I thought Borderlands 2 was borderline rubbish - but others don't and it's free to find out now

Borderlands 2 is free to download on Steam right now, and will be throughout this weekend, if you never gave the colorful shooter a whirl.

Neowin noticed the giveaway on Steam, which is Gearbox's way of firing up some hype for the incoming Borderlands 4, which is only a few months from release at this point.

It's the base game of Borderlands 2 which is free, but if you want the Game of the Year edition, that'll cost you. However, currently Valve is offering a tidy 78% discount for those who fancy a huge helping of DLC thrown in.

I missed out on Borderlands when it first arrived, and only played Borderlands 2 - which dates back to 2012 - relatively recently (well, in 2020). And I really didn't like the game.

Style but little substance

It's a controversial opinion because a lot of folks love it, and I get that in some ways. The visual style is really smart, I'll give you that, and there are some fun aspects and nicely pitched doses of humor. But right from the off, even though I was playing full four-player coop (with family members), Borderlands 2 largely failed to impress.

I didn't like the feel of combat and the guns in general (and their lack of impact). It felt like there were a lot of bland missions, and yes, while there were more interesting efforts - where the game's personality shined through - I was underwhelmed by the whole experience.

It didn't help that I had high expectations, I guess, and the much-lauded sense of humor of Borderlands mostly fell flat too. (As noted, though, there were moments when it hit home, to be fair).

We played for five or six sessions, I think it was, before abandoning the campaign.

It was one of the most disappointing experiences I've had in PC gaming, frankly, but as I've already said, the mileage of other gamers very much varies. There are diehard addicts out there who love Borderlands 2, of course, and the good news is that you can find out for yourself whether you might fall into that category, at no cost this weekend.

If you want to catch a bit of flavor of the game, and see how it looks early on, I've embedded a (huge) full gameplay walkthrough above. Obviously, don't go too far into it otherwise you'll be hitting some big spoilers.

Borderlands 4 is due to arrive on September 12 and has already been stirring a bit of controversy around one decision, which is to ditch the minimap that was brought in with Borderlands 2, in fact - so don't get used to it. (Check out the recent deep dive into the gameplay here).