A recent State of Play presentation gave us a new look at some of Borderlands 4's new features. While I'm excited to try out all the new movement mechanics, and Rafa looks right up my alley in of Vault Hunter abilities, one thing that really excited me about the presentation was the implication of future DLC. Although nothing was said explicitly, there is a pretty clear hint that a certain type of DLC could be on the way, and it's one of my favorites that the Borderlands franchise has done in the past.

The previous Borderlands games have all offered some form of DLC, with varying degrees of quality. While I'm not a big fan of paying for cosmetics, especially in an FPS where I usually don't see my character, the Borderlands franchise has offered some solid story DLC like Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, which got spun off into its own full game. Now it looks like the Borderlands 4 will include my favorite kind of DLC from the franchise.

Borderlands 4's State Of Play Presentation Hinted At DLC Vault Hunters

The Vault Hunters Were Described As The Ones Available "At Launch"

During the Borderlands 4 State of Play presentation, available on PlayStation's YouTube channel, Creative Director Graeme Timmins and Senior Project Producer Anthony Nicholson showed off a good chunk of co-op gameplay. Early on, around the 3:50 mark, the pair introduce the two new vault hunters they're playing as: Vex, the new Siren, and Rafa. After discussing each character's abilities, one of the presenters says that these are two of the four new Vault Hunters that are available "at launch." To me, this reads as a clear allusion to the possibility of additional DLC Vault Hunters coming later in the game's life.

DLC Vault Hunters have been an inconsistent feature in previous Borderlands titles. They weren't in the first game, were back for Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, then skipped Borderlands 3. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands also introduced a new character class in the Shattering Spectreglass DLC. While nothing is official yet, I'm hoping I'm right that Borderlands 4 will be getting additional characters.

DLC Vault Hunters Always Improve Borderlands Games

There's No Downside To More Variety In Builds

Now, I may be biased since two of my favorite playable Borderlands characters have been Krieg and Jack, but DLC Vault Hunters are a huge improvement to Borderlands games. The loot system in Borderlands already offers some replayability, as it's fun to see what kind of wild new weapons you get on subsequent playthroughs. However, I think having new characters to play with is one of the most effective ways to extend the life of a Borderlands game.

While there is some variety in the gun combinations Borderlands offers, there's only so much the game's different weapons really shake things up from one playthrough to the next. However, playing as a different Vault Hunter and exploring different builds adds a ton of variety. Playing as Gaige is a fundamentally different way to experience Borderlands 2 than playing as Maya, and it makes playing the game again feel like a fresh experience. Yes, there are already four Vault Hunters in the base games, but as someone who has played Borderlands 2 probably a dozen times, I appreciated the variety.

Of course, the inclusion of DLC Vault Hunters isn't necessarily going to make or break my Borderlands 4 experience. I still loved the first Borderlands and played it several times even without getting new characters added to its roster. That said, one reason I struggled to enjoy Borderlands 3 was that I didn't love any of the game's classes as much as the ones from previous games. I had my fingers crossed a DLC character would fix that, but none ever came out. While I like what I've seen from Borderlands 4's classes so far, I still wouldn't mind more.

Source: PlayStation/YouTube