It’s time that the Borderlands games embraced the franchise’s modding community in a big way, and Borderlands 4 is the perfect candidate.
Level 72 is the Goldilocks number in the Borderlands games and many players feel like this level strikes a good balance between difficulty and buildcrafting choices. However, modding the Borderlands games to fill out all the skill trees can be an extremely fun way to play these games, yet many players have never had the chance to experience this, especially console players. Future games should arguably change that, and meanwhile kill two birds with one stone by also adding official mod support.
Unlocking every skill for the vault hunters in the Borderlands franchise is the ultimate power fantasy, which arguably makes it money left on the table for Gearbox not to embrace by now. With Borderlands 4 presumably being the next game in the franchise, it’s naturally the perfect candidate for this kind of change, although future Borderlands games in general should consider this as well.
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Setting the max level at level 72 in the Borderlands games is a beloved tradition, but this doesn’t mean that future games shouldn’t experiment a little bit. Specifically, Borderlands 4, as well as future games in the franchise should consider allowing players to max out all of each character’s skill trees, regardless of whatever the max level ends up being, given that the modding community has already been allowing this for a while now.
The main reason that Gearbox should do this is that it can balance it to where it’s not ridiculously broken, even though that’s kind of the main appeal of this kind of thing. In theory, it doesn’t necessarily need to be broken to be fun, and it could potentially bring some more fun to what makes Borderlands’ Vault Hunters so enjoyable in the first place.
Borderlands can have the best of both worlds, given that this new all-access progression system can exist at the same time as the familiar level 72 tradition that fans know and love. Making it a distinct and separate option could allow players to do this without disrupting both the traditional experience and the game’s online multiplayer.
None of this is to say that Borderlands’ endgame content loop is dull. Instead, the opposite is true, that most of the progression systems after reaching the max level throughout the games of the franchise, like Borderlands’ weapon proficiencies and Guardian Ranks, are quite enjoyable. Still, it might be worthwhile to mix things up in future games, especially if it means official mod support.
The Borderlands Franchise Needs Official Mod Support
How Official Mod Support Would Only Help Borderlands Thrive
Players have been modding the Borderlands games ever since the first game in the Borderlands franchise. Not only is filling out all the skill trees highly popular among Borderlands’ mods, but it’s also fairly common for players to create gear that has been customized to have extremely overpowered stats. In general, crafting is a common genre convention among looters, and although the Borderlands franchise hasn’t incorporated a proper crafting system yet, technically, the modding community already has.
The fact that the modding community was ahead of Gearbox with the foundations of a “crafting system” alone makes a strong case that the Borderlands franchise should introduce official mod support. Aside from custom weapons and gear, official support and proper tools for the modding community could pave the way for a variety of UGC content, like unique stories, new playable vault hunters, and other content in leagues with the Borderlands franchise’s best DLCs.
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The amount of value that official mod support could bring to the Borderlands games is unimaginable, which is why Gearbox should consider it sooner rather than later. At the very least, it’s time that modding Borderlands games became more accessible.
