DLCXbox · PC · PlayStation

Borderlands 4: Story Pack 2 - FL4K and the Last Resort

Gearbox Software · Shooter, ARPG, Adventure

Overview

Fight alongside FL4K to hunt down Tediore forces invading the tropical island of Providence! This wild adventure features new missions, activities, loot, and a lush new region.

Read more

Story Pack 2: FL4K and the Last Resort is part of the new Story Pack 2* content and can be purchased individually (base game required). The new Vault Hunter Loveless, the Hacker is available for separate purchase; to get all the Story Pack 2 content, purchase the Story Pack 2 Combo.

Welcome to the jungle, where a tropical resort made for the Timekeeper's chosen is about to become a warzone. Team up with FL4K, an unequaled beastmaster who lives for The Hunt, to save their loyal skag companion Mr. Chew and teach the Tediore corporation a brutal lesson about primal nature.

On the remote island of Providence, upper-crust Electi once vacationed in a luxurious retreat neighboring lush wilderness and a majestic volcano. In a ploy to secure Providence's precious Ordonite resource, Tediore has sent an expeditionary group led by five elite generals who serve the ruthless Lieutenant Harmony.

Venture into the verdant wilds and aid FL4K and their pet in the urgent fight against Tediore. Hunt down the generals however you see fit and show them that Vault Hunters can never be tamed.

New Content:

  • New map zone, Providence, packed with new story missions, side missions, activities, and collectibles
  • 8 story bosses (including a new major boss) and an additional 13 minibosses who can drop two new Pearlescent weapons, 18 pieces of new Legendary gear, and 6 new Legendary Class Mods
  • Battle the footsoldiers and exoskeleton-mech operators of Tediore's Invasion Force army, led by the relentless Lt. Harmony, who can call in digistructed reinforcements (including guns with legs)
  • Traverse high above the treetops of Providence's jungle by grappling onto ziplines that help you explore and get the upper hand in combat
  • New cosmetic items including:
  • 2 Vault Hunter Heads usable by all Vault Hunters
  • 4 Vault Hunter Skins usable by all Vault Hunters
  • 6 Weapon Skins
  • 4 Vehicle Skins
  • 3 ECHO-4 Drone Skins & Attachments
  • 1 ECHO-4 Frame

This content is recommended for Vault Hunters of level 13+. In order to access the Providence island, you'll first need to complete the "A Lot to Process" mission in the Fadefields. You can also roll a new Vault Hunter that starts directly at the FL4K and the Last Resort content at level 13.

*FL4K and the Last Resort is the second of two post-launch DLC Story Packs coming to Borderlands 4. This content is included with Borderlands 4 Super Deluxe Edition and the Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter Pack, and is also available for separate purchase. Base game required.

From the game's Steam store page.

THE GAMEQ VERDICT111 reviews analyzed

What players are actually saying

GameQ verdict: Rough edges

A funny villain, a big new island and fresh Tediore enemies, held back by map-breaking bugs and a price that feels steep for its size.

64% positive on Steam · 180 reviews

Praised

Split

Frustrations

1. Summary

Story Pack 2 is paid story DLC for Borderlands 4. FL4K returns from Borderlands 3, the story is built around FL4K and their pets, and the setting is Providence Island, a resort zone held by Tediore soldiers and mechs under Lieutenant Harmony, a villain who talks to you the whole way through. Player reviews lean positive: 80 of 111 recommend it. Thirty-two reviews rank it above the DLC Borderlands 4 had before it, naming Story Pack 1 more often than any other, and a few add that the bar was low. The island draws the most praise, followed by the story and FL4K's part in it, the new Tediore enemies and Harmony herself. The writing and humor have a smaller group of fans and a few strong detractors.

