I'm glad I'm not the only one.

'Does anyone else feel like Borderlands 3 doesn’t really feel like “Borderlands”?'
https://www.reddit.com/r/Borderlands/comments/nt7prt/does_anyone_else_feel_like_borderlands_3_doesnt/

Yeah, I gave Borderlands 3 a chance. I got it for free on Epic. It's... a game. Good gunplay so far. But everything else is... just... I'm not even sure what is wrong with the game, but when I launch it, I get in the mood to play Borderlands 2.
Maybe it feels more like playing a Borderlands clone than Borderlands.

Story and characters are absolute crap, everyone knows that. And my first attempt at picking a character made me hate her within the first map, so I had to start over with a different one.

The world maps feel too big and empty, while the dungeons feel small. But I haven't gotten too far into the game, so idk. Maybe that's just a beginning thing.

But I think there's something about it's graphics that's bothering me. As is tradition with my experience of the series, I once again have my first playthrough on a potato, so everything is on low. Which is fine, cause the entire aesthetic of Borderlands has been simplicity. But even on low, everything still looks too good. Textures have too much detail for the look the series has, imo. It constantly gives me that cluttered screen vibe.
I know that there's been big advances since 2012, but this has to be a design choice first and foremost. I think they just got it wrong. I'll try to mess with the config files, maybe I manage to at least simplify some of the lighting and effects. I never imagined I'd try to tune down graphic settings in a game not for the framerate, but to achieve an aesthetic, but that's modern AAA I guess.