Borderlands 4 Exploration Has "Less Borders, More Lands"

Set to release on September 12th, 2025, Borderlands 4 is being touted by developer Gearbox as the “best Borderlands game to date,” as Global Creative Executive Officer Andrew Reiner confidently expressed in Pax West 2024.

The Borderlands franchise has had some ups and downs, and with certain recent commotion about the game’s pricing, fan sentiment surrounding the much-anticipated Borderlands 4 seems to have swung between cautious optimism and frustration like a non-stop pendulum.

Borderlands 4: Major Updates Revealed in New PlayStation Showcase

The looter-shooter legend is making its big comeback with Borderlands 4 from Gearbox, set to release on September 12 this year.

Concerns aside, developer Gearbox Software is ecstatic to showcase the new features coming to the new entry in this beloved looter-shooter franchise. With twice the development budget of Borderlands 3, everybody is waiting with bated breath to see how well the game will be received on launch day.

I’d like to preface that I have been a Borderlands fan since middle school—I often spent my school days playing Borderlands 2 with my classmates, and farming legendaries for hours on end. While my fervor for the franchise has dwindled since then, Borderlands 4’s announcement has rekindled that passion for the franchise.

So imagine my surprise when I found out that I had the honor of visiting 2K Games’ headquarters in Novato, California, to get a hands-on experience with Borderlands 4 in mid-May. After a couple of hours playing through the preview, I can confidently say that the Borderlands franchise has a bright future in its newest entry.

As the event was split up into two sections, this preview impression will only focus on the first. This started with an open-world exploration segment that placed us in the Fadefields, a low-level area complete with lush, grassy fields and a deceptively unthreatening environment.

Makin’ My Way Through Kairos

As Gearbox publicly established during PAX East 2025 and in PlayStation’s State of Play trailers, Borderlands 4 will have open-world regions that transition between each other with “less [sic] loading screens,” and will be the largest game to date in the series.

Before the preview, I had heard a lot of buzz about the change from a mini-map to a compass. As the devs explained it, the purpose was to encourage exploration, and that the new system allows for easier navigation in a much larger, more vertical world.

This has sparked some discourse in the community, but ultimately, with the more vertical and expansive locales, the navigation system has become extremely useful in finding objectives that can be both close and far away.

There are a lot of quality-of-life improvements that make traversal so much easier. On the smaller scale, you’ve got brand new movement abilities like dashing, gliding, and a grappling hook that allows you to not only zip through grapple points, but also grab explosive barrels and chuck them at enemies.

Giving Borderlands 4 movement shooter mechanics is certainly the right move. Running and gunning has never felt better, and being able to soar through the air made combat much more dynamic. As someone who loves shooters with good movement mechanics like Titanfall 2 and Destiny 2, this was a welcomed change.

“Players can expect that mastery over new dynamic movement abilities will provide the opportunity to flex even more skill expression during combat. Vaults, boss encounters, and the open world will make use of these new abilities in a variety of ways, and we look forward to players experiencing each of those at launch.” – Anthony Nicholson, Senior Project Producer

Being able to dash might be one of my favorite new movement mechanics, as it makes the combat even more fast-paced than Borderlands has ever been. While it doesn’t give you any i-frames, the quick movement still lets you escape enemy sightlines and evade incoming attacks.

The Digirunner also helps you traverse the wide expanse of Kairos. Gone are the days when you have to run back to respawn your vehicle, as you can digistruct your personal ride anywhere in the world without the need for Catch-A-Ride stations. Because of its hovering capabilities, the Digirunner is extremely versatile in taking you through all kinds of terrain throughout Kairos.

While we were given at least an hour to explore the Fadefields, that was barely enough for us to scratch the surface, which shows that the world of Borderlands 4 has a lot to offer. I was happy to find out that while swimming is a new way to explore Kairos, it is only a small part of the larger whole.

As Art Director Adam May puts it, “We realized [swimming] was actually detracting from the gameplay loop. We didn’t want to turn it into just an adventure game. It’s not like we have giant underwater levels.” Still, swimming is a nice addition that opens up some new avenues for exploration.

