Getting into Borderlands 4 is a bit like putting on slippers that you've bled a little too much after all these years, but damn, it feels good! It's a fact, the game won't have the label of technical showcase stuck to its butt, but everything is more beautiful, the cel-shading is smoother and sharper, it's fluid in all circumstances and that's more than enough. Yes, there is an immediately perceptible graphical leap, despite its false airs of Borderlands 3 to which we would have added a big pack of HD textures and new pretty lighting. However, this isn't where we're really waiting for what has always been one of the craziest franchises in video games before it feels like it's gone into autopilot mode.
Borderlands 2 now almost feels like the good old days, as it truly revolutionized its own formula and made us laugh with almost every one of its jokes. But since then, it's always the same running gags, the same planet, the same characters, and ultimately, it's the humor that's lost out. It's hard to get behind Anthony Burch, who left the ship 10 years ago now, and his distinctive writing style that gave the saga its reputation. Handling vulgarity, memes, and a certain finesse is no easy feat, and Gearbox messed up badly with Borderlands 3, which was unanimously disappointing in terms of its writing and humor. This is where Borderlands 4 must not fail.
I love laughing!
And here you are going to ask me: is it really funnier than the heavy-handed pee-and-poo humor of the third episode? If it's on track, I don't have a firm answer for you at the moment for two reasons. The first is that it's difficult to form a strong opinion with the missions we were given: a lot of fighting, not much talking. The second is that everything was in English. The jokes are clearly more subtle with plenty of wordplay, wit, more subtle humor, and well-placed references. We are clearly in line with what was done at the time of the second episode. It remains to be seen if the French translators will manage to transcribe these jokes with the same effectiveness, because yes, while it won't make you laugh out loud like with Handsome Jack's punchlines, Borderlands 4 is funnier than its predecessor (not difficult, you might say) and should easily succeed in getting at least a few genuine smiles from us.
Far from the influencer slapstick we had to put up with previously, Borderlands 4 intends to make us discover new horizons. Exit Pandora and its population made up of 90% neurotics, and hello Kairos, a new planet where a few familiar faces and frames will have made the trip like Moxxi and of course that good old Claptrap, still as alone in the world and insufferable (and we still love him just as much for that). But to really give us a change of scenery, the developers told us that they have limited the number of characters who will be making their return, and that is also why the tone will immediately seem different. No question of having this "Pandora 2.0 feeling", to use the team's words, and this will involve more serious stakes and a more threatening presence that is the dictator known as The Guardian of Time.
" Everyone is aware of the community's feedback on Borderlands 3. It would have been madness to ignore it. The studio pays close attention to valid criticism and takes it very seriously. Pandora was a bit like the Wild West, and a more offbeat tone suited this universe where businesses are at loggerheads and enemies are crazy. The spirit of this world really suits the tone of these games. Here we are on a planet under the yoke of totalitarianism and ruled with an iron fist by a dictator. And throwing jokes around like we did is no longer appropriate in this context," explains Christopher Brock, executive producer of Borderlands 4. This change of tone can be disconcerting at first, even if we should gain from it in terms of writing, seeing the artistic direction of the environments. It's still quite strange to no longer be taunted at each reappearance.
Rendez-vous en terre inconnue, mais terrain connu
This new destination will be accompanied by a host of colorful new characters, a renewed bestiary, and new regions to explore. There are four major zones in total, all connected to each other without any loading time, we are told. We will have to trust the studio's fine words for now, as we have not been able to put this semi-open "seamless" world to the test. The same goes for some of the big new features of Borderlands 4, such as the day-night cycle, its weather system, its secrets scattered all over the world map, and its plethora of activities, ranging from classic side quests where ClapTrap got another windfall from the entire planet, to more mundane missions that require defending a given point and fending off waves of enemies by the dozen. We didn't get to explore much, but a quick glance at the world map is enough to see that we'll have plenty to keep us busy. We just have to cross our fingers that it won't be a stream of insipid side quests. Speaking of the map, the absence of a mini-map in favor of a companion robot to scan the surroundings has caused a lot of ink to flow. Don't worry, it's a little confusing at first, but you get used to it relatively quickly. It remains to be seen whether the shortcoming will be felt during the more exploration-focused phases.
Randy Pitchford is shouting it out to anyone who will listen: Borderlands 4 will be better in every way than its predecessor. Yes, it should be a more gourmet version of a Maxi-Best of menu for the franchise, rather than a revolution for its own saga. Everything we all love is there, with more and better. More customization, weapon makers, wacky passives for your guns, skills, gameplay possibilities, wacky enemies with often broken AI to beat, better-crafted bosses, and above all, more loot. Here again, we can reassure you, we didn't pick up any legendary items during our few hours with Borderlands 4. The promise of making loot more meaningful should be kept. In any case, it's always so exhilarating when a rainbow of loot starts pouring out of a boss that took us about twenty minutes to finish off. The buggers finally have interesting patterns that aren't so easy to tame. We'll then have to face the guardians of the ark again, and they could prove more devious than their predecessors.
The one we defeated, not without difficulty, resembled a sort of monkey whose weak points we had to dislodge by extracting them with the grappling hook while dodging its devastating attacks, and playing Tarzan with our new tool to avoid ending up in a pool of poison. Gearbox seems to have really worked on this. The fights are all the more intense and the rewards all the more satisfying. Sorry, comrade, your resurrection will have to wait, duty calls. No surprises there either, this fourth episode is always more fun with several players, but it is not with our short duo session that we will have been able to see the new features on the multiplayer side, which we are also promised to be improved.
