Two weeks ago, Gearbox Software lifted the veil on Borderlands 4 and how it will play in comparison to its previous entries. While the game still has its original timeless art style, there are changes that are being made to the gameplay experience. The gunplay looks largely untouched, as does the approach to Action Skills for the new Vault Hunters. But aspects of the gameplay, like the movement and exploration, are getting some weird touch-ups. Here is what you need to know.
New Movement Skills in Borderlands 4
Borderlands 4 is expanding upon the movement changes from the third game. Borderlands 3 added sliding, slamming, and mantling. To follow this up, they are taking a more experimental approach. Where you will be able to climb up walls that allow it, you will be able to double jump and glide in the air as well. But the more interesting addition is the new grappling hook. You will only be able to use it in very specific spots though. Whether it is to elevate yourself above a ledge or fly across enemies while firing at them. In one of the trailers, they also showed you can grab barrels with it and throw them at enemies (which is very cool).
Borderlands 4 is also moving to open-world-esque areas instead of strictly spacious linear locations. There will be seamless exploration in each area, and to help mitigate the slow movement from each location, you will be able to summon a vehicle on demand instead of having to go to dedicated kiosks. This idea is excellent, as in Borderlands 3 and past games, if your vehicle blows up in certain areas, you are stuck walking for unbearable amounts of time.
Heal on Demand and No Mini-Map
Finally, from what has been shown so far, Borderlands 4 is adding a few combat-related changes. For starters, your rocket launchers and grenades will now share a slot instead of being one of your loadout guns. The trade-off with this approach is that they will function on a cooldown, similar to Action Skills. You will also be able to heal yourself with a consumable that either functions on a similar cooldown or will have to be replenished individually. Gearbox did say in the gameplay deep dive that you can mod this consumable to have other effects too.
One of the final changes to the gameplay experience is pretty controversial, however. Seeing as Borderlands 4 is moving to very open areas, having a mini-map would be very helpful. This is due to the fact that having to reopen your menu and scroll over to your map continuously can be annoying. Which begs the question of why this will be the approach to tracking exploration in these new areas. This is due to the fact that the game will be removing the mini-map in favor of a compass system. While it sounds like a minor inconvenience at a glance, if you are in co-op, stopping to open your menu can spell your doom at times if you just need to check where you are at.
But so far, these are all of the noteworthy changes to the gameplay in Borderlands 4. It is set to launch on September 12th for PC via Steam, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, as well as PlayStation 5. There is currently no confirmed price for the game at this time.
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