Borderlands 4: Your Questions Answered

Following our recent five-hour hands-on preview of Borderlands 4 (and subsequent Vault and boss fight gameplay commentary), we have gone through and collected all of your questions, all of your best questions from the various comments sections on different platforms and we're going to run through and answer the best of those, the best we can. These are answered by frequent IGN contributor Travis Northup, who wrote our Borderlands 4 preview and whose gameplay and voice is in that Vault and boss fight commentary linked above.

cirescythe asks: Is it a return to form for gearbox...?

Travis Northup: That is obviously the question everyone wants to know the answer to. With this one I think the answer is it remains to be seen, but signs are pretty positive right now. So all the stuff that I played, a lot of focus on the gunplay and mobility and that stuff is really great to see. The refocus on the story with a new planet, new characters, new tone that is reminiscent of Borderlands 1 in my mind I think is probably a good sign for players like myself who were a little turned off by some of Borderlands 3's comedy chops. And so signs certainly point to yes, but as with all these things you never really know until you can play more of it. I don't know that five hours is enough for me to say definitively, but I'm certainly heartened by what I saw.

danieladams5132 asks: Will there be dungeons scattered throughout the open world to explore optionally?

Travis Northup: I think the answer is yes. So I didn't get to explore too much. We were put on the first map and then we went and did one vault. That was basically the extent of the areas we were allowed to explore. But while I was on the first open world hub area, I did a side quest where I was collecting pieces of a vault key to go and do the vault that I was then later put into. And so there are seemingly skippable dungeons you can go to, but I didn't see anything where it's like, "Oh, here's a cave I can wander into that leads to a whole boss fight." I think they are more bespoke and there's probably fewer of them than a Skyrim dungeon where you're running around. It is very much in line with what we've seen in Borderlands in the past where you're doing certain activities. But there was quite a bit to do on the map. Even though there weren't specific dungeons, there were plenty of places I could raid with hidden Loot and because of the new traversal options, you're gliding around the map a lot and hopping into your car instantly, which I think you just saw there in some of the footage, which is really cool to be able to do. It feels more like an open world game despite still very much not being open world.

matthewdavey1462 asks: My biggest question so far is hoping we see a return to Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel's system where Vault Hunters could interact with each other while playing multiplayer.

Travis Northup: We tried out multiplayer at the very end of the demo for about 40 minutes, maybe an hour, and I didn't see any of that where the vault hunters were interacting with each other. The vault hunters talked a little bit during this demo, but per Borderlands tradition, the characters you're playing as are not the main characters in Borderlands and so there wasn't a whole bunch of interaction there. But admittedly I didn't get to see a lot of multiplayer, which is weird. I would say 99% of the Borderlands I have played has been a multiplayer and so it was weird that wasn't the focus of the demo. I'm thinking maybe that's a part that they're still putting together and working on. And so I didn't get to see a ton of that unfortunately.

deviatetaco3757 asks: (at the 6:38 mark of the video preview) Was that a damn podracer?!?

Travis Northup: Yeah. So I think I did look up these timestamps before we started recording. I believe that one is me hopping into my vehicle that you get. So there it is right there. Pod racer. So you can summon your vehicle whenever you want in this game. It's a new feature, you don't have to go to a catch a ride station anymore. And in this case there does seem to be a vehicle skin or form or model that looks a lot like a pod racer. I did not get to play with that exact model. I only got the starter one, but there does seem to be a vehicle that looks an awful lot like a pod racer in the skin, which pretty cool.

TannerHarperReviews asks: (at the 3:27 mark of the video preview) So does that mean that guns no longer have the alt firing modes that we had in BL3? I actually liked that addition to the gunplay.

Travis Northup: Yeah. So I think this commenter was reacting to a comment I made about one of the new gun manufacturers, which I believe is called the order which has an alternate firing mode. You can see that here. The context here is important, which is I was playing in the earliest parts of the game and so I actually don't know how common alt firing modes are in the game in general, but the order's key feature is that their guns specifically have alt firing modes and so I think it is something they're consolidating into a manufacturer, but I probably did not play enough of this game to say that for sure. This gun that you're seeing here is a pistol made by the order and it's alt firing mode is that it can create gravity wells, which was super cool. And so they have alt firing as a feature in this game, but I did not see it on the vast majority of the guns I used. And so that could be different in the end game when you're getting legendaries and doing other stuff like that. But at least with the blues and greens and stuff I was finding for the vast majority of my play through, I did not see a whole lot of alt firing and the ones I did see were exclusively to this gun manufacturer.

98nirki asks: Is there really something new and exciting here to bring new players? It looks and feels more or less the same way for over a decade…

Travis Northup: I think that is a real concern. There's a little bit of a push and pull between fans who want to see a return to form and fans who want the form to be completely different. I think that's a really tough line to walk when you're making a fourth, fifth, sixth game in a franchise, which I believe, although this is Borderlands 4, it's at least the sixth game. They've got spinoffs and all sorts of stuff. I think that's tough.

They very clearly want this to be a Borderlands game and so I think if you straight up do not like Borderlands 1 and 2 specifically, you're probably not going to like this unless your main concerns with those games were. I don't think the gunplay is great because that has been their main focus. They're focusing on gunplay first, some of the RPG mechanics second or probably story second and then the RPG mechanics after that. And so if nothing drew you into the other Borderlands, I don't think that that's going to change here. And I don't think that that's their goal. I think their goal is to say to Borderlands fans, "Hey, we're still improving on the formula that you love, but the formula and the bones of this thing are going to remain largely the same."

It is a problem with pretty much every franchise, right? How do you keep something new while making it the same? You don't want to change it too much otherwise fans will be upset. The sentiment I've heard is give me gunplay from Borderlands 3 with the story and tone and characters of Borderlands 2. I think that they're saying, "Yeah, we want to do that, but we're going to even try to do a lot better than the gunplay in Borderlands 3." Because that has very clearly been a focus, the gunplay is, and I'm sure we'll get to questions about that.

kirawood-e2i asks: I've heard rumour that we're not getting Tiny Tina involved which i think is a shame as Wonderlands was amazing in my opinion. Are there going to be any characters that we actually know of?

Travis Northup: I didn't see any in my time playing with Borderlands and I think that is a very intentional shift. Borderlands has this thing where it relies on a lot of the same characters in every game. This game does have returning characters for sure. We've confirmed that Moxxi is going to be in the game and stuff like that. We've seen that. The demo I played had no characters in common except for I think Claptrap was in it for a little bit or had some voices, but he's basically the mascot of Borderlands. He has to be on it. But aside from that, I didn't have people talking in my ear who were previous characters in Borderlands or anything like that. They're very much moving away from those characters. And I think it speaks to the larger feeling that this is a soft reboot. The NPCs, I was talking to the story, it's on a completely different planet. We are not on Pandora, we're in a different world learning about different characters. It was just a very clean break. So I think Tiny Tina, that rumor that Tina is not in the game is probably true just based on my limited time with it and talking to the developers and hearing them talk about how they wanted a fresh start and to tell the separate story in the separate place so that's just my guess.

momintim asks: I wonder if there will be a hub of sorts?

Travis Northup: So Borderlands 3 definitely had this with the ship that you're on. I didn't see one in this game. My guess is they just didn't want to show it to me, does not mean that it's not in the game. But I didn't see one, so I actually don't know the answer to this question at all. It wasn't something that they talked about.

liamhollands344 asks: Here's a question: Are there still team vehicles? Or are we just gliding around on different kinds of jet bikes?

Travis Northup: I'm not sure if there are team vehicles in this game. The ones I saw were only a single person. Just based on the way you summon them there might not be team vehicles any more unless they're like specific tanks or something like that that I haven't seen. But the reason I don't think that there are team vehicles is because you can do everything from your personal vehicle and you can also summon it wherever you are at any time. So it makes team vehicles irrelevant because the speeder I was on had multiple firing modes. I could shoot missiles, I could shoot a machine gun, it could go really fast. I could get out of it and get in it anywhere I was at any time. And so when you're in that dynamic, I don't really know that you need to load everybody up in the same car anymore. And so I think the answer is probably no. Here I did not see any in this game and signs point toward this possibly being something that they don't have anymore.

Testes-f1i asks: Did you play this on easy?

Travis Northup: I did not get to choose my difficulty. So I actually don't know what game mode I was playing on. These were pre-made files loaded up for us with pre-made builds, and so I didn't get to go through character creation or anything like that. I don't think it was on easy. I don't know. I played these games on the hardest difficulty available to me because I enjoy a challenge. I don't know if there's a question here about the footage. I saw some commenters commenting on my footage and my gameplay not being the greatest. That does happen when you do a demo, it's your first time playing the game. You're given no tutorial. They do not tell you what the build includes or how any of its powers work and you don't have time to read all the menus and abilities because you got to get in there and play the game. And then also you usually have a developer talking in your ear and trying to explain stuff to you while you're playing and you're looking over your shoulder. And so these live demos can be a little challenging and it doesn't always make for the best footage, it's just part of the job unfortunately. I don't think I played it on easy, but I couldn't tell you.

LM0671 asks: One question: When will the graphics engine finally see a major evolution? Episode 5?

Travis Northup: I would say it has. So this is Unreal 5. Perhaps not fully realized in our footage that we captured. Full disclosure, I was not able to in control of the settings. They gave me a rig and they said, "Click this button when you want to capture." So I don't know what its output was, but I can tell you as somebody who has played all of the Borderlands games, like this is the prettiest game. I think the change in engine and the new tools they've got for it are pretty clear. So if that doesn't show up in this video, I think it will when you play it in person. It stuck out to me as being particularly pretty. That said, they're not changing the art style, they're still doing cel-shading. They're still cartoony stuff. And I think that's probably the right move. It needs to look like Borderlands.

mjjenkins8809 asks: Is there an option to play in 3rd person?

Travis Northup: I don't think that there is. I went into third person a few times because you do it when you transition into driving your car or whatever and right here when I'm slashing around with my swords. But I would be really surprised if suddenly Borderlands was no longer primarily FPS. I think that's what they're going for and I don't think there's a third person option.

kingmickey666 asks: What is the humor like? BL3 was childish and BL2 didn't age very well. I like the darker tone, but I hope the humor isn't lost.

Travis Northup: This is a very important question to me as a comedian myself. Humor has always been super important in Borderlands, and I think everybody's got their own opinions about what works and doesn't work. And again, I think it's probably too early to tell, but I will tell you my initial impressions, which are this game has a very, very clear different tone than I would say really any of the Borderlands games. The story is pretty serious. It's probably closest in its tone to Borderlands 1 in that there's a lot going on where there's a planet with this person who's enslaved the entire population, and there's a lot of commentary about that. And so there is a cyberpunk dark sci-fi edge to it. That said, there's still plenty of jokes. All the villain ... There was one boss I fought where he was talking to me about ... I don't know, having his nipples tweaked or something like that. He was one of those bosses who likes pain or whatever and makes it really sexual. And so they went down that path and stuff. I think your mileage may vary. Borderlands has always been potty humor. And so if you were a teenager and you liked Borderlands 2 and now you're older and maybe you don't like that, I would argue that your comedy tastes have changed. And I think that's fine.

I myself am a 30-something who enjoys potty humor, and so if it's done well, I can get behind that. And I think some of the jokes worked and some of them didn't. It certainly was not the same tone as Borderlands 3 and the style of joke was very different. And so I think we're going to need to spend more time with it. But I'll say in my time with it, some of the jokes landed and some of them didn't. I think it was already a step up from Borderlands 3, which is not that high of a bar.

If you've seen Tiny Tina Wonderland, I would say it was around the same consistency as Tiny Tina's Wonderland. But Tiny Tina's Wonderland has a very different vibe to it. It's just a lot more over the top because it's pure fantasy and it's basically just like, oops, all bits. And this wasn't that. They had some bits, they had some sections where there was an ongoing joke, like the boss that was talking to me about how he couldn't wait to be tortured or whatever, but there were also periods where there wasn't that going on and there were serious topics happening, especially in the vault where I was learning about a backstory with a character and there was some story stuff going on. And so I think they're trying to balance it and we'll see how many of ... Like I keep saying, I was heartened by what I saw so far. Probably too early to tell.

RobotJungle asks: Why all the hate?? This looks f*cking awesome and I hated bl3

Travis Northup: My guess is why all the hate is because when you lose the players' confidence, it's hard to gain it back. Players are just ... They are that way. Their loyalty is fleeting. And I think that's probably a good thing because it gives feedback to developers immediately on what they should change. But also I think there's been some stuff that's happened around this game that's not related to the game that has pissed people off. Maybe Randy Pitchford's comments on how much a game should cost and that stuff. And I'm seeing a lot of comments on our preview that are about that, and I don't blame them, but that's separate from the question I'm trying to answer with my previews and my reviews at IGN, which is like, how does the game feel to play, is it worth your time, is it fun et cetera. I'm not going to comment on whether I think various CEO comments are smart things to say or not.

It definitely made me root for them having played the game. I was like, okay, cool. They're not resting on their laurels. They're trying to improve the game. They're very clearly listening to fan feedback and trying to change the direction and so I'm here for it. I like it when games try new stuff and they get sequel fear. I don't think they're doing that with this. I think they are taking chances and they're trying some new stuff and they're trying to keep old stuff that they think worked well, and so they're doing exactly what I would hope a team working on a new Borderlands game would be doing. Whether or not that is successful remains to be seen, but I'm at least more optimistic having played it a bit.

artvandelay123 asks: Will the game have a minimap? FOV sliders?

Travis Northup: The mini-map, I think the answer is no. And we can pull up the footage right now and see it, but I don't remember there being in mini-map. FOV sliders, again, I didn't look in the menu extensively, but I think there were FOV sliders. I was playing on a PC. That function is more common on PCs, so whether that exists on console, I'm not exactly sure. But I did not see a mini-map. The main thing that they use is the compass, and then you can pull up your map pretty quickly. And I was making markers or making a note of which icon I wanted to go toward and then getting in my car or running in that direction basically. But yeah, no mini-map. I think there are FOV sliders, at least on the PC version I was playing.