‘Borderlands 4' Ramps Up The Mayhem Fans Love With Enhanced Mobility And More Complex Guns
Billions of weapons
Yes, you read that right, with a 'B' to start, and an 'S' at the end. That's exactly what developer Gearbox Software is promising with the next iteration of its beloved looter shooter, Borderlands 4 . After a brief stint in the fantasy genre with the Dungeons & Dragons -esque Tiny Tina's Wonderlands , the franchise is returning to its roots for its sequel, which looks to build upon everything fans have come to expect from the series while ramping up the carnage to a whole new level.
And if our exclusive and almost four-hour-long hands-on session with an early preview build of the game was any indication, the sequel is a shining example of the word 'more'. Not just more Borderlands and more guns, but also more build flexibility, more weapon complexity, and a more engaging experience throughout.
Spanning a sizable chunk of the game's Fadefields region, the preview let us loose to explore the sights and sounds of Kairos, a brand new planet discovered following the events of 2019's Borderlands 3 . According to Gearbox, the change in scenery also brings about a shake-up in its storytelling as a whole, featuring a non-linear main quest design allowing players to choose the order to which they handle the plotlines, alongside a host of dynamic world activities and the largest number of side quests ever seen in a Borderlands game, although the preview's curated nature prevented us from experiencing the true scope of the title.
For the preview, only two of the four total playable Vault Hunters (the game's treasure-hunting protagonists) were made available – Siren Vex and the Exo-Soldier Rafa. As with all Borderlands games, gameplay progression lives and dies by the build of each character, and Borderlands 4 has taken things up a notch in this respect.
As with its predecessor, each class has access to three different skill trees, each with its associated Action Skill, powerful attacks that can turn the tide of battle, which operate on a cool-down system. The difference here lies in just how expansive each skill tree is, with each individual tree possessing almost as many skill nodes as an entire character's roster in Borderlands 3.
In addition to various passive stat-boosting skills, each tree also has nodes that augment a character's abilities and moves, alongside a Vault Hunter trait unique to each character. Take Vex, for example, who possesses the Phase Covenant trait, which attunes her melee damage and Action Skills to the element type of her current gun.
On the topic of Action Skills, Vex's three Siren abilities mark a dramatic shift from franchise norm, making the class more of a summoner character, similar to Borderlands 3's FL4K. Aside from one skill that gives her wings and the ability to send forth a powerful Eldritch Blast, her two remaining skills focus on spawning minions to dominate the battlefield with numbers.
The first summons Trouble, a cat-like creature that permanently stays by her side to attack enemies and respawns when killed. Vex can then use her action skill to cause Trouble to deal damage in an area, transforming into a Badass version, Big Trouble, for a limited time. Her final action skill operates similarly, this time summoning up to three phase ghosts of herself temporarily, with a choice to mix and match between a mobile scythe-wielding variant or a stationary sniper.
Rafa, on the other hand, possesses skills related to his high-tech Exo-Suit, which includes one that summons a turret on his shoulder to automatically target nearby enemies, the ability to dual-weld a plasma cannon alongside his currently equipped firearm, or summon armblades to slice through enemies in third-person.
As the bread and butter of the Borderlands series, gunplay and core combat feel largely unchanged from previous iterations, possessing the same core gameplay loop of mowing down fodder and dealing with the occasional Badass variant, while looting and swapping between guns along the way.
Instead of shaking up the already well-established combat loop, Gearbox has chosen to make minor but impactful changes to the formula. Gone is the need to keep heavy weapons like rocket launchers and grenade launchers in one of the four available weapon slots, as the throwables slot from previous games has been revamped to encompass both grenades and heavy weapons like the aforementioned launchers, miniguns or large energy cannons. This change also means that players no longer need to scavenge for precious heavy weapon ammo, with the tradeoff being that the weapons now operate on a cool-down system.
This minor change does wonders for combat, opening up all four weapon slots to be used according to a player's style, opening up the potential to have more weapon classes to swap on the fly, and improving combat effectiveness at all ranges. Recovering health has also been made more streamlined, as apart from collecting health pick-ups in the world and from defeated enemies, players now have access to Repkits, instant-use health items that gradually refill after use.
Perhaps the biggest change to combat's flow lies in the game's enhanced traversal mechanics, with players now having access to a grappling hook which can not only propel them at specific points, but can also be used to snag objects like explosive barrels from afar, which then can be thrown at enemies. This feature, combined with the new mid-air glide and quick-dash mechanics, makes movement much snappier during combat, with the easiest way to describe it being like Borderlands meets DOOM: Eternal .
But what would Borderlands be without its absurd guns? Absolutely nothing, and that's why firearms have seen their biggest overhaul yet. The franchise's icon gun manufacturer system, which gives weapons of a specific make a unique trait, returns with a bang by introducing three new manufacturers: Daedalus, Order and Ripper.
Daedalus guns all possess the ability to switch ammo modes, with an SMG, for example, able to swap modes to fire sniper rounds instead, increasing damage but eating through precious rounds as a tradeoff. Order and Ripper guns both operate on a charging-up system, with the former's guns firing off multiple rounds at once when charged, while the latter's require a spool-up time before firing in rapid succession like a minigun. On the flipside, series staples Dahl and Hyperion have been removed, leaving Borderlands 4's final gun manufacturer count at eight: Jakobs, Vladof, Torgue, Maliwan, Tediore, Order, Ripper and Daedalus.
Gun manufacturer changes are not limited to just new ones, though, as each gun can now be made from up to three different manufacturers at once, which ramps up combat to a whole new level. In theory, this means that a weapon has the chance to possess three unique skills at once. For example, a gun can hit hard and with extra headshot damage (Jakobs), while simultaneously being able to swap modes to fire rockets (Torgue) and also be thrown like a grenade when reloaded to deal additional damage (Tediore).
The possibilities then are almost endless, harkening back to the studio's promised 'billions' of weapon variations. It seems that they are going all in on gun manufacturers this time, as even the artefact slot, which used to give additional stat bonuses in past games, has now been tweaked to specifically provide bonuses to gun manufacturers, enabling players to further optimise their build to suit their favourite kinds of guns.
All that being said, how well does everything come together? In short, combat can be described as chaotic, in the best way, with players zipping all over the place with the new grappling hook, while hovering and shooting mid-air. Some enemies, such as those from the new Order faction, possess unique combat skills of their own, enhancing the chaos unfolding on screen. Badasses, specifically, offer a real threat this time around and are usually much tougher to take down compared to what players might be used to, which does help to encourage tactical use of weapons and abilities.
The preview session culminated in a high-level boss encounter, with players similarly receiving pre-determined high-level guns and gear. This was easily the most intense part of all, as despite the more powerful equipment, the boss was still tough as nails, operating in phases that required the use of all the skills learnt so far, such as juggling, grappling, hovering and shooting at exposed weakspots. It was refreshingly engaging, and a far cry from the series' usual boss-fight pattern of shoot, avoid, rinse and repeat, and hopefully, this won't be a one-time affair either, and the game will introduce increasingly more complex encounters along the way.
While just an early look at a minuscule portion of the game, Borderlands 4 is already shaping up to be the franchise's biggest and most innovative iteration yet. What remains to be seen is how well the game would handle its open world design and activities to balance quantity with quality, and how its story (which thankfully Gearbox promises would be far more grounded than recent entries) will fare.
Borderlands 4 releases on 12 September 2025 for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, and will also release on the Nintendo Switch 2 later in 2025.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. 2K Games Borderlands Borderlands 4 Gearbox Software Geek Preview
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