A surprise PlayStation State of Play has deep-dived into the upcoming Borderlands 4 game and rekindled my hype for the looter-shooter franchise!
The deep-dive showcased two new vault hunters and the seamless connected-areas of planet Kairos, tonnes of guns and wicked new enemy designs.
Most of what was showcased is pretty much expected from a Borderlands game. But what really piqued my interest was the changes to movement, loot balancing, ordnance and loot farming.
Movement
There’s a heavy focus on improving how you move within the world, with dashing, double-jumping, climbing, mantling and point-grappling at your disposal. Most interesting is the new timed-glide mechanic which will open up world traversal in a big way. Much like in Apex Legends, there are balloons that you can zipline up to and launch off, gliding a fair way towards your destination.
You can also digistruct yourself a vehicle, pretty much whenever you want, to boost around the sprawling planet.
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Loot Balancing and Ordnance
Gearbox themselves admit that they got loot rarity wrong in Borderlands 3. Legendary weapons were far too common and lost that special feeling, and when you could easily run with an arsenal of golden weapons, all the other rarity colours lost their value. The devs are promising to fix that in Borderlands 4, making finding a legendary weapon a ‘get-hype’ moment once more, featuring unique effects that can’t be found on any other gun.
Ordnance is also getting a shake up, with heavy weapons like rocket launchers and gatling guns now sharing a slot with grenades. These weapons no longer require ammo, but instead have a cooldown, meaning you can unleash on your enemies more often without worrying about running out of ammo.
Loot Farming
Anyone who’s ever farmed weapons, hunting for a specific rarity or trait, knows it can be a pain in the ass having to constantly quit and reload your game to get that unique enemy to respawn. Borderlands 4 looks to be making the grind a little easier with replayable missions and bosses via ‘Moxxi’s Big Encore Machine’… Oh yeah, Moxxi is back!
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While I enjoyed Borderlands 3 well enough, I dropped off soon after finishing it, not bothering to come back for the DLC. It was missing something, a certain je ne sais quoi that Borderlands 2 radiated in excess. With the new details that have been announced — and the team at Gearbox promising the most ambitious Borderlands game to date — Borderlands 4 looks to be heading back in the right direction. Let’s hope it can recapture the magic of BL2!
