The story of Borderlands 4 simply does not sound like the story of a Borderlands game, and that’s even more true in a new narrative deep-dive from Gearbox, which details the villains and factions players will encounter in the game’s expanded world.
Borderlands 3 was dumb as a bag of hammers and the series has never been known for mature, hard-hitting storytelling, but I’ll be damned if Borderlands 4 ain’t beating the odds to make me care at least one iota about its world. The fractured planet Kairos is overseen by the big bad Timekeeper, and revolution is simmering among an oppressed population governed through fear and cybernetic implants. Change a few nouns and this could be a solid subplot for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2.
This is already above the “Twitch streamers are assholes” plot of Borderlands 3 or the “I don’t know, there’s a vault?” meandering of the first game, but as is often the case with game stories – so regularly pushed around or derailed by the needs of a thousand systems – the most interesting bits seem to be in the margins of the world. Gearbox unpacks the factions here, and I want to focus on the Electi in particular.
The Electi and their gilded leader Levain once lived lavish, comfortable lives in the upper crust of the main Kairos city, but that whole fracturing thing left them stranded in the badlands outside their now locked-down home. “For the first time, they have to learn how the other side lives and how to survive outside the city walls,” explains managing director of narrative Lin Joyce.
Oppression, revolution, and physically forcing the rich to understand the lives of the poor? I’m listening, Borderlands 4. Has that push to make the Borderlands series less offensively dumb finally paid off?
Gearbox indicates lessons have also been learned from previous villains. The Timekeeper is described by veteran narrative director Sam Winkler as “a new type of character in the franchise who is ever-present and not overstaying his welcome.”
In closing, Joyce teases that Borderlands 4 “is a turning point in our universe, and how it connects back to previous titles, but also, at the end, where it will point, is worth playing for.”
I have my “Fell for it again” ribbon at the ready, but for the first time in years, I actually have some questions about the plot of a Borderlands game that aren’t, “Where is the skip button?” Which ain’t a bad start.
