Borderlands 3 seems so committed to "giving fans what they want" that they seems to think fans just want a prettier Borderlands 2, warts and all. Granted, there's a good number of improvements to the series, which we covered in our , like the interesting new environments and refined gunplay. Unfortunately, there are also a ton of mechanics that saw little to n0 improvements whatsoever, systems that have been a problem in Borderlands since the beginning. Inventory management is a slog, but the most frustrating thing in Borderlands 3 has got to be the map.
It's difficult to find a single redeeming quality about the map in Borderlands 3. It's been 7 years since the last installment and it's as if Gearbox didn't want to look to any modern games for inspiration. Everything from navigating, to fast trav🎃el, to the mini-map is severely flawed, and for no good reason.
When accessing a fast travel device (which is different from fast travelling through the map, though I'm not entirely sure how) you will be presented with a map of the region you are currently in. Going back to the hub world, the Sanctuary ship, is typically the first option and easy to find. Leaving Sanc🔯tuary, however, is where things take 🎶a turn for the obtuse.
Let's say your next quest is on Eden 6, first you need to back out of the current zone map, and then into the Eden 6 map. That's not all though, because Borderlands 3 isn't truly open world so each planet is broken up into different zones. If you've highlighted the quest the exact zone you need to be i♓n will be highlighted, after selecting that, you can then select which way point to fast trav꧋el to, hopefully you pick one that's close to the objective, because it's practically impossible to find it on the map.
Everything blends in, especially quest markers, and if you move the map around to 🎃try to find itꦍ the camera will compulsively snap back to one of the waypoints almost every time. I'm getting PTSD right now just talking about it. If you want to switch objectives, you have to tab back over to the quest list. This means it's pretty much impossible to just do all the quests in a zone because you'll have no idea WHICH quests are in the zone, unless you toggle back and forth to check each one individually
Don't even bother looking at the mini-map either, it's zoomed in so close that it's completely useless. GTAV, which released in 2013, knew that in large outdoor environments and when in a vehicle the camera needs to zoom out so you can see where you're going. Borderlands 3 has no way to adjust the minimap.
Borderlands 3 has a built in audience and will absolutely sell millions of copies no matter what, but that's no excuse to show such little care for the systems in the game. On top of the h🅺orrific performance issues players are experiencing 🍃on console, lets hope Gearbox spends a lit🥂tle less time on fancy gun and a little more time on optimization in their next game.