It’s almost time for the release ofBorderlands 4, which will bring our intrepid vault hunters to an all-new planet with fresh challenges to face. Leaving Pandora for the previously hidden planet Kairos means coming into a world under the control of the evil Timekeeper. For us, it also means a new planet to explore, new characters to meet, and a return to the narrative tone that was felt in the original games.
In addition to the new storyline and characters,Borderlands 4willfeatureseveral new gameplay mechanicsthat not only make it feel unique but also introduce numerousquality-of-life changes for a smoother experience. Despite having several entries in the series before it,Borderlands 4is designed to be welcoming to both new players and returning fans. Even with all the changes being made, developers are quick to assure us that this will still feel like the iconicBorderlandsexperience we know and love.
ScreenRantwas able to interviewBorderlands 4’s Managing Director of Narrative Properties, Lin Joyce, Narrative Director, Sam Winkler, and Lead Writer, Taylor Clark. During this fun chat, we discussed how the tone ofBorderlands 4will take a more grounded approach, yet still be filled with the classic humor we all have come to expect.
Borderlands 4’s Tone Will Be Less Wacky
More Of A Focus On Character-Driven Stories
There has been a lot of talk about howBorderlands 4will take a more grounded approach to its storytelling, followingsome ofthe more wackyand over-the-top elements in Borderlands 3. However, as I mentioned to the team, the last thing that comes to mind when thinking of theBorderlandsseries is the term “grounded” and I was concerned about the more serious approach.
Narrative Director Sam Winkler had this response: “So, this was a primary pillar ofBorderlands 4when we decided to kick off the project, and everyone kind of came around and did a post-mortem, not just onBorderlands 3, but also on the whole franchise and where we’d been. And it really became clear that pretty much every one of the games in theBorderlandsfranchise had slightly different approaches to humor, approaches to dark storytelling.
Again, some of them were more grounded than others, and coming off ofBorderlands 3, we definitely felt that the tone of the game had gotten a bit wacky. There was this mandate from the creative director on that project that there had to be a joke every second, and that was something that we tried to get away from, even starting with the DLC forBorderlands 3.”
He went on to explain that the focus forBorderlands 4is on character-driven stories and having jokes that make sense within the situation. “We said,if the players don’t care about who’s in front of them and why they’re doing what they’re doing, then they’re not going to care about some pop culture referencethat’s already dated by the time the game comes out.”
Taylor Clark, Lead Writer forBorderlands 4, stated that “part of it is also just being as authentic as we can within the Borderlands universe to the kind of story, the kind of setting that we’re working with.” He pointed out that with the serious tone of the planet Kairos beingunder the control of a totalitarian dictator, it makes sense to turn the wackiness knob back a littleto match the world.
Don’t worry though, the humor isn’t gone. Both Taylor and Sam mentioned during our interview how the characters in the chaoticBorderlandsuniverse naturally use humor as a coping mechanism, “because odds are, anyone you’re talking to has probably seen someone die in front of them in the last hour or so.”
Introducing The Totalitarian Dictator, The Timekeeper
People Are Oppressed By His Centuries-Long Rule
Of course, it would ruin the fun and surprise if the developers were to reveal everything about this creepy new villain before the game launches. They were willing to give a little bit of a peek behind the curtain, though, including saying that they wanteda character they could build up some mystery and ominous tension around.
Sam described the Timekeeper in this way, “We have this character who is just always watching from afar, we get the sense that he’s like a puppet master. His hands are kind of above us all the time, but he’s not calling you up to call you a dickhead as often as someone like Jack. That’s his modus operandi, and we end up sort of seeing him through the order, his army of synthetic soldiers, and sort of sycophantic leaders.”
He added that in every area of the game, we will see a different miniboss, and each of them will have avery different relationship to the Timekeeper. The Timekeeper’s interactions will be memorable,occurring only when the Timekeeper feels it is absolutely necessary, andthere is a stark contrast tothe attitude we saw with Handsome Jack.
Randy Pitchford Wanted A Story About Order, Control, And Chaos
Inciting A Revolt While Still Being Vault Hunters
Gearbox’s CEO, Randy Pitchford, had a specific type of story in mind forBorderlands 4that led the narrative inspiration for the game.
Sam: “Very early on in development forBorderlands 4, we sort of assembled this war room of like, what could this be? Where do we want to take this? We all have these different threads, which ones do we follow?
And it was Randy Pitchford who honed in on what story he wanted to tell here. That was a story about order, about control, and what happens when chaos is added into that system. From there, it all kind of blossomed.”
The Timekeeper certainly is all about order, and he has had a tight grip on Kairos for centuries while keeping this world hidden from the view of others. Now that it’s no longer hidden, the vault hunters are there to shake things up.
Sam went on, “we kind of went back to this idea of, what were the Crimson Raiders originally? They were fighting against this oppressive tyrant, Jack, and the idea of the Crimson Raiders to an oppressed people on Kairos would, it would almost take on this mythic quality. So, the Crimson Resistance kind of came out of that.
And, obviously Vault Hunters, it’s in the name. You’re kind of there for your own kicks because you’re a treasure seeker. But Vault Hunters always end up being part of this groundswell of freedom seeking and taking down of tyrants, because wherever there’s power, there will always be someone trying to hold onto that power, and they’re usually getting between you and whatever delicious loot lies at the other end.”
Taylor later brought up how the new planet of Kairos was key in determining the feeling of this experience: “Pandora was already chaos. Like, how much can you break a place that’s already pretty fractured? In Kairos, we have the opportunity to, as the Vault Hunter, really break things wide open and defy an established order, literally named Order, which I think is a cool marriage of what the Vault Hunter is and the situation.”
The Borderlands Team Doesn’t Forget
Characters And Lore Threads From Previous Games Are Not Gone
As a longtimeBorderlandsfan, I had to ask about whether we would see any more lore about the Eridian Great War that is mentioned in the previous games, as this undercurrent of a plotline. Though Sam wouldn’t say much about it, he did very subtly say,“We don’t forget characters, and we don’t forget plot lines. Borderlands 4 is not some sort of offshoot, even if it is a new world and everything. So,you can expect franchise continuity here.”
Lin Joyce, the Managing Director of Narrative Properties, finished out our interview by saying,“I’m supremely proud of the writer team that we assembled for this game. It is a larger writing team than we’ve had before, so we’ve injected a lot of new voices, and while we all have to write with sort of one high-level voice, and that comes down to Taylor and Sam’s review, each writer also brings something distinct and unique in a perspective that we only have by virtue of having them on the team. In that way, we’ve just got an extremely well-rounded set of characters and missions for players to experience.”
Borderlands 4is set to releaseon Jun 19, 2025. Pre-orders forBorderlands 4are available now.
