Borderlands 3: Designer's Cut

Borderlands 3: Designer's Cut
N/A
Metacritic
29
Steam
33.243
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$14.99
Release date
9 November 2020
Full game
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
29 (369 votes)

Expand your Borderlands 3 experience with the Designer's Cut add-on content! The new Arms Race mode is a replayable gauntlet challenging you to gear up from scratch and extract the best loot!

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Borderlands 3: Designer's Cut system requirements

Minimum:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 7/10 (latest service pack)
  • Processor: AMD FX-8350 or Intel i5-3570
  • Memory: 6 GB RAM
  • Graphics: AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2 GB
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 75 GB available space
  • Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
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Reviews
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PlasmaTheDragon
PlasmaTheDragon

Im gonna be 100% real, its an ok-ish concept but just somehow feels pretty bad overall, the loot that is potentially earnable just isnt worth the time spent. I really only bought it to complete the game 100% on steam, that said I can say the other negatively rated DLC in my opinion is actually really good and especially the soundtrack kicks in hard near the end with a somewhat challenging final boss whereas arms race has annoying repetitive music and is somewhat annoying to playthrough each round. On top of this some dumb-dumb at gearbox had the bright idea to make an acheivement to extract 100 peices of gear which will take like 10 or more runs each taking at roughly 10 minutes so you have to spend 2 hours repeating already shitty content on loop just to claim the trophy. Overall 3/10 for the love of god just buy the 6th DLC directors cut as it is 10x better and has awesome music even if Ava is annoying. only buy this on sale or if you just wan to 100% the game as bad as I did but if the latter please do this first before anything else that way you can have the less ball crushingly awful stuff for later as to not hate your life.

Mr.M
Mr.M

As someone who isnt a fan of the battle royal game mode of fortnite (wich is free to play) i never thought id get tricked into buying a battle royale clone for money. Whoever came up with the name "Arms Race" in a game where you CAN Shoot and Drive cars then turn it into a battle royale should truly...get fired faster than he can think of the idea that he might get fired.

Just because it is battle royale im not going to recommend buying it there exist far more popular free versions of battle royale's out there.

And definetly never going to talk about this with my friends cus the Name is beyond misleading. The two main things you Do in Borderlands 3 is Drive Cars and Shoot People....if you name a dlc addon Arms Race im going to assume its a deadly Race to the death.....Not a game mode wich is FREE TO PLAY EVERYWHERE ELSE.

K9liberator
K9liberator

The new skill trees are good. Amara gets a new and powerful skill and can maximize her melee damage. Zane gets a shoulder cannon skill that he may basically use all the time. Fl4k gets a loader bot and the ability to really fight as a beastmaster and Moze ... well Moze gets almighty and can play as a beastmaster too. So ... that's that.

Apart from that, you get a single new map for a new playmode. That's ... not enough, really. You get powerful new weapons. Plasma Coil, Tizzy and Boogeyman are game changers, really. So the power creep is real.

But content wise the DLC is a total waste, in my opinion. Arms race is fun but a sad excuse for a real new DLC with story, characters, side missions and so on.

Verdict: 3/10

BOOTZ
BOOTZ

requires the directors cut DLC to farm mods for the 4th skill tree. been farming for a while and cant find ANY 4th skill tree mods and the director cut is the only dlc i dont own. seems like devs are borrowing EA's strats.... cant say i recommend this dlc but if you were to get dlc just get the season pass 2 because im finding out this the hard way and this dlc doesnt say anything about needing the directors dlc so you can maximize your 4th skill tree abilities

Balthasar Gelt Enjoyer
Balthasar Gelt…

Nice Legendary weapon I have to farm by doing a boring mode that was added as a joke/10

nes
nes

only bought it for the achievements and took 2 hours of playing a battle royale against AI

J9per
J9per

says it comes with character skins. it doesn't. unless it just adds them to earl's shop later... in which case wtf. so far Zane's new tree is real fun though.

Sotenbori
Sotenbori

A heavily watered-down battle royale with bullet sponge enemies that one-shot you, none of your hard-earned (potentially) skills and such, then a bundle of character skins priced at $10 each. Gearbox, what the hell are you doing?

some guy
some guy

The skill trees are great and the weapons are ridiculously strong, but those are just rewards, you should be paying for the actual content. The actual content, Arms Race, is awful. One never changing visually boring map, one boss, and one unoriginal Fortnite ripoff mechanic that means you don't get to use your own gear or any of your skills/passives. This DLC is overpriced, creatively bankrupt, and makes grinding even more boring than usual.

oo00RAVEN00oo
oo00RAVEN00oo

Yep. i'm going with all the negative reviews. Worst $30 i've ever spent. Arms race is a pathetic copy of fortnite and the extra skill trees are ok. BUT, where do you use these new skill tress? ON THE SAME OLD CRAP CONTENT YOU ALWAYS HAVE (by which i mean your skills, augments and guardian points mean nothing! They can't be used in Arm's Race). People have bought season pass 2 (and yes i am one of the pre orders of the super/ultra/mega whatever it was version sold with all the trimmings. Only to have season pass 2 wagged in our faces without any timeline as to WHEN this season pass will matter). Well, i have to say, buying this designers cut is a dead end.

If the devs had shown even the slightest interest in showing us a timeline of what to expect for season pass 2, maybe i would have bought it, but given bl3's history, i can't warrant paying good money for something i haven't seen. Funnily enough, despite the general hate from the community, gearbox is still making enough money from their crap DLC to warrant continuing their production.

TLDR Designers cut isn't worth your time or money. Don't feed the monkey.

