There’s no information or reference to a new Borderlands game from series developers Gearbox Software yet. But while the company is currently focused on a remastered Bulletstorm and online arena FPS Battleborn, fans continue to anticipate the announcement of the next in the original series which mixed FPS with RPG and MMO elements.
Technically it will be the fourth installment in the series after the release of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, but we’ll keep calling it Borderlands 3 for the sake of the timeline until we hear otherwise. And be warned – this article does contain Borderlands 2 spoilers – so be warned!
Borderlands 3 – Expect The Expected:
The first instalment in the Borderlands series began with the choice of four different playable characters. Each had their own abilities and stats which afffected how they played in the game. This aspects of Borderlands has continued and we’d expect a similar choice in Borderlands 3, along with the inevitable addition of further DLC characters after the game has been released.
The looting system is also expected to remain a core part of any Borderlands game. With millions of weapons to find, loot and use, it’s a large part of the experience. Every single weapon comes with a certain element (e.g. electic, corrossion, fire or slag, which makes enemies weaker to other weapons), and a wide range of variables which are generated when the weapon appears in the game. That mix of luck and grinding appeals to the MMO side of Borderlands and has plenty of fans who are keen to compare their weapon stats and abilities.
And it even led to the first game getting into the Guinness Book of World Redords due to more than 17 million different possible funs.
And the third element of continuity is pretty much guaranteed with the graphical style of the game. Borderlands has always stood out with the use of pastel colours and cell-shading to give an iconic look. It makes it instantly identifiable, as well as allowing for plenty of items and enemies to co-exist on screen without the game crawling to a halt. Without the comic-book style graphics, it just wouldn’t be Borderlands, so you’d expect that to continue, including the blood and gore when you dispose of enemies.
Borderlands 3 – Characters and Story:
If you haven’t played Borderlands 2 or didn’t finish it, then we have to warn again that here be spoilers. The iconic characters from the first game (Lilith, Mordecai, Brick and Roland) have made an appearance throughout all three instalments in the Borderlands franchise. And while we don’t know if they’ll return, we can make an educated guess. Especially if the storyline continues from the previous game, which means Roland and Bloodwing (Mordecai’s pet bird) will not be there due to their death in Borderlands 2 from the hands of Handsome Jack, the main villain.
If the characters are brought over, we might see a new part of the planet Pandora or even adventure to another planet (or even planets). What we can probably expect will be some new weapons. Previous titles included sniper rifles, pistols (ranging from revolvers to standard pistols), shotguns, rocket launchers, machine guns and grenades. And Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel introduced laser based weapons, so the potential player arsenal is likely to keep expanding.
One incentive for Gearbox to keep rolling out new weapons is that in addition to the stats and bonus features, there are often some special features specific to certain guns. For example, how about an SMG which causes you to walk very slowly and yells out whenever it fires? Or a machine gun that fires a triple spread shot each time?
But what might the Borderlands characters and new guns be used for? Borderlands 2 ends with you defeating the main villain Handsome Jack and killing the mythical beast known as the Warrior. You finish the game and then proceed to destroy the key that summoned this Warrior to destroy the world, but a hologram is summoned that reveals the locations of hundreds more vaults in the universe. The next game might continue this in a hunt for the rest of the vaults; a search for wealth and fortune.
It’s been almost 5 years since the release of Borderlands 2 in 2012, and two years since The Pre-Sequel appeared. Having bundled the games together in ‘The Handsome Collection’ it’s about time. And Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford did announce that the studio was beginning work on a new title in January 2015 at PAX South. Since then, the creator and franchise director, Matt Armstrong, has left the company, and it was revealed Battleborn’s art director will be working on the new Borderlands game. The author of the first game (and voice of the mechanic, Scooter) will be handling the story, and Creative Director Randy Varnell will apparently be pulling it all together.
And there’s the question of the game engine, as the previous titles have used the Unreal engine.
So what predictions or wish lists do you have for Borderlands 3? Any characters you want to see return? Or any particular weapons you’ve become attached to?
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