Borderlands 4 Is Learning All The Right Things From Live Service Shooters

With its release date moved forward to September 12 and a State of Play presentation giving us a detailed look at gameplay yesterday evening, we now know more about Borderlands 4 than ever.

Despite maintaining its polarising sense of humour and timeless aesthetic, it looks pretty good, and, in my eyes, refreshing when compared to other such shooters on the market. It’s so steadfast in its commitment to fun shooting, looting, and humour that it feels kinda old school in the face of competition. There are seemingly no live-service mechanics or glaring progression mechanics intent on diluting the fun at the series’ core, and that alone is enough to capture my interest.

Borderlands 4 Is The Sequel Its Predecessor Should Have Been

While watching the gameplay presentation earlier this week, I kept finding myself saying, ‘Oh, so like in Destiny?’ when the vault hunters summoned vehicles from the ether, floated while jumping to reach higher parts of the environment, or had a weapon slot dedicated entirely to heavy ordinance instead of taking up a valuable primary position.

In the context of this series, these are all long-awaited quality-of-life changes, but they’re also reflective of how the looter shooter genre has grown since the arrival of Borderlands 3.

Gearbox Software has always wanted to maintain the series’ core identity, however, and isn’t particularly interested in turning Borderlands into a pseudo-MMO buckled down by needless monetisation or chasing current trends that would only make moment-to-moment gameplay much worse.

Instead, Borderlands 4 is meeting the current landscape in the middle with this adoption of mechanical innovations while remaining true to everything this series represents. If anything, it’s leaning further into its origins than ever before.

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Another change revealed in the State of Play was the ability to fast travel directly to your friends playing in the same world, which could be a legitimate game changer when it comes to teaming up with pals whenever you like.

And It’s Learning From The Looter Shooter Genre Without Losing Its Identity

Part of me expected Borderlands 4 to step up to the plate and deliver a shared world along with new modes and mechanics inspired by the biggest hitters, but instead it pulls sparingly from them by choosing the right innovations before advancing a formula that hasn’t changed much at all since it debuted in 2009. Your goal is still to live, laugh, loot either alone or with friends in co-op play, with instanced loot and bespoke difficulty settings now making it much easier to play with folks of all skill levels.

The fact you’re now able to summon vehicles whenever you like, float while jumping, and do a sick grapple move are simply bonuses that add rather than reinvent, and Gearbox seemingly doesn’t have any interest in deviating from its consistent trajectory.

Of course, there will be plenty of additional content and expansions to follow, but considering you’re building up the skills of individual vault hunters that are designed to play and look different, repeat campaign playthroughs are encouraged instead of Borderlands 4 turning into a forever live-service.

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I swear to god if there is a gun called ‘Hawk Tuah’ I will kill myself. Please hold me to that.

Gearbox also notes that it plans to return to the series’ more grounded tone with this entry. It has always been incredibly silly, but perhaps this means fewer zany memes and pop culture references and more original characters and writing. That was a big reason behind Borderlands 3 especially, having such an obnoxious reputation, when it has proven time and time again in the past, it’s capable of making us fall in love with characters and stories despite being inherently wacky.

It can take us on an adventure that is progressive, self-contained, and complete on the first day of launch instead of pulling the rug from under us at every turn. I’ve played a lot of Destiny over the years, keeping up with the majority of its expansions and updates because I not only love the excellent shooting, but the universe we’ve spent the last decade exploring.

But there was a constant need to log in to keep up with dailies and events that instilled a sense of guilt if you feel behind. After all this time, it’s refreshing to see titles like Borderlands 4 learn from the greatest in the game while remaining true to its own idea of how this formula should operate. It’s a clean slate, and I need one of those right now.

Source: The Gamer