Borderlands 4 continues to march on despite the perception—reality in some ways—that the game and the franchise are on the ropes. Story Pack 2, called FL4K and The Last Resort, aims to do that by reintroducing a fan favorite Vault Hunter whose past and personality beg for more to be uncovered. They kept information on FL4K and his details close to the chest, focusing mostly on the world they've built and how we can interact with it, but as has happened with every previous Vault Hunter making an appearance in the next game, we're undoubtedly going to see another side of the pet-supporting Vault Hunter.
Story Pack 2 takes place on a new island on Kairos called Providence. It's an area that shares similarities with Kairos's vibrant colors, but exchanges lush green hues for purples, oranges, and aqua greens. The concept art shown paints a distinct picture of what it could look like to run through an area that is meant to deliver very distinct tropical vibes.
Chris Neely, art director, explained how they wanted to approach Providence. "We all play the main game, so we really wanted to explore something different that felt environmentally very different from the main game. So we tried to turn every knob we could. We designed the biome from the ground up, and even the color palette. We've leaned into these really cool pastels, and the idea of an iridescent jungle to really help make it feel exotic and not overlap with anything in the main game."
After Elpis collided with Kairos's veil, sometime after that event, Tediore found the planet and specifically zeroed in on Providence to gather a valuable resource. They also captured Mr. Chew, FL4K's Skag pet, which is what gets FL4K involved. The team is excited to mention that the Tediore enemies have also been built from the ground up. "The whole idea of [Tediore weapons are disposable] and cheaply made," Chris Neely says. "We had to walk a line of like, how do we make the Tediore army feel compelling, but they're not the S-tier manufacturers that we have in the rest of the game. How do we show that, and how do we embrace that? And Digistruct was a big part of that, and so now even their ship carriers, their big troop carrier, doesn't actually carry troops, it carries big servers, and everything just digistructs."
I couldn't help but notice some of the designs resembled Hyperion Badass loaders. They acknowledged the similarity, but mentioned their functions were very different. Matt Higgins, expert game designer, described some of the mechs' functions. "They can digistruct in different attachments, like different types of weapons, different kinds of attachments which buff the surrounding units, or spawn in new units. You see some with, like, a big antenna and a bubble around, and any friendly infantry which is inside will get buffed by this support map. There's a lot of cool variety of what the mechs can spawn onto themselves."
"So there's badass versions of these, too," Chris mentions, "...that'll have these antennas on them, and until you get them, they'll keep infinitely spawning and regenerating their army, you know—they're tapped into the server. You gotta rethink your shit when you're fighting them."
Concept art for Providence
Tediore infantry, called Dead Frames, are also going to operate in sync with their metal counterparts, and use precursor exoskeleton technology similar to Rafa. "What players are fighting here with these frames," Matt Higgins explains, "are kind of a prototype, clunkier version of what Rafa is wearing. So you kind of see the evolution of their tech." And when they're killed? "The robot kind of regens a little and comes back and just continues fighting. So this big kind of relentless threat that players fight, throughout Tediore combats."
Despite attempting to push the limits of fights and building an area from the ground up with a unique visual flair, Chris mentions they wanted to return to form, particularly with Lieutenant Harmony, a character inspired by General Knoxx from Borderlands 1.
Chris Neely explains. "We tried to do a lot of new things, and explore new territories, which is great about Borderlands. And with this one, we wanted to do a little bit of a return to form, and General Knoxx was also a big inspiration for just, like, the kind of simplicity and getting back to the basics of the gun manufacturers, and with Harmony herself, we wanted her to feel over the top—not just like a glorified NPC—but a big, larger-than-life character that you're gonna remember. And we took those cues from Rafa's exosuit and made a super elite version for her, again, just to make her larger than life and a threat all on her own. She has this army, but if it comes down to it, she can hold her own and do it herself and handle it."
Screenshots of the Tediore army
Story Pack 2 could be the shot in the arm Borderlands 4 needs, considering how much Gearbox are taking swings and risks with how they're approaching environments and enemies. What's here is compelling, but we'll have to wait until September 10 to see how it turns out.
