Borderlands 4 looks promising, but it remains to be seen whether it can match the series’ peak

We recently saw our first substantial look at Borderlands 4. It’s been a whopping six years since the last mainline entry in the looter shooter series, and it seems Gearbox has gone back to the drawing board in some respects, while keeping the franchise’s legacy alive in others.

I’m not going to dig up all the gameplay changes here, you can find them in the deep dive or summarized in a news release here, but I will discuss what I find promising, and what I think this game needs to really fit the peak of the franchise, namely Borderlands 2 for most of the fanbase.

Even if you only watch the game for 20 minutes, it’s already clear that the gameplay has taken quite a step forward, especially when it comes to the types of weapons you use thanks to the ability to swap different parts from different manufacturers and the ways you move around the map. Borderlands 4’s new traversal options give you a lot to do on the map besides aiming and shooting, and the shooting also looks as good as ever. Of course, we’ll have to wait until one of us actually gets our hands on it before we can make a final judgment, but it looks like one of the stronger points of the fourth game, which is what you’d expect at this point.

A departure from Pandora is also a welcome one. We still have old favorites like Claptrap and Moxxi, but it’s nice to ditch the desert here for some more vibrant environments. The cell-shaded style doesn’t seem as prominent in the look of Borderlands 4, but the game is perhaps the most visually inviting title we’ve seen so far in the series.

There also seems to be a much more grounded atmosphere in Borderlands 4. Instead of chasing the Handsome Jack dragon like the streamer Calypso twins did in Borderlands 3, the new villain controlled an entire planet and kept it hidden from everywhere else for centuries until Lilith threw a moon into his yard. The Timekeeper controls his subjects through their spines and seems to have a lot of menace about him. Nor were we forced to accept the overly loud, outdated humor of Borderlands’ past while playing. It seems incredibly doubtful that the series has now become serious, but if a new approach to comedy has been taken, it would again be a welcome change. Comedy changes, times move on, but Borderlands still seemed very much stuck in its roots, laughing at farts and the word stiff like a ten-year-old would. I’m not asking for nuanced satire or anything like that, but maybe something that feels more funny than stupid would.

What Borderlands 4 needs to do with respect to its story and villain is put the responsibility back on the player. Handsome Jack worked not only because he was well written and had a great voice actor, but also because the player wants to take him down. In Borderlands 3, Lilith enters the stage, with a story that largely feels like it could happen without you. This time, the Vault Hunters need their own reason to take down The Timekeeper, not just because he’s a bad guy who does bad things. That connection makes your villain memorable and helps maintain a central purpose in the story.

With Lilith apparently returning somehow, alongside Samara, there is a slight fear that Sirenes could once again become the main focus, which only gets further when looking at one of the Vault Hunters, Vex. It has never been clearer which of the Vault Hunters is the sign of a Borderlands game than with Vex. Her design seems miles ahead of what the other Vault Hunters are offered, and she exudes an aura that makes me wonder if there was an idea to skip four playable characters and just have Vex in Borderlands 4. It doesn’t help that she was the only character seen in the interludes shown.

Sirens are cool and very interesting in Borderlands lore, but right now it seems like you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t play Vex. Of course, this may change over time, and it will be necessary if Borderlands 4 is to bring the franchise back to its peak. In Borderlands 2, some characters were certainly more interesting than others, and even in the third game each Vault Hunter seemed fairly similar when it came to details, but right now Vex is a favorite child in a group that desperately needs some non-Siren love, especially after Borderlands 3 was all about Sirens.

The gameplay looks good, but the gameplay alone is not enough to bring back the love for Borderlands. I sometimes worry that maybe it was just the product of its time, a perfect storm created in the early 2010s when “random XD” humor was at its peak, but this series can and should do much more with the incredible foundations it has built. We don’t need Handsome Jack, but we do need a story that can engage you in looting and shooting for hours. It stinks to just keep living in the feeling that even Gearbox knows they somehow made an incredible villain and game and don’t know how to do it again, but I believe they do know how to do it. Maybe Borderlands 4 will be the one to bring it back to its former glory. Or maybe it won’t. Either way, unless the other Vault Hunters are going to look a lot cooler, I’m going to fight my friends to play Vex.