Geek Review – Borderlands 3: Guns, Love, And Tentacles DLC

The world of Borderlands 3 is a crazy, bullet-filled playground of Psychos and fantastical wildlife. Following Moxxi’s Heist of the Handsome Jackpot, Gearbox is bringing players to the bone-chilling wastes of Xylourgos in the name of love. Borderlands 3: Guns, Love, and Tentacles combines eldritch horror with the promise of love between the lovable Sir Hammerlock and Wainwright Jacobs for a solid adventure for this first-person shooter.

The couple’s wedding on the new world predictably takes a turn for the worse, as you would expect for Borderlands. Unleashing a nightmare of unspeakable horrors, players will be blasting their way through some truly unique settings. 

From the possessed town of Cursehaven to the foreboding darkness of Cankerwood, Guns, Love, and Tentacles is full of amazing visuals and unique environments that are there to be marvelled at.

Just like other DLC, the conventions of the shooter have been reskinned for Guns, Love, and Tentacles. Expect a horrific coat of paint for everything you will do in this new DLC. 

Treasure chests now explode into a plethora of slime-covered arms, portals can open up, spewing treasures, and of course, the cosmetics available are memorable and on point as well. However, the lack of Lovecraftian weapons seems like a huge miss considering the importance of guns in Borderlands 3.

Thankfully, the entire experience is a blast. Although Guns, Love, and Tentacles lasts for only a few hours, every moment on Xylourgos is an entertaining romp. The writing and jokes have definitely improved over the base game. The main quest will keep you motivated to keep going, while the sidequests are always a good time.

Sir Hammerlock continues his hunt for elusive creatures, fetch quests are thankfully more focused and actually fun, while the ongoing fight again the cultists of Gythian, a Cthulhu-like god, makes for intense fights.

The way the cultists change up the combat is a refreshing take on the Borderlands 3 formula. Raising dead allies, buffing and healing each other, or even consuming your guns, these terrifying foes can easily overwhelm you if you take your eye off the ball. It gives players more opportunities to enjoy the gunplay in Guns, Love, and Tentacles with an added challenge.

That said, Gearbox does need to work on removing platforming sections in the shooter entirely. It is never fun to be aiming precise jumps in a first-person shooter. To have that be an integral part of a boss fight makes it even worse now so how about more fun things to shoot and destroy instead?

Guns, Love, and Tentacles does not really bring anything new to the table. Granted, Borderlands 3 is an amazing time on its own, but for a DLC, something more than interesting combat encounters would have made it even better. If you are looking for more things to enjoy shooting at, Guns, Love, and Tentacles has that in spades, but if you are looking for something groundbreaking, you will have plenty of objections to this union of love.

Borderlands 3: Guns, Love, and Tentacles is now available on Steam for S$19.90.