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All the Details in the Borderlands 3 Reveal
After five long, loot-less years, Borderlands 3 has finally revealed it’s big, beautiful face with a lengthy reveal trailer that shows off a ton. There are new worlds, new vault hunters, new enemies, and yes, new guns. We’re going to point out all the new and returning aspects we can find.
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New Big Bads
Presumably, these are the leaders of a Cult known as the Children of the Vault.
Not to be confused with the Marvel Comics group of the same name - are an enemy faction making their official series debut in Borderlands 3, though this isn’t their first rodeo in the franchise. The cult actually appeared in the Borderlands: Origins comics way back in 2012, and were also referenced in some DLC for Battleborn, Gearbox’s 2016 hero shooter.
At a glance, it’s probably safe to say that Tyreen is one of the last few Sirens, considering the markings on her arm. Sirens are generally female, but if you take another look at Troy, it appears he has some red glowing Siren runes on his face, which would indicate he’s somehow managed to acquire Siren abilities. Oh, and he has a giant mech arm. Sweet.
Vault Hunters
What’s a Borderlands game without some of the original Vault Hunters? Lilith, the playable Siren in the original Borderlands and your ally in Borderlands 2, will be making a return.
Later in the trailer, she is seen apparently struggling with the cult leaders as she crawls towards what looks like vault key. The biggest detail here is that Lilith’s Siren runes are missing from her arm and chest, indicating she has likely been stripped of her powers. Is it possible these two cult leaders have the ability to siphon the powers of Sirens to use for their own?
Fast forward a little more and we have Mordecai, Brick, and an all-grown-up Tiny Tina, who’s clearly still a kid at heart as she still carries around one of these plush rabbits. We don’t know exactly how much time has passed, but she seems to be at least out of her teens, so it’s safe to assume it’s been almost a decade since the events of Borderlands 2.
As with each Borderlands game, there are four new Hunters to choose from. It’s no different here, most of which are still nameless.
Starting with Amara, our newest siren, Amara. Packing skills such as phase locking, shifting, and a whole lot of hands that looks to end in a giant electric explosion.
Here we have what appears to be a more stealth-based class; who can summon a duplicate version of himself likely meant to distract enemies, just like Zero was able to do in Borderlands 2.
Next, the alleged “beastmaster” looks as though he has the ability to summon beasts to his side to fight alongside him. Notice the eye on the Skagg - it’s very similar to the mask the hunter wears. Also of note is the color coordination between the Skagg, Spiderant, and the new beast that looks kinda like a bullymong but with fewer arms. Perhaps it’s a sort of necromancer class akin to Diablo, and enemies slain can be brought back to fight.
Finally, we come to the character that was teased back at GDC in 2017, who has the ability to summon a mech that digitizes into the world and is fully controlled by the player. Rewind a little and you can see here that another player is able to jump on it’s back and seize control of the mini gun.
The World(s) of Borderlands 3
Let’s take a look at the setting. Or perhaps more accurately, settings. This time around, it appears we’ll be leaving Pandora, but not permanently since we see a lot of the Arid Badlands throughout the trailer. That said, looking at some of the quick flashes of never before seen locations, it’s clear some of these are different worlds. Most notably, the sprawling metropolis. It’s like something taken straight out of Blade Runner, but with the saturation turned way up. Our guess is that this is Promethea. While references in past games state that Promethea’s living conditions aren’t anything to write home about, it could be central to the many corporations in the Borderlands universe. Let’s just hope this city is fully explorable.
Speaking of Hammerlock, he’s back! Seen alongside someone who appears to be Aurelia. Aurelia, Sir Hammerlock’s Sister, is a playable character that debuted in DLC for The Pre-Sequel. We aren’t exactly sure who this is next to her, perhaps an aged Vaughn from Tales from the Borderlands? Speaking of, the trailers also reveals Tales From the Borderlands’s Rhys, the former Hyperion employee who’s now the owner and CEO of Atlas. To his right is Zero, the playable Assassin in Borderlands 2. And to his left, is what appears to be a Crimson Lance soldier. Which makes sense, since the Crimson Lance is a privatized military force run by Atlas. Among some other returning characters we see is the arms dealer Marcus Kincaid, Patricia Tannis, and of course everyone’s CL4P-TP unit...Clap Trap.
Cannon Fodder
And lastly, we come to the various enemy combatants in the new trailer. There are plenty of returning bad guys, like Psychos, Goliaths, Varkids, and of course that Crimson Lance soldier we mentioned earlier. There’s also a few new enemy types shown off, too.
There’s that primate fella we already covered, but the real star of the show is the huge dino-esque beast. Considering its skull is huge and tough looking, it’s likely that its only crit spot will be when it opens its mouth to spew flames at you, similar to that of a skagg, but… y’know… with fire.
Perhaps the most important new enemies shown with a very quick glance are a set of robots. Right off the bat, it’s apparent they’re likely aligned and operated by the Maliwan corporation, thanks to their orange, white, blue, and hexagonal patterns, which are identical to Maliwan-branded guns. The little floating servitor style orbs hovering next to them appear to be a helper of sorts, though whether or not that means it heals them during combat or will just shoot at you as a distraction is unclear.
So there are all the most important details we noticed in the Borderlands 3 reveal. Did you see anything that we left out? Let us know in the comments below, and for more on Borderlands 3 as we learn more about it, stay right here with IGN.
Brian Malkiewicz is a video producer for IGN, and he likes Borderlands way too much. If you're looking for someone to nerd out about Borderlands with, follow him on Twitter.