Playing Borderlands 3 is a little like studying the American Civil War.

Let me explain. 

When I was in high school, one of my classmates trotted out the old Confederate canard that the Civil War was fought over “states’ rights” during a history class. Our teacher challenged him. There was a natural arc, he said, to studying the Civil War. At first, when you knew almost nothing, you knew, at least,  that the Civil War was about slavery. Then, when you began to understand a little more, you started to see the complexities of the conflict, the economic factors at play, the nobility, the sense of duty, the desire for self-determination. And then, when you had studied the Civil War in great depth, you understood, once again, that, yep, it was about slavery.

The third mainline entry in Gearbox Software’s loot-shooter series has inspired a similar bell curve since its initial reveal in March. The gang was all there in that reveal trailer. Lilith, Brick, Claptrap and even Rhys from Telltale’s spin-off, Tales from the Borderlands. The advertising once again, trumpeted the inclusion of “over a billion guns.” The trailer revealed four new Vault Hunters, all of whom neatly slotted into the roles the first game established a decade ago. As so many critics, fans and casual observers noted back in March, it looked like more Borderlands.

But, when I got hands-on with the game back in May, I was impressed by the differences. A story that took players beyond the lawless desert planet, Pandora (or its moon)! A space station hub reminiscent of Eva’s Hammer from Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus! A new pair of baddies poised to potentially provide interesting commentary on the dangers of the influence “influencers” wield! That, plus a ton of quality-of-life changes, had me excited to see the nuances of the new direction Gearbox was taking with the series’ biggest entry yet.

But, now, with 40 hours of Borderlands 3 under my belt, I can tell you that that initial gut reaction was correct. It is more Borderlands. But, for the most part, it’s also better Borderlands.

So much of what Borderlands has always done well has reached its pinnacle here. The series’ comic book aesthetic has never looked better. In fact, on PC, with the settings cranked as high as my Predator Helios 300 could handle, this game looks jaw-droppingly good. The lines are finally crisp enough. The art is finally detailed enough. This is the first game in the series that you might actually mistake for a comic book panel (and a great photo mode ensures that you’ll be able to capture the best moments for posterity, from a more cinematic third-person perspective).

Even more importantly, the combat in Borderlands 3 is the best the series has ever delivered. In part, this is due to Gearbox’s excellent decision to allow players to replace their grenade slot with a second action ability. So, as Zane the Operative, I could summon a drone and sic it on an enemy, then hide behind the safety of an energy shield, laying down suppressive fire all the while. Or, I could create a double of myself, call up the drone, and stay out of combat entirely. Each of these abilities has its own skill tree and, as the game progressed, I unlocked new skills that tweaked each ability in interesting ways. Eventually, switching places with my body double would create an explosion AND regenerate my shield. Borderlands 3 is the most impressively deep RPG that Gearbox has created yet, and the combat soars as a result of the increased specificity.

The improved art plays a role here, too: the guns look fantastic, especially in action. They rattle as they fire off a barrage of bullets, smoke as they overheat, shine with an impeccable detail that simply wasn’t possible in 2012. The number of gun manufacturers this time around has expanded to nine, and each produces weapons with interesting strengths and weaknesses.  As always, you’ll need to equip weapons and shields with certain perks to give you an edge in the tougher battles. 

And there are plenty of tough battles. Borderlands 3’s boss fights vacillate wildly between the best and most creative in the series, and the most frustratingly badly designed — fights that, on solo, will leave you with no recourse but to overlevel them and brute force your way through. The best fights are thrilling dances that task you with dealing consistent damage to the heavy-hitters while managing a variety of smaller enemies. You’ll run, gun, use your abilities, stop very quickly to open crates and retrieve health and ammo. All of this feels more frenetic and smooth than ever because Gearbox has added the ability to mantle, slide and slam down on enemies heads from mid-air. These fights are frantic, but strategic, requiring split-second decision-making, that still manages to feel like important decision-making.

