Borderlands 4 Hands-On Preview: Loud, Fast, and Finally Smooth

CGMagazine was invited down to 2K’s California offices for a hands-on session with Borderlands 4, where I spent two chaotic, loot-soaked hours shooting and vault diving in what might be the series’ most confident entry to date. After, I sat with Creative Director Graeme Timmins to dig into what makes this Borderlands tick, and why this time, it finally feels like the mayhem is working for you, not just happening around you.

Borderlands 4 doesn’t waste your time. From the moment I stepped into the latest wasteland of yelling psychos, irradiated warlords, and vending machines powered by sarcasm, it was clear that Gearbox remembered what this series does best—and finally figured out how to make it all feel right with Borderlands 4.

Timmins doubled down on this when talking about how Borderlands 4 has more of a singular focus on location and player experience:

“With Borderlands 4, we wanted to be more ambitious. Elevate all of the player experience, not just the first-person side, but also the RPG side, and how players even just explore the world, and you wanted to really just elevate every part of what it was to be a Borderlands game and how to take it to the next level. I think what we accomplished in Borderlands 1, as far as building a single planet in Pandora, was fantastic. I can still go back to that game, and it feels like we really established a world on that one planet, and I really wanted to re-do that with Kairos and really explore a singular place, really build out its history, its lore.”

The gunplay? Slicker. The combat pacing? Sharper. The world? Big, seamless, and surprisingly graceful, like someone finally gave this series a proper tune-up instead of just duct-taping another layer of chaos on top. Borderlands 4 is not a reinvention. It’s not a reset. It’s Borderlands 1, but better, louder, faster, and with shockingly little between you and the action.

That last part is important because what immediately stood out to me was how expansive this world feels. Not because it’s suddenly more narratively deep—it’s not trying to be Red Dead Redemption. No, it feels expansive because there are almost no loading screens. I can’t overstate how much that changes the rhythm of the game. You’re not constantly getting yanked out of the moment to watch a percentage bar tick upward. You just move. You drive. You fight. You loot. The terrain keeps coming, and the momentum never breaks.

And speaking of driving, the vehicles in Borderlands 4 finally feel like someone actually cares. For the first time in the series, I didn’t dread getting behind the wheel. Cars have proper weight. They drift with intent. Ramming a convoy or skimming the edge of a cliffside doesn’t feel like you’re wrestling a shopping cart on roller skates. There’s still that over-the-top speed and chaos, but now it’s controlled chaos. Functional chaos. And yes, it’s fun.

“Borderlands 4 is not a reinvention. It’s not a reset. It’s Borderlands 1, but better, louder, faster, and with shockingly little between you and the action.”

I spent most of my Borderlands 4 hands-on time with Vex and Rafa, and both bring very different flavours to the blood-splattered table. Vex is the newest Siren, but don’t expect mystic chanting or glowing tattoos. She’s grounded, pissed off, and runs her powers like a kinetic weapon. Elemental chaining, stun fields, AoE slams, it’s all here, and it all works beautifully when you’re surrounded on all sides.

Rafa is an ex-soldier and is built for players who want control over their surroundings as well as a more basic playstyle, much like Roland in the first Borderlands. He’s all about field dominance, suppressive fire, and a mech-like ability that lets him shoot a ton of rockets. You want to play like you’re holding the line in a war movie? Rafa’s your guy.

Where Vex abilities are more mystical, Rafa holds steady and turns you into a walking tank. What shone through was that, unlike previous Borderlands games, where there seemed to be a class for solo players, they all seemed viable for solo play in Borderlands 4.

Timmins touched on the co-op nature of Borderlands, “We think about co-op at every step. But we also want to make sure we have the best in mind for the single-player experience as well. When we look at the characters, we always want to play out to a specific archetype, but then provide a range within that. So, like the soldier, like you said, he’s got those turrets, so he can kind of use those to help solo, but at the same time, he also has knives, which is our first third-person action skill that you can run around.

We wanted to provide a range of action skills within, and some of those work great for solo, and some of them will work great for co-op. Ultimately, though, what was important to me, is we could have four of the same character in the game.”

But all the flashy powers in the world would mean nothing if the weapons didn’t hold up, and I’m happy to report they do. Borderlands 4 has overhauled its arsenal in all the right ways. With new manufacturers in the mix, every weapon I picked up felt like it belonged in its own twisted little niche. Some glowed with sickly organic pulses. Others lit up like mini light shows with each shot. Alternate fire modes, mutating attachments, wild recoil patterns. It all adds up to a game that practically begs you to try new things mid-fight.

And speaking of fights, I got to play around in a Vault.

A real one. Not just some set-dressed boss room, but a tough-as-nails, throw you in the deep end dungeon that pushed my loadout and reflexes harder than anything I’ve seen in the series before. The boss at the end wasn’t just a meat sponge with bigger health bars. This thing moved.

The room filled with poison mid-fight, forcing me to use the new grapple tool just to stay off the ground as the arena suddenly started to change around me. I was swinging between these plants that would only stay above the floor for a few seconds. It had me juggling cooldowns, unloading ammo, and barely staying alive as the creature went through multiple phases. It was sweaty, tense, and so much fun.

When I finally brought it down, the reward was exactly what I wanted: Guns, lots of guns. I walked out with new weapons, fresh mods, and a buzz in my hands from how intense that encounter felt. If this is what Vaults are shaping up to be in Borderlands 4, I’m already hooked. They’re not just lore beats or endcaps anymore; they’re full-blown skill tests that demand you learn the mechanics, use your tools, and think on your feet.

It was interesting to think about Borderlands in a vertical way, and how it’s never really been that way before, not counting the pre-sequel. I asked Timmins about how the team felt about reshaping how we look at Borderlands traversal. “I’m a level designer at heart. Giving players height, and what that does to combat. Whenever I make a level, I’d always look at ‘Okay, if you take the high road, you have that vantage point, but maybe there’s less cover, whereas if you go down the middle road, it’s more difficult, but there’s more full-height cover’.

So, I looked at the world from that lens of, ‘Okay, we want to give a lot more mobility, but not just for the sake of it. How does this change the world?’ and that got us to think about it more from a combat perspective than a traversal mechanic.”

“Borderlands 4 has overhauled its arsenal in all the right ways.”

And yes, Claptrap’s back. Still annoying. Still funny. Still somehow lovable in the way a cursed pet might be. He pops up constantly with unsolicited advice, screams when something explodes, and at one point started rambling about Moxxi’s cleavage in a way that felt, frankly, weird, like it wandered in from 2012 and refused to leave.

Visually, Borderlands 4 is as loud and colourful as ever, with heavy outlines, neon gore, and skies that look like a fresh open space, until you’re in a vault. But what sets it apart this time is how clean it is. The framerate never dropped, even in the middle of full-blown explosions. The UI is cleaner, too, swapping gear is snappy, and the chaos feels orchestrated rather than just constant noise. And most importantly, it plays really well. Just guns, powers, movement, loot, and that perfect loop of kill-shoot-run-loot-repeat that this franchise was built on.

Borderlands 4 doesn’t reinvent the franchise, but it doesn’t need to. It just fixes the things that used to drag, refines what already worked, and finally makes the world feel as smooth and exhilarating as the combat itself. I went in expecting a louder sequel. I came out thinking it might be the best Borderlands we’ve ever seen.

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