I'm Disappointed In This Major Borderlands 4 Change

Summary

After plenty ofspeculation and leaks , 2 K and Gearbox finally revealedBorderlands 4during theGamescomOpening Night alive outcome . The look was a bare annoyer , and nothing overt was revealed about the story , although there were many clues dotted throughout .

This lead to plenty of speculation as to what character could be returning and what the tale could be . The most obvious being Lilith , as the trailer opens with the her Firehawk call sign decently before Elpis , Pandora ’s moon , teleports into perspective . Lilith has appeared in everyBorderlandsgame to date , along with therecent , critically revile picture show , so her appearance inBorderlands 4seemed inevitable at this detail . Meanwhile , others speculated that Handsome Jack had returned due to the alignment of the Vault symbol on a font in the laggard equalise the mark he had from accept the vault key punched into his look inBorderlands : The Pre - Sequel , something that was cursorily debunk by Gearbox ’s chief executive officer , Randy Pitchford , who said it was " something far more dangerous and menacing . "

Pandora and its synodic month , Elpis , have been home to the Borderlands series since its origination , but is it time to leave Pandora behind ?

Borderlands 4 - Lilith with a robatic hand holding a Psycho mask

Custom Image by Glenn Bunn

Borderlands 4’s Trailer Seems To Have Dropped Its Cel-Shading Art Style

Opting For A More Detailed Aesthetic

One matter that immediately place upright out to me was that the trailer seemed to drop theBorderlandsfranchise ’s cel - shaded art style , prefer for a far more naturalistic visual over the vibrant cartoony elan of its forerunner . While it could have been said that this was just for some feature like fire and blank space effects and that characters and location would be cel - shaded as no human characters appeared throughoutBorderlands 4 ’s puzzler trailer , there was a shot right at the goal of a robotic hired man - potentially introducing the technical school - based Eridians - pick up a Psycho ’s mask at the closing . Neither the arm nor the masque looked cel - shaded .

The Psycho mask pattern was painted in a cel - shaded way to agree the past games , but the item itself was done in a photorealistic mode .

While I ’m interested in seeing where theBorderlandsstory goes next , I ’m not entirely sure how I would palpate about this variety if Gearbox had opted to move out from the fine art style of the past games . While New secret plan railway locomotive do reserve for far more elaborated visuals , and there ’s often such a push to strive for photorealism in the AAA game space , I’d argue that , more often than not , games that have an artwork style that does n’t do this - such asThe Legend of Zelda : hint of the Wild , Limbo , Cuphead , and the previousBorderlandsgames - bear a greater probability of looking more likeable years on from launching , while those " realistic " titles can look dated extremely quickly , which is something I find when revisiting so many deed of conveyance that boasted " realism " on the PS3 and Xbox 360 era that now have an " eldritch valley " feel to them due to characters having overly shining , savorless skin textures , or eyes with no real life to them .

Zer0 and Lilith in front of the planet of Pandora from Borderlands

InBorderlands 4, players assume the role of a legendary Vault Hunter, exploring a new planet in search of secret alien treasures.

The preternatural valley is a phenomenon with computer - sire imagery in media in which an contrived entity appear almost , but not exactly , like a real person . This do a sense of uneasiness in the viewer because the artificial being is faithful enough to reality to be recognizable but not skinny enough to be indistinguishable from realism .

Borderlands 3 left out a fun feature from the serial publication ' earlier games which was painfully missed . marchland 4 should make a tip to bring it back .

Borderlands 4’s Teaser Trailer Did Have A Disclaimer

Noting That It Is “Not Actual Gameplay” Gives Me Some Hope

One affair that does give me some hope that Gearbox has n’t abandon the cel - shaded visuals for a more realistic approach is that the trailer sports a " Not factual gameplay " disclaimer anda recreated image of the robotic hand holding the masquerade in more of a traditional cel - shaded style is being used for the game ’s poster . While it should have been fairly obvious that it was n’t gameplay , as there was no first - person looter - shooter action mechanism in the play , it ’s still interesting not to have the game ’s theme song expressive style throughout the teaser prevue unless this was done strictly to keep those who had n’t been follow the leaks opine until later on . However , Lilith ’s Firehawk call signopening the laggard should have been enough of a game show for fans of the series betimes on .

The last timeBorderlandsfeatured a more " realistic " art trend was back before the release of the original game . This seemed to be changed to the more vivacious cel - shaded feel fans are familiar with late into ontogenesis , with former promotional material - include a unique covering from the now - closedGame Informerin 2007 - showing off a far dull post - apocalyptic see world swathe in a browned and gray-haired color pallet that was becoming all too common in other games of the era . In a 2017 interview withIGN , Pitchford stated that he knew that when he decided to go with the animated cartoon prowess style , it would " fix the dissonance " between the visuals and the gameplay of the original title but it would also put a terminus ad quem onBorderlands ' potential audience as " there ’s just a vast pct of the gambling consultation that does not want a cartoon . "

Of course , nowBorderlandsis an instal name in the gambling space , and players are accustomed to the serial publication ' cartoony - yet - violent aesthetic . Therefore , it would be interesting to see how players respond to a realistic - looking game in the enfranchisement that retains its rich and striking color palette - those outer space shots as Elpis is being teleport did still look incredible after all - even though I personally would miss the late visuals . Time will enjoin , asBorderlands 4has just been teased with no press release date in sight , so the title ’s likely some direction off and there are bound to be plenty more reveals prior to its launch .

Krieg, Brick, and Claptrap from Borderlands