Borderlands 3 Gameplay Reveal: Everything You Need To Know

All you need to know about Borderlands 3’s gameplay trailer. Gearbox Software showcased gameplay action for the first time from their highly anticipated looter shooter sequel Borderlands 3 this afternoon.

Gearbox Software showcased gameplay action for the first time from their highly anticipated looter shooter sequel Borderlands 3 this afternoon.

The hour-long presentation brought the action to fans via the official Borderlands Twitch page, which began with a 30-minute pre-show presented by games journalist and personality Greg Miller and revealed plenty of interesting information that’s sure to get anyone looking for more Borderlands action excited.

Twitch integration has already been revealed, and the game’s release date has been confirmed for September 13.

Here’s what we learned from the Borderlands 3 Gameplay Reveal

• The art direction in-game is very much fundamentally Borderlands, with its cel-shaded nature, but with a much higher level of texture detail with the Unreal Engine 4.
• The gameplay feels familiar too, with often incredibly aggressive enemies, plenty to shoot and a big emphasis on bosses like previous games.
• Claptrap is back, and he’s as wacky as ever! Whether you love him or hate him, Claptrap appears to play another significant role in Borderlands 3. Lilith is also back to act as a little annoying guide.
• The Children of the Vault is the new cult to Pandora, a mysterious group that needs investigating as they look for the Vault on the planet, including an early encounter with “Mouthpiece,” a psycho boss with a cool emphasis on sound. Troy & Tyreen Calypso, the twins, revealed in the PAX trailer and looked to be the main villains of the game. They have a Handsome Jack vibe to them, so hopefully, they are as cool as Jack was.
• Character customization is back, with emotes, skins and changes to make your character more unique to you, but how skins have been implemented though it is not obvious.
• The user interface, introduced as the Echo 3 device, looks very close to that of Borderlands 2 with slightly less clutter and cleaner options when choosing guns.
• The humor is still very much Borderlands. One shown includes a “user agreement” that the player signs for using the Echo 3.
• All three action skills are available on opening the menu, with each skill tree allowing you to add augments that upgrade each action skill.
• Amara and Zane were shown off in detail, with Amara the Siren showing many psychic abilities that feels similar to Maya, while Zane feels like a hybrid of many previous characters including the Soldier and Hunter classes while being able to equip two action skills at a time.
• You can now slide while running by crouching while running, and mantle up ledges if you fall, meaning that accident falling should now be a thing of the past.
• Guns from some gun manufacturers now have an alternate shooting mode, with the example shown bullets for primary, and missiles for alternate. Fire and ice was another example given.
• Cover is degradable in the game, where parts can be shot off, and the environment can be destroyed. Environment kills are also possible via flammable oil, barrels you can push and radiation that causes enemies to explode and radiate enemies around them to name a few.
• NPCs can revive the player character and are revivable by player characters, which should hopefully stop any unfortunate mission failures
• Loot instancing is included, and is optional! This means that each player receives versions of loot for themselves (helpful for co-op!), and it includes level balancing which will equal out weapon levels for higher level players and allow enemies to be on equal footing even if your friends are much higher level than you. The “Classic Mode” turns off this for those who like to compete for loot as per the previous games.
• Terdior’s disposable weapons are back with wackier abilities than ever, including the infamous “guns with legs” and “homing cluster bombs” shown.
• Ammo shops finally add “Buy all” option, meaning no more need for going into each one individually to buy. This is a nice quality of life upgrade.
• Sanctuary III, the hub world for players in Borderlands 3 is huge and allows players to meet other players in their group together and perform various tasks, including collecting guns lost on the field via a shop-style machine, upgrade your weapons using Marcus’s shop, and visit new worlds, with the cyberpunky Promethea being one. It’s likely that this will be the way to separate quest leveling.
• Several characters are returning as NPCs, including Mad Moxxi, Maya, Ellie, and Hammerlock, who now resides in a trophy room that needs filling!
• Randy Pitchford promises that there’s going to be no microtransactions and that it will be the biggest Borderlands game yet, with more bosses than ever.

It’s well worth your time going to watch the reveal, but we hope that this whets your appetite as much as it did ours!