I'm pleasantly surprised.
I love a looter shooter, and was quite excited for Borderlands before being turned off by its humour. Destiny ended up being the genre leader that connected with me, a balance of shooting mechanics, teamwork, and story that had me engaged for the better part of a decade.
Things ebb and flow; I’m no longer able to keep up with Destiny, and my Raid team has long since disbanded — partially because some of our truly sweaty types decided to call out my less-active husband for not committing his entire body and soul into efforts. Things are looking up, though, as after three-hours of hands-on time with Borderlands 4, it looks to be able to fill the looter shooter void in my life that’s been present for years.
Our hands-on experience was split into two main groupings: exploration as either new protagonists Vex the Siren or Rafa the Exo-Soldier inside an area known as the Fadefields, followed by a Vault and corresponding boss battle using either character. While there was the option to play in co-op, I declined as I didn’t a chance to finish a side mission with Claptrap and I wanted to get that in. You can check out my interview with Randy Pitchford as to why I made that decision.
I chose to play as Vex for one reason, and one reason only: her spectral feline familiar, aptly named Trouble. Trouble is the best boy, very willing to receive pets (and getting a health boost when you do so), and equally as willing to be buffed up into a larger kitty with the designation Big Trouble. I fed as many skill points as I could earn into Trouble, and found one skill that let me command him to explode and deal area of effect damage to opponents to be incredibly helpful.
As much as I adored Trouble, my later jaunt into a Vault had me use a different skill tree. That swapped out Trouble for one of two other familiars named Reaper and Specter. While I found Trouble useful because I could direct him and cause damage, the Reaper especially had a mind of his own and was helpful because I could set him loose and leave him to his own mayhem. And just a side note here: while you can check out my Fadefields gameplay above and below, my Vault gameplay footage is still under embargo. We’ll publish that as soon as we’re able.
If you’re familiar with Borderlands, you may hold grenades as items near and dear to your heart; they’re valuable, especially against bigger bosses or challenges, and extremely finite. Not anymore. Grenades, heavy weapons, and throwing knives now sit in an ordinance slot, which recharges on a cooldown. I tended to favour throwing knives over any other type of ordinance. I enjoyed satisfying headshots in Fadefields, and in the Vault truly delighted in a rare set of knives that created a mini black hole that drew anything nearby into its centre. Gather, pick off, repeat.
Two videos in and I haven’t even touched upon the actual shooting yet. Things felt fluid, though playing with a controller I really had to wrestle with default settings to move away from a chest shot to elevate my aim up to an opponent’s head. Weapons themselves are varied and plentiful; you’ll absolutely connect with some and immediately want to throw others away. There’s enough loot being thrown at you to keep with that mentality; thankfully, I didn’t feel like I was drowning in new gear at any point. No one wants to have to stop every three steps and go through some maths to check how their min-maxing is going.
Fadefields itself was a large enough open-world area without being overly large and sparce. I played through enough missions to unlock Borderlands 4‘s version of a Destiny Sparrow — one that can be summoned from anywhere as opposed to a dedicated vehicle station — but never found the need to actually use it. I was having far more fun with a new double jump and glide that allowed me to traverse through the area with ease.
That new double jump also provides more opportunities for verticality within Borderlands 4 itself — and truthfully, I had to remind myself of that after spending far too long running around looking for a ladder or a set of stairs to get up to an objective far higher than I was. Why bother doing that when you can chain some clever jumps and make use of makeshift ledges?
While I was finding Fadefields a breeze, I stumbled onto a World Event during the Claptrap mission that meant I put aside my quest to investigate Borderlands 4‘s humour in exchange for having my ass handed to me. Playing solo, I was tasked to infiltrate four different enemy dropships, not only destroying as much as I could inside them, but also to waves of enemies being dropped into the world. It was invigorating.
Soo too was gameplay inside the Vault, where I was again tasked to fell wave after wave of enemies before being permitted to head further into the environment. Enemies here were just a small taste of what to expect inside the Vault’s heart, as a challenging boss truly stomped me. It’s here that I can see the tremendous value in playing in co-op mode with a friend.
My biggest takeaway from the preview was that Borderlands 4 wasn’t what I was expecting. Instead of solid looter shooter mechanics constantly tarnished by irritation, everything is polished and right up my alley. Borderlands has grown up.
Expect Borderlands 4 from 12 September on Windows PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, alongside Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PS5.
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Borderlands 412 September 2025 (Switch 2 TBD)PC PS5 Switch 2 Xbox Series S & X
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