Borderlands 4 has some clear runway now that Grand Theft Auto VI is coming subsequent yr as a substitute of this yr.
The motion role-playing first-person shooter looter recreation (now priced at $70 as a substitute of the beforehand floated $80) is approaching September 12 on the Nintendo Swap 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Collection X/S and the Home windows PC.
I visited 2K’s Hangar 13 studio in Novato, California, and performed a few hours of Borderlands 4. I’ve been writing up my impressions this week. I additionally interviewed the artistic director of the sport, Graeme Timmins, about what his objectives had been for the sport and the type of characters we’ll counter.
Like with GTA VI, there’s plenty of pentup demand for this recreation. Gearbox’s Borderlands 3 got here out six years in the past in 2019. And Borderlands 4 was within the works even earlier than that title debuted. Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox, mentioned the fourth title was the “most open and free recreation within the franchise up to now.
It takes place on a planet named Kairos, and gamers assume the position of a Vault Hunter who should lead resistance in opposition to a dictator named the Timekeeper and his military of artificial followers.
Kairos has 4 distinct, seamlessly related areas to discover: the rolling hills of the Fadefields, the frigid peaks of Terminus Vary, the shattered lands of Carcadia Burn, and eventually the Dominion, the Timekeeper’s impenetrable fortress metropolis.
The sport has a brand new planet and an all-new forged which has nothing to do with final yr’s forgettable Borderlands film. I discovered the Vault to be notably troublesome, whereas the Fadefields had been extra open and enjoyable.
There’s plenty of at stake on this title, as Take-Two acquired Gearbox in March 2024 for $460 million. That’s plenty of cheddar, although it’s a lot lower than the as much as $1.3 billion that earlier proprietor Embracer paid for it. I loved enjoying each the single-player recreation, the time within the Fadefields part of the sport and the very troublesome (a minimum of from my perspective) part of the sport known as The Vault.
These new open world and aggressive sections of the sport could assist players see the worth of the $70 worth, because the suggestion by Pitchford that it is perhaps an $80 recreation didn’t go over so properly.
Right here’s an edited transcript of our interview.
GamesBeat: Are you able to go over among the objectives, what you wished to do with Borderlands 4?
Graeme Timmins: My largest purpose was to make it essentially the most seamless participant expertise ever. Not from simply second to second, but additionally stepping into co-op. I wished to verify our foyer system was very user-friendly, seamless to leap in. When you’re into the sport, as few load screens as doable, no interruptions there. Identical factor for missions and rewards. As a substitute of getting to drop no matter you’re doing to get the reward, now it goes into your stock within the reward heart.
I like fight. I would like folks to be in fight nonstop. Typically I’ve to remind myself that it’s okay for folks to take a break. I wished it to be seamless, like getting out of your automobile at any time to go wherever you need. The important thing time period for me was seamless in that participant expertise.
GamesBeat: You’re choosing up ammo, for example. You click on as soon as, however every part flows via from there.
Timmins: Proper.
GamesBeat: On the totally different components we’ve performed, are you able to add context to these two? The Vault and the Fadefields?
Timmins: The Fadefields, that’s earlier within the recreation. In an actual recreation, you’ll have accomplished plenty of the tutorialization at that time. At that time you’re able to go benefit from the recreation. We wished to introduce gamers to new characters. That’s the place you meet Rush. We wished this recreation to be extra pleasant to new folks coming into Borderlands than ever earlier than.
As you proceed within the Fadefields, there’s that facet mission with Claptrap, although. You continue to see acquainted faces from earlier Borderlands. However you don’t should have performed earlier Borderlands to return in and luxuriate in this one. The Fadefields type of units that up. Everybody’s on the identical enjoying area when it comes to the sport.
For the Vault, that represents problem, problem, an important loop. We wished to offer gamers with an opportunity to check their builds and expertise an even bigger, extra badass boss. That boss represents an actual large step for bosses in Borderlands. It has a number of mechanics. It’s not only a wall of harm. It’s a must to dodge and grapple. We take a look at you in additional methods than simply whether or not you’ve good weapons. That’s a great instance of how we’ve leveled up the bosses right here in Borderlands 4.
