Small evolution, without huge revolution. Borderlands 4 looks like a safe continuation

Thanks to the courtesy of Cenega and 2K, I had the pleasure of going to Munich to spend some time with the upcoming Borderlands 4, both in the open world and in the Vault. I won't hide the fact that as a fan of the series, this was a real treat, because I spent dozens of hours in these games. In the fourth installment, Gearbox Software is sticking to what works, getting rid of what fans didn't like, and improving on the mechanics that needed some polishing. Once again, a strong emphasis was placed on plot and well-written characters.

The story takes place after the events of Borderlands 3, and a new generation of Vault Hunters lands on the planet Kairos. This one is managed by a ruthless dictator named The Timekeeper, who also directs the forces of The Order, and his rule was shaken by the sacrifice of Lilith to save Pandora. The released energy caused Pandora's moon Elpis to teleport to the orbit of Kairos, which led to social unrest and resulted in the emergence of a military resistance movement. And of course, in all this merry chaos, our hunters can't be missing.

Above all, the plot and characters

Unfortunately, I can't say much about the plot itself. I only got to know one, quite simple mission - I helped a rebel leader named Rush defend their base and then steal information about the regime to continue the fight. There was no shortage of funny dialogues, satire, and lofty slogans about freedom. So, there will be humor, but I feel like the overall tone of the story is getting a bit more serious. From conversations with the devs, I learned that The Timekeeper will be a much more serious antagonist than the Calypso twins from the third installment; he is supposed to be a "complex personality that is going to surprise us.”

Handsome Jack was a really well-written villain, and I have to admit, when playing Borderlands 3, I was pretty disappointed that we were fighting a pair of galactic influencers running a cult. They kind of fit into that crazy universe, but no matter how hard they tried, they just came off as a really exaggerated parody of villains compared to Handsome Jack. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this time we get a flesh-and-blood antagonist, not just a bad guy who is bad just because.

Borderlands 4, Gearbox Software, 2025

I also completed one extra mission, during which Claptrap returned. Our friendly robot goofball is at it again, giving us another "super important task" – after all, we are its recruits – which involves... collecting its private mementos. There are a lot of references to the previous installments, like the mention that the robot, whose biggest enemy is stairs, had a close relationship with Moxxi herself (or at least it thinks so). It was a typical "go, kill and bring back" quest, but I won't lie - quite pleasant.

Next to that, there are also returning assignments, which are simple tasks of eliminating dangerous wildlife. These are typical fillers without a broader narrative context - just go and kill what needs to be killed. It's a shame because, honestly, they were already boring in the previous versions, and it's disappointing that the devs didn't come up with more interesting side activities. While playing in the open world, random situations are supposed to happen, and I've had a few - for example, a group of bandits was attacked by The Order.

Because Claptrap was there, I had to ask about the appearance of other characters from previous installments of the series. The creators only mentioned that alongside Amary, "a few characters will appear, but only those that fit into the story happening in Kairos." So all that remains is to wait for the game's launch to find out who will return.

Vault Hunters

We had two Vault Hunters to choose from - Rafa, a mercenary in an exoskeleton who can explode at any moment (which he mentions quite often), and Vex, a young Siren who is just discovering her powers but can already summon a cute kitten or her "alternatives" to help. Since I've always been into tech gadgets in this universe, I roamed around as Rafa in the open world. His abilities are based on exoskeleton modifications - we can choose a blaster that deals massive damage, twin blades for close-up enemy chopping, or two supporting laser rifles that automatically fire at enemies within range.

The development of skills strongly resembles what we know from Borderlands 3. It's clear that the developers didn't want to overcomplicate things, and what was good in the previous parts was carried over to the sequel and expanded. I can already tell that I'll spend a lot of time finding my playstyle, trying out different builds. There will be an opportunity to reset the skill tree again, so there is no fear that we will develop our characters poorly.

Borderlands 4, Gearbox Software, 2025

When it comes to character customization, we return to the theme from the previous installment – in the game world, we'll find outfits to change our appearance. The developers decided on pre-determined characters because, as they stated themselves, "they excel at writing interesting characters." I liked the RPG-style freedom in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, but considering that the plot plays a big role here, I'm not surprised that each of the four protagonists has clearly defined skills and their own story.

Lots of explosions and even more shooting

I know some people find it funny to talk about the "shooting feeling," but it's a term that is valid in our context. In the case of Borderlands 4, it is much more enjoyable than in the third installment. Weapons are more diverse and each of them shoots differently. In previous parts, it was easy to notice the similarities between the guns, but here it's less noticeable. And again, we have a whole range of weapons - from shotguns and pistols to assault rifles, so everyone will find something for themselves. There's also the cool feature of unique weapon reloads - some guns are thrown and act like grenades, while others turn into mini turrets to support us for a while. My favorite became a gun that allowed me to bombard the opponent with a hail of miniature rockets.

Recycling, however, included heavy weapons, grenades, and broadly understood thrown weapons. Instead of dragging them around with us, we will need to observe their cooldown time. This is a great change because in the previous installment, I would often avoid using it due to the limited ammo. It just took up space for other weapons that I didn't have to worry about running out of ammo for. I also had a great time with throwing knives, because apart from inflicting big damage, they would explode or poison enemies.

Borderlands 4, Gearbox Software, 2025

I am very pleased with the significant changes in the field of top-tier weapons. These only drop after fighting bosses; we won't find them "randomly," as was the case before. Now the elite weapon is truly elite, and its properties far exceed the typical junk we find.

