Borderlands 4 Hurrah! We will deliver the first play report of Bodalan's new work. The new actions are also easy to use!

 

Borderlands 4 is an action RPG scheduled to be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on September 12, 2025. Last month, I participated in a trial event for this game held in Tokyo on a certain day, so I would like to give you a preview of it.

The event was attended by Randy Pitchford, president of developer Gearbox Software, and Andrew Reiner, global creative executive. There were also presentations and Q&A, so I will mix in the details that I learned there. The demonstration was conducted on the PC English version.

The movement action in Borderlands is an element that has been slightly enhanced in the previous game, such as sliding and mantle. However, it is also true that it was quite weak compared to modern FPS.

It's just like "I want this." It's a little strange, but it's so easy to use that I was able to use it without any discomfort even if I wasn't particularly conscious of it, even though it was a new action.

In addition, grappling, which is one of the new actions, has a fixed place where it can be activated, but it can also be used to hunt down enemies on high ground, or it can be used as a throwing object by attracting barrels with attributes placed around it, making it an important gimmick not only for exploration but also for combat.

Grappling can be activated in a specific location, but it can be used not only to move but also to attract certain objects.

On the other hand, as for the new action swimming, we did see that you can swim in the pond, but it's a pity that we didn't encounter any meaningful terrain or scenes in the range we played. Swimming is a demon that sometimes doesn't work very well in FPS and 3D action games, but I hope that the full version will have a good and effective turn.

Second Focus: Designing a More Open and Seamless World

Combined with the evolution of movement actions is the change in world design in this game. While it's not a full open-world game, the map itself has been expanded to make it more open and seamless.

And the surrounding systems have been properly improved accordingly. For example, a vehicle can be called up arbitrarily as long as it is not in a very strange place, and a function called "echolocation" can be used to navigate to the checkpoint of the quest.

After the quest is over, you don't have to check "Where did you leave it?"

In addition, along the way, the location of quest items and the area itself with enemies that must be defeated are indicated as "area waypoints" surrounded by translucent walls.

If you're a player of the series, I'm sure there have been a few times when you've had your brain whirlwind from shooting, or you've found yourself picking up items after a battle and don't know which way to go. The point is that it will be gone.

The walls of the area waypoints are markers of the way to key points.

Not only that, but various elements of play (so-called activities in open-world games) are also sprinkled throughout the field.

There is also a bulletin board where you can receive bounty quest requests (subjugation missions like "Temporary Objectives" in 3) at the base location, and there are small collection elements in various places in the field, so I felt that you can enjoy the world of the open field properly even if you are not following the quest.

This time, the map was quite limited in scope because it was a preview, but I think you can see that the structure is more like an open-world game than before.

Details revealed during the event: Some areas are comparable to a few traditional planet maps?

According to the development, some of the areas are as large as several planet maps from previous games. Not only that, but for example, there are caves stretched out inside the mountains, and it seems to be quite elaborate.

By the way, speaking of Borderlands, one of the features is the gags scattered around the capture route and the cutscenes with the appearance of mini-bosses. The fact that it has been made possible to take a more open approach means that there is a possibility that such material will be passed through. Is that okay?

When I asked him about this point, he said that he came to the idea that "even if there are elements that only some people can discover, that's okay." It seems that they are preparing small rewards and stories for rare places that can only be reached by making full use of the movement action, so if you find a place that says, "Isn't this possible?"

Get one of the Collectible Elements (Vault Mark) near the first base. These things are also placed in small places on the map.

Third highlight: Of course, the combat system has also evolved

Shoot enemies that come out with powerful guns to reduce your health bar, and sometimes use special action skills to kill them from one end to the other to get even more powerful guns...... The fundamental enjoyment of Borderlands remains the same.

But on the other hand, the combat system has been leveraged. One of them is that recovery (using repair kits) has become voluntary.

In the past, in addition to healing with skills, I was able to recover by picking up "instant life recovery potions" dropped by enemies, but the form of this game is easy to understand for me personally so far, because if you pick up a repair kit for the time being, all you have to do is simply worry about "when to recover".

Another interesting change is the reorganization of weapon slots. Heavy weapons such as rocket launchers and throwing objects such as grenades and throwing knives are merged into a category called "ordnance" and are treated separately from regular gun slots.

Ordnance has the following specifications, and it seems that the behavior differs depending on the type. I'm wondering if it's possible to build a grenade like the one in the past game.

• From the time the rocket launcher is switched to a normal weapon, there is a cooldown time depending on the number of bullets remaining. In addition, the remaining ammunition is restored according to the time
• The throwing system does not have a cooldown time for its use, but the remaining ammo is restored over time

The left side of the icon at the bottom of the screen is for action skills, and the right is for ordnance.

