for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Stadia.