Bugs and the price draw the most complaints. Twenty-one reviews report bugs: floors and walls with no collision, enemies stuck in walls or water so a fight can't be finished, quest guides that teleport, softlocks. Ten report shader waits, stutter or crashes, and bugs or performance trouble come up in 17 of the 31 negative reviews. Fifteen reviews say the pack isn't worth its $20 price, six of them while still recommending it. Players also disagree on how long it lasts: two or three hours for some, eight hours or more for those who also do the side content. Two negative reviewers say to wait until the bugs are fixed before buying.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise
Providence Island, the new zoneHigh

One reviewer calls the island the "best open-world section in all of BL4", and 32 reviews compliment its looks or layout, more than any other part of the pack; only one of them is a negative review. A few say it is better designed than the base game's own zones, for example "much better than the main kairos map which felt empty". One player liked that patrols walk around and often fight each other: "The whole zone has an alive feeling to it." Two reviews also like the new zip lines and traversal. Against that, one negative review says "90% of it is empty space", and a fan who liked the zone wished "more was done with the weather system that had been advertised for the island".

A clear step up from Story Pack 1High

Thirty-two reviews, all of them positive, rank this pack above Borderlands 4's earlier DLC, and 15 of them name Story Pack 1 (Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned) as the one it beats. For one player, "This is like a night and day difference compared to the first Story Pack." Another felt "Gearbox listened to the criticism of their audience". Some of the praise comes with a shrug: "Best DLC for this game by far, but that isn't saying much." Two negative reviews push back on the comparison. One comes from a player who loved the first story pack, and the other says: "Anyone telling you this is better than Mad Ellie must be basing this off some other criteria or didn't play the story of both."

FL4K's story and its endingHigh

Fans single out how the pack treats FL4K: "FL4K is more human now, and it's handled really well." In all, 23 reviews like the story and 13 are glad to have FL4K back. One describes "a very endearing and heartfelt ending that I honestly can really respect", and a player who never cared for FL4K in Borderlands 3 wrote "I think FL4K is so much better as an NPC". Some of the praise is lukewarm: "The story isn't too great, but I really liked the cast and the ending." Three reviews dislike the story outright, from "The story is very poorly paced and predictable." to "there is no real story here". A reviewer who still recommends the pack said "I don't know why FL4K was picked from 3" and would have preferred another Vault Hunter.

Tediore soldiers and mech enemiesHigh

Players like fighting Tediore troops, and 21 reviews praise the new enemies. A few single out the large mechs: "the giant multi parted mech suits are extremely fun to pick apart". Another reviewer noticed the new wildlife too: "They even went so far to make completely new little environmental animals". Three reviews found the roster thin. One of them notes that "The giant robots were in every area." Another says "the heavy use of preexisting enemies does take away from the charm", and the third calls the whole pack "copy and paste missions, enemies, loot... everything."

Lieutenant Harmony, the villainHigh

Harmony talks to the player over the ECHO system for most of the pack, and her fans enjoyed that: "Harmony is really fun and I loved having her on my comms every time". Nineteen reviews praise her and three dislike her. One compares her to General Knoxx, "very naturally funny without being overbearing", and another credits her actor: "her voice actor did such a damn great job". Four reviews measure her against Handsome Jack, usually placing her a step below him. Tyreen, one of the chatty twin villains of Borderlands 3, is the comparison that divides players. One fan wrote "her constant blabbering wasn't annoying this time around", while a detractor asked "why would I ever want another tyreen", and even a review that recommends the pack admits "Feels like the twins are back with the her voice lines." Another negative review calls her "the worst villain yet".

Jokes, dialogue and ECHO logsMedium

Eleven reviews enjoyed the humor. Players mention laughing at Harmony, NPC dialogue and side characters ("the writing got a few laughs out of me"), and three single out the ECHO logs and lore, one saying "the audio logs are actually worth listening to as they are pretty funny". One reviewer liked hearing more lines specific to each Vault Hunter. Three reviews call the writing bad, one of them complaining that "The amount of weird meme and zoomer tier language and humor is awful." Even a fan noted "some cringy one liners".