Count Burzum
Count Burzum

stinking pile of GARBAGE you start with NO nothing no shields no weapons and you can't even use your ACTION skill do !!!NOT!!! buy it this should of been FREE and added as a seasonal event HELL EVEN the seasonal events a far better

kirby gamez
kirby gamez

I could rant about Arms Race for paragraphs, because boy howdy does that game mode SUCK. But I'd rather not spend forever typing that out, so here's a short version: the exclusive legendaries I want will never spawn. I hate that I have to use white-rarity weapons for the majority of it. The inability to use action skills, pets, or any of you skills makes this a huge pain to grind for, especially combined with the rng of where you spawn and what areas are open. If you don't want to grind Arms Race, you can always just edit your save file to get the items you want, which I am absolutely not above doing and will not judge you for doing so.

The fourth skill tree is the only thing that makes this DLC worth it. It cancels out the bad of Arms Race and honestly carries the Designer's Cut. More possibilities when it comes to builds and fun skills. For some it may be stretching out your skill points even thinner, but I find it a welcome addition. For no other reason than the fourth skill trees, I give this a recommendation. Just never play Arms Race.

Lil_Neb
Lil_Neb

I see a lot of negative reviews about this game mode... personally i had a blast playing this, and it has insane replay-ability!
First of all, the new guns it adds are really good, such as the tizzy, which at my level 22 moze, practically one shots everything in existence. I see a lot of complaints about no skill trees/guardian rank. but imagine this game mode with that stuff, it'd be insanely OP. for example an Amara melee build... it'd be unstoppable and less challenging. or for Vault hunters with insanely high guardian rank, again just no general challenge. I saw one review that said if they wanted to play fortnite, they'd go play it. This is nothing like fortnite in terms of gameplay. The premise is collect as much loot as possible in the small amount of time you have, then fight a boss. Fortnite is be the last one standing, and there is no real advantage a player gets for winning in fortnite. its just a stat. while in BL3 you get rewarded with whatever goodies you find.

All around: 8/10
Do i suggest it? 100% NO QUESTION IN MY MIND
why? Not only is arms race 8/10, but you also get and extra skill tree for every vault hunter, and while some like Amaras are very buggy, they will be fixed over time. in the long run this DLC can provide so much more depth into builds of characters.

Dismellion
Dismellion

Nice Cyberpunk 2077 DLC. Recommended.

Sir Nonsense
Sir Nonsense

The skill trees are pretty nice, but if you're wanting them, I highly suggest you get this while there is a sale.

I would talk about the quality of arms race if it didn't glitch for me, not allowing me to fast travel to the actual place that the event takes place. However, I can't say the same thing will happen to whoever gets this dlc, so once again, get this when it goes on sale.

If it goes one sale, that is...

Edit: So, I guess one night it updated and now I can suddenly play it. Be it an unpopular opinion, I rather enjoy the Arms Race gamemode! Its got the entertainment factor of riddling enemies full of bullets with randomized guns that you randomly get, and that is what I enjoy the Borderlands series for. Granted, sure, the story is trash, but otherwise, I think its a fun game, and this gamemode fits the bill. I also wondered what happened to Axton and Salvador, and now I've gained that explanation! Just wish they had a bit more involvement in the game. Then again, if that were the case, then they'd probably also be killed off by bad writing, just like Maya.

However, I still would say that you wait for a sale and see if this cheaper. Absolutely not worth $15, that's a bit absurd for the content, regardless of its quality.

Mr Mole
Mr Mole

IT FUCKING SAID AXTON WAS PLAYABLE IN THIS SHIT I WANT MY FUCKING MONEY BACK

Talpine
Talpine

Borderlands 3 is a hero shooter game that focuses on characters with unique abilities, skill trees, and weapons. These encourage players to experiment with different builds and grind for weapons to find powerful and fun combinations that suit their desired play-style.

"Ooh, I know what it needs: a mode where we take all the interesting skills and builds away and give players random loot where there's no way to try to go for specific styles. Let's also lock gear required for the new skill trees we're adding behind this mode so players have to play this mode if they want to use the new skill trees. Brilliant!"

This is only worth it if you really want to play with the new skill trees. Hopefully they give us other ways to get the class mods for the fourth skill trees sometime in the future

Basil2432
Basil2432

Only ok part is 3/4 skill trees. Arms race is lackluster and separated from the rest of the game. Cant use anything from outside (no skills, gear, guns). All the new items are locked behind this game mode, which wouldnt be a big deal if the game mode or more of the loot was any good.

🌴SɢᴛFᴏᴘᴘᴇʀ™🌅
🌴SɢᴛFᴏᴘᴘᴇʀ™🌅

Yes, I'm a big fan of the Borderlands games; even though I haven't 100% completed all Borderlands parts yet. But with this first DLC of Season Pass 2 and the mode "Arms Race" (battle royale-like a la PUBG or Warzone) I'm unfortunately not really satisfied. For me, this mode seems relatively monotonous and also not exciting. You land on the "battlefield", find good equipment with a bit of luck [good old RNG], flee from the looming "Murdercane" and go to the final boss. This one is no real challenge either. In three solos in a row, I died once before the boss because of bad RNG and twice I was able to finish the thing in about 10 minutes on Mayhem 11. That doesn't make you really want more; at least not for me - too bad.

Hopefully Director's Cut will be better in the second DLC of Season Pass 2!

Ramen Llama
Ramen Llama

not worth a buy. new skills are kinda fun and open up more build variety but do you really need it? plenty of playstyles already. and the less said about arms race the better

NDK
NDK

New Skill Trees are cool.

Arms race is pretty much the biggest pile of steaming garbage i have played in a long time. Putting some cool guns behind this pile of shit is just sad.

Just get the save file editor and import the guns into your game. There is no reason to waste your time with this shit.

15 bucks is too much for this DLC. Maybe 5 would be okay.
I definately don´t recommend to buy this one.

The Outlaw
The Outlaw

i love borderlands 3 but this is still one of the shittiest 15 dollar dlcs ive ever bought on any game. yeah the rewards are high IF you can get to a drop spot to send them to sanctuary but the time limit doesnt give you enough time to make use of anything. also you cant use your action skills or guardian point skills or skill tree skills. not worth the buy at all...

Nitro17
Nitro17

Not... the greatest peice of content. Actually probably one of the weakest content I've played in a long time.

