It has been five years since the last two Borderlands gamesthe one-two punch of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and the Telltale Games spinoff, Tales From the Borderlands. Five years is a healthy amount of time for something to be gone, but for Gearbox Software, developers of the first two games (The Pre-Sequel was developed by 2K Australia, with assistance from Gearbox), its been even longer. The 2012 release of Borderlands 2 might as well have been a lifetime ago.
That might be why Borderlands 3 feels like such a throwback. Or maybe its because, in all that time, Gearbox does not appear to have changed the Borderlands formula much. Thats not necessarily a bad thing.
Source: N4G PC Borderlands 3 Feels Like a Throwback to 2012 in All the Best (And Worst) Ways