Borderlands 3 Gameplay Footage Revealed During Livestream
Today (May 1st), Gearbox held a special livestream to show off the upcoming Borderlands 3. During this livestream players where shown the first taste of Borderlands 3 gameplay footage along with new information on the coming title. Let’s take a look at what as shown.
Borderlands 3 Gameplay Reveal Pre-Show
Before the actual reveal there was a brief pre-show featuring Greg Miller, Andrea Rene, and Fran Mirabella III. During the pre-show the hosts spoke about the Borderlands 3 trailer, the Borderlands VIP program, their favorite Borderlands memories, streamer highlights, the story so far in Borderlands, and Borderlands 3 speculation. After the 30 minute pre-show the gameplay reveal took place.
Borderlands 3 Gameplay Reveal
The Borderlands 3 reveal was hosted by Randy Pitchford and the game’s director Paul Sage. Borderlands 3 has been in development for about 5 years. After calling the team up on stage, Randy jumped into gameplay. IT LOOKS GOOD!
The gameplay footage started at the opening of the game. Like any good Borderlands title the character meets Clap-Trap then accesses a Quick Change station. The Quick Change station looks to be similar to other games but there are now changeable emotes.
During the tutorial area Gearbox revealed that Vault Hunters can now Slide and Mantle which are new player movement additions to the series.
Another new addition is that some guns now have alternate shooting modes. Alternate firing modes include things like switching firing bullets to firing missiles or between fire and ice bullets. In essence we get twice the guns!
After revealing the new weapon alternate mode, we go to see some combat in action. Cover now degrades. Another new feature is the ability to push barrels to send them flying. There are also environmental objects like flammable materials (oil) which burst into flames.
At the end of the combat sequence, the player fought a mini boss called Shiv. In Borderlands fashion the players was rewarded with loot as soon as the killed the boss.
Later in the demo we learned that NPC are now reviveable AND can now revive the player. They are no longer useless!
After playing through the opening, the gameplay footage jumped ahead to a little later in the game (level 4). At this time they showed off the skill tree of Amara. Unlike other games in Borderlands players will have all three starting skills unlocked. From here they will be able to customize each tree to their liking. Within each tree there are augments which can be applied to allow for 100s of combinations.
During the combat sequence, we got a chance to see a new elemental type called Radiation. Enemies killed by Radiation explode, dealing damage to enemies around them.
Loot instancing was shown off during this segment. A level 25 player dropped in with a level 5 player and the loot was instanced for both levels. This will be an optional mode. Players that want to remain true to the series can play the Classic mode which features no instanced items.
As the combat progressed the players found some Tediore guns. These guns are disposable and can be thrown away when reloading. There are a number of interesting reload attacks like bouncing bombs, guns with legs, and homing Mirvs.
As Borderlands 3 involves traveling between worlds, there is a new space ship called Sanctuary III. This serves as the game’s hub. This hub moves between planets. In the hub there is a new vending machine that retrieves lost loot. You won’t need to worry about loot flying into the abyss ever again.
Within Sanctuary III there is a player room. This room can be designed to reflect your character. Things like placing weapons on the wall is now a thing.
Marcus is on Sanctuary III and still serves as the primary weapons vendor. You will also find he sells backpack and inventory upgrades now.
Moxie is also back with her bar. In the bar you can give Moxie a tip as well as play her many slot machines.
Alongside these two familiar faces on Sanctuary III we also saw Maya, Tannis, Hammerlock, Ellie, Earl, and Clap-Trap.
To finish off the reveal there was a brief mission at level 12 shown. During this mission Zero made a brief appearance.
That ended the Borderlands 3 gameplay footage. To close out the event there was a brief new trailer shown of the breadth of the game. In this trailer a number of different locals were shown along with a literal bajillion types of guns. There was also a freaking MECH!
To round out the event Randy made a few statements regarding Borderlands 3. Yes there will be storyline and appearance DLCs. No there won’t be any type of scummy MTXs.
Borderlands 3 is now my most hyped game of the year.