 However, those boss battles are often hamstrung by design that feels downright hostile to players attempting to hunt Vaults by themselves. The series’ “Fight For Your Life” mechanic — which gives you a small window of time to revive yourself by getting a kill while down — is at it’s best in this game, with a movement speed that’s been helpfully increased since Borderlands 2 (and will make it even harder to return to the original’s frozen-in-place “Last Stand”). But, certain boss battles — specifically, the optional fight against the electric-charged scumbag Killavolt and a very-not-optional late game battle — hit you with unavoidable AOE attacks and fail to reliably provide the enemies you need to kill to bring you back from the brink. 

These design issues are exacerbated by bugs. When I searched for help on the Killavolt fight, I found that some players seemed to encounter the version of the battle that I did — one with an unavoidable, lengthy AOE and scant enemies — while others had no such problem. Two guides I checked made no mention of these major issues, and message board threads were divided on whether these issues are even in the game. During a different battle, a boss who can follow the player out of the primary arena, disappeared from his chamber, and I had to search the surrounding area until he turned up. More than once I had to abandon a mission because the waypoint disappeared, or because an object I needed to collect vanished from the world. This wasn’t game-breaking — whenever I returned later the missions were working fine  — but it was annoying. 

The writing in this game will likely grate on you, as well, unless you have a very specific sense of humor or play with the sound off. Borderlands 3’s script has been widely panned by critics (and on Twitter) but the team behind the writing had the unenviable task of maintaining Borderlands’ identity in an era that feels, and in many ways is, utterly different from 2012. Some critics, and I’m among them, have outgrown a taste for humor that punches down. Others have circled the wagons around this kind of offensive humor with a ferocity that suggests they believe that their right to make fun of marginalized communities without any consequences is enshrined in the Constitution. Borderlands 3 has scrubbed slurs from its script. You won’t encounter a “Bullymong” and “Midgets” have been rebranded as “Tinks” (so named, according to Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford, because they tinker, constructing turrets to do their fighting for them on the battlefield).

That’s good! I’m glad they took those slurs out! But, now that genuinely offensive humor is no longer risk-lessly financially viable, the writing team behind Borderlands 3 has opted to double down on dick and poop jokes. The goal here seems to be to retain the semblance of edge while removing any chance of actually offending anyone. The result is a game that is unceasingly puerile, still offensive but in the way that a 12-year-old’s loud burp at the dinner table might offend their parents. 

Humor is hard to pull off, and that’s doubly true in a game as massive as this one. But, Borderlands’ penchant to turn every character into a one-note gag has never been more clear than it is here. It doesn’t help that Rhys and Vaughn, two characters making the jump to the big time after starring in Tales from the Borderlands, feel smaller this time around. In Telltale’s hands, they felt like fully realized characters. Here, they’re just jokes like everyone else. Same goes for the new villains, Tyreen and Troy Calypso, who are more ideologically interesting than Handsome Jack, but less three-dimensional.

However, Borderlands 3 borrowed something else from Tales: that game’s planet-hopping wanderlust. While previous Borderlands games were mostly confined to one dusty/moon-dusty/snow-dusty desert planet, Tales was a hero’s journey, sending its characters on a trip around the stars. Borderlands 3 has likewise broadened its scope, beaming players down to a mountain monastery, a neon cityscape, a swampy jungle and more. Each feels legitimately distinct and while they sometimes feel like glorified corridors, they mostly succeed. The Louisiana-inspired Eden-6 is a particularly memorable, and even evocative, open world sandbox.

Well, kind of. Borderlands 3 still is basically an open world game — you’re free to ignore the plot, explore the world and tackle side quests at your leisure — but continues to divide its world into levels. When the first game launched in 2009 you could chalk this segmentation up to technical limitations, but in 2019 it feels bizarre for the galaxy to be cordoned off by pale blue barriers and load screens. It’s one of many ways, some good and some bad, that Borderlands refuses to change. You still spend a third of your time opening crates, comparing stats and managing an unwieldy inventory. You’ll put up with an onslaught of meme-y humor. Despite recent innovations in loot-shooter enemy design in games like The Division 2, you’ll still fight an army of bullet sponges.

Most of what this game has to offer hasn’t changed since 2012. It’s more Borderlands. Decide how you feel about that.

Borderlands 3 review code for PC provided by the publisher

Borderlands 3 is out now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC