As we get closer to the September 12 release date for co-op looter shooter Borderlands 4, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has revealed that the studio is a bit nervous about the campaign being more challenging than previous titles at some points. In an interview with Insider Gaming, Pitchford spoke about how Borderlands has diverse fans, with some of them not enjoying super difficult challenges. These players, he noted, have more fun in exploring the world and enjoying the story.
“We have lots of players that actually aren’t interested in deep, hard challenges; lots of people that love just exploring the Borderlands or spending time with the characters,” he said.
With these fans in mind, Pitchford and Gearbox have been nervous about the level of challenge that Borderlands 4 might offer to players. He did note, however, that players can simply take a break from progressing through the campaign to grind out some more levels before trying a challenging boss again.
“I’m a little nervous because there are points of Borderlands 4 that are more challenging, but one of the coolest things about Borderlands 4, because of the nature of the RPG, is if anything is a little challenging for you, you can just grind somewhere and level up and become more powerful,” said Pitchford.
“You will find that things that were hard when you were a little chump will become trivial when you become a badass. But we definitely have pushed the challenges quite a lot, especially with bosses and boss fight mechanics.”
Pitchford had previously mentioned that Borderlands 4 will have some intense challenges, especially when compared to its predecessors. In a social media post by Gearbox mentioning how “nothing goes harder than Inceptus,” Pitchford responded by indicating that Borderlands 4 will indeed feature fights tougher than Inceptus.
The decision to bring in more challenging encounters was seemingly made because fans of the series had been asking the studio for harder fights. However, Gearbox has also noted that that fights won’t be too difficult, with creative director Graeme Timmins noting that the upcoming game falls closer to the “casual” side of things rather than the “hardcore” end.
The high level of challenge that Borderlands 4 might offer players will likely also be much more visible in the upcoming shooter’s endgame content. Back in July, Timmins spoke about the title’s ambitious endgame, and how Gearbox learned how to develop it thanks to Borderlands 3.
“I care about it a lot personally, as my role on Borderlands 3 was curating what became the endgame for that,” said Timmins. “I know what’s important to our community, and that’s built already into the game. Like we made purposeful decisions with our Action Skill tree, assuming what will come in the future with our endgame.”
“It’s not a secret that we always eventually do level-cap increases, right? That’s built into the high-level design of saying, ‘Okay, if that’s going to still be in our future, how can we make our Action Skill tree this time anticipate that and be balanced from the jump?’”
Borderlands 4 is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on September 12, with a Nintendo Switch 2 version slated for release on October 3.
