When you think about games with weapons, and specifically, ones where certain kinds of weapons or abilities have the potential to be quite “broken,” it’s an inevitable part of the process that the game dev team will look at the game itself and then “tweak things” via a patch so that things can be “more balanced.” Not every game does this, mind you, but many do try to keep things balanced so that everything is “more fair and fun.” Borderlands 4 is a game that you wouldn’t think needs such balancing and such, but one player has made it clear that it will happen, even if other players don’t want to admit it.
You can read the thoughts of said player below, who wasn’t shy about making his feelings known on the matter, and calling out others who didn’t think that the game needs “tweaks” of any kind:
The irony here is that we already know that one “tweak” is likely to happen, for as we talked about not too long ago, players have found a way to use the Vault Hunter weapons and abilities in such a way that you can kill any boss in under a minute through a special knife combo that basically makes them bleed out immediately and die. It’s a cool trick, and one that many are likely using right now, but it probably won’t last too much longer.
Given that there are 30 billion guns in the game, and there are plenty of skills for the Vault Hunters to unlock, it was just as inevitable that players would figure out a way to “mix and match” them so that unbelievable combos could be unleashed.
Another irony here is that Randy Pitchford, the Gearbox Software CEO who has had a LOT to say recently about fans and their “feedback,” noted before the game’s launch that he was fine with the players “breaking the game,” as they are the ultimate QA department in his mind. This is an example of that, and we’ll likely get more examples of that going forward.
The point of balancing in games like Borderlands 4 is to ensure that things not only “run smoothly” but that players don’t have an “easy out” to get through all of their problems. Or, in contrast, that nothing they do is “working enough” to get the job done. You want to feel powerful with your weapons, but if everything is a one-shot, then what’s the point? So, embrace the balances…if they come.