The skill trees are sort of interesting because it allows you to try out different builds with each character, but all in all, because of the lack of supporting class mods, they often get overlooked unless you're levelling. I'd argue Zane's is the most useful and viable since it allows him to break away from the Seein' Dead build. Amara's and Moze's are interesting and a viable choice, while Flak's tree is conditional at best. Unless you're specifically going for a pet build, I can't see you spending any points in it.

The weapons and gear added by this are great!! The map added is fantastic!! It's too bad the PvE Battle Royale ruins both of them. Instead of having the items drop from a boss, Each legendary is assigned to a specific static chest on the map. The problem with this is that it's still a chance for those items to drop, there's still the annointment grind, and you have to progress through gear each time.Since you're so dependent on the gear that drops, it only highlights how imbalanced combat is. Oh and did I mention, you have to do all of this without skills? I get why they're not there, because you could just blast through the mode with them... but the slog is just... sooo disgustingly slow without them.

Tl;dr I regret buying this. I wanted to like this game mode. I want to explore this map, but the gear isn't worth the battle royale bullshit, even though a good portion of it is broken. And this is the only way to get class mods for purple tree. So if you want to use purple tree... good fucking luck farming this mode for the perfect one.

cese
cese

Sorry about this review. Love the Borderland franchise. However, I could not stand this update. In the new playable area Gearbox decided to take away everything that made your vault hunter your vault hunter. Skills? Nope. Vault hunter special abilities? Nope. Gear? Nope. Lets make everyone, and everything 100% the same. I didn't play this game to be the same. I wanted a kick butt vault hunter armed to the teeth with my special set of skills and abilities. I really wish I could get my money back. It was not worth it. If I wanted to be the same as everyone else with zero differentiation, then I would have played a game like that. Ultimate disappointment. I sure hope they redeem themselves with the next DLC. Fool me once. Twice? I doubt I would give the BL franchise another dime if this type of play continues.

Cael
Cael

Despite all the negative reviews, if you actually go look at the sub reddit, streaming communities, and Youtube, you can see A LOT of people like Arms Race. It's a rogue-ish-battle-royale-gauntlet thing that's a bunch of fun to drop in and do, no commitment, now and then. Even better with friends.

But for the asking price, it's a bit pricey. I'd recommend not getting it alone, and instead with the Season 2 pass instead.

Also, the new skill trees are absolutely baller. I don't know where this hatred for those comes from, people seem to hate they exist? I dunno. They're very much beloved by the community at large.

Fl4k's, as of 4/8/2021 is the only one that sorta lacks in power. It's still super fun and I center my build around it, but people do note it's lack of punch.

For Moze, you get to finally have a build that doesn't care about Iron Bear, by using Iron Cub. God I love this skill tree. Lots of fun stuff in it.

Zane's is all about crits, and it was notoriously busted until they nerfed it on like 4/4/2021. It's still a crazy good tree after the nerfs lol

And Amara's is the fan favourite. People love her ball, the semi-focus on cryo, ability to ignore elemental resistances, and lastly but not least: hitting damage cap with it. Yeah, people are able to hit damage cap now...

STICC
STICC

i bought this just to say everything so far sounds like shit and i guarantee my opinion wouldnt change after actually playing it

bl3 was not a good game and the more i thought about it the more cynical i got, then i see this shit and i want to run to the nearest living thing and kill it. the extra skill tree shouldve been free, why am i paying any amount of money for it. furthermore, gearbox actually told people during a conference that they wouldnt add a battle royale mode, and that announcement was met with nothing but praise, only for them to add a battle royale mode in this dlc which people made very clear they never wanted

fuck you gearbox. cancer.

thatLoganGuy52
thatLoganGuy52

Arms Race is a pretty fun distraction from the normal gameplay loop. Easy to hop in and do a quick round. Real highlight is the new skill trees for each character, those are super fun and well worth the expansion.

Toyota Prius
Toyota Prius

15 bucks for new skill trees. yeah should be free but that does not mean it's bad. Bad business practice but good dlc overall due to skill trees.

Egg, Warlord of Draenor
Egg, Warlord o…

If I could, I would rate this one a "maybe". I like the idea of Arms Race, with some revamping it could be something fun, but it certainly won't be getting that since there are bugs that have been present since launch of the base game that still aren't fixed 2 years later.
The new skill trees are okay, they should have just rebalanced the base ones and made new characters with the leftovers. They don't really do anything new, they're more or less alternate versions of current trees.
I'd absolutely recommend this if it was like 5 bucks, not 15.

Randy Pitchford is a coward and a loser and I hope he gets what he deserves.

NeroDirewolf
NeroDirewolf

Only for the trees and to hear Salvs and Axton once more.

Sasherz
Sasherz

feel the devs are lacking money and made this dlc for a cashgrab.
relay poorly done comepare to other dlcs
a realy horrible rippof any battle royale games

Dracula
Dracula

Like it. Not the classical Borderlands, but if you have just 30 minutes available, is something to do. Much better than scrolling social media.

Git Gud Dragon
Git Gud Dragon

As a veteran of the Borderlands series I want each and every person that not only supports pre-orders, but are such raging fanboys and fangirls that they have to white knight a dev team to take a bow. Each and everyone of you that do this is the problem. As many of said, this is merely content that was supposed to be in the game on launch day but was ripped out so it could be sold back to us in a effort to make the sales of the game look more impressive.

What many are not telling you however is the Gearbox themselves swore up, down, and sideways that the 4th skill tree would not be locked behind a pay wall, that everyone whom owned the base game would have have access to it. Yet, here we are with it being pay walled. The only reason why arms race is now included in this, which was original added in the directors cut was because Gear Box didn't want to make the whole paying extra that obvious.

What really annoys me is that not only where weapons dropping that only had anointment's for the Designer cut (so if you have base or season one, good luck), but there is also the annoying "nag" screen when you get on Sanctuary for you to play arms race. The only way to remove that annoying reminder? You guessed it! You have to play arms race, so again if you have base or season one, good luck.