“We haven’t actually got an exact number on it, but I can say it is a significant chunk of time. This is definitely the biggest Borderlands game we’ve ever made. I know that from my own playthroughs. It is significant. So there’s not going to be anybody upset about the later game.” – Adam May, Art Director

Guns, Guns, And More Guns!

We’ve established just how big Borderlands 4 is and how the traversal will help you explore the world of Kairos, but what about the combat and gameplay?

During the preview event, we were given characters with a preset loadout, though we could pick up and use any weapons we found along the way.

Thanks to the new movement mechanics, Borderlands 4’s combat feels like a natural progression from its predecessors as a high-octane shooter. Being able to make maneuvers previously impossible in the older games makes shooting bad guys all the more exciting.

Thanks to the weapon design, sound effects, and satisfying animations, Borderlands 4’s guns also feel amazing to shoot, though I must admit that I have been spoiled by other shooters with fast reload and weapon-swapping speeds, which make the weapon handling in some Borderlands 4’s weapons excruciatingly slow in comparison during tense moments in combat.

Most weapon manufacturers have made a return, including mainstays like Vladof, Maliwan, and Torgue. In addition, Borderlands 4 features two newcomers: Order and Daedalus. Order weapons allow you to charge your ammo into a single, precise shot, while Daedalus weapons can swap between firing modes, making them more versatile.

Because of their slow charge-up speed, I wasn’t exactly impressed with the Order weapons. In my opinion, they feel like a C-tier manufacturer to me, along with Hyperion and Bandit/COV weapons. Though I will say, this could just be me not being used to the charge and release mechanic that these guns have, and my limited time with them.

As for Daedalus, I haven’t had the chance to really try them out yet, but thanks to the part system, they do manifest as parts of the weapons I got to try out, which allowed me to shoot an Order sniper that can also switch to micro-missiles, or a Vladof assault rifle that can swap to a high-capacity shotgun.

Because of the time restraints, I wasn’t able to fully delve into the nitty-gritty aspects of the “Licensed Part” system, but the guns did feel a lot more different than they did in the previous games.

Thanks to the fact that each gun can come with parts created by different manufacturers, guns can now exhibit unique behaviors never before seen in the franchise, no doubt exponentially increasing the billions in the gun count.

Another new addition to Borderlands 4 are Ordnances, which take up what used to be the grenade slot. Ordnances are rechargeable weapons and are no longer limited to grenades, but instead expand to other implements of destruction like rocket launchers, miniguns, and throwing knives.

Creating A Character Fantasy

Prior to the preview event, I had completed a playthrough of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands to refresh my memory on the movement and combat mechanics of Borderlands for an accurate representation of the franchise’s most recent entry.

During the preview, only Vex the Siren and Rafa the Exo-Soldier were available for playtesting. Naturally, as I always have since I started playing Borderlands during middle school, I picked the lady with the cool tattoos for the rest of my playthrough.

Immediately, I was captivated by Vex’s design. She’s an awesome goth girl with Siren powers who has a giant kitty as a minion. Her cynical and snarky personality also shines through her dialogue during combat and cutscenes, which made her stand out even in the short time I got to play her.

Combined with her spooky vibes, Vex is a fun character to play. Two out of three of her Action Skills allow her to summon minions that can join her on the battlefield and lay waste to her foes, and their elemental attunement changes depending on the weapon she’s holding.

I quickly latched onto the fire-and-forget playstyle of Dead Ringer, which allows Vex to summon around three melee Reapers and ranged Specters to fight for her and draw aggro. Meanwhile, Phase Phamiliar didn’t make Trouble feel strong on the battlefield, and I didn’t have the strongest impressions on Incarnate.

While I didn’t have the chance to fully test the abilities, I did notice that Borderlands 4 allows you to hotswap between Action Skills with a cost to the recharge gauge, which is a major change compared to you having to stick to one Action Skill before having to respec. The true potential of this is not yet known, but there might be some tech behind this.

In the middle of my playtest, I took a break from Vex and checked out Rafa. I was pleasantly surprised to find the Tediore soldier to be nonchalant and have such a smooth and calm voice. Since he can canonically die at any moment, it makes sense that he’s trying to live life to the fullest.

