After 16 years of defining the idea of a looter shooter, it’s hard to imagine what ground is left for the Borderlands series to cover. With the world of Pandora thoroughly explored and re-explored, the series architects at Gearbox Entertainment are ready to journey to new frontiers. That’s not just in terms of story or setting, but it’ll also be the case in terms of traversal and weaponry and those changes are looking like they’ll be for the better. Shacknews was recently invited to attend Borderlands Fan Fest in Los Angeles, CA and, as part of our time there, we had a chance to briefly try out the upcoming Borderlands 4.
Prior to the opportunity to go hands-on, the audience was greeted by Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford and CCO Randy Varnell. They unveiled the game’s story trailer, which introduced the all-new world of Kairos. This world is ruled under the iron fist of the Timekeeper, who lords over the planet’s denizens, including those on Dominion City. The eventual goal is for a new class of Vault Hunters, who find themselves stranded on Kairos, to help lead a revolution. Given that the revolution is currently being led by Claptrap, these people probably need all the help they can get.
While there wasn’t much time to explore, there was an option to explore a Borderlands 4 Vault Run. Was it a mistake to basically start at the top and go straight for one of the game’s more difficult missions without familiarizing myself with its mechanics first? Probably, but it was too late to turn back by that point. And, while the run was certainly tough, especially solo, I can at least say that it felt noticeably different from past Borderlands titles.
That’s because there’s a slew of new traversal mechanics that make Borderlands 4 feel like a cut above its predecessors. All characters can cross long distances quickly with a new double jump and glide ability. Combining the sprint with the double jump and the glide while still being able to access my guns made the fights feel a little bit fairer. I say “fairer” because this particular vault run threw dozens of foes my way, like magic-wielding Wardens and in-your-face Badass Domination Engines. On top of their numbers being many, some of these enemies were enhanced with special abilities, like “Deflector” armor or “Fast Forward” hyperspeed. Running into a Badass with Regen was not pretty and gave the game’s Second Wind mechanic a workout while also taking its toll on my total ammo across all four of my equipped guns.
More interesting is how traversal came into play during the Vault’s eventual boss fight. The Primordial Guardian Inceptus was an incredibly tough creature, one that not only required constant movement, but also the use of the new grappling hook. The grapple could not only be used to move around the arena, but it had to be used to pull the spores from the boss’s face in order to expose its weak point. There’s a later point where the ground gets poisoned and the idea is to grapple to safety, but this was unfortunately where my luck had run out, and the Inceptus got the better of me.
It should be noted that while I had hoped to try out some more of Borderlands 4’s copious amount of guns, this demo had a preset loadout ready to roll and there was no opportunity to change it. I was able to use weapons like an SMG that sprouted legs when thrown to the ground, a favorite from the last Borderlands game. While shooting felt like classic Borderlands, the opening presentation from Pitchford and Varnell noted that gunplay is going to offer more mix-and-match options in the final version. That means that parts from one weapon manufacturer can be mixed together with weapons from a different manufacturer. So, basically, anyone who likes a specific attachment from a company like Order or Ripper can place it on a harder-hitting gun from a company like Daedalus or Torgue.
Beyond the pre-loaded guns, however, I was able to fare well with Vex’s character abilities. As a witch, she’s able to call upon minion duplicates to fight on her side, which evened the odds slightly. On top of being extra bodies on the battlefield, Vex has passive skills that can give them some buffs and trigger different effects. By the end of my time with the game, I was ready for some more time with this character to see how much more could be done with her minions.
While I didn’t have a lot of time with Borderlands 4, what I saw was certainly encouraging. The mix-and-match nature of the game’s weapons, along with the new traversal mechanics, has a lot of potential to bring new life to the Borderlands formula, which had started to grow stale. We’ll find out how much life Borderlands 4 has when it comes to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on September 12.
This preview is based on an early demo played on-site at Borderlands Fan Fest in Los Angeles. The final product is subject to change.