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5 Things Gearbox Should Implement in Borderlands Remastered

My Borderlands Remastered Wishlist
My Borderlands Remastered Wishlist

Hey fellow Vault Hunters, in this article I want to discuss and point out some cool stuff that I think are be beneficial to Borderlands  Remastered.  E3 2018 has past and nothing has been announced at this point yet. I know Gearbox President, Randy Pitchford, has made it clear that they are currently working on the next Borderlands (3). He also mentioned that he thinks their time is better spent looking towards the future instead of the past. However, that doesn’t stop us from speculating about the potential of a remaster, especially when Borderlands Remastered got listed on the Korean rating site.  This leak got me thinking about the game and what it would look like if it got released today. While some upgrades are obvious I know I got a few things on my list that are interesting to explore. So let’s do a top 5 of things I would like to see in My “Definitive Edition” of Borderlands 1.

Topics

  • Lost Content
  • Connected Universe
  • New Rendering Engine
  • Upgrades
  • Weapons

If you got any suggestions of what you would want to see in a Borderlands 1 Remaster, let me know in the comments and lets get a discussion going. –  MentalMars

Resurrect the 3rd Act

During “An Evening at Gearbox” a few Gearbox staff members talk about the creation of Borderlands. In the 3rd interview video (2:48) Brian Martel mentions that the team had to cut the 3rd act from the first Borderlands game. It wasn’t mentioned why this section was cut from the game. However, if Gearbox is doing a remaster of the game this 3rd act offers a lot of potentials. Brian Martel and Paul Hellquist do mention that commandant Steele would have been more present in this 3rd act. Originally she was designed as the main antagonist but due to the loss of this content, she didn’t get to fulfill that position. It’s been a while since I played the first Borderlands but Commandant Steele was introduced a bit, but there wasn’t a lot of confrontations between the vault hunters and her. When you get to the end of the game there is no real final showdown with her. She just dies at the end and that’s lackluster. I have no idea what would have taken place during the 3rd act, but a big encounter with her would be a warm welcome. Gearbox could implement a challenging boss fight with Commander Steele but you don’t actually get to defeat her. This way the game shows her powers, that’s she means business, and it also sets you up for a bigger confrontation to the end. A while back I talked to Gearbox President, Randy Pitchford, about commander Steele and he did confirm that her plot could have used some more iteration. Having this lost act as bonus content for Borderlands Remastered would be an awesome addition.

Handsome Jack & Co Return

This is an idea that riffs off the previous one, but Gearbox could add characters like Handsome Jack into the Borderlands Remaster. I know some fans have had enough of Handsome Jack and don’t want to see him return in future installments. However, if Gearbox would include the lost act in the remaster it would offer the potential to create a more connected experience between the different games. With the first Borderlands, there was no sight of Handsome Jack, he was first introduced into the franchise with Borderlands 2. Because of excellent writing and performance, Handsome Jack became popular. With Borderlands the Pre-Sequel we learned more about that character as it tells us the story of Handsome Jack before the events of Borderlands 2. In the Pre-Sequel, you can find echo logs that share some insights that Handsome Jack was running the show when Angel was guiding the vault hunters in the first Borderlands game. With the remaster Gearbox would have a whole new section in the game where they could integrate Handsome Jack even more into the first game. It doesn’t have to be obvious but some subtle clues that something more is going on behind the scenes would be badass for the fans. This idea could even be expended to include some  Tales from the Borderlands or Borderlands 3 references making it more of a cohesive universe.

For example:

Borderlands 3 Screenshot009

Borderlands  Unreal Engine 4 Techdemo

Unreal Engine 4

Seeing the Borderlands 3 Tech Demo has us hyped for the next Borderlands game. Of course, we also want the remaster to look badass, therefore I would like to see the game run on their latest tech. Gearbox wants to knock it out of the park with the next Borderlands game. Doing the remaster themselves in the new engine would provide the dev team some additional skills which will be useful for their next project. I heard that remasters can be done pretty quick. It took Nintendo 6 months to remaster ‘the Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker’. The Borderlands Handsome Collection was also done pretty quick. But it all depends on the amount of upgrades/addition work/resources. But then again I’m not a game developer. When I asked the Creative Director of Battleborn if we would ever see the return of the Battleborn demo level, his answer summed up a lot of work. Randy mentioned that because the engine had evolved so much that they couldn’t just import the old map. In that case, they where better of starting from scratch and that time would probably be better spent on making new stuff.

Infuse with Borderlands 2

While some people prefer the original Borderlands over the second game, Borderlands 2 did improve and iterate on a lot of features. It would be awesome to see that some of those upgrades also carried over to the Remaster. I understand that not all iterations will make it over because you don’t want to mess up the original look and feel too much. If we look at the Borderlands 2 HUD, that one was cool looking and it works better in split-screen co-op. However I would like to keep the old look of the HUD for this remaster, but it can use some of the enhancements from Borderlands 2 (and maybe Borderlands 3). So it looks like you remember it, but it works for the present day. Other stuff like auto ammo pickup would be very welcome. I think Gearbox shouldn’t mess around with the weapons a lot, but I’ll do a new section about that;

Weapon drops

Borderlands has always been a game that stood out for its enormous amount of weapons, however obtaining specific weapons had some flaws in the original Borderlands. While the developers had some control over the loot pools, they were not actually in control over the loot drops. They could set a real high ‘awesomeness’ level on a boss however on one run you could possibly get 5 legendary weapons but on another run, you could get all whites. With Borderlands 2 the team over at Gearbox fixed this so they could specify the outcome. For example, this boss will drop 5 white, 4 greens, 3 blues, 2 purples, and have 6% chance of dropping an orange legendary.  This resulted in an enjoyable loot hunt where players would farm each boss for their unique legendary weapon. While the original Borderlands also had legendary weapons I only came across a few of them during my extensive play time. Having fixed locations to farm like in Borderlands 2 would be a great addition to the game because getting common white weapons from a big boss is just an insult.

Let’s Talk

These where some of my suggestions for Borderlands Remastered, but what are some of the things you would want in your definitive edition? Let me know in the comments  and let us get a discussion going.

Borderlands: Debt or Alive - A Novel by Borderlands 2 writer Anthony Burch
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I'm a Content Creator by day and a BattleBread Baker at night. I'll provide you with your recommended slice of entertainment! I'm a Gearbox Community Badass and a proud member of the official Borderlands & Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Creator Team (2K Games / NextMakers).

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