I don’t think it’s controversial to say that Borderlands has leaned too heavily into schlocky, so-called “toilet humour” over the past few instalments. The series has always been lighthearted, but the original two games had antagonists with real substance; there was humour, yes, but they also inspired a sense of dread when you crossed their path.
I get the sense that the last few games have forgotten that humour without substance doesn’t make a compelling game, and a recent developer diary from Gearbox tells me that the team is aware they need to re-ground the series withBorderlands 4.
The Dreaded Timekeeper
Borderlands 4 takes place on Kairos, a prison planet ruled by a dictatorial figure named the Timekeeper. This ancient individual is a mega-fascist, implanting everyone on Kairos with “bolts”, which are essentially internal kill switches that can be activated by the Timekeeper.
The moon Elpis popped into Kairos' orbit following the ending of Borderlands 3, introducing eridium to the planet and causing quite a stir among the Timekeepers' followers.
We’re introduced to a couple of the commanders. There’s Idolater Sol, a sycophantic lackey through and through, and Vile Lictor, an ambitious mad-scientist type, and perhaps the most interesting, the Ripper Queen, a rogue commander who has forcibly removed bolts from herself and her followers, spawning an army of unstable, but liberated, psychopaths.
Then there’s the main man himself: “When we were approaching how to write the Timekeeper, we certainly looked back on all of our previous main villains,” managing narrative director Lin Joyce explained. “We considered how we wanted to approach the Timekeeper differently, so he would stand out from anything we’ve done before.”
“We wanted to go back to a sense of dread,” asserted narrative director Sam Winkler.
We also learn about some of the factions we’re going to be dealing with on Kairos: there’s a group of crash-landed rebels called the Outbounders, and there are the Augurs, descendants of the original miners who were stationed on Kairos by the Timekeeper. There’s also the elegantly-dressed Electi, a group of fallen nobles forcibly impoverished by the arrival of Elpis.
Honestly, the whole thing sounds pretty compelling, and a big step-up from the narrative offerings in Borderlands 3. A good idea is just an idea until we see how Gearbox executes it, but perhaps Randy Pitchford’s excitement about the studio’s upcoming title has merit this time around.
