Borderlands 4 is proving itself to be quite the ambitious game, even by the lofty standards set by previous games in the series. But I’m getting ahead of myself. In this preview, I’m going to go over my general thoughts on Borderlands 4 so far. For the gameplay, we are running a scenario that should be familiar to most people at this point: the assault on Idolator Sol‘s fortress.
Before all that, I would like to thank Gearbox Software and 2K Games for giving us at Sirus Gaming the opportunity to play Borderlands 4 early. With all that said and done, let’s get right into it.
So, this is the situation we find ourselves in. Our Vault Hunter arrives in the Fadefield, where they have to team up with a group called the Crimson Resistance. We can’t go into specifics right now, let’s just say that we share the same goals: the elimination of Idolator Sol, one of the Timekeeper‘s lieutenants. Buckle up, Vault Hunters, we are taking the fight to Sol’s fortress.
The assault on the fortress is a coordinated strike orchestrated by members of the Crimson Resistance and us Vault Hunters. It was deemed that a frontal assault was the only option afforded to us with what little momentum we had going. It was now or never, as the only other option was sitting back and letting Idolator Sol do as he pleases. We couldn’t allow that to happen.
In this scenario, I was playing as the Exo Soldier, Rafa. Fun fact: I knew I wanted to play this character from the jump as he looked an awful lot like a Destiny 2 Hunter. His wielding of Arc Blades was but the cherry on top. What really cemented my choice was learning his backstory from his official Character Short. (I never looked at Tediore weapons the same way after that.)
The combat was fast and furious. It reminded me of my days playing Destiny 2 when I was mixing in movement tech to stay alive. I mean, we’ve always had movement in Borderlands games, but this was the first time I instinctively fell back to my Destiny ways. It didn’t help that the weapons I carried were an arsenal I would have on my Guardian. Let’s take the sniper rifle, for instance. It’s from The Order, the newest weapon manufacturer in the game. Their specialty is loading more rounds into the chamber for a devastating single shot. It was the closest thing to a Legendary version of Izanagi’s Burden I was going to get in Borderlands 4.
The rest of my preferred loadout was your typical fare of grenade underbarrel assault rifles and slow-moving SMG rounds (ala Osteo Striga). I felt at home using these weapons, and unless something truly great comes along, I don’t think I will be straying too far from these families of weapons.
Once inside the fortress, our mission was to disable Sol’s airship to prevent him from launching a strike on the Crimson Resistance. To do this, we had to pull down the clamps holding the ship in place. I actually lost a bit here as I couldn’t quite figure out where I was supposed to position myself. The confusion quickly wore off, and I immediately went to work. In retrospect, I could have used my scanner for a quick hint. But I quickly learned early on that you need to rely a little more on your deduction skills in this game.
The fight versus Idolator Sol was definitely the highlight of this preview. The Timekeeper lieutenant was more than just a bullet sponge; he was a puzzle that needed to be solved. You see, Sol has this nano machine armor that’s impervious to all attacks. To break it, you’ll need to green charges that have the nano machine swarm on a delayed explosion. Oddly enough, the nano machine swarm is the only thing that can damage the armor. It’s only after throwing the charge at him do we have a chance at damaging the boss.
Every once in a while, mobs would drop in, complicating matters. If you allow the mobs to live for too long, Idolator Sol will consume them and restore his armor. Making killing mobs a priority. This turns into another headache as you want to keep mobs alive so you can kill them should you ever go down. It was quite an impossible choice. I had to do everything I could to stay alive and kill the mobs as quickly as possible, and stay away from Sol‘s attacks. It was like doing solo runs in a D2 dungeon all over again. I couldn’t ask for a better time.
The preview ends with the gooey defeat of Idolator Sol. It was quite a well-orchestrated fight. If the rest of the boss battles are going to be more intense than this, then I have plenty to look forward to. Whatever hopes I had for this game before the preview, they were all the higher now than ever. This especially applies to what the game will look like post-campaign. But I suppose you can look forward to seeing that in my full review due next week when the game releases.
