Borderlands 4 launches on September 12 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Collection X/S, and PC. Gearbox’s open-world looter-shooter sequel is an enormous sport with a variety of quests to finish and loads of endgame content material to take a look at. As such, my overview isn’t prepared but. However I’ve performed practically 40 hours up to now, and I’ve loved my time. An enormous purpose why is that Gearbox has made some sensible adjustments in Borderlands 4 that make it simpler than ever to handle, promote, and accumulate loot and get around the globe.
As an enormous Borderlands fan who has performed the entire video games a number of occasions, I’ve cataloged a listing of adjustments and enhancements in Borderlands 4 that I feel each longtime followers and newcomers alike are going to be enthusiastic about.
Lastly, A Weapon Wheel
For a lot of, a few years now, Borderlands followers, myself included, have longed for the franchise so as to add an actual weapon wheel possibility. Previous video games have typically allowed you to make use of the d-pad on a controller to hot-swap between 4 weapons, which is okay, I assume. However a real weapon wheel hasn’t been an possibility till now. Borderlands 4 lastly provides an actual, honest-to-goodness weapon wheel, and it’s so good. It makes rapidly swapping to a gun simpler and sooner than ever!
Mark Loot As Junk When Selecting Up
In Borderlands 4, like in previous video games, you’ll spend a variety of time accumulating weapons which might be dangerous, or simply not what you need. Up to now, you’d should manually promote every of those. And sure, you would mark them as loot within the stock display after which promote them all of sudden. However now, in Borderlands 4, you’ll be able to junk loot as you decide it up. This ties into one other nice change…
Immediately Promote Junk At Merchandising Machines
All that loot you mark as junk can now be offered at any merchandising machine simply by strolling up and hitting a single button. You don’t even have to enter the shop display. It’s so good, and this variation, in addition to the final one, has helped preserve my stock principally empty and prepared for extra loot.
The Misplaced Loot Menu Is So A lot Higher
Talking of loot, in some previous Borderlands video games, gamers had been in a position to return to a hub space and activate a “Misplaced Loot” machine that will spit out a few of the weapons that dropped out on the earth that the participant didn’t decide up. This wasn’t a really environment friendly solution to deal with the method and made utilizing the Misplaced Loot possibility annoying. In Borderlands 4, that is now dealt with by way of a menu display that permits you to simply trash stuff you don’t need and take stuff you do need. And you may hit a button to take all of it with out having to seize every merchandise off the ground.
A Warning When Promoting Geared up Gear And Weapons
Generally, when coping with a number of loot and comparable weapons, it’s simple to mark an outfitted piece of loot as junk and promote it. This has occurred to me in previous video games. Certain, you would favourite stuff you didn’t wish to promote, which remains to be an possibility in Borderlands 4, nevertheless it was at all times bizarre how the video games simply allow you to promote outfitted gear so simply. Not so in Borderlands 4! Now you get a pop-up warning when attempting to promote outfitted objects marked as junk. Nifty!
Legendary Weapons Are A lot Rarer To Discover, And That’s Good
One of many largest issues I had with Borderlands 3 was how simply and rapidly you discovered legendary weapons and kit. On a latest playthrough, I used to be accumulating and promoting them inside a couple of hours of beginning a brand new character. By the top of the sport, I had discovered effectively over 100. I misplaced rely, actually. This made them really feel much less particular and made non-legendary purple gear much less thrilling to gather as a result of higher stuff was dropping on a regular basis.
Fortunately, this isn’t the case in Borderlands 4. After practically 40 hours with the sport, I’ve solely collected 7 legendary weapons and objects. And a kind of I purchased from a merchandising machine, one thing I’ve solely seen as soon as in my time with the sport. In contrast to in Borderlands 3, when legendaries drop in Borderlands 4, I get genuinely excited! It’s a uncommon occasion, and lots of the objects have been highly effective and memorable.
Customise Your Character Wherever And Anytime
Up to now, in the event you wished to place a brand new pores and skin or hat in your Borderlands character, you’d should discover a particular machine in-game and use it. This was annoying. Now, you’ll be able to simply open up the customization menu everytime you need and freely change your character’s appears.
