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Your support makes all the difference.The king of the looter-shooter genre, Borderlands 3 releases next month, and we were given the opportunity to play a brand-new demo build of the game.
For those unfamiliar with the Borderlands series, it's a hectic first-person-shooter game with a startling number of guns and loot. Mix in some timeless cell-shaded graphics and no small measure of charming characters, and you’ve got Borderlands in a nutshell.
The game starts with the most Borderlands-esque prologue in the series, witty and thrilling. After that, we were able to explore an entirely new world, mindlessly shoot new guns, double up in some co-op gameplay and play as the fourth and final vault hunter added to the roster – FL4K.
Playing this recent build, it’s plain to see Borderlands 3 is continuing to do what it does best, just in a much more concise fashion. The prologue, for instance, never felt tedious like in past games with their ludicrous amounts of backtracking and fetch quests.
It was far too easy to get burnt out in the first two main Borderlands games because of the uninspiring tasks of running from A to B to C just to return to a previous area again later. Not to say this isn’t still in the game, but the side quests now seem to have an actual point which feels like they flow naturally from area to area, doing wonders for the overall pacing of the game.
While the prologue is set on Pandora, the main world from the first two games, there's no indulgence in nostalgia. You quickly become used to your surroundings which blend into one featureless desert and scenery. Everything is the same as we've seen before: a Mad Max-style wasteland. But perhaps it’s meant to be like that to set you up for when you leave Pandora at the end of the prologue and for the first time see new planets.
After playing through the entire prologue as new character FL4K, we got to jump into some co-op gameplay as any of the four vault hunters, which to us will always show what Borderlands is at its very best.
We took a look at all four character’s skill trees which are positively bursting with customisation options to suit multiple play styles, expanding massively on the skill trees of the old games. Better yet, you can change your character’s powerful main ability on the fly which means you’re not locked into just one style.
The character roster features the typical role setup from past Borderlands games. Each has their own unique class ability – in 3, you've got Amara (Siren), a bonafide badass who can use devastating magic; Zane (Operative) can clone himself; Moze (Gunner) jumps into a giant mech with miniguns and finally FL4K (Beastmaster) is a bloodthirsty robot who brings one of their three monster pets into battle.
While the co-op does feel the same as it always has, there have been some refinements and quality of life changes to how you and your friends can experience the game. With a brand new, albeit rudimentary, ping system you can alert your allies to weapons, ammo and big bad enemies to focus down first, all of which add an excellent level of communication between players.
Another new feature which we experienced is instanced loot. Each character playing in the same game have the same amount of loot dropped from enemies and treasure chests, but it will be entirely different and individual to what another player will get.
If you want to trade, just drop the gun you picked up and ping it for your friends. The instanced loot system was brought into outright stop ‘loot gremlins’, which as you might imagine from the moniker refers to people who can’t help but loot everything that isn’t nailed down, essentially stealing it from other players who aren’t around.
The final addition to multiplayer so far is the level scaling for each player. If you’ve got more time to play than some of your friends and you become over-levelled, you can still join your friends regardless. But instead of being able to carry the lower level person, you’ll see enemies that are your level to balance the game. The same will happen with loot, for example a level 21 character will find guns around their level while their co-op partner(s) will see loot around theirs.
The variety in Borderlands 3 is looking to be one of the most interesting features of this new entry, and it’s not just the seemingly endless supply of guns we’re referring to.
Not only are there myriad different worlds, all of which we’ve seen so far are markedly different from each other, but with new worlds comes new monsters to unload your guns at. Eden-6 for example, is a swampland of a planet covered by lush greenery and stagnant waters, dotted with occasional settlements and the rusted hulks of crashed spaceships.
With new planets comes new life. You’ll encounter gorgeously expressive dinosaurs and some sort of monkey-lion hybrid you’d expect to find on the Island of Dr Moreau, and it all fits effortlessly into the whole Borderlands aesthetic.
So far four planets have been revealed. It suggests the trademark charm and style of Borderlands, with its creativity and writing will continue to impress as we visit new worlds and all they have to offer.
When all is said and done, Borderlands is the original looter-shooter game. Its co-operative capabilities – local split-screen and all – have always been the best in class in this genre. With just a month left to wait, Borderlands 3 is sure to be one heck of a ride.
Borderlands 3 is out on PS4, Xbox One and PC on 13 September
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