Around the combat, I was curious to see that enemies with multiple health bars such as "red, blue, red" (health → shield → health) appeared early on from the beginning of this playthrough. Before you can push it with firepower, you might want to secure a Mariwan gun that is strong against elemental attacks.

I was shooting with it relatively green, but I later regretted that I should have switched to shock damage (blue).

Details revealed at the event: "Authorized parts" with great potential

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to check out much of the new elements around the build, such as the "Enhancement Parts" (equipment that boosts weapons from a specific manufacturer), the "Authorized Parts" (a system that mixes parts with the characteristics of other manufacturers), and the skill tree, which are new elements in Bodalan 4.

However, based on the answers in the joint Q&A, it seems that the authorized parts will be a very important factor. In fact, the idea of a system that mixes the characteristics of each manufacturer has been around since the first Borderlands.

As an analogy, based on the Teedior gun, which becomes a self-propelled turret when the magazine is thrown, the Hyperion's scope gives the turret a shield, the Mariwan's barrel adds a flame element, and the magazine is from the new manufacturer Deidaros, so you can use multiple bullet types...... Or a Tee Dior submachine gun that also has a self-propelled turret with a magazine, but it ricochets on critical like Jacobs...... Examples such as these were told. It's certainly chaotic and bodalan-like!

In response to a different story, "In the previous game, it felt good to shoot Jacobs' shotgun, but the performance of the Legendary was subtle," he seemed to see the possibility of combining authorized and enhanced parts.

I also got a purple epic weapon while playing, but that wasn't enough. I want to dig Legendary.

By the way, I think that some people are concerned about the miscellaneous feelings of the new characters who were not able to measure their true value in the limited time, so I will write about it.

• Rafa, a soldier wearing a reinforced exoskeleton, has three action skills: "Arc-Knives", "Apophis Lance", and "Peacebreaker Cannons".
• When activated, it takes a third-person view, and Arc-Knives, which slashes with the blades of both arms, is tense but tends to be somewhat vulnerable
• The Peacebreaker Cannons, which fire cannons on both shoulders, automatically fire at enemies in the crosshairs, so it may be easy to increase the level of firepower
• The Siren Vex has three skills: Dead Ringer, Phase Phamiliar, and Incarnate.
• Both Dead Ringer and Phase Phenomenon are summon-type moves. The former has a "Reaper" that provokes enemies, and the latter has a technique that teleports to the "trouble" of the summoned familiar, so it may be good for solo play
• Incarnate is a phased ability that causes an explosion with a healing effect, and you can also unleash a move called Eldritch Blast.
• There are no phase-lock/phase-grasp moves from past games, and the enemy's capture-type moves are the abilities of another character, Harlow.

Vex's Dead Ringer can summon up to three alter egos.

Story: A volt hunter strikes into a chaotic civil war between a vicious ruler and the populace

The game is set on the planet Kairos. The existence of this planet has been hidden from the outside world by the ruler "Timekeeper", and people have been monitored through "bolts" implanted in their heads.

However, after thousands of years of rule, an unexpected change appears. In the ending of Borderlands 3, the planet Elpis, which Lilith was determined to kill and stopped destruction, collides with the veil above Kairos and destroys it. Its existence has finally been discovered in the outside world.

And the psycho mask that fell from the sky triggered the appearance of people who pull out the bolt and gain freedom. Thus, Kairos plunges into chaos in a state of civil war between the "Rippers" and the "Order", an army of timekeepers who want to free themselves from the timekeepers.

In the midst of all this, the Vault Hunters have arrived, hoping to get rich quick...... That's the synopsis.

Details revealed at the event: Who will be the local faction or the Order?

According to Mr. Pitchford, the theme of this work is the confrontation between freedom (chaos in the ultimate system) and order (totalitarianism in the ultimate system).

As a kind of third force that intervenes, the player can support either faction or switch along the way. However, he explained that it was just a storytelling gimmick, and that it was not like Helldivers 2, where the entire game world was influenced by the player's choices.

By coincidence, the psycho mask becomes a symbol of liberation from domination.

On the other hand, regarding the point of "Is it necessary to play the old work?", Although the old game characters also appear, it is said that it is made with consideration so that even if you do not have knowledge of the previous game, you can enter from the story of Kairos.

Summary: The bass is a nice touch. I want to do more for the time being.

That's why this time I delivered the play report of the early part, but I certainly felt that the foundational parts of this game, such as the movement action, have evolved. However, in other words, it may be said that it has become like a modern modern game for the time being.

However, the "Bodalan ness" lies in the hunt and build of legendary equipment, the silly interactions between localized characters, and the bosses that are crazy, and those are the parts that I can't judge this time, and after playing for a long time, I can't judge them.

So this time, I'm going to confirm that the feeling of playing in the early game is good, and then look forward to more information.

The game is already available for pre-order for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC versions. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is also scheduled to be released separately by the end of 2025.