Borderlands 4 promises ‘more grounded tone’ along with full crossplay in return to series roots

The daddy of the looter shooter genre is back in Borderlands 4, which is “hands down our best Borderlands ever,” according to Gearbox Software in a new State of Play today.

Two of the four new Vault Hunters in the game were revealed during today’s presentation, including the new Siren named Vex who can summon a big pet cat to wreck enemies, and an ex-Tediore soldier named Rafa, who wields an experimental exosuit to really pop off with wild abilities like dual scythes.

But there’s plenty of returning characters, too, such as Moxxi, Claptrap, Amara, and many others, like the assumed-dead Lilith, who the hunters seem to be looking for in the new world of Kairos. And the new world will have a “more grounded” tone, meaning less of the poop and fart jokes that seemingly took over Borderlands 3. Yes, it appears Gearbox was listening to feedback on that.

The new Vault Hunters have new movement abilities regardless of class including gliding, climbing, and better overall traversal to deal with other new features like dynamic weather and wildlife that attack in flocks while you traverse the world looking for the best, weirdest guns.

The gameplay also teased a new “gameplay experience” called a Silo, which are active events that don’t require mission pick-ups and can be triggered immediately in the game world. Finishing Silos can give hints like locations of Vault Fragments and access to dungeons. Taking a page out of Destiny 2’s book (after Destiny took many pages from Borderlands), there’s also a player vehicle that Vault Hunters can pull out at any time. Say goodbye to Catch-A-Ride?

But what about the weapons? Yup, there’s a lot. Jakobs, Maliwan, Vladof, Tediore, and Torgue are all back, but new gun manufacturers are being introduced as well, called Order, Ripper, and Daedalus. But the RNG has never been wilder, as weapons can spawn with different parts from different manufacturers, creating a seemingly endless possibility of weapons to earn.

Vault Hunter builds are also looking deeper than ever, with differing skill trees, traits, passive abilities, and a whole lot more to customize the experience for different players and characters. And grinding weapons and loot with those Vault Hunters has never been easier with the addition of the ability to replay bosses and missions. Whew.

Borderlands 4, which will be a PS5 Pro Enhanced title, drops later this year on Sept. 12. Check out the full gameplay deep dive above and get ready to loot and shoot.