Borderlands 4's Mad Ellie expansion plummets into the red as players reject $30 price tag

I've been looking forward to the first Borderlands 4 story expansion. I had a thoroughly good time with the base game, and while I could largely take or leave its two post-launch bounty packs, the promise of a new adventure called to me. Delving into eldritch horror with series favorite Ellie, Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned has the setup to be something special. It even introduces the game's fifth playable character, robotic gambler and rogue C4SH. Unfortunately, its price has left people with a rather sour taste in their mouth, and the DLC with a 'mostly negative' Steam review average.

The new Borderlands 4 DLC sees you joining forces with Moxxi's daughter and the most capable mechanic in the badlands, Ellie. A cosmic entity is threatening the very fate of Kairos, spreading madness in its wake, and so the pair of you set out to track down an alien monolith and find your way into the eponymous Vault of the Damned. It takes you through a new region for the FPS game, the Whispering Glacier, and packs in plenty of fresh loot along its roster of main and side quests.

Then you have the new Vault Hunter, C4SH. His core trait builds 'Fortune' stacks when you score kills, which are then consumed to activate 'Windfall,' boosting his damage and upgrading his abilities for its duration. His three action skills allow him to pull out stylish twin revolvers, throw cards at foes that apply random effects, or spawn a bone totem that fights alongside him, occasionally becoming a badass version if he scores a lucky roll.

It all sounds great, and depending who you ask, it is. However, even the Steam reviews that praise elements of the new story or C4SH say that its price is far too high. "Don't get me wrong, this DLC is a blast, I love it," writes one, "but $30 for a DLC you could finish in an afternoon? This is a small story pack, not an expansion, and it should be priced accordingly." Only 33% of players who have submitted a review give it the thumbs up, dropping Mad Ellie into the 'mostly negative' bucket. On top of that, the relatively low response count several days after launch suggests not that many are even biting in the first place.

I can understand the concern. Look elsewhere, and $30 gets you the entirety of the first game and all its add-ons. For $40, you get the full Borderlands 2 collection, including the $20 base game, four story expansions (each priced at $10 separately), two characters (also $10 each), and several extras. Or you could buy Silksong ($20), Slay the Spire 2 ($25), or Mewgenics ($30), each of which promises a hundred hours of entertainment or more.

Perhaps the big issue is that these two pieces are bundled together. Not everyone will want to play as C4SH, while some people might be far more excited about having a new character to figure out builds for than they are about going on a story-led adventure. Jamming them into one package makes the whole thing look even more expensive, when perhaps at $15 each people might have balked slightly less. Still, presented with so many new things to play in 2026, players will be weighing up the value of every single dollar.

Borderlands 4 Story Pack 1, Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned, is available now on Steam, priced at $29.99 / £26.99. It's also included in the game's top-end Super Deluxe Edition bundle. With so much on my plate already right now, I might just have to wait for a sale on this one.