Rafa’s abilities already feel like a blast to play with after only a few minutes of trying them out. His Arc-Knives are reminiscent of the Berserker claws in Destiny 2, allowing you to indiscriminately swipe at enemies; his Apophis Lance allows you to charge and fire a ball of electricity like Mega Man’s Mega Buster; and his Peacebreaker cannons automatically lock on and fire upon enemies, which has the potential to feel very much like the Punisher’s Ultimate in Marvel Rivals.

While we were playing at locked levels with a preset build, I can already tell that Borderlands 4’s Vault Hunters, much like their predecessors, have the potential to be overpowered with the right builds.

Borderlands 4 Wants You To “Die More”

As a looter-shooter, Borderlands games also have RPG elements that scale up the difficulty depending on your level.

During the hands-on preview, one of the devs overseeing our gameplay incentivized us to die at least once in the game, which showed us unique death and resurrection animations that help characterize our mute and adorable robot companion Echo-4, who gets sad and panics when you die while trying to activate the respawn station.

Enemies also don’t scale to your level, so if you encounter an obstacle where enemies are too tough, you’ll need to get stronger and come back. During my playthrough, I faced Level 8 opponents while being Level 7 myself, and they wiped the floor with my face thanks to the modifiers that make the Badass enemies extremely tough and hit just as hard.

One might say it’s a skill issue, but my preset weapons were doing barely any damage to some Badasses, while they kept putting me in “Fight For Your Life!” mode.

Like most Borderlands games, level progression is extremely important. The devs emphasized that they made it so that power progression feels more prevalent throughout a playthrough, and even enemies one or two levels above can feel incredibly intimidating.

With that said, Borderlands 4 isn’t going to be a walk in the park where you can just steamroll every enemy you come across.

Grounded Humor And Better Writing

One of the biggest concerns fans have about Borderlands 4 is the writing, particularly the humor. The skepticism isn’t unfounded, as a lot of people were dissatisfied with the low-brow toilet humor and overabundance of memes and pop culture references that Borderlands 3 was infamous for.

Thankfully, the developers made sure that would never happen again, and this shows through the short snippets of dialogue I got to hear throughout my playthrough.

I can tell there’s a lot of heart put into writing Borderlands 4. To start, the humor had the right level of silliness, yet balanced with a dryness that you would expect from situational humor. It’s not boring, nor do the jokes overstay their welcome. Some moments managed to get a chuckle out of me, and the writing focuses more on telling a good story rather than making constant poop and fart jokes.

Not only that, but I can tell that some NPCs are already going to be fan favorites, namely Rush, the leader of the Outbounders, who is a kind, passionate, yet somewhat awkward himbo.

He seems like a genuinely nice guy, which is a rarity in this chaotic and savage world of the borderlands, and way more tolerable than certain other reviled characters in the franchise.

The villains are also pretty fun and interesting to fight. On one mission, our task was to hunt down and defeat Spymaster Horace, who is a sadomasochistic freak who taunts you with uncomfortably seductive moans.

The writers could have milked Horace for a good few hours with the excessive horniness. Instead, they exercised restraint and relegated him to being a one-off bad guy for you to fight and kill.

The writing is much more focused on portraying the genuine threat that the Order poses and the effects that their tyranny has on the people of Kairos. While I only got to hear a bit of his voicelines, the Timekeeper sounds like a genuinely terrifying villain.

He’s not a loveable asshole like Handsome Jack, nor is he an obnoxious content creator like the Calypsos. He’s a dictator through and through, obsessed with control and seemingly under a lot of stress now that the Vault Hunters and the Crimson Resistance are disrupting his perfectly curated vision of order.

Borderlands 4 is no doubt going to take itself a little bit more seriously, and it’s clear that the devs have indeed shifted the tone to ensure that the humor is situational and less out of place.

Final Thoughts

My impressions on Borderlands 4 remain untainted despite my inherent biases as a longtime Borderlands fan and the privilege of being able to attend the preview event. While I did enjoy the previous games, they could not hold a candle to what Borderlands 4 is going to give us at launch. The improved writing, new gameplay mechanics, and quality-of-life improvements are only the tip of the iceberg of why Borderlands 4 indeed seems like it could be the best Borderlands title to date.