Borderlands 4 launches on September 12 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Sequence X/S, and PC. Gearbox’s open-world looter-shooter sequel is an enormous sport with loads of quests to finish and loads of endgame content material to take a look at. As such, my evaluate isn’t prepared but. However I’ve performed almost 40 hours to date, and I’ve loved my time. A giant cause why is that Gearbox has made some good modifications 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 an inventory of modifications and enhancements in Borderlands 4 that I believe 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 generally 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 shortly swapping to a gun simpler and sooner than ever!
Mark Loot As Junk When Choosing Up
In Borderlands 4, like in previous video games, you’ll spend loads of time accumulating weapons which are dangerous, or simply not what you need. Previously, you’d need to manually promote every of those. And sure, you may mark them as loot within the stock display screen after which promote them unexpectedly. However now, in Borderlands 4, you possibly can 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 bought at any merchandising machine simply by strolling up and hitting a single button. You don’t even have to enter the shop display screen. It’s so good, and this transformation, 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 have been capable of return to a hub space and activate a “Lost Loot” machine that might spit out a number of the weapons that dropped out on the planet 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 a menu display screen 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 lot of loot and comparable weapons, it’s simple to mark an geared up piece of loot as junk and promote it. This has occurred to me in previous video games. Positive, you may favourite stuff you didn’t wish to promote, which continues to be an possibility in Borderlands 4, however it was at all times bizarre how the video games simply allow you to promote geared up gear so simply. Not so in Borderlands 4! Now you get a pop-up warning when attempting to promote geared up objects marked as junk. Nifty!
Legendary Weapons Are A lot Rarer To Discover, And That’s Good
One of many greatest issues I had with Borderlands 3 was how simply and shortly you discovered legendary weapons and equipment. On a current playthrough, I used to be accumulating and promoting them inside just a few hours of beginning a brand new character. By the tip of the sport, I had discovered nicely over 100. I misplaced depend, 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 almost 40 hours with the sport, I’ve solely collected 7 legendary weapons and objects. And a type of I purchased from a merchandising machine, one thing I’ve solely seen as soon as in my time with the sport. Not like in Borderlands 3, when legendaries drop in Borderlands 4, I get genuinely excited! It’s a uncommon occasion, and most of the objects have been highly effective and memorable.
Customise Your Character Anyplace And Anytime
Previously, in case you wished to place a brand new pores and skin or hat in your Borderlands character, you’d need to discover a particular machine in-game and use it. This was annoying. Now, you possibly can 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 loads 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 achieved through a menu that’s obtainable always. Want extra loot house to gather extra weapons? Effectively, test to see in case you have sufficient SDU credit to improve your stock house, and in that case, do it proper then and there. So handy!
An Non-compulsory Hologram Path That Helps You Go The Proper Method
I spent far an excessive amount of time in previous Borderlands video games operating round attempting to determine methods to get to a particular place or a quest marker. The in-game maps have been useful, however generally you simply need somebody to attract a line from the place you are actually to the place you might want to go. And excellent news: Borderlands 4 does that now! At any level, you possibly can hit a button to get an in-game holographic path exhibiting methods to attain your vacation spot, which generally is 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 once in a while for some immediate therapeutic. No extra searching 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 in varied flavors with all types of bizarre, wacky, and helpful bonuses and passive traits. Truthfully, going again to any previous Borderlands sport goes to be laborious after getting used to repkits.
Spawn Your Automobile Every time You Want It
A giant theme on the subject of the modifications and enhancements made in Borderlands 4 is comfort. And maybe the very best instance of that is the elimination of Catch-A-Journey stations, which beforehand have been the one solution to spawn in a car. Now, each participant has their very own private Digirunner (that are mainly Sparrows from Future), and they’re superior. They transfer shortly, really feel nice to drive, and having 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, allows you to velocity the world over in fashion.
And now, some modifications that aren’t so good…
Menus Really feel Darkish, Finicky, And Eliminated From The Recreation World
One thing I actually cherished in regards to the menus in previous Borderlands video games was how vibrant all of them have been and the way they existed on the planet. While you opened your stock or expertise menu in Borderlands 3, you’d see your character standing on the planet, and the menu can 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, particularly, isn’t nice to navigate when utilizing a controller. This transformation doesn’t wreck Borderlands 4, however it does make me unhappy.
Loading Screens Are Uninteresting
It is a foolish grievance, I’ll admit, however the loading screens in Borderlands 4 are so boring. In previous video games, which have been crammed with loading screens, you’d get these great, colourful posters of the situation you have been loading into at that second. In Borderlands 4, which has far fewer loading screens due to its (principally) seamless open world, the screens simply seem like somebody took idea artwork and tossed the situation’s identify on it. They appear stale, chilly, and drab. Fortunately, stuff hundreds so shortly that you simply received’t have to take a look at them lengthy.
Rewards For Challenges And Quests Are Hidden In Digital Bins
While you full a quest in Borderlands 4 or once you end an in-game problem, you might be rewarded with varied goodies. However these goodies aren’t delivered on to your stock. As a substitute, you need to go into the character menu and open them up. Fortunately, you possibly can open them unexpectedly, however it’s so odd that this method is even within the sport.
Positive, 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 screen and see, like, 10 of those chests ready for me. I’d love an choice to get notified once in a while when I’ve greater than two or three of this stuff ready round to be opened.
