Saddle up, pardner, for the Bounty of Blood review!

It’s been a little bit since the last Borderlands 3 DLC, in Guns, Love and Tentacles was released, and you’ve likely already long hit the 57 level cap along with the Revenge of the Cartels seasonal event. The next paid expansion, Bounty of Blood, is now out for you to get those guns to work on new content, as usual opening up new areas, stories and looting experiences.

Bounty of Blood: A Fistful of Redemption is the third of four DLCs, with the fourth due for September 2020. Without further ado, let’s just jump right in guns a-blazing!

WELCOME TO GEHENNA

On entering Sanctuary, you get asked to finish a “Bounty Hunter” mission you’ve been hired for by the area Sheriff. You get to meet Rose and her pet as she talks your ear off a little, before you go onwards to meet your employer of the day at the settlement of Vestige. You’re at once thrown into a shoot-out with the main enemies of the DLC, the Devil Riders, a gang of outlaws who ride their titular “Devils”, pretty much dinosaurs of some sort.

You’ll need to get back the Obsidian Stone MacGuffin that gets stolen, the Sheriff dies, and Juno becomes the next Sheriff. The DLC has the touches of the “old-school”, with an accompanying omniscient narrator voice following you as you go through the story. It does reveal interesting things every now and again, for the lore enthusiasts, so listen in in between getting shot up (or doing the shooting up).

A FUN WILD WEST ROMP

As soon as you step into the new area, you’d naturally look forward to all the shiny new things you can get. A new vehicle called the “Jetbeast” unlocks in the DLC, with an interesting design though not the best in speed. There’s new flora and fauna as promised, quite generously distributed in a variety of locations to make that shooty shooty a tad easier. Traitorweeds charm enemies to be on your side temporarily, and the Breezeblooms send you soaring. We found “Coresploders” that you can break and watch them explode quite festively.

Of course, there will be a variety of bosses to riddle with bullets. If you’re all geared up in beautiful orange, the bosses may be a tad on the easy side to pulverize. Once you come home all bloodied – aha! – you might even find your kills memorialized in the settlement. Completing missions will let you collect your “Bounty” rewards, where you’ll be flooded with a deluge of loot to sort through. Hop on over to the side missions as well for more of the same.

Bounty of Blood increases the level cap to 60, from the previous cap of 57. If you’ve been needing that One Extra Point to complete your builds, you got it. The Guardian Ranks have also been updated with new skills, but you’ll need to check if they’re activated which is a mite troublesome. Getting up to the new cap isn’t going to be much problem, if an inconvenience to refarm weapons.

WHEN THE DUST SETTLES

The levels are great for exploration, especially with the new environmental additions to fire at. Depending on how poor your sense of direction is, Bounty of Blood is a much easier DLC to navigate through. Find the usual new shinies in gear, vehicle skins and tasteful (?) room decor as we’ve come to expect from the looter shooter. It’ll come up to 3 to 4 hours to clear out, besides farming for the latest hot new broken weapon for your raid farming.

What else is there to say besides grabbing your friends for another rain of loot?

Borderlands 3

Publisher: 2K Games

Developer: Gearbox Software

Release Date: 2019-09-13

Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

It's time to go shooty shooty again with your zany Vault Hunters! The next installment of the Borderlands series will have more guns, more loot and more Claptrap* than ever before!

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