Gearbox showcased Borderlands 4 gameplay in a big way with a State of Play presentation that dug deeper into the changes in the game’s loot, gear, movement, and overall gameplay, along with a few story tidbits.
The presentation took 20 minutes to show off a new gameplay trailer, before getting into different elements of Borderlands 4. It was also, expectedly, since it was a PlayStation presentation, all PS5 Pro gameplay footage.
One of the first changes you’ll notice is your new movement capabilities. Being able to glide, for example, has a huge impact on how you can move around in combat and while exploring the world. You also have a grapple hook that can grab onto certain spots.
Or, if you find one of a new kind of overworld activity in Borderlands 4, a Silo, you can launch yourself into the air to cover larger distances.
Another big change is that we’re not on Pandora anymore, and have landed on a new planet called Kairos, which had been kept a galaxy-wide secret by a new antagonist called the Timekeeper. Basically, the Timekeeper kept the planet’s population from leaving by controlling them with chips in their brains called bolts.
When a moon somehow teleported into the orbit of Kairos, it caused a big hullabaloo in the Timekeeper’s keep-the-planet-a-secret protective cover, and the chips essentially stopped working. People started tearing them out of their skulls, and now there’s a lot of fighting. That’s where you, along with other fan-favorite vault hunter characters, along with a few new additions, enter the scene to help put an end to the Timekeeper.
The presentation introduced two of the new vault hunters joining the team, Rafa, an exosuited soldier, and a siren called Vex, who can summon her own familiar called ‘Trouble,’ who is a phantom giant alien sabertooth tiger that does different elemental attacks according to how you’ve chosen to customize your arsenal.
Which leads into what was a major portion of the presentation, how weapon customization has changed, and how character customization has changed, all before getting into the choices Borderlands players are used to with elemental damage and weapon types from various in-world weapons manufacturers.
A key change is that you can customize weapons by putting together a gun that includes different parts from different manufacturers, to try and create the weapon that fits how you’d like to play. But that only gets interesting to make when you’ve found the right loot, and in terms of finding loot, Gearbox also confirmed that it has “overhauled” how drop rates work in Borderlands 4.
According to Gearbox, the times you find a legendary weapon will “truly be special events” once again in Borderlands 4.
In terms of how you can customize your vault hunter, each one will have a passive ability, and three “action skills” you can swap between. You can choose which action skill you use with that vault hunter, and then you can also improve and adjust that skill through its skill tree. Each of the three action skills a vault hunter has also has a skill tree, which you can re-spec and adjust how you like as you play.
Most of the focus in this presentation was on how key elements of the gameplay have changed, but plenty more about the game was notably missing. We didn’t get any showcase on what the story will feel like; other than that, it’ll have a serious moment or two.
Not to say the lighthearted elements of Borderlands won’t be there, just that it was absent here. This was definitely a gameplay-first presentation, which is all fine and well, but it will be curious to see players’ reactions when we eventually see that side of the game. Some of the loudest complaints players had about Borderlands 3 came from the dialogue and the story, with the biggest issue many players had being the two villains.
A repeat of that situation here would definitely be a disappointment, but if all the gameplay changes hold up, it won’t be a deal-breaker for many players.
