#1

One big thing about Borderlands 3 is that it won’t take place just on Pandora, but rather several planets. I am looking forward to this, but I am also hoping it is done well. I think at the moment, the trailer has confirmed at least 4 different planets, and I’m expecting that the final game may have something like 5 or 6 planets.

I feel a little anxious because one thing I actually love about BL1 and BL2 is how connected the levels are. BL1 it feels like a big journey in the first half of the game to progress from Fyrestone to New Haven, while in BL2 as we do more and more missions, the world just seems to expand further and further. In BL3 however, I guess what we are looking at in a way, is like a series of DLC packs. In the DLC packs, like Knoxx or Scarlett or Claptastic Voyage, they took place in a group of locations seperated from the main game’s map.

So I hope that each planet we do visit feels very substantial, hence why I feel like I’d rather have say just 6 planets rather than a dozen small planets. I don’t want to visit a planet, do everything there is in 2 hours, then leave and never come back. As much as I love the fact that it seems like perhaps every living Borderlands character will return in BL3, I do hope we see some new NPCs on each planet, and give each planet its own problems, so it doesn’t feel like a planet could of just been another biome on Pandora, like say the Maliwan planet has the residents wanting to overthrow them. Also hoping for details like each planet having their own reskin of the ammo/gun/medical machines, rather than it just revealed that Marcus and Zed are now intergalatic traders. (Unessential, but I’m also hoping the Maliwan planet has Maliwan vending machines, like the Torgue ones from the Torgue DLC.)

To me, I like how in Borderlands, it feels like a big journey, and I hope the planet jumping doesn’t hurt the flow. Pandora is meant to be where we start, so I hope that has a decent sized place, and after we leave we can maybe come back for some side quests later on in the game.

So yeah, I think having Borderlands confined to Pandora was out of the question after all the biomes introduced in BL2, so I think this is the right step, but I do hope we don’t lose anything in the process.

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#2

There’s just so much we don’t know yet. If the skill trees are as vast as we think, the game is going to be huge and the story long in order to be able to allocate skill points. I’m really hoping each planet has more content than bl2. If that’s the case, holy ■■■■. I also wonder if we can hop from planets or is it gonna be linear. Start on Pandora and then go to this planet, etc.

I’m also hoping there’s a planet we visit that we haven’t seen similar to elpis. Butt slamming is one of my favorite things to do.

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#3

The vanilla game might also have 4 Vaults (assuming that each of the 4 vault keychains you get in the Diamond Collector’s edition represents a different Vault Key that exists in the game).
I can see there being at least 4 other non-Pandora locations with a Vault in each. If that’s the case that’s 4 Vaults, 4 Vault Monsters, 4 potential Raid Boss versions of said monsters, and lots of lootsplosions.

Then there’s the 4 Campaign DLC of the SP. Which each might have a Vault of their own and take place in a brand new planet.

Very exciting to think of the possibilities.

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#4

I have faith that they are doing it right. I echo that sentence

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#5

I think Borderlands 3 is going to be significantly bigger than BL2, but I really doubt that every planet will have more stuff in it than all of Borderlands 2, unless there was just 2 planets. I think BL3 will be bigger, but not on that kindof scale.

Hoping it isn’t linear. Hopefully we unlock fast travel fairly quickly, and I actually hope we can return to planets later on for further side quests. Pandora is meant to be the first planet but I hope, say, mid way through the game, we unlock side quests for it to go back.

I’d love that to happen but not sure on how likely it is. I love the notion that the plot of BL3 would essentially be a giant treasure hunt, abit like BL1 on steroids. But at the risk of being cynical, it wouldn’t surprise me if BL3 just gets 1 raid boss, and the DLCs get a raid boss each, so that you have to buy the season pass if you want more post game stuff.

In a perfect world though, I do love the idea of getting a Vault on each planet and boss during the main story, but I wouldn’t want them to be the raid bosses, I’d rather the raid bosses were unique. I’d love to reach the end of BL3, kill the Calypso twins, get back to base, and have Tannis tell me that 4 Vaults with 4 super bosses have turned up. Again though, I’m trying to manage my expectations.

Here’s hoping that they bring back the Seraph currency, and don’t limit it to the DLCs this time, especially if the base game does have more than 1 raid boss.

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#6

Bonus points if at some point we help Mr Torgue blow up a planet? >.> Because explosions?

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#8

I’ve heard that too - one worry I have is what it will do to the length of a single playthrough. Part of BL appeal to me is doing it with different characters, but if each one takes 50+ hours, it might become tough. I have a job, you know… And that’s before we get into TVHM/UVHM/DLC/OP etc.

Good problem to have, of course.

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#9

I feel that worry real hard. I spend weeks at a time out of state for work and the size of the game might mean I’ll be unable to complete it for weeks after I get it.
Or I’ll just start bringing my Xbox to work

#10

I’m honestly starting to believe there won’t be multiple playthroughs this time around. Everything will scale with you right from the start and a single playthrough will be enough to get a character to max level. And then maybe there will be an extra game mode later on for the people who might want a higher difficulty at endgame, similar to the OP levels. I could be wrong of course, but I think the NVHM>TVHM>UVHM progression will be a thing of the past.

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#11

I certainly hope you are right. When you take a step back, the current “3 playthroughs to get max level” is a terribly inefficient chore.

At a minimum, if multiple playthroughs are going to still be a thing, the second (and third?) playthroughs should offer more variety. TPS cracked the door open with the new dialogue, but I think there is a lot of room for improvement. More variations in how quests finish, different branches, additional story beats, etc. Something more than “20 more skill points and rabid stalkers…yay”.

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#12

I could certainly see things trending this way, but I still prefer the multiple playthrough style of the past.
That first playthrough of the game feels like a new game should, full of wonder and that gradual development until you beat it. Then you start the whole thing over and can actually begin the quintessential borderlands experience of farming for perfect loot, experimenting with different skills, and just all around mastering the game in ways that weren’t possible in the first playthrough.
At least it’s my opinion that this process makes the endgame more rewarding, I just hope it’s not a 60 hour investment just for one playthrough

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#13

That’s a good alternative. I’d certainly be on board with that.

I understand that and I’d also be a little sad to see it go, even though I’m not that attached to the concept. The thing is, THREE complete playthroughs always felt like too much to me, even in BL2 (but that was a result of the level cap being increased after release). If they stick to the multiple playthrough method for BL3, I’d be satisfied with two playthroughs per character - specially if each playthrough will take that much longer to complete now.

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#14

Could you imagine if there was still a second playthrough that was actually Marcus re-telling the story to children with dialogue blurts and interruptions like in TPS and the narritives he did at the beginning and end of some of the DLC’s in the series?

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#15

The devs mentioned it would be around 30 hours to complete is you rushed only the main story.