Toilet humor, open-worlds, and “billions” of weapons: Borderlands 4 is pushing the looter-shooter series further than ever before

16 years, four mainline games, and a decent handful of spinoffs later, you might imagine that Borderlands 4 has little room left to innovate. According to Anthony Nicholson, senior project producer, however, that couldn’t be further from the truth – speaking to GamesRadar+, he explains that Borderlands 4 promises to be a bigger, more bombastic Borderlands game than ever.

That might raise alarm bells for some, both within Gearbox and without. The Borderlands series has always used crass humor to its advantage, but there seems to be a desire to move away from the worst excesses of its toilet humor – after Borderlands 4’s showing at The Game Awards last month, narrative director Sam Winkler said ‘skibidi toilet’ and ‘hawk tuah’ references weren’t the kind of thing he wanted the game to feature.

While Gearbox isn’t looking to scrape the lowest depths of the brainrot comedy barrel, it’s not planning to deviate too far from classic Borderlands tone. Nicholson promises that Borderlands 4 will “retain the fun and sometimes over-the-top writing players expect from us that makes us so unique.” If you’re wondering how that relates to the rest of the series, Nicholson says that while the tone is likely to evolve as the game does, Gearbox has been aiming for somewhere between the original game “and the humor and comedic opportunities we explored in Borderlands 2.”

Borderlands 4’s new setting – the planet of Kairos – “is a world where the outlook is bleach, the stakes are real, and the characters treat them as such,” says Nicholson, immediately distancing this new game with the fairytale, tabletop stylings of recent spin-off Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. But for the (slightly) more serious way in which Gearbox is approaching Borderlands 4, it still won’t be “without the zaniness, oddity, and mayhem that makes a Borderlands game a Borderlands game.”

Gear(box) up

Toilet humor isn’t the only thing that makes a Borderlands game, of course, and Nicholson explains that loot fiends and build optimizers might be better catered to than ever. While he wouldn’t reveal whether Borderlands 4 will offer the loot rarity rework that many die-hard fans think is long overdue, he did note that the fourquel “will feature billions of weapons and accessories for players to acquire.” That suggests that the team has stepped up from the billion weapons it professed to have included in Borderlands 3 and Wonderlands, and that’s not all – Nicholson also promises “the deepest and diverse skill trees of any Borderlands title yet,” as Gearbox attempts to give players “an unprecedented level of expression.”

All that’s part of what he claims is “a significant next step in the evolution of the genre.” Nicholson says Gearbox is holding fast to the idea that Borderlands is the first looter shooter, but claims that Borderlands 4 will give players “more freedom to loot and shoot than they’ve ever had before.” There’s still a lot more information to come on that front ahead of launch, but it’s interesting to see that the studio is pointing to the series’ origin, even as it works on something of a new format for the games.

The Pandora Opens

I say something of a new format, because it’s still not entirely clear how much of Borderlands 4 is an open world. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford recently attempted to clarify that while he wouldn’t say that Borderlands 4 was an open-world game, it is “the most open and free” game in the series, with much more room for exploration than previous entries in the series.

When we asked Nicholson to expand on that, we got a slightly closer idea of what Gearbox is trying to achieve. “Borderlands 4 does have some open-world-like features,” he says. You’ll find “seamless travel between zones,” for instance, and more dynamic, discoverable side missions and events. Add in new traversal systems, and the world does start to open up. That said, Nicholson points out that “we did not set out with the intent to create an ‘open world game’ in the traditional use of that term.” The Borderlands games have always had large zones to explore, and those will be back in Borderlands 4. Now, however, they’ll be more closely integrated with one another, and with no map loads, players will be getting a more seamless experience.

There’s still a lot to learn about Borderlands 4, and Gearbox seems like it’s got an interesting balancing act on its hands. A clear desire not to stagnate into the series’ baser elements and to push the technology onwards doesn’t always knit neatly with a need to ensure that Borderlands 4 remains a Borderlands game, with all the zaniness and toilet humor that entails. Bigger and bolder, certainly, but more Borderlands? We’ll have to wait and see.

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