It is an exciting time for Borderlands players. On March 27th, we were given the Mask of Mayhem Teaser. The following day during their PAX East Showcase, Gearbox Software announced the long-awaited sequel to the critically acclaimed Borderlands 2. The showcase itself was littered with technical difficulties towards the end, but these setbacks certainly did not take away any hype for the highly anticipated title. The gameplay trailer shown at the end of the showcase was filled with a lot of information about the game: new antagonists, new characters, new vehicles, new worlds, and probably what most would argue is the most integral part of the Borderlands franchise, new guns (over one billion to be exact) and so much more! You can watch both trailers below.
Borderlands 3 is slated for a September 13th, 2019 release date on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and the Epic Games store as a timed exclusive on PC. The game will later be released on Steam come April 2020. Whichever one is your platform of choice, the core gameplay mechanics will be the same. With that said, the mechanics have been altered from how they worked in previous titles. The changes that we will be going over are the leveling system, looting, weapon abilities, and the environment.
Multiple Worlds
Pandora was filled with many areas with a high variety of enemies to kill and places to explore. It almost felt like each area (especially ones in the DLC content) was a completely different world. It is hard to believe that we will be getting much more variety and even bigger places to explore now that there is interplanetary travel.
Leveling
As far as I know, the leveling in solo play is untouched. The real change is in Co-op play. The enemies and loot that appear are scaled to your individual levels. For instance: a level 12 player could load into the same game as a level 40 player and not be drastically under leveled, or vice-versa. The players would level up at the same pace, meaning that the level 12 would not gain copious amounts of XP playing with the level 40 and the level 40 would not gain microscopic amounts of XP playing with the level 12.
Looting
Everyone has a loot ninja in their group. If you don’t know who it is, it’s probably you. They show up right at the end of that aggravatingly difficult raid boss and rip the legendary right out of your almost dead hands. Good news, everyone is now entitled to their own individual loot. You can rest easy knowing that your legendaries and pearls are safe from those pesky ninja looters. However, if you and your buddies enjoy fighting over loot, the option is still available to you.
Weapon Abilities
Each brand of weapons in Borderlands holds unique abilities that can be helpful over a wide variety of scenarios. Hyperion weapons got more accurate the longer you held the trigger, Tediore weapons were thrown when they were reloaded to cause explosive damage and Dahl weapons changed firing modes when the player would aim down sight, just to name a few. These unique abilities have been altered for Borderlands 3, some changes being more drastic than others.
Atlas weapons are equipped with tracker tags that allows your bullets to follow the target.
Jakobs bullets pack a punch giving you increased critical hit damage, as well as ricocheting capabilities.
Dahl now gives you the choice of alternate firing modes.
Hyperion weapons retain increased accuracy while holding down the trigger but are now equipped with a mounted shield while aiming down sights.
Tediore weapons are still thrown like grenades, but chase down enemies while insulting them when reloaded.
Torgue weapons now have the option to switch between sticky projectiles or normal explosive bullets.
Vladof weapons are equipped with under barrel attachments such as tasers, grenade launchers, and even more gun barrels.
The new Children of The Vault brand gives you unlimited ammo magazines with the chance of overheating.
Last but not least, Maliwan weapons can switch between 2 different elemental types and deal guaranteed elemental damage.
Be on the lookout for that gameplay reveal on May 1st and if you want to stay up to date on the latest Borderlands info or learn more about the topics that were addressed today you can visit, Borderlands.com.
