Last night, Gearbox revealed the first bunch of gameplay from their impending looty, shooty Borderlands 3. In a live stream, we got to see an extended look at a couple of missions, a bit of background on the story and a look at the game’s hub world.
The demo started with – of course – Claptrap giving new vault hunter Amara an echo device and a starting mission. That little robot’s always been annoying, but it seems that Gearbox has dialled that up a little more. In the demo, we learn that a new cult calling themselves the Children of the Vault are causing trouble on Pandora, kicking off a series of missions that have the player looking into the cult and its leaders.
It very definitely looks like Borderlands, and that’s not a bad thing. There are changes though, and players are now able to slide while running, as well as climb ledges to reach higher surfaces because this is 2019. While it aesthetically looks just like a bigger, better Borderlands, there are a lot of other changes to the way that guns work, with many guns able to switch between different elements and firing modes.
In Borderlands 3, your base is a spaceship and you’ll travel to plants including Pandora, Prometheus and more, and the new variation in levels is a nice addition. Gearbox says you’ll be able to use your ship to “discover new worlds beyond Pandora, each featuring unique environments to explore and enemies to destroy.”
As expected, the game features 4-player co-op, but you won’t be competing for loot (unless you want to). Each player gets their own loot, which means you won’t have to contend with greedy players picking everything up. There’s also a system to let differently-levelled players play together without the power deficit making things to challenging. As with instanced loot, this new level scaling system can be turned off if you wish.
If you don’t have time for watching that whole stream, there’s a highlights package gameplay reveal trailer instead.
I was very worried that Gearbox would somehow manage to mess Borderlands up – especially given the way the industry is going and how extraneously monetised games are in the year 2019, but it looks like those fears were unfounded.
Borderlands is out on PC (as an Epic exclusive), PS4 and Xbox One on September 13 this year.
Last Updated: May 2, 2019
Geoffrey Tim
May 2, 2019 at 08:52
I’m IN
G8crasha
May 2, 2019 at 09:09
It was okay for me. Admittedly, I love the idea of being able to visit numerous other worlds (although I do wonder how many ‘other’ worlds they speak of), and it’s pretty much Borderlands through and through. I guess this game has features reminiscent of an expected sequel. Nothing game changing, but you get everything you’d expects from a Borderlands title, plus more to make it feel fresh. P.S.: I love the guns that walk around and bounce round like a bouncing betty.
Hammersteyn
May 2, 2019 at 09:54
As long as it has more guns than a Mr. Universe pageant I’m in.
Jacques Van Zyl
May 2, 2019 at 11:08
Already feel like I’ll need to put in a week’s leave for this.
Pieter Kruger
May 2, 2019 at 11:24
Looks very nice, any news about what resolution 60fps mode will be on XB1X?
Matthew Holliday
May 2, 2019 at 09:45
DIdnt watch much of the stream, but what I did see looked legit.
The Echocast thing was also pretty cool.