According to statements made by Borderlands 4 director Sam Winkler, the upcoming game will be pivoting away from the series’ long-established comedic stylings. This shift is reflected in the Borderlands 4 reveal trailer, which communicates a more serious, less irreverent tone than previous entries in the franchise. And while everyone likes a good laugh every once in a while, reeling in the humor a bit seems like the right choice for this next chapter in the Borderlands saga.
Borderlands is a storied franchise with fervent supporters, but even its biggest fans can find its tone hard to stomach, especially in the wake of the cringe-inducing Borderlands 3. Comedy is subjective, of course, but Borderlands‘ approach to humor has received plenty of well-deserved criticism for being overly juvenile, scatological, and, quite frankly, obnoxious. After so many games with the same emphasis on gross-out humor and immature, meme-like jokes, it has gotten a little old—something that Winkler himself has been quite vocal about, stating that he would “cry real tears” if Borderlands 4 winds up with the same flavor of comedy as its predecessors. But while this change in direction is smart, it should also be measured, so as to not adulterate the series’ identity too much.
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Even before the widely-panned Borderlands film adaptation, the long-running looter-shooter franchise had something of a complicated reputation. On the one hand, audiences and critics alike have heaped praise on the series for its wide assortment of unique weapons and strong combat mechanics, and its lore, while not revolutionary, definitely has enough meat for players to chew on. But the comedy, ever since the first game, has a tendency to be more grating than funny.
Aside from a questionable reliance on grossness and randomness rather than cleverness for jokes (see: “Butt Stallion”), the franchise leans into a frustratingly meta, self-aware, and referential style. In other words, Borderlands can channel the qualities of the worst memes, where the “joke” is just a reference to something that the audience members are already aware of. For instance, characters may laugh when the number 69 appears, and that’s supposed to be the joke: there’s no punchline or clever spin on it—the game is just pointing out that 69 is a supposedly funny number.
Borderlands 4 Doesn’t Need To Get Overly Sober
While giving the middle-school comedy a rest will undoubtedly be a good thing for Borderlands 4, it would also be a shame for it to grow more sophisticated and mature than it needs to be. While some video games, like American McGee’s Alice, have succeeded in taking lighthearted source material and making it dark and gritty, many others have tried and failed at such departures. It wouldn’t be too hard to imagine Borderlands 4 falling into this latter category, going too far in the opposite direction of its predecessors, replacing the toilet humor with abject shock value, dark and dour plot beats, or otherwise depressing themes. Such an extreme shift perhaps wouldn’t be as annoying as Borderlands 3‘s cringey dialog and immature jokes, but it would arguably be far more boring.
To put a fine point on it, it’s safe to say that cringe is a lesser evil than dull. The Borderlands series deserves better than highly niche humor that most players will find insufferable, but it also shouldn’t morph into just another run-of-the-mill, too-safe FPS—the industry has more than enough of those already. Luckily, this seems unlikely, as Winkler has suggested that some of Borderlands‘ signature comedy will return in Borderlands 4. Hopefully, the game will just feature a more refined version of it.
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Looter Shooter
Action
Adventure
RPG
- Franchise
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Borderlands
- Released
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2025-00-00
