Turns out, videogame development is a lot like porridge, and it can take a bit of fiddling to get things right. And if you think that doesn’t make sense, you might not be Randy Pitchford, who said something similar in a Future Games interview with the Gearbox boss himself.
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“With each game, we push boundaries,” Pitchford explains, “and we can see those times we’ve gone too far. Sometimes it’s in a game mechanic, sometimes it’s in the story decisions or tone decisions.”
That matches up to what we’ve heard out of the writers, too, who’ve stated often that Borderlands 4 is trying to shake off 3’s instantly-outdated meme nonsense in lieu of character-focused humour and a more grounded story, where the jokes come from, y’know, the writing.
Despite having greatly enjoyed most Borderlands games, I can’t say I’m too bummed to see those things go, and the recent character trailers have only piqued my interest. They’re still just the littlest bit jank (in an endearing, Gearbox sort of way), but I certainly felt like someone was trying to make me laugh with more than just references.
Pitchford continues to say, in his usual effusive tone, that experience really is the best teacher: “The fact we’re now in our fourth iteration means we’ve seen the extent, we’ve seen the boundaries, we’ve seen when we’ve pushed the pendulum too far in one direction, too far in the other direction, and we know where the bullseye is. And I think that’s to the benefit of all the gamers.”
As an (alleged) gamer myself, I’m genuinely happy to give Borderlands 4 a chance. I tend to root for the underdog, and when it comes to convincing players it can spin a good yarn, Borderlands is definitely starting off on the wrong foot. Here’s hoping 87 bazillion lessons have been learned.
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