GamesBeat: Echo made me consider Useless House. You possibly can simply depart it on the entire time. The person had the selection to depart it on or depart it off. Right here you employ it the place you need.
Timmins: This construct is already three or 4 weeks previous. The sport modifications quite a bit proper now in a number of weeks. Folks will see this in future demos. We’ll let gamers, within the choices, decide how lengthy that echo path stays on. Whenever you faucet it, you’ll be able to have it keep a bit longer if you need. You’ll additionally have the ability to see a path drawn on the massive map as properly. “Oh, I wish to go to this place,” and also you’ll see the trail drawn out on the massive map.
Once more, I didn’t need it to be intrusive to the participant expertise. Simply tapping it shortly if you want it’s nice. It’s not simply a component that’s all the time distracting you. Actually, if we’ve achieved our job properly, you may need a purpose, however I actually hope that one thing else will get your consideration and drags you off to go do one thing fully totally different. To me, a profitable expertise is–you’ll have walked the entire space on foot and by no means even achieved a facet mission or predominant mission, as a result of there was a lot stuff on this planet that saved your consideration. Then you definately’ll be on the other facet of the map considering, “Okay, I wish to return and do my mission.” Get in your automobile and use that echo path to take you the place you wish to be. That, to me, could be a profitable expertise.
GamesBeat: The Fadefields, it felt like I might be profitable simply utilizing one weapon. Taking pictures and never being attentive to extra issues occurring. If that didn’t evolve–it felt like consistently switching weapons in opposition to a few of these enemies which can be very totally different was obligatory. Even cryo versus radioactive–
Timmins: The Fadefields is extra normal fight. You may take it at your personal tempo a bit. However yeah, the Vault, we wished to check your gear, take a look at your motion talent. You do have to concentrate to these elemental results and actually play into these extra within the Vault than within the open world.
GamesBeat: Is a part of the Vault that it is advisable to establish precisely what you’re up in opposition to and match up your weapons?
Timmins: We wish you to find it and study from it. We don’t wish to provide the solutions up entrance. After a few makes an attempt, you need to have an thought. That is the kind of enemies. They have a tendency to have shields or they have a tendency to have armor. You may go and optimize your gear. I actually need a shock weapon. I desire a corrosive weapon. Perhaps I desire a piece of drugs that helps me unfold results. You may need a Maliwan weapon with ricochet bullets from Jakobs. Now you’ll be able to unfold that elemental harm to extra enemies by capturing only one. There’s plenty of gear recreation there. You may additional and additional optimize your play model and finally work on that problem.
We nonetheless need gamers to have enjoyable. We’re not a punishing recreation. In the event you die you respawn and simply spend some money. Then you definately strive once more. You’re by no means punished for failure. It’s only a query of what you’ll be able to study from that and how one can optimize your construct and check out once more.
GamesBeat: What are veteran gamers going to note that’s totally different?
Timmins: Traversal is an enormous change. It’s been leveled up. I nonetheless have Borderlands 3 open. I’ll return and reference one thing. Not having the ability to soar, not having the ability to glide or grapple, these harm. It hurts my soul to not have these. The traversal has leveled up in a means that’s elementary. Having the automobile all the time obtainable–as quickly as you wish to do one thing, soar in your automobile and go do it. That’s actually totally different.
I believe our motion talent system is tremendous approachable, nevertheless it’s far more expansive than ever earlier than. It’ll let gamers optimize their character construct. The purpose is you’ll be able to play Vex and have Hassle out, however in a four-player recreation, if all 4 of you’ve Hassle out, it might all nonetheless be basically totally different, how Hassle works. Your motion abilities might nonetheless be totally different. There’s far more expression via the talent bushes than we’d ever had prior to now. These are the massive tickets.
GamesBeat: Within the Vault you can get three Spectres out without delay, I believe?