I am not sure if this is Randy and crew being upset that their forced politics at game launch was something gamer's as a whole bucked at, which due to patches and edits is not as bad any more (thank god, but watch the fanboys and fangirls hate that I ever dared type that), or if this is a case of Randy seeing the latest trend that Dev Companies can do no wrong.

I am not sorry to say this; but instead of Gearbox taking this chance to offer up things for those of us that are seasoned veterans of the series (new players you have the entire season one geared to you), they instead decided to make this a cash grab and only see the player base as their personal ATM machines.

Dick Kickem
Dick Kickem

I don't write reviews because I'm not qualified to, even from the perspective of 'Joe Consumer' because I don't know what makes a game good or bad. I enjoy what I enjoy, I can't quite describe what I like in a game but I know it when I feel it.

I also understand that these matters in the video game industry are generally, for the most part, much more complicated than the average consumer would have you believe. I dislike when people boil complex ordeals down to greed or corporate takeovers, etc etc.

But what I WILL say is that whoever's idea it was to remove something that was already in the base game, and then charge people money in order to get it back, is someone that deserves to be fired; both in their employment and in their afterlife.

Yataki
Yataki

battle royal, weirdchamp raised hand.

Chaoz
Chaoz

Ok, I am gonna be honest...I kind of like Arm's Race, BUT I will admit it does get stale after a while. Yes, it is just cheap battle royal, but I do like the idea of the player needing to start from scratch instead of obliterating anything that moves in a single second. But I am aware it didn't have much thought put into it, and I know itll eventually get old, unfortunately.

Now, the skill trees. Something we were told we'd get FOR FREE...Gearbox you are just turning into all the other megacorp scumbags, locking useless crap behind paywalls because Randy doesn't have enough $1,000 bills to shove up his butt. And its painful seeing how little effort was put into some of the skill trees, or at least the lost potential. Take FL4K's new Trapper Tree. The ability? Extremely underwhelming, it just stuns a few enemies for a single second or two, they go aggro again, repeat until end. It only becomes useful with the Confuse ability. The skills themselves are decent imo, but what really ticks me off is the PET. The Loader Bot has really good potential, it couldve been THE best pet. Seriously, its damage output is surprisingly good, WITHOUT its rockets and grenades (Oh yeah im talking WAR Loader almost exclusively btw), but first of all, it is ABHORRENTLY slow, to the point you NEED to invest in the skill that makes a pet go faster to make the thing usable. That is just not ok, its FORCING us to invest in a skill we may not want just so the pet functions somewhat ok. Also, its AI sucks. It constantly gets stuck or freezes and by the time you realize it isn't with you it's half-way across the map. They DIDNT EVEN BOTHER to make SKINS work on the bot. in the main menu it works fine but in the actual game IT DOESN'T ADOPT THE ACTUAL PATTERNS, THE SHEER LAZINESS THERE IS INSULTING. I can't say much on the other skill trees, but if Fl4k's is this flawed, the rest don't look to good.

Everyone here already knows why this thing sucks. Megacorp bad. Gearbox, you used to be respectable, Borderlands 2 made you massive and respected and liked, and instead of giving back in order to get the same result, you abuse that in order to drain the cow dry. Screw you.

Antonio
Antonio

Corporate greed. I was the biggest Borderlands fan, but BL3 is a cash grab and it's disguisting.

OZYMANDIAS
OZYMANDIAS

i bought this against my better judgement, and oh boy did it spit me back in the face. I cant even fast travel to the new location (which there is no other way of getting there) because of a bug that's been in the dlc since it was released. Looking online it seems the only fix is to reinstall the 160gb game..... what a fucking joke

ThatBrentGuy
ThatBrentGuy

Imagine paying for a DLC thats bugged and won't even let you play the content you payed for. Big fucking yikes from me dawg. 0/10 can't even play the DLC and its been out for months and months and months now. I have 600 hours into the game, I'm not missing something. Other people have the same issue with the DLC and this isn't something thats been fixed yet?? Shame on you gearbox, shame on you.

Horizon
Horizon

Unpopular opinion, but I actually like Arms Race. Some of the new weapons and gear are pretty cool. It's a really huge cash-grab by the developers, but what isn't these days when it comes to triple-A games.

Teßla
Teßla

he Arms Race is a fun game mode, i enjoy it.
I think the only one problem comes from the base game.... The Legendary..... In the Base Game and in the DLCs we have a lot of Legas but they're mostly uncharacteristic and useless. In the previous games (In the first 2 Borderlands and in the TPS too) Legendaries were rare and powerful (most of them was useful.....). But in the "third" Borderlands we have too many Legendaries, and the 60% of the orange item cards could be blue or green whit no problem.... I just wanted to say that the Arms Race has way more then 10 plus Legendaries but most of them are uncharacteristic and you are never going to use them.... The Arms Race is fun, the gearless game mode is very enjoyable.

The other thing in this DLC is the plus 1 perk tree for every character. In most of my playtime i play as FL4K. And the new perks have a potential, but the new loader pet is JUST NOT WORKING. Its slow as F, and in combat, most of the time it does nothing, just standing still in the feca of the enemy and slowly dying........

10 bucks, wait for a sale if you wanted to buy this as a single DLC. 10 bucks... maybe it's worth that much, but certainly NOT MORE

Psycho
Psycho

Terrible, terrible dlc. The Arms Race mode is so god awful it's unbelievable. What's more is they locked some of the best legendary's to this dlc so it forces you to play it.

