With its first full trailer being shown at this year's The Game Awards, Borderlands 4 has a lot riding on it from fans hoping for a return to form for the franchise. Despite recent entries having their share of criticism, both Borderlands 3 and Tiny Tina's Wonderlands were great financial successes for Gearbox Software. Even with the success of its most recent additions to the beloved Borderlands franchise, the developers are aiming to improve the overall writing quality moving forward.

For years the Borderlands franchise has provided excellent co-op gameplay experiences, being one of the most iconic entries in the looter shooter genre. To this day, the Borderlands franchise is still as popular as ever, with each game grossing higher and higher player counts, but they haven't avoided their share of criticism and controversies. The core gameplay of Borderlands 4 is expected to be as bombastic as always while keeping its split-screen co-op functionality alive and well, with a new writing direction that is just what the franchise needs.

Borderlands 4 Is Cutting Down On The Toilet Humor

Addressing The Biggest Complaints Over Borderlands 3's Writing

The writing style of the Borderlands franchise has always ridden the line between humor and visceral action, but recent entries have tended to lean too much into over-the-top comedy. While it's fine to have more of a focus on humor in a game like Borderlands, problems started arising when it affected the quality of the game's overall writing, with jokes leaning into a more childlike sense of humor. Even the developers have acknowledged this issue, with one of the lead writers for Borderlands 4, Sam Winkler, expressing his complaints over this issue in a thread on X.

Even those who enjoyed the gameplay style or writing of Borderlands 3 have itted there's an over-reliance on toilet jokes or low-brow humor, feeling out-of-place even with the less serious tone prevalent in the franchise. Even with these complaints, Borderlands 3 was still an easily enjoyable experience that didn't stray too far from what made the original games great, although it still struggles to find a unique identity compared to the original games.

Potentially Returning To The Style Of The Original Borderlands

Understanding What Made The Franchise Successful In The First Place

Aside from the pacing of the writing and humor, Borderlands 4 has another chance to emulate the greatness of the original entries by building up its villain, the Timekeeper, like Handsome Jack. While it will be an incredible challenge to create a character that can come close to the popularity of Handsome Jack, it's clear that a good villain was an essential part of what made the franchise so iconic.

The Twins from Borderlands 3 had great potential to create memorable stories by teasing infighting between the two, but many of its potential storylines ended up fizzling out by the time the credits rolled.

With the writers clearly acknowledging the problems with Borderlands 3's writing and even itting it publically, there is plenty of potential for Borderlands 4 to be one of the best games the franchise has seen in years. Even if it doesn't achieve the legendary status of the original two Borderlands games, the newest entry in the beloved franchise is bound to be an exciting venture for fans and new players alike.

While Borderlands 4 is scheduled to release this year, it's still a long wait until it makes its way into the hands of fans, making it the perfect time to pick up other entries in the franchise with their frequent and significant discounts.

Source: ThatSamWinkler/X