Borderlands 4: Bounty Pack 4 - Murders & Acquisitions

1. Summary

Murders & Acquisitions is the fourth paid bounty pack for Borderlands 4: a small add-on with one side story, a new zone, bosses and new gear, set after the main campaign. Reviewers put a run at anywhere from 15 minutes to two hours; 12 of the 30 negative reviews call it too short or a single side quest, and three positive reviews also say it is short. Of the 21 reviews that weigh the content against its $6 price or the edition they got it with, 13 say it falls short, and five argue it should have been free or part of the base game.

Opinion on the content itself is divided. Recommendations praise a story that ties into Borderlands 4's lore, Levaine's return, fun bosses, new guns to farm and a soundtrack that two negative reviews also liked. Negative reviews describe recycled enemies, a big map with little in it and choices that barely change anything. Six reviews rank it above earlier bounty packs and six rank it below. Trippy, a new character who flirts with the vault hunter, also divides people. Seven of the 22 recommendations come with a hedge about length or price.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

A story that builds on the main plotMedium

Nine reviews, all of them recommendations, praise the story or its characters, and several value how the pack connects to Borderlands 4. One says it "Felt like an actual continuation of the lore and world following the events of Borderlands 4." Another says "The story actually tied into the main plot, even if it is a post game side mission," and a third that "it finally adds a little more to the lore." One fan was glad to see Levaine again, and another found that "The writing felt like borderlands without being over the top." A negative review also says "The intro got a few chuckles out of me."

Two negative reviews dislike the writing. One calls it "Unbelievably insipid," because the Order Tech everyone chases "doesn't actually do anything, even narratively." The other sums it up as "God awful writing and boring objectives." The pack is a post-game mission, and one player who opened a message board got a video that "warned of its intent to spoil the ending of Borderlands 4" with no way to cancel the mission.

The soundtrackLow

The music gets compliments in four reviews, two of them negative overall: "The new soundtrack is pretty cool," "Noticable cool music too," and, from a thumbs-down, "music is cool tho." The fourth, also negative, calls the music "a step up" but says the game's own Takedown soundtrack is better.

Where players are split

Best or worst of the bounty packsMedium

Against the earlier Borderlands 4 bounty packs, six reviews rank this one higher and six rank it lower. Fans call it "probably my favorite" and "a significant step up," and one says it "felt more complete than the previous bounty packs" and had none of the game-breaking bugs they hit in earlier DLC. On the other side, one review says "Compared to the other bounty packs, this is a joke," and another calls it the worst of the bounty packs, below Legend of the Stone Demon. Three reviews rate the previous pack, A Zane to Kill For, higher, including one recommendation that puts this pack in the middle: "Not as good as a Zane to kill for but much better than Stone Demon."

The new zoneMedium

The map gets praise in five recommendations: "Nice open environments," "a well designed new area," and "I really liked the map design, some locations felt a little similar, but others were very cool." Six negative reviews find fault with it. Three describe a big map with little in it, an "insanely large map for what is essentially a nothing burger quest" where "you spend more time running then u do fighting." Others find the design "uninspiring" or say "Maps are meh, but not miserable." One fan wished the area "could have been connected to the main map in some way" instead of needing a trip to reach it.

Bosses and difficultyMedium

"The two main bosses here were pretty fun too!" says one of four recommendations that enjoyed the fights, and another found "fun bossfights, albeit not for very long." Their caveats include "fairly spongy bosses at the end" and one boss that "feels more frustrating than actually challenging." Three negative reviews call the bosses average, boring or underwhelming. Difficulty reports point both ways: one player found it "Too easy even on the highest difficulty settings," another could not damage the bosses with Harlowe and had to drop to easy, and a third found the late enemy mobs "quite difficult."

Trippy and her flirtingMedium

Trippy, a stoner ripper who flirts with the vault hunter, draws more comment than any other character in the pack. Five negative reviews object, mostly to the vault hunter going along with it: "depending on your vh it can just feel awkward at times listening to her flirting and your vh just being fine with it." Another notes the vault hunter "LIKES for some reason" being pursued, and one dismisses "a whole character whose personality is weed." Three reviews speak warmly of her, from a plain "I like Trippy" to a fan who wanted "an option at the end with trippy instead of a definite outcome."

New guns and the farmMedium

Loot is a plus for four recommendations: "all the new guns are very fun and I can see a lot more builds coming from this DLC," a long-wanted Pearlescent Jakobs sniper, and "Gives us more stuff to farm which is nice." Four negative reviews find the loot thin or the farming hollow. "Even the Pearlescent sucks," one says, and another points out that after the main mission "the only content to do is just farming." One also finds the skins unlocked through the bounty cards bland next to Borderlands 3's.

Choices with little payoffMedium

The pack's choices change the end fight and which bosses appear, and seven reviews discuss them. Three like them ("I like the quest choices," "fun choices"), and one points out that you can come back later to fight the bosses you skipped. Two give the idea credit but find the effect small: "the impact was barely anything the way it was implemented." Two dismiss the choices outright, one after restarting the mission for the achievement: "do the choices at least matter? nope not at all same ending no matter what."