Boss fightsMedium

The final fight against Harmony gets most of the attention in the seven reviews that praise the bosses: "Felt good to dodge and shoot." Two negative reviews disagree. One says "The bosses are uninspired and can either be killed far to quickly or get stuck in a invulnerability loop after taking barely any damage", and another expects "the new bosses will all be forgotten beyond what gear they give you".

New gear and mission rewardsLow

Seven reviews like the loot, from "tons of new legendaries/pearls" to "finally we got unique weapon mission rewards".

Where players are split
How long it lastsHigh

Nine reviews call the pack short and eleven say it has plenty to do; four of the nine who call it short still recommend it. At the short end are "you can rush it in under 2 or 3 hours", "20 euros for 1.5-2.5 hour gameplay!", and "I liked the short story but it was so short". At the long end, one player "took about 8-9 hours to beat the story, doing only some side content" and then spent three or four more hours finishing everything, while another praised "Great length for the main story, great amount of side content". The longest estimates include side quests and collectibles, while the short ones describe the story alone or don't say. Hours alone don't decide it, though: one reviewer said "it took me under 10 hours to complete the main story, side quests, activities, and most collectables" and still called the pack short for $20. Two reviews say it is longer than Story Pack 1.

Open world or linear levelsMedium

Players disagree on whether the open structure helps. Supporters like being able to pick up objectives in any order ("the world is your oyster in this DLC") and say the map is big without being hard to cross. One reviewer who enjoyed the pack would rather have tighter levels: "even with it being much better than the main map i still prefer more linier maps". Another fan felt "it's an open world and therefore comes with all the tedium the basegame suffers from", meaning a lot of back and forth and vehicle spawn points that feel inconsistent, and a negative review says play time is padded by long distances.

MusicLow

Three reviews praise the music ("Sound track is actually really good", "The ambient music here is awesome too.") and two do not, citing a "lack of music" or saying "some of the new music is annoying". All five recommend the pack.

What frustrates players
Bugs that break the map and block progressHigh

Missing collision is the bug reviewers describe most: eight reviews tell of falling through floors or the world, one during the mission to save FL4K's pets, where "the floor isnt made correctly so you just fall in the void". In all, 21 reviews report bugs, 12 negative and 9 positive. Ten describe bugs that stall or block progress. Enemies get stuck where they can't be shot ("random enemy gets stuck in water no where near the combat area, can't shoot him at all to progress"), kills don't register for the quest, escort NPCs break ("A main mission NPC guide routinely glides over open air gaps, vibrates against walls, and teleports through walls."), and one player "Got softlocked twice in 10 minutes". A few reviews also mention dialogue with no audio, and one says "the DLC introduced such horrible multiplayer issues". Bug reports arrived in every week through the end of September. Some fans recommend the pack anyway, like the reviewer who summed it up as "buggy but fun , big step up from previous story pack", and seven reviews report no bugs, no crashes or better performance than the base game, including "I personally did not run into any bugs during my playthrough".

Price for what you getMedium

Fifteen reviews say the pack isn't worth what it costs, nine negative and six positive. A player who had bought the $120 version of the game wrote "they want $20 for this that is so insane". A recommending review put it more gently: "i dont feel like youre specifically getting your money's worth with how quick all the content can be completed". Some who enjoyed it say outright to wait, such as "TLDR I recommend waiting for a sale" and "Dont buy this DLC outright, wait for sales". Five reviews say it is worth the money, among them "Worth the price of entry, especially on sale." and "Only Dlc that i think is worth the money." One reviewer argued that most players will get the pack through the Super Deluxe Edition anyway.

Shader waits, stutter and crashesMedium

Ten reviews report performance or stability trouble, eight of them negative. Three describe long shader compilation, from "it took longer than 30 minutes to do shaders" to a player on a high-end PC who sat through repeated compiles and crashes and concluded "No reason for this game to be so unoptimized." Three describe stutter ("the amount of stuttering is going to give me a stroke"), and three describe crashes or a game that would not start after the patch: "update broke game, it wont even run now." Some players blame the update that shipped alongside the pack: "The game is more unstable again after the addition of this DLC." One long review also reports vault cards and specializations resetting. Others had no such trouble: "this was the first DLC I had that didn't have a single crash in my 8 hour play session", and another reviewer dismissed the shader complaints because waiting for shaders is "a feature in every game in todays market".

