At some point Randy Pitchford said, “I’m not sure we have another Borderlands in us”.
And the foreshadowing of Borderlands 3 makes it look like it could be an epic conclusion to the series.
For one thing I hope they just keep churning them out every 2 to 3 years. If they don’t, then I hope Gearbox continues the idea of Borderlands but with a new theme. I am a huge fan of the series. The gameplay is king of FPS, RPG, and action RPG to me. And I would miss it terribly if never made a sequel after 3 (an actual sequel or spiritual successor). Destiny comes close to the Borderlands formula but Bungie messed up some of the freedoms I came to adore in Borderlands.
I know. I know. Borderlands 3 has barely even started development/announcement and I’m already worried about Borderlands 4. But it’s more than that. If they decide that BL3 is the last then all I’m saying is, give us more games with that gameplay.
The qualities I like the most?
FPS
Loot
Action RPG
Skill trees
Action skills
Leveling
Interesting enemies
Humor
Visible health/shield bars on enemies
Death is a small whack on the hand (things stay the way they are, enemy health even stays as is if in multiplayer)
So, the game after BL3 could be the same gametype, but perhaps a completely new theme. For instance, a fantasy universe with guns and fantasy, perhaps similar to Bunkers and Badasses but as a full game on it’s own (yes, Bunkers and Badasses standalone would be a fantastic way to continue the gametype).
Perhaps a steampunk western with alien invasion.
Present day but with the “surprise, you’re now a superhero” idea.
edit: Gearbox. As a sidenote, please feel free to hire me. I’d love to work there. I’m a programmer and a hobby ios developer/ board/video game designer on the side.
I am not sure what you want this thread to be as you did not really ask a question or put a topic up for debate but here are a few thoughts on my end.
As a company and as individuals within that company, I am sure they are all tired of Borderlands. Sure it garners them the bucks but I am sure they want to try new things. I am not going to deny them that because I think they have the creativity to give us another great thing. But I understand your feeling that we love what they have created and if it does end, we will sorely miss it. All that being said, I think we as players are a little tired of it too.
Still it is hard not to gush about the thing you love. Here are my favorite parts in addition or repeating yours:
the action skill is by far my favorite thing about the franchise. i don’t understand how people play a character without using it. it is such fun and changes everything.
the leveling system and the fact that it costs very little respec so you can try new things and not get frustrated with bad choices
the humor is definitely a top tier item for me
FPS
the small cost of dying
the cooperative element, focused on working together instead of competing against each other
While they could try to recreate this game in another universe, I think it would fall flat. Not because they could not come up with new enemies or a new and funny story, but because we would always be comparing it in our minds. Sure we would play it, we would laugh, but I think it would not last.
Being someone that is not terribly creative, I want to give them a chance to try something new and exciting and pray that it leads to several more enjoyable gaming years.
my two cents
H
PS: Don’t hire me Gearbox as I have very little programming skills and even less creativity. I can however, use my OCD to find every little inconsistency in your games from mispellings to the wrong icon shape in your skill trees.
This won’t go down well with some but I’d like to see BL3 look something like an mmo. Destiny and Defiance are the main games I play now and both have the BL1 feel that I miss from the sequels.
Agreed the repetitiveness in Destiny is a pita at times and that’s when I go to Defiance or vice versa, the online only thing can also be a pain what with the disconnection issues that online gaming brings with it.
If anyone is interested in Defiance it’s free to play but not available on ps4 or xbox one.
The only hang up I could see would be too many sirens as there’s only so many allowed in universe at a time but if the servers worked like bungies and only allowed 16 players at a time it could work.
Defiance is another matter, on there you can have hundreds of guys at the same time.
Really quite an enjoyable experience with so many people taking down the bosses.
If BL3 allowed character customization that’d be cool to.
I think you’d call it a loot based shooter with a rollpiay aspect.
You play an Ark hunter in the employ of Von Bach, and it’s your job to search out arkfalls for arktech which falls from the sky as the arkkships gradually fall to earth as thier orbit decays. You also get rewards as consumables (arkforge/keys and carelium cores) that you use to buy lock boxes that contain weapons etc.
There are also rewards from missions which you do by following the storyline, these storyline missions are also used as daily and weekly contracts that you do for different factions which have thier own weapon vendors.
I’ll post a vid that a guy made while doing the Thorn Liro mission and that will give you an idea of the game play.
He also did a character creation vid which leads to the first missions.
There’s also lots of other ones out there but early day ones will be different from a newer one as they do make changes.
Oh and the lead developer is Tricj Dempsey who worked at gbx for a while.
BL as a gametype should be here to stay and other games should be copying the big picture things that I feel made it a smash hit (some Halo did first and stuck, some BL did and others copied):
Every game should ALWAYS have an online and local co-op story mode (with splitscreen, the current gen consoles don’t have the same lame performance excuses previous consoles had for not including splitscreen in every game).
RPG elements in an FPaction (doesn’t have to be shooter)
Loot - doesn’t have to be over-the top bazzillionish, but give me a reason to explore.
Humor - good writing should always include some
Totally agree that they should be cranking out a game every year like the COD people do, not a borderlands game, its style is so over the top that it isn’t sustainable. But a FPS with RPG elements and loot that has a lengthy campaign which you can play with friends. We’d buy a new one every year.
Fantasy setting, war setting, sci-fi setting, doesn’t matter. No idea why so many developers are so against using a good formula to earn money. They all want to be unique and create their own next big thing. Story-wise and presentation-wise, fine, but you don’t have to try to reinvent gaming just to be proud of your work - they need to stop being so afraid of being accused of copying someone else’s ideas. Why not instead give those who came before you the props they deserve for influencing you and how you made your new masterpiece.
Soooo tired of hearing about some game that is supposed to be the next big thing, yet somehow instead of keeping and building upon the things that made current and previous games successful, they somehow ditched local co-op support or character development options. So yeah, in some ways, it is innovative, but in other ways, it is back to Y2K.
Wait isn’t China making a borderlands mmo? I know this isn’t much proof but maybe when it comes out you could check it out and see how bords is as an mmo. Right???
Agreed, while Id welcome “trying” Battleborn, it is not Borderlands. Ive enjoyed this franchise since I bought the game of the year edition with BL1. Seeing from BL2 with all those vaults out there I doubt in my opinion that this will be the last Borderlands in this franchise. 2K knows what they have they arent going to abandon it.