Nateistoogreat
Nateistoogreat

do not waste you rmoney. please. its more fun to sit in sanctuary than farm for some of the best weapons in the game. not only does it have a horrible drop rate for the tizzy or plasma coil, they are world drops. So even if you get a legendary from the chests that dont even consistently drop legendaries, you have a tiny chance to get the guns you want. They take everything away that makes this game unique and fun. You like borderlands because you enjoy the different characters? TOO BAD!! You only get grenades. You just spent hours farming for your favorite gun with perfect parts? TOO BAD!!! You can't bring them or any other equipment into this prison of a game mode. I'm 18 with no game design knowledge and know this just doesnt make sense even in theory, yet 30 year old proffessionals thought it was brilliant. only reason anyone will ever play this waste of time is to farm the best guns in the game. Gearbox you suck and i hope your company goes bankrupt.

The Alan
The Alan

It's sooooo sad this is a "DLC", one of the few we will get through the Season Pass 2. It's not even worth being called a DLC, much less being included on a $30 (before tax) season pass.

The concept is okaish if you want to gear up and at the same time level up an alternate character quick, but it's also sad that there's no story behind this, other than salvador and some dude buying this place up and turning it into a deathmatch stadium AKA battle royal....
There's no funny dialogue or anything as you're progressing through the event. To begin with, there's literally no progression. You get a small dialogue scene when you first arrive, giving you a little lore behind what this stadium thing is and its purpose, you activate some switches, a green/black orb appears in the room, you jump in and next thing you know you're "dropping" somewhere at random in this poorly half-baked mini map. You have to run around collecting guns, killing enemies which might drop loot, collect it and once you're happy with what you have you can only keep 6 pieces at a time. There's also a mini-boss present which guarantees better tier loot. You run around the map, avoiding the death zone, though they called it something more different, the premise is still the same.

This definitively should've been free content. The lack of story, the lack of interaction with lore-related characters, the lack of quests (which btw, there's none). There's literally none of that. It's a straight up, go here, activate "funny" levers because BORDERLANDS, drop into the map, GG. SHAME

Arcsine
Arcsine

Fun but not worth anywhere near $15.

It is nice to have another skill tree but the main focus of this DLC is Arms Race. I went in assuming that it would be an online battle royale and I almost didn't even try it, but I was relieved that it is PVE. I don't really see myself replaying it much, but it was very fun. The concept of having to start from scratch and gather loot to prepare for the boss fight is great, and you can actually win without dedicating your life to the game like other battle royales. My only complaint with this DLC is just that it is so barebones for $15, I would not have bought it if it was not included with the season pass (that I got on sale).

Blackheart
Blackheart

Locking DLC Legendaries as exclusives to the ball ache inducing Arms Race mode is just horrible.

BossaNova
BossaNova

These new Skill Trees are about as boring as the ones in BL1. What a joke.

Randy21
Randy21

designer's cut in library,but won't start.

YesMan
YesMan

Warning: Zane players with light sensitivity or past history with epilepsy should stay away with this content.

The action skill of Zane's 4th skill tree, MNTIS Shoulder Cannon, has an EXTREMELY bright visual particle effect.
And the skill tree encourages player to spam the skill.
It is like a flashbang to players' face every couple second.
When using the cannon with "On Action Skill Start - Activate any effects that trigger on shield break or fill." Anointment, it is absolute eye cancer.

I did not have epilepsy before. And I can confirm that even people with no light sensitivity cannot tolerate the visual effect, in a well-lit room.

I cannot understand why such visual effect got approved, with no patch, no options to disable/tune down the intensity of flash.

Gearbox, this is just a design to put your customers' lives in danger. I hope your art and gameplay design department can understand that and fix the problem.

SavantStoner
SavantStoner

Arms Race is a decent concept with extremely poor implementation.
I understand taking gear away for this game mode, it's in the name. However, without access to skill trees, action skills, and guardian ranks, it makes the game feel much less like Borderlands.
The aforementioned point also makes single player in arms race decisively more difficult (get downed with no enemies left).
Bugs/glitches are common and often game-breaking (need to reset game).
Some include: Enemies stuck behind walls, all waves coming out at once, enemies teleport to different area, knock back pushes enemies out of map, and many more small ones.
Game crashes are common, especially interacting with vending machines and echo menus.
Gear and enemies do NOT seem to scale efficiently on higher mayhem modes.
Lack of ability to extract loot. Availability of loot extraction stations is poor.
Some of the best gear in the game is locked behind this game mode making farming for gear a nightmare (many hours in game looking for merely one gun).

All of this and more mean I do NOT recommend this DLC to anyone for content other than the rewards.

HowlingMan
HowlingMan

they should of at least allowed use of your action skill during the arms race

{vex} Noodle
{vex} Noodle

dogshit, what the fuck is arms race? this isnt fucking borderlands go fuck yourself randy pitchford

♥JazzaBiatch♥
♥JazzaBiatch♥

This is definitely not worth the price. Arms Race was so boring and I only did it for the achievements. Didn't pay too much attention to the skill trees either. This is probably worth like $5 MAX.

Boom Boom Ka-Pow
Boom Boom Ka-Pow

Arms race was a huge disappointment. Without skills or abilities your entire run depends on the game being nice enough to give you a few decent items. A lot of the time you will grind through to the end with trash weapons, only to have some decent ones drop after the boss dies. At which point you immediately leave them behind because you can only take 5 items with you. It's the same map every time, it's the same enemies every time, it's the same boss every time. The game uses the same tactics every time - swarm with Badasses, nullhounds and ice weapons, rinse repeat. The game has no concept of balance, there is no distinction between running with 4 players or by yourself. This was a half baked cash grab. I feel like Gearbox is signalling to us that the Borderlands franchise is dead and will be getting a "Disney" makeover for future installments.

ZeAidon
ZeAidon

The only reason I got this is for the Plasma Coil, if you ain`t interested in loot, do not get this, it is not worth, neither the money nor the time, it is the worst idea anyone could have had for a Borderlands DLC. This would have counted as a completely dumb DLC even it if was free... DO NOT GET IT.

Kodyd194
Kodyd194

I found arms race to be boring but loved the new skill trees. I wouldn't pay anywhere near full price for this though, big sale for sure.

aviadastra
aviadastra

The new skill trees are pretty disappointing, they all borrow ideas from past games(Amara's new skill is one of Maya's capstones, Zane's is Wilhelm's shoulder gun, Moze's is Deathtrap)
Arms Race is bad in execution, borderlands with no skills is pretty dull.
I wouldn't recommend it, not really.

