In contrast to shooter franchises that crank out new games every year or so, a newBorderlandsgame feels like an event. It’s been six years since the previous game, so expectations are likely high forBorderlands 4. If you have been eagerly awaiting the next installment of the iconic looter-shooter franchise, I have good news for you. A small snippet ofBorderlands 4gameplay surpassed my already high expectations.
I was lucky enough to participate in ahands-on preview ofBorderlands 4, during whichI also had a chance to talk to Senior Project Producer Anthony Nicholson. Nicholson shared some insights behind the design philosophy forBorderlands 4, and discussed creating some ofBorderlands 4’s new gear. It seems clear from our conversation and my time spent with the game that Nicholson and theBorderlands 4team care a lot about player experience, and improving each installment of the series.
What It’s Like Creating A New Borderlands
Borderlands 4 Builds On Past Triumphs
Less than five minutes into my gameplay experience withBorderlands 4, it was clear that the game is a very different beast from its predecessors.While the core appeal ofBorderlandsis intact, there are also so many new features that the game feels unique. Curious to know how this transformation came about, I asked Anthony Nicholson what Gearbox focuses on first when creating a newBorderlands. His answer? “Gameplay.”
Nicholson went on to elaborate that: “[Gearbox] also identif[ies] what are the things that we did really well, and what are the things that we want to improve on from the previous title. I was the head of Borderlands 3 DLC, so I got to watch the creation of four campaign DLCs. So we take all that learning and all that history and experience and say, ‘what is it we want to be able to do this time?'”
This made me curious aboutwhat exactly it was that Nicholson and the rest of theBorderlands 4team identified as the thing they wanted to improve on. According to Nicholson: “We knew that there were mechanics that people love, like we introduced sliding and mantling for the movement and traversal [in Borderlands 3], so what you see now is several more. We have grapple, dash, and glide.” “It’s really about how do we continue to improve gameplay? [Borderlands] is a shooter first, and then RPG. So how do we make the guns feel good? We play around with different things, and we’ve had ideas from the past that maybe we couldn’t do due to technology restrictions.”
He also discussed how these new mechanics were considered when crafting encounters: “We don’t set out to say you must have all these things like a type of rulebook. We say here’s all the things that are in the toolkit, What is the player going to feel really, really good about being able to do? That extends even further when we go into our bosses. Some of those are intentionally done where we say, we have these new abilities, how do we get those into a boss fight?”
When asked if fully utilizing the new movement abilities was a necessity, Nicholson clarified that, “You can just use it freely however you need to to get the advantage to make it look cool for you, you know, while you’re doing it.“Though, in reference to a boss I was about to face when I returned to the game he noted that:“Three of those abilities give you a high advantage when you use them against that particular boss. And we do that across the board with all our bosses.”
I can confirm that using the game’s new movement abilities, as well as the new heavy weapons that take up your Ordnance slot, are a major advantage for boss fights. I might even go a step further and say thatthere’s no way I would have defeated the boss from the playtest without a combination of grappling, gliding, and dodging attacks. It was easily the most excitingBorderlandsboss I’ve ever faced, and this was due in large part to the new mechanics.
Borderlands 4’s Multiplayer Remains A Focus
Although I’d only played the game solo when we spoke, I was very curious to hear from Nicholson abouthowBorderlands 4approached my favorite aspect of the series, co-op. He told me that, like in previous games, when you play multiplayer, “you’ll see a different variety of enemies, different number of enemies, and of course the scaling goes up with health pools and damage and stuff like that. But one of the things that sets us apart is that we want to verify that it feels very seamless for players to be able to jump in to co-op with anybody else.”
Using himself, me, and 2K’s director of global communications, Richard Chen, who was also present, as an example, Nicholson explained: “Say you’re level 25 because you’ve been grinding, and you’re really kicking butt. Richard just now started the game, and I’m kind of in the middle of maybe like level, you know, 10 or 12, I’ve been playing for several hours. If we all group up together, the difficulty that you chose is yours. The difficulty that he chose is his. Mine is mine.”
Nicholson continued: “The loot you get is all instanced, so I don’t have to worry about you stealing my drops, because you’re the pro, and you’ve been playing a long time. We try to think about what are those things that make it so that there’s lower barriers to be able to enjoy [multiplayer], because we understand. I’m a father. I’m a working man. I may not be able to play a game the day that it drops, and somebody else may have been able to play through the weekend. In Borderlands 4, it doesn’t matter.”
Borderlands 4 Puts Players In Control
Borderlands 4 Puts An Emphasis On Player Agency
What started off as me asking aboutBorderlands 4’s new Repkits widened intoa discussion about one of the game’s main focuses. Nicholson explained that, “One of the pillars we have in Borderlands 4 is player agency. Is the player driving what happens? For one you see players in cutscenes, that’s a small example of something like that. Whenever I want to be healed I’m not only able to bandage myself up, but - it’s Borderlands - so that’s another piece of gear in our inventory. We’ve already had shields, and grenades, now we have Repkits also.”
Explaining how Repkits helped promote player agency, Nicholson said, “If you’re someone who loves running and gunning fast with a Vladoff, you’re going to really love a Repkit that drops something with a faster fire rate. Or maybe you’re somebody who’s a tank, well now you have a piece of gear that can give you a damage-reduction boost. Adding a piece of gear adds to that player agency and allows you to play the game, and approach those combats, the way that you want to.”
Unable to ignore Nicholson’s comment about players in cutscenes, I asked if this meant no more unfortunate incidents likeMaya’s death inBorderlands 3. He quickly assuaged my fears saying that, “The vault hunter is at the core of the story. You, the player, are the vault hunter, so we want to make sure that you are part of that. You’re not helpless. You’re not a bystander, allowing terrible things to happen in front of you and just be like, ‘okay.’ Being able to do that definitely comes from what we’ve learned and seen from past titles.”
A Big, Exciting New Borderlands
Borderlands 4 Has A New Setting And Larger Areas
“Open-world” has become somewhat of a dirty word in gaming. While Nicholson assured me that Gearbox “didn’t set out to make an open-world game,“I was curious to know how the team kept the game’s larger areas from feeling empty. I’d only explored a small section of a map at that point, and wasn’t sure if it was indicative of the larger world.
Nicholson explained that: “Borderlands is about the dynamics of gear selection. You roll and get a random gun that pops up and has all these different things. So we thought, where are some of the gameplay mechanics we could do that with? This entire series we’ve always had mini-bosses and combats that kind of do that too. We have that in Borderlands 4 also.”
He continued: “Because we’re able to make the space bigger, how do we make sure people aren’t being pulled along, and it’s more of a gentle nudge. Your mission is over there, but while you’re riding along on your Digirunner there’s an activity you can do or a dynamic event that happens.”
Putting a capstone on our conversation, Nicholson explained that the reason behind including these extra activities is to make the player “feel like a badass.” Given my short time withBorderlands 4, my initial response would be mission accomplished. The game releases July 23, 2025, and I can’t wait to see if this initial impression holds up.