Upgrading Your Stock And Ammo Capability Isn’t A Boring Cash Grind
Borderlands 4‘s huge open world has a variety of locations to discover, issues to do, objects to gather, and actions to finish. And this time round, Gearbox has determined to tie the open world to upgrading your character. As a substitute of grinding for cash after which going to an in-game retailer to purchase SDU upgrades, which allow you to carry extra stuff and ammo, you now earn SDU credit by exploring and finishing actions. And that is all performed through a menu that’s obtainable always. Want extra loot area to gather extra weapons? Properly, test to see in case you have sufficient SDU credit to improve your stock area, and if that’s the case, do it proper then and there. So handy!
An Non-obligatory Hologram Path That Helps You Go The Proper Method
I spent far an excessive amount of time in previous Borderlands video games working round attempting to determine how one can get to a selected place or a quest marker. The in-game maps have been useful, however typically you simply need somebody to attract a line from the place you at the moment are to the place it’s essential go. And excellent news: Borderlands 4 does that now! At any level, you’ll be able to hit a button to get an in-game holographic path displaying how one can attain your vacation spot, which is usually a quest or only a random level you marked on the map.
Repkits Supply Therapeutic When You Want It Most
A brand new piece of loot launched in Borderlands 4 are repkits. These are small medical units that gamers can activate every now and then for some prompt therapeutic. No extra looking down well being drops throughout tough boss fights or huge skirmishes. These tiny bits of therapeutic nonetheless drop and are nonetheless helpful, however having a well being gun at your aspect is nice. And as with all loot in Borderlands, repkits are available varied flavors with all types of bizarre, wacky, and helpful bonuses and passive traits. Actually, going again to any previous Borderlands sport goes to be exhausting after getting used to repkits.
Spawn Your Automobile Every time You Want It
An enormous theme relating to the adjustments and enhancements made in Borderlands 4 is comfort. And maybe the perfect instance of that is the removing of Catch-A-Journey stations, which beforehand had been the one solution to spawn in a automobile. Now, each participant has their very own private Digirunner (that are principally Sparrows from Future), and they’re superior. They transfer rapidly, really feel nice to drive, and with the ability to name one in everytime you need is so useful. Plus, combining Digirunners with the brand new motion controls, like double leaping and gliding, permits you to pace the world over in type.
And now, some adjustments that aren’t so good…
Menus Really feel Darkish, Finicky, And Eliminated From The Recreation World
One thing I actually beloved concerning the menus in previous Borderlands video games was how vibrant all of them had been and the way they existed on the earth. Once you opened your stock or expertise menu in Borderlands 3, you’d see your character standing on the earth, and the menu could be hovering subsequent to and behind them. That’s gone in Borderlands 4. As a substitute, all of the menus and stock screens exist in darkish voids that really feel disconnected from the world. And a few of these menus are tough to make use of or really feel overly cluttered. The stock, specifically, isn’t nice to navigate when utilizing a controller. This variation doesn’t destroy Borderlands 4, nevertheless it does make me unhappy.
Loading Screens Are Uninteresting
This can be a foolish grievance, I’ll admit, however the loading screens in Borderlands 4 are so boring. In previous video games, which had been crammed with loading screens, you’d get these fantastic, colourful posters of the situation you had been loading into at that second. In Borderlands 4, which has far fewer loading screens because of its (principally) seamless open world, the screens simply appear like somebody took idea artwork and tossed the situation’s title on it. They appear stale, chilly, and drab. Fortunately, stuff hundreds so rapidly that you simply received’t have to have a look at them lengthy.
Rewards For Challenges And Quests Are Hidden In Digital Bins
Once you full a quest in Borderlands 4 or if you end an in-game problem, you’re rewarded with varied goodies. However these goodies aren’t delivered on to your stock. As a substitute, it’s important to go into the character menu and open them up. Fortunately, you’ll be able to open them all of sudden, nevertheless it’s so odd that this technique is even within the sport.
Certain, it’s good that weapons or loot you earn from a quest aren’t dropped proper in your restricted stock. However it’s annoying that beauty objects are additionally locked in these chests. The sport additionally does a horrible job of reminding you to test in your rewards. Generally I’d open my character display and see, like, 10 of those chests ready for me. I’d love an choice to get notified every now and then when I’ve greater than two or three of these items ready round to be opened.
