“The pressure is on Gearbox to
top Borderlands 2, and the boast
is now billions of guns”
Borderlands 2 followed in 2012,
and upped the number of possible
weapon varieties considerably,
boasting something like 17 million gun
variations. With Borderlands 3, then,
the pressure is on Gearbox to top that,
and the boast is now billions of guns.
Roughly, to catch you up, the
Borderlands story is this: far into the
future, megacorporations seek to
exploit the mineral wealth of various
planets, and the Atlas Corporation
has uncovered an ancient alien
vault on the planet Pandora, which
it believes to be stuffed with all
kinds of advanced tech and mineral
riches. Atlas having failed to settle
the inhospitable planet or find the
vault, the rival Dahl corporation also
had a crack at it, using convicted
criminals as mining labour. Atlas
returned with military force and Dahl
Corporation skipped town, leaving
a bit of a mess of industrial scrap
heaps and forcing the colonists to
scavenge the wastelands and leaving
the now-free convicts to form psycho
raider gangs. Into this Mad Max-style
setting step the mercenary Vault
Hunters, searching for the now-
legendary riches thought to be found
in the alien vault somewhere on the
planet. As one of four playable Vault
Hunters, the game had you facing off
against raiders, private militias and
indigenous monsters in your quest
for precious loot. Borderlands 2 had
different characters but more of the
same mayhem, so let’s skip any more
explanation and jump straight to
outing number three, seemingly seven
years in the making and the most
thorough, refined and frankly huge
Borderlands game yet.
Sage and Pitchford’s unveiling of
Borderlands 3 is for the most part
a hands-off gameplay introduction
in which we are reintroduced to
the series’ entertaining robot NPC,
Claptrap. Now ‘General Claptrap’, the
talkative droid welcomes us to the
Crimson Raiders. Lilith, from the first
game and now leader of the Crimson
Raiders, is recruiting new Vault
Hunters to investigate a dangerous
new psycho cult called the Children
of the Vault that has sprung up
on Pandora. Claptrap – who veers
between bossy, amusingly irritating
and pathetically insecure – first asks
for our help in taking over the cult’s
recruitment centre. Bluffing our way
into the compound starts a fight
with the Children, in which we see
demonstrated just how the mechanics
of the game will work this time.
In order to stay competitive, some
of the game’s gun manufacturers
have included alternate firing modes
in their guns, so the Vladof pistol
equipped in the demo has a regular
bullet mode; pressing Y will switch to
the alternate mode which fires mini-
missiles. We also learn a little more
about where the story will be headed.
Essentially Lilith is looking for a mapto the Vault, and it’s a race to get it
against the Children Of The Vault, who
doubtlessly want that prized tech for
their evil ends.That’s Amara
The first of OXM’s gameplay sessions
puts us in control of the Vault Hunter
Amara; a tough Siren with crazy-big
biceps and a washboard six-pack.
Sirens, by word of explanation,
are women with mystical powers
and distinctive tattoos that mark
them out as Siren sisters; there
are supposedly only six Sirens in
existence at any one time. Previously
we have seen three Sirens: the
playable characters Lilith from
Borderlands, Maya from Borderlands 2,
and an NPC called Angel.ABOVE In classic
RPG style, you
can see just how
many points of
damage you’re
doing to
enemies.
BELOW The neon,
futuristic
Meridian
Metroplex
welcomes careful
shooters.BORDERLANDS 3
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 049