When you think of Borderlands you probably think open world exploration, loot-driven gameplay, offbeat humor, cartoonish art style, a great cast of vault hunters with tons of bad ass abilities, and of course Claptrap! After Sony’s State of Play today, we are pleased to share that Borderlands 4 in the series will have all these elements, and more! So here is what we learned from the Borderlands 4 gameplay State of Play!
You can catch all the details over on the PlayStation YouTube channel, or watch it below.
Right off the bat we are hit with familiar visuals, shooters shooting and looters looting, shit getting blown up, and psychos causing carnage all over an exciting new planet called Kairos. Featuring four new zones, promised to have no loading times, just seamlessly linked together. They are bringing this new planet to life with all-new dynamic weather and events, like border patrols and world bosses.
We are introduced to Vex, the new Siren in town. She weilds supernatural phase energy she can use to empower herself or conjure deadly minions to fight alongside her. Next up, we get a short glimpse at Rafa, a soldier who wears an experimental exo-suit. He can digistruct an arsenal of weapons, like the razor-sharp arc knives. We hear a bit about Lyric, a sniper with gravity-defying powers, and we catch a glimpse of a large brute-like hunter wielding a fire and cryo axe, but any more details a scarce.
We learn the new villain “The Timekeeper” has been keeping the planet under his control with his synthetic soldiers he calls “The Order”. That is until Alda, the rogue moon that Lilith teleported away from Pandora at the end of Borderlands 3, showed up and created a cataclysmic event, stirring up an uprising on a planet just waiting for a hero to come to its aid.
Zane and Moxxie will return along with new friends like Rush and Echo 4, a helpful drone that hacks order tech, scans the environment, and guides you to objectives.
The Gearbox team showcases glide, dash, double jumping, climbing, and grapple, which makes traversing and combat look like a lot of fun. The gameplay looks exactly like Borderlands, and that’s a good thing. With more mobility, the combat is as crisp-looking as ever, and more attack options are available.
The co-op will have individual difficulty settings so new players can get used to the game easily while the hardcore fan base can up their challenges while still enjoying playtime together. The loot that drops is yours and yours alone. If you stray too far from your friends, don’t worry, you can fast travel right to them! This will make playing together a much more pleasant experience, in our opinion, as it takes away a ton of minor inconveniences.
Now for the good stuff. Loot! The changes to this system look incredible. There are 8 manufacturers with their unique trademarks, three of which are new to the series. “Order” has a powerful charge and release blast, the fully auto “Ripper”, and D-A-E-D-A-L-U-S, which can use multiple ammo types. They also introduced an all-new licensed parts system. They show a Vladof assault rifle with a Torque mag, Hyperion shield, and Maliwan elemental switch. Creating a unique gun that can shoot fast and explode things. The possibilities are endless, and even more so with their new Enhancements systems. These are gun attachments that add bonuses, letting you build around your favorite manufacturers. They overhauled the drop rate, making rarity matter again. The loot chase will be as satisfying with legendaries dropping less frequently, but being as powerful as ever. Grenades and heavy weapons like rocket launchers will no longer take up a gun slot and ammo, they will instead be on a cool-down timer.
Every Vault Hunter has three Action Skills. Each has its branching skill tree, increasing build freedom. On top of passive skills, you can further customize action skills with augments and capstones – socketed enhancements that add new behaviors and functions to your Action Skills. You can swap these on the fly or completely respect your build at hubs around the world.
They’ve even added full mission and boss replays, so no more save loading to target farm, just return to the arena and use Moxxie’s big encore machine to spawn another run. Speaking of bosses, they are bigger and badder than ever, and you’ll need all your skills, guns, and abilities to survive.
That’s everything from today’s Borderlands 4 gameplay State of Play, and in case you missed it, the game’s release date has moved up, and it is now set to release on September 12th!
We are so excited to get our hands on the game this fall, and we hope you are too!
