Gearbox has admitted we’re not seeing Borderlands 3 any time soon, but that didn’t stop word leaking out that a new game was on the way. Sure enough, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is now official…and it isn’t coming from Gearbox.
Essentially, the game is about Handsome Jack taking over Pandora with a team of four people fighting their way through Pandora’s moon. It’s a side story, really, and seemingly mostly an excuse to bring more Handsome Jack to the table after you gunned him down at the end of Borderlands 2. Here’s the head of 2K Australia talking about the game:
The good news is that while the developer has switched, they’ve kept the writing staff, so the game will still be the usual mix of insane rambling and pop culture jokes we know and love. Also interesting is that the four main characters are from Borderlands 2, as boss characters: You can play as Wilhelm, who slowly becomes more robotic; the Sheriff of Lynchwood; the Crimson Lance assassin Athena; and… well, Claptrap. Yes, Claptrap’s camera is set lower than the other characters; we’re guessing he’s the Gunzerker of this particular go-round.
There are some elements that give pause. First of all, the game commits to the moon setting, which means that you’re fighting in low gravity, have limited oxygen and corpses (and potentially loot) float away into the void. There are plenty of indoor sections, apparently, but those timed areas promise to be really, really annoying if they’re done wrong. Similarly, the game introduces a “laser” class of weapons, so we’ll have to see how those balance out.
But, hey, more guns, more violence, and apparently elemental effects added to Goomba-stomping your enemies are all good things. This is coming for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC later this year.