Repetitive missions and paddingMedium

Players describe strings of clear-the-area and fetch objectives: "it gets repetitive fast", and "the missions were just the same thing repeated 6 times if you do the optional ones". Eight reviews, split evenly between recommending and not, call the missions repetitive or the content recycled. One negative review puts it this way: "This is a sidequest stretched into a full DLC, and you can tell."

Paid Vault Hunter and vault-card gearLow

Four reviews object to paid extras around the pack. One player got a drop they couldn't use: "Dropped a legendary that requires a paid dlc vault card to equip." Others dislike that the new Vault Hunter, Loveless, is sold on her own ("Selling the new vault hunter seperate is wild too me") and that "the vault cards suck and should be included with dlc or free". A few positive reviews on this page are really about Loveless herself.

Base-game problems carried overLow

Four reviews spend much of their text on Borderlands 4 itself: the lack of endgame ("THERES LITERALLY NO RAID BOSSES"), the compass and radar, and whether any of the game is worth full price. One fan warns players who disliked the base game or Story Pack 1 that "you're just getting more the same just in a new location".

NavigationLow

Three reviews have trouble finding their way. One says the island is "sometimes hard to navigate", and another reports that "Most of the time the navigation line doesn't guide you to the location". A third asks for the Borderlands 2 and 3 style compass back.

3. The player conversation

Fans judge the pack mostly against the rest of Borderlands 4 rather than against the series. When they do reach for older games, they disagree: one says it is "just as good as any of the older games dlcs" and another puts it "Right up there with Tinas and Fustercluck for me", while a negative reviewer says "Borderlands 2 Hammerlock DLC was better than is."

Bugs and performance trouble come up on both sides. Of the 31 negative reviews, 17 mention them and 10 mention price or length; a smaller group objects to the content itself, calling it derivative, boring or badly written. Among the recommending reviews, 11 mention bugs or performance trouble and 6 advise against paying full price. Some reviews argue with each other directly. "Absolutely do not listen to the negative reviews." wrote one fan, and another claimed "It's very obvious that a lot of the early reviews were people who hadn't even touched the DLC yet".

Launch week (10 to 16 September) produced 63 of the 111 reviews and 19 of the 28 that report bugs or performance trouble. Fewer reviews came in after that, too few to show a clear change in mood, though all three stutter complaints arrived in the last week of September.

4. What the developers could do

  1. Fix the missing collision and the progression blockers. Bugs such as falling through floors, enemies stuck in walls or water, and escort NPCs that teleport draw more complaints than anything else, and bugs or performance trouble come up in more than half of the negative reviews.
  2. Bring the price in line with the content, or discount it. Fifteen reviews say the pack isn't worth its price, and some who enjoyed it still tell others to wait for a sale.
  3. Cut shader compile times and fix the stutter and crashes that came with the update. Players describe half-hour shader waits, repeated crashes on a high-end PC and a game that would not start after the patch.
  4. Vary the mission objectives. Reviewers on both sides call the clear-the-area and fetch objectives repetitive, and some say they are there to pad the playtime.
  5. Let DLC loot work without another paid unlock. Players objected to a legendary that drops in the pack but needs a paid vault card to equip, and to the new Vault Hunter being sold separately.
  6. Make the navigation line follow real paths. Players report a guide line that runs through walls and the ground, and a compass and radar they find hard to use.
  7. Use this pack as the model for later story content. Fans want later content to build on it: one asks for bounty packs that "would expand this dlc map with some new quests and bosses", and another calls it "the baseline standard for a year 2 of content moving forward".

Also on GameQ