Long before Bungie’s Destiny suited up and took players on a looter shooter odyssey across the universe, there was Borderlands from Gearbox Software. A delirious exercise in abundance with more quips, comical eye-winks, enemies, missions and weapons than you could shake a hairy stick at, Gearbox Software’s raucous looter shooter set a new standard for the genre when it debuted all the way back in 2009, and it’s one that the series has been iterating on ever since. Now in the year of our lord 2025, Gearbox Software is back at it again with Borderlands 4, the latest entry in its looter shooter series that aims to level up the genre like never before. Here’s how Borderlands 4 does just that.
A point of pride for the Borderlands franchise has arguably been the sheer amount of loot, weapons and other gear it encourages players to scoop up. With more than a billion (that’s not a typo) weapons in Borderlands 4, it’s clear that developer Gearbox Software wanted to make its fourquel stand out even further in this regard. Longtime fans will no doubt be cheered to discover that many of the series’ usual weapons manufacturers make a return here. This means eager run-and-gunners will encounter gear from the familiar likes of Jakobs, Maliwan, Tediore and more as they blast and tear their way across Borderlands 4’s new planetary setting of Kairos. In addition to a trio of new weapons manufacturers (Daedalus, Ripper and Order) that have made their way onto the scene, Borderlands 4 also makes legendary guns feel more, well, legendary, by making them much more powerful but also far less common to find. Y’know, as it should be.
By far, though, the biggest departure that Borderlands 4 makes from previous entries in the series is the new ‘Licensed Parts’ system. Essentially enabling a modular level of customisation, the Licensed Parts system provides players with the ability to incorporate gun parts from different manufacturers to create all-new firearms in the process, which in turn carry a hybrid of the weapon traits unique to each of those manufacturers into the bargain. Put simply, you aren’t going to run out of guns in Borderlands 4, or indeed the parts to make them.
One of the unsung heroes of the Borderlands series has undoubtedly been the sprawling worlds of every stripe and hue that players were encouraged to blast their way across. In Borderlands 4, it’s certainly fair to say that the game world itself has seen quite the upgrade, because now not only have loading times been almost completely removed as you travel from one zone to another, but so too has the introduction of a new vehicle known as a ‘Digirunner’ made traversal that much more effortless.
A quick word about Kairos, which serves as the game world for Borderlands 4. A mysterious planet that has been hidden in secret for millennia by the Timekeeper, the big bad of Borderlands 4, Kairos is a vast interconnected hub of massively varied areas that dwarfs the maps seen in previous games. From snow-capped mountains to lava-scorched ruins, verdant forests, and all the usual frontier-style towns, shacks, labs, and buildings you’d expect from Borderlands, Kairos is packed with variety. The game encourages players to explore every nook and cranny just as much as it pushes them to mow down throngs of bad guys across its surface.
Of course, there isn’t much point in having such a tantalising expanse as Kairos if you aren’t also going to sufficiently empower the player to fully explore it, and wouldn’t you know that Borderlands 4 has ticked all the bingo boxes on the traversal front too. Not content to allow Borderlands 4 to just be another run and jump looter shooter, Gearbox Software’s latest offering allows players to double-jump, glide, dash, swim and use a grappling hook to reach places and various crevices which would normally be completely inaccessible. To say that Borderlands 4 leaves the series’ previous entries in the dust when it comes to traversal would be putting it mildly.
When it comes to build diversity improvements in Borderlands 4, let’s just acknowledge the excessively large elephant in the room first – Borderlands 4 has more skills for each of its Vault Hunters than those available in Borderlands 2 and Borderlands 3 combined. Woof. Beyond a veritable avalanche of new skills, which in turn greatly expands the possibilities for build customisation in the first instance, one of the key changes that Borderlands 4 brings to progression (and gunplay more broadly) is the implementation of the new Ordnance system.
You see, the new Ordnance system accommodates both grenades and weapons on a shared cooldown. This means that rather than having a finite supply of either grenades or heavy weapon ammo, you just wait for the cooldown to end before unleashing heck with either of the two – allowing you to stay in the fight for longer without having to sweep around the place looking for ammo for each. As you might well expect, some stackable bonuses and buffs can improve the use of Ordnance too, adding yet another layer of depth to Borderlands 4’s progression system in the process.
Finally, supplementing the Ordnance system is the new Enhancements mechanic, which replaces the Artifacts system seen in previous games. In the series’ latest entry, these Enhancements are realised as specific bonuses unique to each weapons manufacturer. This means that in addition to a deep tailoring of your skills and abilities, carefully mixing and matching the right weapons manufacturer is also now a key part of fashioning build synergies as well.
Ask anybody who has ever played a Borderlands game, and they will quite rightly tell you that the whole experience, from top to toe, is best enjoyed with mates. With Borderlands 4, of course, cooperative play in both local and online modes features prominently, but it’s the changes that have been under the hood that Gearbox Software have made here that really raise eyebrows.
The first and arguably biggest change that has been made to cooperative play is the way that loot works. Now entirely instanced, this now means that each player in a coop scenario essentially gets their own loot, rather than having to share it with other players. Elsewhere, Borderlands 4 also introduces the idea of dynamic level scaling, which means that players of vastly different levels can still band together to take on missions and enemies appropriate to their average level, rather than being excluded from cooperative play because one or more players involved do not meet the level requirements to take part. More of this, please, looter shooter developers.
Borderlands 4 isn’t just another sequel; it’s a game that levels up the looter shooter like never before. With an unprecedented variety of weapons and modular gun customisation, the sprawling, fully traversable world of Kairos, and an avalanche of character builds and abilities, Gearbox has taken everything fans love about the series and pushed it to new heights. Cooperative play is smarter and more rewarding than ever, making it perfect for teaming up with friends of any skill level. Whether you’re exploring every nook of the planet, experimenting with over-the-top weapon combos, or tearing through hordes of enemies, Borderlands 4 delivers a chaotic, endlessly fun experience that proves the looter shooter genre still has room to grow – and Gearbox is leading the charge.
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