SickeningShark
SickeningShark

Action Skills and trees are unrelated to the characters and bad
and the new gamemode sucks ass

Ruuffian
Ruuffian

Imagine making a DLC that introduces new skill trees alongside a mode which takes them away. Arms race feels sluggish as a result and can be really frustrating as you run around for 10 minutes just to die a stupid way and lose everything. Farming weapons that are good like the torrent, plasma coil, boogeyman or trickshot is a painstaking process which is only made worse with annointments.

The music is kinda shit too hey.

But for whatever reason I still play this mode heaps.

Eppiox
Eppiox

This adds a new skill tree and a game mode. The game mode is essentially like a pubG map vs the AI, the map you're on has a shrinking safe zone on a timer - like pubG. In the game mode you have no abilities or such from your main play through and must find guns/shields/mods along the way, you start fresh everytime.

It's just so incredibly poorly paced and unrewarding. The extra skill tree should have been part of the base game, the game mode should never have existed bundled with the skill tree. Upper management made a bad decision on this one.

Dr Me-Dick
Dr Me-Dick

Pretty simple:
-Arms race boring. (for me at least)
-Skill trees, dope.
All in all:Bit costly but cool.

MrDjinn
MrDjinn

This DLC adds new skills AND adds a game mode where you CAN’T use skills.
This is a perfect summary of an entire Borderlands 3 experience.

Disclaimer

I played through all the DLC’s content multiple times as 1 character – Moze.

TL;DR

The new skills are useful and scale very strongly on Moze. I hear Zane’s skills are also pretty good (although nerfed since release when they were overpowered), but Fl4k ones are apparently terrible.

The Arms Race quest/mode is ill conceived and bad. The only reason to play it are the new items that can only appear in that mode.

The best way to view this DLC as a BL3 player’s “tax”. It certainly does not contain enough good content to justify the absurd asking price. For 10$ maybe the DLC would be worth it because of new skills, but at current price this is only for people who absolutely have to possess all the content.

You’ll be fine without it, there are still many builds viable even without this DLC.

Description

This DLC adds 2 main pieces of content:
- 1 new skill tree for each characters
- 1 new quest/mode called Arms Race

I can only review how good Moze’s skill is, since I didn’t play other characters. The new skill lets you summon your mech-suit as a pet instead of driving it personally. It will dual-wield whatever weapon you put in it’s second slot. Since Moze has great ability to deal damage by herself – I found myself using the mech only when I was low on HP to prevent going down. With the pet summoned, you will gain access to some new buffs as well as increased damage and a convenient bullet-sponge that follows you around for a while. The passive skills that are available in the new tree are very useful and scale well in the endgame.

During Arms Race mode you are thrown into a large map without any items and with no access to skills or passive abilities. You will scour the area looking for equipment and weapons, starting with white items only. There are groups of enemies sprinkled about the area, which can drop items for you. There are also treasure chests that are tied to small arenas you need to complete to get the rewards and supply drops that appear randomly and summon enemies as well as spawn chests which you can loot before or after dealing with the enemies.

As the game goes on, the playable area will shrink and if you are caught outside of that area – you will take large amounts of damage until you die.

At the center lies entrance to an underground bunker, which is unaffected by the shrinking play area. Eventually you will be forced into that bunker to fight the last boss.

Most golden quality items that will drop during this mode are unable to be equipped. You can transfer them from the Arms Race to your regular game through one of several stations on the map. These are all at the edge of the area and will become inaccessible due to shrinking play field, but there’s also one of these stations after the boss encounter.

Pros:

+ More variety
Between new skills and new items you just have more stuff to play around with and since the new mode is not gated behind power requirements – you can start grinding new items at any point in the game.

Cons:

- No skills in Arms Race
Leaving aside the fact that this DLC adds new skills AND adds a game mode where you CAN’T use skills is the most idiotic thing I’ve ever seen in a game in this genre…

What makes you pick one character over the other? Skills, of course. You like the playstyle of grinding people down with your mech suit? Maybe you love smashing people up as a punchy siren? Or maybe you just like to pet doggos?

Well, screw you, says Gearbox, every character plays exactly the same in the Arms Race since you have no ability to use any skills or passives.

Who da fuk thought that was a good idea?

- Monotonous
The same map over and over again, the points of interest are few and far between, even enemy groups are spread out a lot and they never respawn.

After you play this like 4 times, you’ve seen probably more than 90% of the content of Arms Race.

- Some stuff not viable for use at all
I hear Fl4k’s skills tree is simply unusable. Fl4k in general seems to have an identity crisis, where Gearbox wanted it to be a pet class, but because of bad AI (and other issues) you can only play it as a damage dealing hero like others, so the new tree being bad doesn’t help it reaching new levels of variety.

Lowdown

There is a reason that most people say that this DLC is bad.

For the most part – it is. The only reason to get this is access to new skills, with Arms Race being a thing you’ll get bored of quickly.

The entirety of Borderlands 3 just smells of shoddy craftsmanship, like the only thing devs put effort into is base mechanics and story/plot (and failed with that second one). Nobody worked on polishing the systems and making sure everything worked together well and the new skills combined with a mode where you can't use them sums up the whole thing.

I'd give this DLC a

4/10

Closer to a 3 than a 5. Pretty bad.

Treat this as a tax imposed on BL3 players desperate for new content, because that’s what it is.

StarWanTrix
StarWanTrix

Skill tree is pretty good. Arms Race is weird, not sure what it was. An attempt at something like Fortnite maybe? A shitty attempt

Vorlaut Boy
Vorlaut Boy

If you're like me, you probably saw the new skilltrees and thought "well I don't really care about the arms race, but I might as well buy very expensive skill trees, because they're going to give me more options!"