Lots of small improvements that should improve the experience
There are some new features in Borderlands 4, like the new equipment slots that allow you to carry healing syringes so you no longer have to search for them everywhere in the arena. You can also trade them for defense boosts or to improve movement speed. Gearbox has made a point of adding new ways to move. This time we'll have a Digirunner, a sort of motorcycle that we can materialize on the fly without having to take an endless detour to a terminal. The driving has been slightly refined, but it's still in line with what the license has accustomed us to. After sliding, there's also room for swimming, double jumping, grappling hooks, and boosting to glide for a few seconds in the air. Grabbing a canister from a distance to throw it at your enemies, gaining height to better identify your opponents or, on the contrary, going to dislodge that damn sniper in a fraction of a second, repositioning yourself on the ground, shifting your firing angle... it doesn't seem like it, but it should give rise to quite a few new possibilities.
In any case, it seemed a little more dynamic and intense than the last games in the license, which had already gained a lot in verticality. We're still a notch above with these new features, the fights are even more intense if you use them wisely, but we're just waiting to see their usefulness during exploration. Having to deal with endless detours to reach a high objective when you now have a grappling hook is counterintuitive and frustrating. We only saw a small fragmentation of the first zone, but we come away with the impression that the grappling hook markers were slightly placed by mistake as soon as we move away from the combat arenas. We'll see in the final version of the game or during a more substantial hands-on, but in almost four hours we can reassure you on one point: Borderlands 4 will still be a joyful, terribly addictive way to let off steam and which will not compromise on play styles and replayability.
Two classes that have class
Once again, we will come to reign chaos in the shoes of a Vault Hunter. There will still be four of them at launch, with others planned as extras, provided you can put your hand in your wallet. Only two were accessible to us, and unfortunately, we won't be telling you anything new because they're the ones we'd already seen extensively in action during the State of Play. Rest assured, Vex and Rafa are as exhilarating to play as they looked, and there are some really cool moves. In true Borderlands fashion, there will be endless possibilities to shape these characters' gameplay to suit our playstyle. From what we've seen, we can expect some seriously crazy builds.
All of them will have an even more extensive skill tree, with three predefined class branches featuring a bunch of passives and skills. It's still pretty similar to the Borderlands 3 recipe, with two of these abilities being able to be equipped and swapped out at any time outside of combat. There is, however, one new feature we can't wait to really try out: "Augments." These kinds of sub-skills allow us to improve our main special abilities by giving them new attributes or new actions. For example, one of them allows the Vex Siren to detonate her clones from a distance and regenerate her health at the same time, while the exosoldier Rafa can absorb damage with his exoskeleton to heat it up and inflict additional fire attacks while reflecting some of the damage taken to marked enemies.
This is just a tiny sample. The range of possibilities seems infinite and Gearbox will likely never be found wanting when it comes to the quality of the character archetypes. Whether it's the siren who surrounds herself with familiars absorbing the element of the equipped weapon or who opts for clones of herself, or the exosoldat who plays hand-to-hand with blades, which are reminiscent of the Mantis from Cyberpunk 2077, or who prefers to bet everything on the speed of fire, the powers all seem relevant and the feeling is always as exhilarating and impeccable, regardless of the approach chosen. Borderlands 4 clearly has all the weapons to be the most fun FPS of the year.
Billions of completely crazy weapons
And let's talk about weapons, because they're also an inimitable component of the looter shooter, a source of real addiction for loot addicts. The game should once again be incredibly generous with billions of weapons to loot. Here again, Gearbox has added a few subtleties for the most hardcore fans. First, three new manufacturers will be invited to this joyful party, all with their own specialties. Unfortunately, we were mainly sponsored by MALIWAAAAAN during our games, and we only had a brief taste of one of the newcomers, the Order. The Timekeeper's weapons clearly have some style, firing full bursts of ammunition in a single shot and with precision. There's nothing more exhilarating than shooting a brute with them and emptying our clip in their face. Borderlands 4 will do things a little differently by mixing constructor components with other weapons. In other words, you can have a sniper rifle with a Jakobs mod so critical hits ricochet off other enemies, all coupled with the Ripper technology that allows you to switch to full auto. We'll let you imagine the massacre with the right build.
That's also what Borderlands is all about: spending time pampering your builds and weapons, which means a lot of time spent in menus. This is one of our biggest reservations; their interface isn't the most intuitive, especially when playing with a controller. Throwing an item becomes a headache if you don't know where to look, and almost all of us were forced to ask a demo player where the option was hidden in the game. Likewise, navigating from one menu to another sometimes seemed tedious to me. It remains to be seen whether this is just a learning curve or whether it will prove prohibitive in the long run. PC players shouldn't feel it, as this menu overhaul seems to have been designed for them.
We're waiting for Borderlands 4... like legendary loot
We left Borderlands 4 with many questions and a furious desire to play it again. Gearbox has scrupulously listened to its community and seems to have put enough new features and improvements where needed to spice up its recipe, which is still as formidably effective as ever. It's more beautiful, fluid, and the combat is more lively, dynamic, and brutal with the right weapons. The cocktail is still as addictive and explosive as ever. We don't know if this will be the most accomplished episode of the saga as we're constantly told, but it should easily rank as the most fun FPS of the year, if not one of the best. Offbeat, Borderlands 4 will certainly be, but completely crazy like the rest of the line? With its more mature tone, it remains to be seen, but it should be far from the heaviness of its predecessor. That's something! If we're on familiar ground in everything else, it's ultimately the biggest question that remains. See you on September 12, 2025 on PS5, Xbox Series and PC, and a little later on Switch 2, to loot until you drop in Borderlands 4.
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