BORDERLANDS 4 HANDS-ON PREVIEW: LOUD, FAST, AND FINALLY SMOOTH

Claptrap's Back

- Justin Wood

After two hours with Borderlands 4, it's clear Gearbox didn't reinvent the series—they refined it into something dangerously close to its best form.

CGMagazine was invited down to 2K's California offices for a hands-on session with Borderlands 4, where I spent two chaotic, loot-soaked hours shooting and vault diving in what might be the series' most confident entry to date. After, I sat with Creative Director Graeme Timmins to dig into what makes this Borderlands tick, and why this time, it finally feels like the mayhem is working for you, not just happening around you.

Borderlands 4 doesn't waste your time. From the moment I stepped into the latest wasteland of yelling psychos, irradiated warlords, and vending machines powered by sarcasm, it was clear that Gearbox remembered what this series does best—and finally figured out how to make it all feel right with Borderlands 4.

Timmins doubled down on this when talking about how Borderlands 4 has more of a singular focus on location and player experience:

"With Borderlands 4, we wanted to be more ambitious. Elevate all of the player experience, not just the first-person side, but also the RPG side, and how players even just explore the world, and you wanted to really just elevate every part of what it was to be a Borderlands game and how to take it to the next level. I think what we accomplished in Borderlands 1, as far as building a single planet in Pandora, was fantastic. I can still go back to that game, and it feels like we really established a world on that one planet, and I really wanted to redo that with Kairos and really explore a singular place, really build out its history, its lore."