It would be a shame, if Class Mods to support those skill trees would be included in a seperate DLC... WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY DID!!!

I can't believe that there's one legendary class mod connected to those 4 skilltrees, which you can gain solely gain through the arms race mode. For normal class mods, like you gain for the other skilltrees, you have to buy the Directors Cut DLC as well.

This DLC in itself is a scam. If you want really want these extra skilltrees, consider buying Season Pass 2 as a whole.

phoenixwarbird
phoenixwarbird

I like the extra skill trees but I hate arms race as a mode. it feels awful because luck is the determining factor on whether enemies die in 2 seconds or 20

Heba
Heba

So ein langweiliger Unsinn für einen viel zu hohen Preis. Arms Race an sich klingt ja interessant, aber ohne alles - kein Skilltree, keine Ulti - finde ich das lahm. Sinn solcher Spiele ist für mich, einen Build zu entwickeln und zu verbessern, und nicht nackt durch die Gegend zu rennen.

Knavenformed
Knavenformed

This is pretty much buying the unrefined cutting floor crap for shits and giggles to play with.

Thing is the design of skill trees in Borderlands 3 compared to 2 doesn't make the "whole extra skill tree" as enticing.
In Borderlands 2 the three base skill trees are functionally extremely different while in Borderlands 3 you can see some pretty obvious best choices in the perks.

Zane's cut shoulder cannon seems perfect for his middle tree capstone of activating kill skills on ability use, but his Digi-Clone already covers that while giving Zane extreme tankiness, and you'll be still handhold to building cryo damage.

Moze's Iron Cub is an alternative playstyle where you can double your lethality and seemingly build for status damage, and I've played Nuclear Moze from day one and even then giving up the comfort of using Iron Bear as a nuclear second wind for a shitty DPS layer even with biggur numbers on statuses that already deal jack-shit compared to her main explosive options.

Fl4k's tree seems pretty useless completely, I don't play much Fl4k and if I did main him this DLC is completely skippable on him, unless there's some extreme wombo combo I know of.

Amara is a character that I haven't touched at all, her bullshit anointments basically carried her character on launch so I never had any interest in her, but maybe this DLC will give me the biggest reason to play Amara actually, will update this review once I've played Amara for once.

But yeah it's fun if you want to theoretically build up the new trees on a new game playthrough, but to spice up your max level grinding, no way this is going to do that.

L1ON
L1ON

It may be overpriced but the new skill trees are fun and arms race adds some interesting and powerful new toys to play with. Get it on sale or in a bundle because the normal price is a bit high for what should have been included in the base game or a free update.

montyatreus
montyatreus

The new skill trees are pretty good, but the new game mode is utter trash. If there was something that the BL series has already done to death, it was grindy arena missions; this one just happens to be even worse than its predecessors by stripping you of your hard-earned gear at the beginning and forcing you to scavenge for items in the arena. "Ah, well..." I hear you say. "At least I have my skills. After all, skills are an integral part of what makes the Borderlands series!" Haha, no. You lose those, too. You get nothing. The only thing that differentiates your characters from each other is which overpriced skin your character is wearing, which SDU expansions you've purchased, and which stupid quips your character repeats ad nauseum as you mow down yet another horde of enemies while you desperately try to get to a chest that may (RNGesus willing) contain a weapon better than the garbage you found when you first entered this boring, monotonous arena.

Coeal
Coeal

let me be clear 2K. i bought this "dlc" for the skill trees
i remember when you got entire CLASSES for 7$. 14$ for 1 tree each, with tacked on trash? no thanks

wish i got this scam on winter sale. better yet, wish i could have pirated it like you pirated my cash. only reason i dont is steam is simply more convenient

Mothbean
Mothbean

Fuck you, I love the pet loader more than I love my sister

Ridley
Ridley

Arms Race mode is somewhat useful for getting decent gear during early playthrough. However, it quickly becomes obsolete, once you are able to participate in Maurice's events. Not to mention that our sexy dinosaur has fixed - more or less - rewards and AR mode is pure RNG. But, if you like Fortnite/Apex Legends battleroyal stuff, maybe it's for you. I just farmed achievements and never bothered to return.

Extra skins? Okay, but Maurice has better rewards in this field(again).

Extra perks? Didn't bother to level up Amara's purple skill tree.

Bought it as a part of BL3 full bundle+on a New Year sale, so it probably was practically free for me. Not worth the full price.

RiptheBlood
RiptheBlood

There is a lot bad here. Useless new skill trees, lackluster extra quests, boring Fortnite knockoff, and an actual, and normal raidboss without being a takedown locked behind this garbage. This is not worth the price or time that a proper dlc is worth. The guns are not even that game-breaking. They are quick and easy pickups to boost you through leveling or Mayhem, but not absolute must haves.

HOWEVER I do like the direction of Arms Race. Having a gamemode where players start from scratch instead of one person melting the boss for the other 3 is refreshing. Had they used Arms Race mixed with Digistruct Peak map from BL2 instead of battle royale knockoff, this would have been super fun.

Only upvoting because I would love to see an activity like that in future updates/games where players are on the same footing and have to work together to make it out. End game raids should stay obviously otherwise grinding for gear would be useless, but an alternate gamemode / minigame like this would be fun fully fleshed out.

O
O

THIS IS HELLA FUN TO PLAY WITH FRIENDS AND ME AND MY FRIEND GOT HELL OG GOOD GUNS AND YOU CAN GET PLASMO COIL AND ITS THE BEST GUN BL3

Fuzums
Fuzums

Overpriced skill tree dlc hah...

