Borderlands 4 is the fifth game in the series and if you've played a Borderlands game, you know what you're getting yourself into. There are some Vault Hunters with guns, and you use said guns to fight baddies, and then you get stronger guns to take care of even stronger enemies. Yeah, mind-blowing, right?
If you cannot wait to get into the action, we have a post right here detailing the exact release times for Borderlands 4, but if you're here, you probably want to know if you can play Borderlands 4 early. Well, there's no special edition of Borderlands 4 that you can purchase to get a few days of early access like other AAA video games, but there is a way to play 12 hours before other people, and that's by playing Borderlands 4 on PC.
Borderlands 4 Review: New Vault Hunters and Skill Trees Are Some of the Best Yet
Gearbox Software takes a 'back to basics' approach with Borderlands 4 that ends up being exactly what the series needed.
How to Play Borderlands 4 a Little Early
To get right into it, the only way to play Borderlands 4 "early" is to just purchase the PC version. You see, the PC version of Borderlands 4 releases at 12 PM Eastern Time (NYC) on Thursday, September 11. If you are playing the game on consoles, such as PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, Borderlands 4 will not be released until midnight ET on September 12.
Is Borderlands 4 Worth Buying?
I personally have not played Borderlands 4, but our review just dropped on the site, and we scored it a solid 8/10. Our reviewer, Matt Karoglou, really enjoyed how the game goes back to basics and found the characters and overall plot pretty compelling. However, he notes that the endgame isn't as great as it could be, and some of the bosses can be super frustrating.
And over on Opencritic, Borderlands 4 is sitting at an average critic score of 84. So, it seems safe to say that if you're a fan of any Borderlands game, you'll probably like this one too.
Borderlands 4
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 82 /100 Critics Rec: 88%
- Released
- September 12, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Developer(s)
- Gearbox Software
- Publisher(s)
- 2K
