New Concept Art for Borderlands 4 Highlights a Potentially Darker Tone

Borderlands people will know that, despite a decidedly tongue-in-cheek approach to all things represented in the series, this IP has some very, very dark undertones. Over the years and with each iteration, however, that suggested layer of wicked has always sort of been outshone by the game's cel-shaded visuals which give it an almost comic book-come-to-life look and feel.

The reveal of Borderlands 4 at this year's Gamescom, however, gave us a very interesting teaser of things, the least of which was that cel-shaded art-style, and perhaps a look at a new visual identity for the franchise moving forward.

At PAX West recently, a handful of Gearbox Software devs took to the stage to chat about some of the things we can expect with the next instalment in the series, and while it really wasn't anything we didn't already suspect, the sharing of some of the concept art around the game, coupled with the overall tone of that reveal trailer, was a bit absent from proceedings. Check out the trailer below for context:



When you watch that and have a skim through said concept art, it's not a stretch to consider that we might be in for a less, for lack of a better way to put it, bubblegum, entry in the series. And while it might still be that cel-shaded presentation overall, there's a lot of detail in these concept pieces and one of the key gripes from critcs and punters alike over the years has been the game's lack of depth when considering the world and its limited aspects of interactivity. In short, we might get more RPG in our whole experience rather than just in loot, numbers and archetypes.

And we'd be on board with that, because Borderlands and the world of Pandora are ripe for the deeper story pickings. (Let it be known we respect that there is story and depth, but, like, we just want it deeper!)

Check out the concept art in our carousel below and stay tuned for new updates on the game as they come through.