☭Amadron☭
☭Amadron☭

ARMS RACE IS FUCKING DOG SHIT. It is a shit game mode, farming for specific loot is fucking painful and horrible. The new skill trees are ok but not worth 15$. Never buy this unless its in a mega bundle sale

snowysquid
snowysquid

The Designer’s Cut is a sorry excuse of a cash grab-easy money-little effort-DLC that doesn’t add nearly as much content for its price when compared to previous DLCs that introduce so much new maps, enemies, weapons, and other activities. New gamemode called Arms Race which is like a Borderlands battle royale in order to get better loot which is cool but gets stale after a while… a new skill tree for every character and some skins… for $15?? LOL

+New Arms Race mode which is basically a Borderlands battle royale dropping you into a massive map having to loot and grab whatever guns you can to survive removing anything you have equipped beforehand and preventing you from using your special ability. You have to find new items in order to survive and will have to try and find new and better guns to extract and specific locations and or fight in key buildings to unlock good loot chests. Dying causes you to lose everything and is commentated by Axton & Salvador from BL2
+Cant use majority of the legendaries you find during arms race which at first seems stupid but makes sense in order to not makes yourself op and just blast through everything
+Fun survivability aspect having to find completely new weapons you've never used before and with no special ability either makes it a fun challenge of actually having to struggle to survive
+New 4th skill tree for all characters
+New cosmetics
+Axton & Salvador commentate over the Arms Race… some what

-The major thing I hate about this DLC is the annoying repetitive callouts by Axton and Salavador to play/buy the DLC in Sanctuary as every single time you enter Sanctuary they will tell you to play Arms Race and it is so annoying… Thankfully if you do play it they shut up
-Arms Race is a cool new gamemode but almost feels like it should have just been a part of the main game, perhaps only unlocked after beating the main story.. It just feels like a really simplistic DLC that shouldn't even be a DLC like when they made several of the circles of slaughter in past games a DLC when they clearly should have just been in the base game…
-Axton & Salvador who persister you constantly to play Arms Race only really talk at the beginning and end of every match and rarely talk or have any dialogue in the midst of the game aside from talking about the hurricane moving
-The fact that you have to pay in order to access the 4th skill tree
-Never saw any of the new cosmetics
-Gets old fast
-Totally not worth $15 lol
-Introduces new skill trees then has new gamemode where you can't use your special ability
-Would be a lot more entertaining if there were several maps focusing on specific enemy types and had different bosses
-Annoying music that plays the whole time

Designers Cut is another low effort DLC that is overpriced in order to cash in for easy money much like the previous DLC. I like Arms Race a lot and it's honestly a lot of fun and hope it returns in future installments. However the pricing is just ridiculous and if anything should have just been free within the game itself due to how simplistic it is… New skill trees are nice but at this far into the game's release I already have a set build that I don't really care to change… It feels like they introduced Axton & Sal into this DLC just to entice people to buy it only for them to rarely talk during the majority of it or have little to do with it. Why is this even called the Designer’s Cut? Maybe because as a good design choice they should’ve cut this completely from the game????? Or was it they initially intended on making it part of the main game then cut it to force players to pay for it later LOL

tabaluga69
tabaluga69

Idk what yall talking bout plasma coil is literally super op+ zanes cannon is very good I reallly recommend that dlc its worth buying!

samere96
samere96

ive bought directors cut can play arms race but cant play any of the murder mysteries, any ideas???????

ZacktheJoker
ZacktheJoker

eh this is the time that steam needed to have a middle option
the arms race wasnt bad,it just gets boring after 4 runs
the skill trees are ok i guess

CptGrunt95
CptGrunt95

Did this really have to be paid for dlc?

Grim Reader
Grim Reader

The arms race really needs some balance to it. It's just too vanilla to be included with a borderlands game.

Focker
Focker

A complete waste of money. Gearbox should remove this dlc and refund everyone that payed for it. Utter Garbage, not fun, only maybe 3 legendary's worth trying for and if you get one you want the game will "F" you. Believe the reviews and do not buy this dlc, I like the rest of the game but this is just trash.

PHIL KEN SEBBEN
PHIL KEN SEBBEN

Arms race is like if you took borderlands 3, tried to make it apex legends, and also made it very annoying and took all the fun out

🐈Tsumiki Miniwa🐈
🐈Tsumiki Miniwa🐈

Do NOT get this DLC.

It adds 4 skill trees, one for each character. I got this DLC ONLY for one of those skill trees, and ended up not using it anyway. (It was Zane's, the Operative's, for reference.)

It also adds an Arms Race gamemode. You spawn somewhere with no guns and no way of dealing damage besides three grenades, and you have to find guns. While avoiding enemies, who DO have guns. No action skills either, so you can't summon a mech or a drone or your pet or anything to help you deal with the enemies. Also, if you find any legendary weapons from killing something? Too bad, can't use it until you get it out of the gamemode! Can't have you actually doing the rest of this mission "EASILY" now can we, huh?

I'll consider, MAYBE, changing my review if you let me bring friends into Arms Race without forcing them to also buy this DLC. Until you do that or make the DLC super-super-super cheap, this review stays at a negative.

EDIT:
Okay, so if you use game start to do ANYTHING except "Slam!" you don't start with a gun and a shield. And even if you do, you still gotta find the gun/shield chest. However with that gun/shield chest it's a lot simpler.

... That said, this DLC is not worth full price. Expert marketing tactic, pricing the dlc way higher than it should be so when it goes on sale people think "wow this dlc is cheaper than normal" instead of thinking "wow this dlc is now normal priced"

Scattergrunt
Scattergrunt

Arm's race is a disappointing gamemode that should of stayed cut for a variety of reasons, while I do very much enjoy the new skill tree for all our characters (Zane and Moze stand out in particular), buying this DLC just for that isnt worth it at all.

This would be fine if this DLC was like 7 bucks? I'd say thats more reasonable than what it is right now. If they were gonna re-add arm's race instead of keeping it cut, they should expanded it more and made it like a fun PvE / PvP mode you can select in matchmaking. But instead, its just a boring tedious gamemode that you'll only play for like, 3 legendaries.

Honestly its just a miss. Not a failure, just a miss.

GlowDonk
GlowDonk

Only recommending because of the Vault Cards system, Ava somehow being a podcaster and NOT a commander of The Crimson Raiders makes too little sense