Timmins: For her Useless Ringer talent, you can have any mixture of Spectres or Reapers. The concept is, Reapers are a bit extra about taking aggro, however they’re solely melee, whereas the Spectres are ranged they usually do a bit extra harm, however they don’t get as a lot aggro they usually take harm quicker. It’s about recognizing what’s in your fight. What do I want? I’ve too many melee guys coming at me. I’ll use a bunch of Reapers to suck up their aggro. There’s only one badass? I can spawn all Spectres and we are able to attempt to preserve that at vary and soften it down. That’s an instance of how you should utilize your motion talent on the fly and give it some thought greater than prior to now.
GamesBeat: The atmosphere right here, are you able to speak extra about that? The setting and the planet.
Timmins: Kairos is an all-new planet. As a part of breaking off from the previous and making this extra approachable, we wished everybody to start out on a brand new planet. You don’t should have that historical past with Pandora. This planet had been underneath the position of the Timekeeper for a thousand years. He used these Vaults to lock down humanity on this planet and pressure them into his little good order.
Six years in the past, Elpis teleports into the sky and breaks this good veil of concord. Folks understand there’s extra to actuality than they’ve seen. Just like the Truman Present. At that time folks begin to query. There’s greater than this little world I do know. What’s occurring? They begin to discover their very own Vaults. In the event you survive it, that’s nice. You may go loopy. However the planet begins to understand there’s greater than this little world, extra that they’ll exit and see. The Timekeeper begins to lose his super-tight grasp. He will get a bit extra determined. He’s prepared to do some extra nefarious issues to maintain management.
The Vault Hunters–this hidden planet reveals up in house they usually come in search of a Vault. They discover extra than simply the Vault. They discover the Timekeeper. They discover this entire civilization. They get wrapped up into the story, breaking this group of individuals free in addition to discovering Vaults.
GamesBeat: Can we inform how large, how lengthy that is but?
Timmins: I don’t wish to speak concerning the size of the story. We like to inform good tales. We now have a reasonably prolonged marketing campaign that takes you thru all of Kairos. It’s our largest world. We’ve packed it with essentially the most stuff to do. It was necessary to me that within the seamless world, it wasn’t simply large for the sake of being large. That’s not entertaining to me. I wished there to be significant actions and issues to do this are enjoyable. Like I mentioned, hop and skip round the entire world.
The portion of the Fadefields you performed was a reasonably small a part of the sport. You didn’t even go to the perimeters. There was much more within the demo that you simply didn’t see. Gamers ought to anticipate an enormous world that’s value exploring, that rewards exploration with new missions, new characters, new actions, new gear. At each step there’s one thing to do. You’re not checking off issues on a listing. I hate that kind of gameplay. I wished it to be–naturally, what’s a seamless expertise for Borderlands? Borderlands is about fight, about loot, and about leveling up. Every little thing ought to circle again to that.
GamesBeat: Did you get in any intersection with the movie, or inspiration from the movie?
Timmins: No, I used to be not concerned in that. The sport is the sport and the film is the film. They’re fully separate. I used to be too busy engaged on the sport to fret concerning the film.
GamesBeat: How did you concentrate on the type of characters you wished to construct this round?
Timmins: On the subject of the Vault Hunters, what was actually necessary–we all the time have these archetypes, just like the soldier or the Siren. We wished them to nonetheless be approachable. The soldier is an approachable character, type of point-and-shoot. We wished to have these archetypes, however then additionally inside these archetypes, play with totally different fantasies. The Siren is our first type of minion grasp. The soldier has a third-person motion talent with the Arc Knives. Although, on the floor, they’ve those self same archetypes, we wished to twist them and alter them and do one thing new whereas nonetheless satisfying the core promise of a soldier as a point-and-shoot man, or the Siren utilizing magic powers.
We wished to meaningfully change it up, do one thing large and new this time. It would really feel a bit overseas at first, nevertheless it’s a Borderlands recreation via and thru. You’re killing dudes and getting gear.