Another change compared to the fight is the addition of a first aid kit. As the devs themselves pointed out, the main goal of it is to allow for longer staying in the fight. It restores some health over time, but if we take damage, the healing is interrupted. We can use it as much as we want; we just have to wait for the cooldown. This means we don't have to keep running around looking for new kits; we can just focus on shooting.

Move that body, hunter

The biggest changes that have occurred in the gameplay itself concern the movement - we can now use double jumps, glide, slide in any direction, and dodge. This strongly reminds me of the omnimovement solution from Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in a positive way. This significantly energized the combat and made it easier to move around the terrain. A rope is another new addition, allowing you to pull yourself up at selected points to get onto the roofs of buildings or cliffs. However, the best part is that it allows you to pull exploding barrels located in various places and throw them at opponents. In my opinion, it's an important addition to the general chaos!

What's wonderful about the new way of moving in the open world is that vehicle stations are finally becoming a thing of the past. Now we can summon our car anywhere and we can drive in any direction. This is a convenient solution in that, finally, when playing with others, we will not be forced to... travel together. At times, this significantly slowed down the gameplay, and now everyone has their own vehicle, so the need to constantly honk at someone who just got interested in a nearby box disappears.

Borderlands 4, Gearbox Software, 2025

And we finally got hunters who can swim. Now, instead of going around all the water bodies on foot, we can simply swim through them. In the presented version, this didn't play a major role, but it's possible that in the full version there will be locations for swimming.

Navigation has also been made easier thanks to the presence of the Echo-4 drone. It not only allows you to illuminate the path to the goal, but also indicates the regions where you can complete optional tasks in the mission. The drone is also responsible for transferring ammunition, hacking, or changing the characters' appearance. A nice substitute for the typical interface or keyboard shortcuts.

Vaults finally have meaning

The novelty in the series is supposed to be the vaults mechanic, since there will be more of them than in previous installments. In a nutshell: these are linear dungeons, where we will defeat the boss and get some sweet loot. The game will later allow you to do a dungeon again on a higher difficulty level, which will result in even better loot. In practice, the entire area is divided into smaller arenas, where we have to eliminate opponents to move on. At the very end, we fight a boss to get a large drop of items.

This time I chose Vex and I won't hide it, her skills are much better than Rafa's, which raises my slight concerns regarding the balance. The talkative mermaid can summon a battle kitten, which can cause quite a mess. I liked the Incarnate ability that allows you to create 3 copies of Vex simultaneously, armed with scythes or sniper rifles.

Borderlands 4, Gearbox Software, 2025

Not only did the spectrals inflict considerable damage, but they also distracted the opponents. They effectively diverted attention away from me, which was a godsend, because enemies in Vaults are much stronger than in the open world. They saved me in a confrontation with the final boss named Primordial Guardian Inceptus. The beast resembling a cross between a two-tailed lizard and a plant gave me a hard time, but I did manage to take it down. I did it on the first try, although I was knocked down more than once along the way - but as standard for the series, there were monsters running around the arena, which could be quickly killed during second wind and thus get back on my feet.

Borderlands 4, Gearbox Software, 2025

Other than that, the Vault did not stand out with anything special. These will certainly be good places for "farming" increasingly better weapons and testing your skills. I also had the option of playing the game in cooperation and then the fun is even better, but split-screen has always been one of the hallmarks of the series. However, I hope that the next Vaults will be something more interesting than arenas where we fight to finally face a boss.

Graphical progress is there, but not radical

I wouldn't be myself if I didn't check every wall to evaluate the graphics. There are slight changes, but again without any major upgrades. The characters are still done in a comic book style, with the use of strong contours and simplified textures, which will certainly please the series' fans. What always bothered me in previous games was that the environment lacked the same level of details. Now both rooms, objects, and surface textures are sharper and rendered in higher resolution.

Borderlands 4, Gearbox Software, 2025

This is complemented by a day and night cycle, which looks really nice, especially when Pandora's unlucky moon is in the sky. The lighting is much more complex and it's clear that the developers put a lot of effort into it. As for the performance, it's hard for me to describe anything more at this moment, because I played on appropriately configured hardware, using a controller. There were moments when the game dropped a few frames, but for 95% of the time I was playing at a stable 60 fps. Other participants of the show mentioned that there were problems with connection stability between players in the open world in co-op. However, the developers pointed out from the beginning that such problems may occur, because we were playing an early build of the game. I mention them out of a journalist's duty, and hope that this will be corrected in the final version.

It's fine, but those who were hoping for a revolution may not be satisfied

From what I've seen, Borderlands 4 is leaning towards the classic with a slight touch of evolution. It promises to be a production that will please the fans of the series and looter shooter enthusiasts. This will be an interesting proposition for cooperative couch gaming and a light-hearted game for those who like dark humor, dynamic fights, and want to catch a breath after a hard day's work.

Borderlands 4, Gearbox Software, 2025

After spending nearly 4 hours with the game, I have positive feelings, but also slight concerns - on one hand, I consider the minor changes in gameplay as a huge plus, because after all, I fell in love with this series in such a form. On the other hand, some novelties, like the Vaults, seem too small to overcome the repetitiveness that could creep in after several hours of gameplay, like in Borderlands 3.

So I have to wait for the review version, which will allow me to get more familiar with the game. I definitely know that this is a title I will buy and play with my girlfriend for many hours. However, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the plot will be engaging, and the new activities will be interesting enough for me to want to discover all the secrets of the planet Kairos.

Borderlands 4

September 11, 2025

Rate It!

• Overview

• multiplayer
• singleleplayer / campaign
• looter shooter / MMO shooter
• before premiere
• Borderlands (franchise)