Borderlands 4’s Seamless World And Movement Mechanics Will “Make It Hard For Players To Go Back”
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
A new trailer for Borderlands 4 debuted during The Game Awards, providing our first good look at the upcoming looter-shooter and hinting at just how big its world–which is seamless–is going to be. The trailer is also a stark contrast to the reveal for Borderlands 3, which featured repeated shots of familiar faces and locations from the franchise. The Borderlands 4 trailer, in comparison, has very little familiarity–going solely off the two trailers, it seems like Borderlands 4 is a cleaner break and more approachable on-ramp into the franchise than Borderlands 3 was.
Still, it’s clear that Borderlands 4 is building off the conclusion of Borderlands 3, with a prominent shot of the new Ripper Queen big baddie staring up at a moon falling toward the planet. That moon is Elpis, the same moon that Lilith teleported away at the end of Borderlands 3 (and the setting of Pre-Sequel). The trailer features a ton of shots of the horizon line, which actually tease Borderlands 4’s seamless world.
“With Borderlands 3, with the idea of going to different planets, it was more compartmentalized,” Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford told me. “It felt a little less open and free. Borderlands 4 is the most open and free ever [for the franchise].” I saw the trailer for Borderlands 4 a week before The Game Awards and got a chance to then speak with both Pitchford and creative director Graeme Timmins, both of whom had a lot to say about the new game.
