One of the biggest elements of Borderlands 4 and the previous entries in the franchise is the fact that you have legions of weapons that you can wield to take out anyone and everyone that you come across. It’s a fun time, and it’s one of the things that players look forward to the most with each new entry. With the newest entry coming on Friday, fans have noticed that one of the biggest weapon manufacturers of the past few entries, Hyperion Weapons, hasn’t gotten a big spotlight in the weapons department this time. So, what is going on here, Gearbox Software?
Grant Kao, the developer’s Creative Associate Director, explained to Restart that there are two reasons for this “downplayed” role in Borderlands 4. The first is about the gameplay and how the guns themselves work when you use them:
“Part of the reason why the Hyperion manufacturer does not fully return … is because the behavior that was connected with the Hyperion manufacturer was that you would start very inaccurate. But as you held down the fire button for, like, an assault rifle or SMG or whatnot, it would become extremely accurate, the most accurate gun, but it would have to require you to unload at least the beginning or half of the mag to get there.”
Then, there’s the “lore reason” for what’s happening with Hyperion. For long-time franchise fans know, the head of this particular manufacturer was none other than Handsome Jack, the most famous villain of the series. Many of the games had you working against him in some capacity, despite him giving you the weapons that you were using most of the time.
He was finally defeated in a previous entry, so for Gearbox Software, it made sense to have his company take a tumble and not be as “widespread” in its weapon distribution as it was before. The good news about this is that this allowed them to bring in new weapon groups to “shake things up,” including a brand-new one for the game that ties into the main story: Order.
This whole situation actually shows a nice initiative by Gearbox Software to not “play it safe” and keep things rolling like they did before, but to keep things growing and updated so that the world, and by extension, the universe, of their title would feel like it’s an ever-evolving thing, and that what the players/Vault Hunters did in past titles truly do shape things.
