'Borderlands 4' (Image: Gearbox)
The seventh edition of the hit Western sci-fi space-based looter-shooter role-playing game, Borderlands. Gearbox Software announced Borderlands 4 on August 20, and it was officially released on September 12.
Borderlands 4 differs from its predecessors, giving players the option to skip the campaign section of the game. The campaign in the Borderlands franchise is a progression of quests that introduces major bosses, advances the story through cutscenes, and builds toward the game’s finale.
Online Discussion
In Borderlands 3, fans were disappointed in the game’s campaign, saying it was a let-down narratively compared to the previous games. Under the Borderlands 3 discussion board on Steam, a user posted, “Borderlands 3: The most controversial story of the series and therefore the greatest,” which sparked discord in the replies. In response to the post, a user commented, “It’s not controversial, from a narrative standpoint it’s just bad. Also controversial doesn’t equal good anyway.” Another continued with, “There is no controversy, the story is poorly written, pure and simple.” Others came to the original poster’s defense, “I’d argue that those disappointed by controversial writing aren’t really fans. But that’s for another discussion,” a user noted.
Campaign Skip
As a result of the primarily negative takeaways from the Borderlands 3 campaign, Gearbox decided to add a skip feature for the Borderlands 4 campaign. On the Epic Games Borderlands 4 guide, it reads, “One of the biggest changes to Borderlands 4‘s Ultimate Vault Hunter mode is that you can now create new characters that start at Level 30—and yes, you get to skip the campaign, too,” along with PC Gamer calling it “a double-edged sword for Gearbox.”
PC Gamer elaborates that players would appreciate Gearbox incorporating a skip dialogue feature instead of skipping the whole campaign section, stating “Rather than ironing out many of the kinks people like myself had with that game’s structure in the sequel, it could be very much intentional that we never replay the campaign, and that starting from level 30 is effectively the new norm.”
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