Borderlands 4 is the lowest rated game in the series on Steam, kind of

I keep accidentally typing Borederlands 4 instead of Borderlands 4. That has no bearing on the actual game-which by all accounts is actually pretty fun once you get past all the bugs-but I thought it was a funny coincidence seeing as Gearbox's iconic FPS game has dropped to a 'mixed' rating on Steam. This makes Borderlands 4 (spelled it right that time) the worst-rated game in the main series, at least if we're not counting spin-offs.

Yes, New Tales from the Borderlands languishes at the bottom of the pile when you count all Borderlands games, with just 33% positive feedback. Loot the wooden spoon and move on, methinks.

Borderlands 4's reviews seem glowing by comparison. 60% of its reviews are positive, which leaves it with a 'mixed' rating. However, the previous three main games have 79%, 89%, and 81% positive reviews respectively. Suddenly you realize why these are considered some of the best co-op games.

Unfortunately, the fourth entry doesn't live up to the hype. However, if you read the reviews, there's hope yet. The most common complaints are technical issues. Bugs, crashes, you name it. The performance doesn't appear to be ideal no matter how good your graphics card, as our hardware team noticed significant frame rate drops even with an RTX 5090.

However, the fact that so many complaints only mention the technical aspects suggests that the game beneath all that could be okay. If developer Gearbox Interactive gets its skates on and starts fixing these issues, then that rating could rise.

It's never fun to see a game panned on release, especially one that fans of the series were looking forward to getting stuck into. However, there's hope for Borderlands 4 yet, and that hope takes the shape of numerous potential performance patches.

Gearbox has published guidance explaining what to expect from the game's performance with various settings. It also suggests that, if you change settings, it'll take 15 minutes to optimize shaders. You can read the full blog post here.

If you're worried about possible issues on your hardware, make sure to check out the Borderlands 4 system requirements before downloading-although reports suggest these might not be a guarantee. If you're planning on leaving it until some patches are in place, you can gaze longingly at our list of all the Borderlands 4 characters and theorycraft some builds.

Will you be buying Borderlands 4, despite its issues? Let us know in our community Discord server. I'm still on the fence myself.