Other than what they explicitly call out as a change to address criticisms of Borderlands 3, I don’t know what this does differently from Borderlands 3, but I really like what I see. This looks great.
I really look forward to this. I’ve enjoyed all the borderlands games for at least a few hundred hours. Borderlands 3 was fun but the humor was rough…
The character designs are better than I remember, but thet still seem a bit generic. Maybe it’s just because we didn’t see their character yet though.
There seems to be a lot more customization than in previous games so they’re probably going for a bit of a blank slate feel.
Is the writing still going to be cringe as fuck?
Yes.
If the censor Torgue again, I’m out. TTWL ruined the franchise for me.
The censor is cannon. They even explain in BL2 it’s an implant to his voice box forced on him by his own company.
Censor Torgue? In what way do you mean, because he’s been bleeped out since his introduction in Borderlands 2.
I’m happy to see that it looks good! The return to a more serious style is welcome after 3 games of perhaps taking it too far.
First impression is it seems a lot more Destiny-like: personal vehicles, quests you can pick up anywhere, dynamic events. I’m not complaining necessarily, but looks like they took some notes.
The movement options seem nice but not sure they add that much really. If they don’t solve a challenge that the enemies provide then it’s kinda pointless. I almost never used slide or ground pound in combat in previous games because I was better off just shooting the enemies.
And as much as I love my Jakobs weapons, I was hoping to see a manufacturer revamp. They even used the same companies in Tiny Tina’s with only minor tweaks. The heavy weapons sharing a slot with grenades looks to be a fantastic change though, very welcome.
Also, no lip-sync on NPCs? Looks weird having Amara speaking but her character do nothing.
Overall though looks like a solid but not ground-breaking entry. The guns look just as fun as before and the art design is a step up (those bosses!) from before which I love to see. I know people complained about the Vault Hunters being generic but I don’t have a huge issue with it. I don’t need my characters to be the blue-haired anime character sitting by the window.
Thanks for posting, I wouldn’t have seen this otherwise.
Mostly agree with you, but two things.
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Movement techniques should always be optional and not necessity to do. Somebody wants to zip around and somebody wants to stay still and fire away. Some mechanics solve problems, but some just are there to give freedom.
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Guns. They have spend three main games and four spinoffs building the companies. At this point the manufactorers are basically characters. Why chance it?
I think 2 can also be used as an argument for why they should switch it up. After all, we switch playable characters each game to keep things fresh, so why not do the same with guns? A new planet should bring some new gun modifiers, and they could still bring back some of the old manufacturers as rare loot or legendaries to get even more variety. After 13 years and 4 entries, I’m just a little tired of reloading Tediore’s and throwing away all Hyperion and Torgue guns I pick up (exaggerating!).
I somewhat agree with you on movement: it doesn’t have to be for combat or necessary. But you have to adjust the enemies to account for the extra player tools lest you make melee or slow projectiles trivial. That and I believe that the best games implement features that solve something, even if the devs create the problem the feature solves. Take Doom Eternal for example: I wouldn’t have used half the tools in that game if they hadn’t provided challenges that were best overcome by using them. On medium-high difficulties you end up using everything at hand to get through the levels because otherwise you die, and that’s fulfilling! If I had the same tools at hand but the enemies were all .5x speed then it wouldn’t be very engaging.
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Playing through those old games now, I feel like they could use some kind of dodge move to get an escape from guaranteed damage, so if the movement does that, I’ll be happy. But those games are also littered with level designs that make you take the long way around due to a single ledge being too high, so hopefully it alleviates that problem a bit too. The Destiny personal vehicle seems like a departure from Catch a Ride, but maybe those already weren’t in 3 for all I know, and being able to spawn it out of nowhere probably is an improvement.
I love the borderlands games but I’ll definitely be waiting for that free copy from Epic Games or a $20 GOTY edition with all the overpriced DLC
Sorry I don’t buy games that sold out to Epic.
Or I do, but I wait until they’re $8 on Steam.
Even better, if it supports LAN you can torrent it and with friends for free with a program such as Hamachi.
This one’s on Steam.
