So overnight in LA, Borderlands 3 had its big fancy gameplay reveal event. (Which I am only a little bit bitter about not getting to go to). Essentially, a bunch of your favourite streamers from around the world were given access to the game for 90 minutes to go absolutely wild, no hand holding, no guided tours, they were allowed to play how they wanted and as a result, we learned a lot!
So, because I’m sure you’re very busy and have a lot of things to do instead of pawing over every piece of Borderlands 3 content like me, I’ve condensed it all down into a nice, helpful little list of things that are good to know. You’re welcome!
So what’s new?
- Planet hopping! For the first time (unless you include visiting the moon in Borderlands The Pre-Sequel), you’ll be able to explore the vast universe of Borderlands with various planets and space stations to explore. The demo took place on a new planet called Promethea, in which you have to help Rhys (you know, from Tales of the Borderlands), defend his company Atlas from a quite literal hostile takeover from rival company Maliwan
- More action skills! In previous games, you might recall you had one dedicated special skill per character, but now each character will have several to choose from in order to leave a trail of bodies and loot in your wake.
- More guns! Borderlands 3 promises more guns and more loot than ever, with a loot sharing system to ensure no one misses out on that really nice gun you had your eye on. For the first time, guns will have alternate fire modes, meaning one second you can shoot some bullets and the next you might be shooting missiles from the same gun. Or just enjoying that cute gun turret with little legs who is now my child. Also, the sound team has been hard at work with the guns, with the sound team saying they’re sitting at a little over 7,500 gun sounds. That’s a heck of a lot more than Borderlands 2’s 300.
- Better movement! The game has a huge movement overhaul making things look and feel much more fluid. Characters can slide along the ground to dodge and get behind cover or climb on top of things if their jump is just that little bit short. It makes the world feel a lot more interactive!
- Heavier story focus! More than ever, the game will be all about delivering a solid narrative. The game opens with the player taking the role of a Crimson Raider, with the new villains, the Calypso Twins, and their cult The Children of the Vault having destroyed all the Raider strongholds. The Raiders are now led by former Vault Hunter Lilith. The story will feature, as always, a lot of chatter from characters as you play through missions, but also chatter from the player characters which was first seen in Borderlands The Pre-Sequel and made the world and the people in it feel much more three-dimensional.
- Character customization! Along with heads and skins we’ve all come to know and love, emotes will also finally be included so you can make your character truly unique to reflect your personality.
- No microtransactions! This has been the point of some confusion, but let me clear things up a little. Gearbox strongly wanted to make sure the game didn’t include any pay to win features, meaning loot boxes and the like, ensuring one player won’t gain an advantage over another because they’ve spent more on the game. There will, however, be DLC available in the form of a season pass and cosmetic packs, similar to how Borderlands 2 functioned.
- Quality of life enhancements! Remember all the times you found that beautiful shiny gun only for it to fall off the map? Worry no more! Your new home base of sorts, Sanctuary III, will have a lost and found feature for weapons you missed out on. There are also lots of other improvements in the form of a ‘buy all’ function for ammo at vending machines. That alone is worth it, honestly.
So, where to from here?
So far, Borderlands 3 is shaping up to be the loot shooter/RPG/FPS hybrid that defined the genre like Borderlands 2 did all those years ago and then some. Of course, we’ll have to wait until the 13th of September to find out, which is too far away, because I want my walking gun best friend now.
Still, if anything else comes to hand, you’ll be sure it’ll be covered right here along with a review of the game when available!
