Randy Pitchford stated that Borderlands 4 features the largest and most open-game world in the franchise’s history. The President of Gearbox Entertainment continues by saying you can seamlessly travel anywhere in this scene when presented with the image from the Borderlands reveal trailer that showcases the Vault Hunters looking over the world.
Randy Pitchford is hesitant to call Borderlands 4 a Open World game in the interview with Gamespot because that specific classifier contains baggage. The world of Borderlands 4 is hand-crafted by the developers and not algorithmically filled as they care deeply about combat dynamics and the moment-to-moment feeling. Therefore, things are tailor-made and unfold with a purpose.
Update
Randy Pitchford was quick to judge my thumbnail on Social Media by stating that HE wouldn’t call BL4 an Open World game, however he never went into the context of this article. Strangely, the Official Gearbox Social account doubled down by amplifying Randy’s message while I only aimed to answer the frequently asked question “Is Borderlands 4 an Open World game?”. This article is designed for search intent not to promote a narrative, it was designed to tell their message about a seamless world.
But if we analyze the Gamespot Interview, Randy makes the connection between Open World games and algorithmically generated games. While there are games that algorithmically generate their worlds and the content therein, take Minecraft for example, however, there are also enough games that don’t do that, like Assassin’s Creed or Grand Theft Auto.
Open World isn’t a synonym for a generated world that said the Borderlands 4 marketing is seemingly making a distinction by saying Borderlands 4 is a seamless world.
I expect that Borderlands 4 will remove the classic end-zone barriers between the different maps and stitch everything together. Technically, creating 1 seamless open world while staying true to Gearbox Software’s level design with the handcrafted envoirements that are tailored to their quality mission design.
They said that things unfold with a purpose. I think some areas will become available once you reach a specific point in the main story. In Borderlands 3 and Borderlands the Pre-Sequel, Gearbox blocked off a part of the map because you first needed to obtain a vehicle allowing you to jump over a gap. However, before you could do this, you first needed to complete a few tutorial missions setting you up for the rest of the game. I expect Borderlands 4 to do something similar but the other new movement mechanics could also be part of this. Unlocking the grapple hook later on in the game and some anchor points need to be turned on before you can use them.
Original Article
Borderlands World Building History
The previous Borderlands games in the franchise all had segmented maps that gave you the impression that they were all connected and part of a bigger open-world experience. As you can see elements on the horizon that resemble the next area.
As Gearbox Software continued making games in the franchise, you could notice they leveled up. The levels from the first Borderlands game contained a lot of brown colors. There wasn’t a lot of variety in the envoirements as they all had a similar tone, therefore, you saw a variety of locations in Borderlands 2 with green grasslands, blue icescapes, and a red volcano. While those maps were mainly centered around a single concept within that theme, Borderlands 3 took the level design to the next level as maps would contain multiple distinct environments within a single map.
I’m currently under the impression that Borderlands 4 is taking all of that but stitching those segmented maps together and creating one cohesive world. The Chaos Chamber Dungeons from Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands might have been the small experiment to practice seamlessly loading in new envoirements and Borderlands 4 is expanding on that developed technology.
My Take on Borderlands 4 going open world?
A Borderlands open-world game has always been the ultimate dream since the first game and the first few games did lend themselves to that, however, Borderlands 3 featured several planets which lends itself to these segmented locations. Borderlands 4 looks to break that barrier (see what I did there) although I have no idea how they will include the moon in this.
Redfall, another game I covered on this site, was an open-world looter shooter – not as deep as Borderlands – but its level design fell short. Meaningful mini-boss encounters occurred in just another building that looked similar to the dozen houses beside it. These experiences weren’t tailored to a boss encounter, therefore, these events with a massive build-up felt lackluster as it felt like you were fighting another regular enemy.
Randy Pitchford talks about a well-crafted world where things unlock for a purpose and that they aren’t going for an algorithmically filled world. I would love to see them stay true to that classic Borderlands mission design in a tailored experience because I’m not keen on Redfall’s approach (leaving its rough launch out of this).
Early footage from the Borderlands 4 reveal trailer showcases huge landscapes packed with detail, therefore, I think it’s awesome that you can digi-struct a vehicle in almost any location. I can’t count the number of times that my vehicle got destroyed and I had to walk miles to obtain a new one because there wasn’t a Catch-A-Ride station in the area. Spawning a vehicle on the spot definitely helps us traverse the Borderlands.
So it looks like Gearbox Software is taking the necessary steps to make Borderlands 4 an awesome experience but I’m curious how they are tackling the challenges that come with this seamless world experience.
