What We Learned from the Borderlands 3 Gameplay Reveal.

She's buff. She's tough. She's quite clearly had enough.

On May 1st, Gearbox Software gave us our first in-depth look at the up-and-coming Borderlands 3 and fans got an hour-long sneak peak of unedited gameplay.

The demo gave fans their first look at two of the four new playable characters. Amara, The Siren can use her powers to summon six massive spectral arms to pummel enemies to death. Zane, The Operative has many different gadgets at his disposal such as an attack drone and a decoy device that allows him to teleport across the battlefield.

Nothing has been shown yet of the other two protagonists, Moze and FL4K.

You can’t have good guys without bad guys and Gearbox made sure to show off their new villains, the Calypso twins. Tyreen and Troy are the leaders of The Children of the Vault, a cult made up of Psychos and Bandits that view the siblings as Gods. The twins are also described as the ‘super annoying and super douchey’ Twitch streamers/YouTubers that we’ve all been exposed to at some point or another. Whether they’ll be able to topple the legacy that previous fan favourite antagonist, Handsome Jack, has left behind will be seen in September.

Tyreen and Troy Calypso are the outer space equivalent of Jake and Logan Paul.

When it comes to actual gameplay, there are many brand new and incredibly welcome additions to Borderlands 3. One of those is loot-instancing meaning that each player in co-op will receive their own unique loot. There’ll be no more ‘Loot Ninjas’ sliding in to swipe up all the goods before their teammates can. But if you totally want to be that guy that pilfers everything then do not fear as loot-instancing can be turned off.

Loot will also be automatically scaled according to the level of each individual player in co-op. Just like loot-instancing, the level scaling can be turned off using Classic Mode.

Weapons in Borderlands 3 are in high supply with Gearbox boasting that a whopping one billion firearms can be found in-game. There’s big guns. There’s small guns. There’s even guns with legs. You name it, BL3 has it.

Everybody gangsta till the guns start walkin'.

Player movement has also been given a much-needed revamp. The four controllable Vault Hunters can now fluidly move in and out of firefights using running slides and cover mantling.

Another big feature that was on display in the demo was the evident changes to the Skill Tree. Each character now has three skills instead of the previous games’ one. However, only one skill can be equipped at a time unless you’re playing as Zane who can use two. This is to add in the idea of players having to strategise how they want to approach a fight and build their character up into whichever class they choose.

In addition to all of this, for the first time in the series, players will be able to leave the blighted hellscape that is Pandora and explore a plethora of other planets. One new world that was shown in the gameplay reveal was the futuristic metropolis, Promethea. It’s here that players will encounter much loved characters like Borderlands 2’s Zer0 and Tales from the Borderlands’ Rhys.

To get to these other planets, players will have to access their spaceship, Sanctuary 3. The giant hub plays host to the players quarters, which can be modified and decorated with your favourite guns. There’s even a lost and found machine for any loot you have may have misplaced on your adventures. Additionally, players can customise their character’s appearance.

Home sweet home.

Many returning characters have also set up shop on Sanctuary 3. Marcus, Tannis, Ellie, Hammerlock and Mad Moxxi all return to supply the player with weapons, medicine, vehicles, bounty hunts and drinks for the road. Even Claptrap, everyone’s least favourite irritating robot, is also back once more to annoy us all to hell and back again.

Sadly, it doesn’t appear that players will be able to pilot Sanctuary 3. You will, however, be able to use hyperspeed to quickly jump back and forth between planets.

At the reveal event, Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford promised that there would be no microtransactions or loot boxes. Which, surprise, surprise, is not true.

Classic Randy.

Pitchford took to Twitter to clarify his comments, explaining that there will be microtransactions, but they’ll be limited to cosmetic items and skin packs. He also confirmed that there will be a number of story DLC’s.

It’s expected that we’ll see more from Borderlands 3 at E3, PAX and Gamescom in the coming months.

From what's been shown so far, BL3 is looking to be one of the best shooters of this generation.

You can watch the whole gameplay presentation bellow.