Should've kept the receipt.

Borderlands 3: Bounty of Blood - A Fistful of Redemption commits what might be a cardinal sin, for Borderlands: it tries to tell a serious story.

I can definitely see what it was going for, with its "western but slightly different" aesthetic (bizarrely reminiscent of Red Steel 2), its narrator channeling a "truly gritty" tone of cynicism, and its attention-grabbing hook of (trivial spoiler) introducing you to the story's villain before you find out that she's the villain.

It's got some promising narrative starts -- the problem is that they never lead anywhere interesting. None of the story's characters - not even the villain who you personally meet, nor her primary foil who you help throughout the story - are characterized for more than a second. I still barely understand why Rose was doing what she did, and I never saw any consequential significance in the late-campaign revelation that "the company" who exploited and ruined this planet is Jakobs; like, does this affect our relationship with Wainwright? or the technology available in Jakobs weapons? or the balance of power among other weapons manufacturers? No, it doesn't seem to mean anything.

And it shouldn't be surprising that Bounty of Blood failed to deliver on its initial storytelling promises, because Borderlands has almost never done well with serious content -- including, recently and especially, the ending of Troy and Tyreen's story in Borderlands 3.

The whole game is built around moving fast and being a jerk. That's why irrevent humor fits so well in it, and why serious moments only ever "land" when they're brief and straightforward interruptions to a sequence of hijinks. Like we saw in Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep. ... but I digress.

If there's anything redeeming in Bounty of Blood, it's that this DLC introduces - or reintroduces - some wacky gameplay twists like a melee-able bomb plant, The Pre-Sequel's bounce pads (now in the form of ... also a plant), and Portal-esque teleporters. But, even these mechanics are used so rarely that they barely impact any of Bounty of Blood's encounters.

And the loading screen art is pretty cool. So, there's that.

Better than: Borderlands 2: How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day
Not as good as: Borderlands 2: Sir Hammerlock vs. the Son of Crawmerax
There was one bright spot of humor in this DLC campaign: the story of "Soapy Steve" is more memorable than anything else I saw in Bounty of Blood.

Progress: Finished the main quests, almost no side-quests.