What frustrates players

Too little for $6High

Of the 52 reviews, 21 weigh what the pack offers against what it costs. Thirteen say it falls short: "41 minutes of gameplay for 5 bucks plus taxes :0 these should be free," and "feels the most like a side quest they cut from the base game just to charge $6 for. Wait for a sale." Three call it worth it only barely or on discount ("Ok but worth 5,99€ at max"), and five say it is worth the money. Five reviews argue packs like this should be free or part of the base game, including two that still recommend it, and four point buyers to a sale or discount. One critic adds the Vault Card to the bill: "For the 12 dollars this pack costs (yes 12 including the vault card)."

Five reviewers say they got the pack through Borderlands 4's Ultimate, Deluxe or super deluxe edition, and they judge the deal differently. One Ultimate owner writes "ive never felt so robbed purchasing the ultimate edition of a game," a Deluxe owner advises against every bounty pack purchase, and another Ultimate owner says players without that edition can skip this one. A third Ultimate owner calls the extra cost "worth the money," and a super deluxe owner who enjoyed the pack still thinks it should be free content.

One short side questHigh

Estimates of the pack's length run from "its legit one story mission, 15minutes of content if you skip all the trash" and "20 minutes of content for 6 bucks, no side quests or collectables" to "1 Side quest that's 30 minutes long" and, at the top end, "1 to 1.5 hours worth of content." Of the 30 negative reviews, 12 call the pack too short or describe it as a single side quest, and three recommendations agree it is short.

Four recommendations push back. One says "if you rush you can probably finish it in 20 min, but do a little of exploring and it can be stretched to 1 or 2 hours"; another answers the length complaints with "2 hours is fine!" A third advises going in "expecting a polished high effort side quest" instead of side quests and collectibles.

Same enemies, nothing newMedium

Repetition is the complaint in nine of the 30 negative reviews, which say the pack adds little to what the base game already offers: "The same ripper mobbing? Check!", "half an hour of the same old gameplay and enemies," and "Doesn't have much to add to the game." Three of them measure it against older Borderlands DLC; one says "Borderlands 4 Bounty Packs make the Wonderlands DLC's look like Borderlands 2 Headhunter Packs" and suggests what a pack could add, such as "mini take downs, a boss rush, a small roguelike style arena with waves." Two recommendations disagree: one found the enemies that are not Order troops "a nice change of pace," and another says rippers "are always fun to shoot."

Collision gaps and bugsLow

Four reviews report bugs in the pack: "invisible walls blocking my path or non-tangible platforms that I fell through," a mountain at the back of the map with no collision that drops you through the terrain, and a Harlowe player who could not damage the bosses and called it "just more bugged game for 6 bucks." One negative review also describes crashes when the game unloads parts of the map, a problem with Borderlands 4 itself.

3. The player conversation

Most reviews came in the days after launch: 33 of the 52 were written by 9 August, and 10 of those recommend the pack; several are one-line verdicts such as "sucks" and "why does this exist?" with nothing behind them. The ten reviews written between 10 August and 13 September include four recommendations, and the nine written from 14 September on include eight. Among those later reviews, one says "if you manage to get this on discount it's pretty good," and two rank it first or second among the bounty packs.

Seven of the 22 recommendations hedge ("Kinda mid," "barely worth the $6"), and some negative reviews concede that "the bounty pack itself is honestly fine" or praise the music. Length and price come up in 17 of the 30 negative reviews, often next to other complaints.

Several reviews are mostly about the base game. One recommendation reviews the base game and never mentions the DLC, and others fold in class balance patches ("no blue tree harlowe buffs, no rafa buffs"), base-game crashes or advice against buying Borderlands 4 at all. A smaller thread questions the bounty pack format itself. One long negative review argues "i really do think the root of the problem is this bounty pack system" and wants fuller story packs instead, while a fan replies that bounty packs "mostly have skins to unlock" and that "If you don't like farming, you're playing the wrong game!"

4. What the developers could do

1. Put more into each bounty pack. The pack is too short or a single side quest for 12 of the 30 negative reviews, with runs estimated at 15 minutes to two hours. One misses side quests and collectibles, and another suggests replayable modes such as "mini take downs, a boss rush, a small roguelike style arena with waves."
2. Price the packs to match their size. Thirteen of the 21 reviews that weigh value say the pack falls short of its $6 price, and five say content like this should be free or part of the base game.
3. Bring new enemies and fill the new zone. Nine negative reviews say the pack recycles the base game's enemies and environments, and three describe a large map with little to do between fights.
4. Let the vault hunter answer Trippy's flirting. Five negative reviews object to Trippy, mostly to the vault hunter simply going along with her advances, and one fan wanted a choice at the end of her storyline.
5. Make the choices change more than the final fight. Four reviews say the choices barely matter, and one resents restarting the mission for the achievement only to reach the same ending.
6. Fix collision on the new map. Players fell through platforms, hit invisible walls and dropped through a mountain with no collision.
7. Let players back out of the ending-spoiler video. One player opened a message board and was shown a video spoiling Borderlands 4's ending with no option to cancel the mission.