The Borderlands Legendary Collection is one of the most fascinating Switch ports we’ve seen in a while – it’s like a technical roadmap for the series, starting off from the last-gen Borderlands, encompassing its sequel and rounding off with the cross-generational Pre-Sequel. Unreal Engine 3 is the core technology in all cases, but its utilisation evolves from game to game with some fascinating results in the transition to Switch – not least that the more ambitious Pre-Sequel looks better and even runs better than Borderlands 2.
Of course, access to the original trilogy also shows the evolution in Gearbox’s craft. Between 2009 and 2014, environments scaled up in complexity, the rendering pipeline improved, and more advanced effects were put to work in cutscenes – there was always a satisfying forward step. And the good news is that by and large, this Switch collection is a good match for the Handsome Collection on PS4 and Xbox One. Perhaps inevitably, the frame-rate target changes from 60fps to 30fps to achieve it on its mobile chipset, while the split-screen mode is also pared back from a maximum of four players to two, but on the plus side you do get Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition included in the mix here. For Switch owners, this creates a very complete package.
Let’s tackle each in turn, then. The Borderlands series has travelled a long road since its 2009 debut. The simple wastelands of the original classic, marked by thick comic-book style edges, laid a template for the series’ style and gameplay loop. Honestly it still has a lot of charm today, even if its environments now feel a little flat and simplistic. On Switch, that makes for a very straightforward port, with a native, fixed 1920×1080 resolution at 30 frames per second that rarely wavers from its target, plus a nigh-on identical experience at 720p in portable mode. There are some omissions up against the other current-gen console versions – anti-aliasing is removed entirely, for example, while shadow quality is pared back. Texture filtering is also of a poor quality, especially noticeable when playing docked.
A lot of these tweaks and compromises stay in place for Borderlands 2. In comparison with the Xbox One release, it’s also clear that post-effects like depth of field and bloom are missing on Switch – but all round it’s still great to see texture detail on enemies is a match for the bigger consoles. Borderlands 2 is the point at which Gearbox’s handling of Unreal tech really started to shine too: environments are bigger, more vertical. We have soft use of physics for flags, and a lovely crepuscular ray effect. Shadows streak around objects occluding the sun – even snowflakes. It’s a lovely effect, and it makes the cut on Switch too. It’s also worth noting effects quality stays at the same level as Xbox One – and that’s perhaps one area that the developer could have tweaked to optimise it further. While gameplay is mostly locked at 30fps, alpha heavy scenes see infrequent but heavy hits to frame-rate.