Borderlands 3 – Narrative Is “Definitely Important,” Says Gearbox

Looter shooters don’t usually put a lot of focus on narrative and storytelling – in fact it’s the one area where they often end up falling short – but Borderlands has always been an exception to that rule. With a distinct sense of style, memorable characters, and an emphasis on storytelling, Borderlands games have always succeeded in this area where most similar games don’t.

That’s going to be true for Borderlands 3 as well, according to the game’s developers. We recently chatted with Gearbox Software’s Senior Producer Anthony Nicholson in a group interview at E3 2019, and asked about several things to do with the game. One question we asked was if Borderlands 3 would continue to put a focus on narrative the way its predecessors did, and his answer was an encouraging one.

“Yeah. I think so,” Nicholson told GamingBolt. “We have a great writing team. Our writing department has just been stellar with trying to weave all the different lore and the canon that’s is— the game is deep now. Borderlands 1 came out back in 2009, and there’s a lot of pieces that we’re putting together. There’s always lots of characters the fans and community love.”

“We want to make sure we build on those things,” he continued. “In this latest entry we have the Calypso Twins. We’re chasing them down across the galaxy, keeping them from opening all of these vaults and getting this ultimate power. So we can stop them from overrunning with all of their evil deeds. Narrative in this one is definitely important and we want to make sure that that coincides in a very good way, with our new gameplay and the things that fans have grown to love about the series.”

Judging by previous entries, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that a good story and memorable characters are on the menu for Borderlands 3. If nothing else, we can at least expect a pretty meaty experience, with the developers touting a campaign that can last at least 30-35 hours.

In the same interview, Nicholson also spoke to us about how Borderlands 3 is expanding upon its predecessors in terms of combat as well as co-op and social features. Read more about both through the links. Our full interview will also be going up soon, so stay tuned.

Borderlands 3 is due out on September 13 for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.