Every video game is different, even when it’s the next game in a franchise or the next title that a specific team has made. As such, every game has to have its own “care” applied to it so that things can go smoothly over time. For games like Borderlands 4, the “care” that needs to be applied involves things like weapon balancing. We’ve talked quite a bit about the weapons of Gearbox Software’s latest title, mainly because there have been some “busted” combos that players have discovered and shared that were worth talking about. The problem for them, though, is that Gearbox doesn’t like that there are so many busted tools in the game that can wipe out bosses.
So, in a series of updates that’ll happen, the team will nerf things such as the infamous “Crit Knife” to ensure that things are balanced. On Twitter, many weren’t happy about this:
“Nerfs in a singleplayer experience is a sh*t a** take and all of the ones asking for it should be ashamed,is that people can’t have fun ? It’s not like this is a COD sweatfest where everyone is whining about how op that weapon is or some shit like that.”
This is a fair argument to make. After all, Borderlands 4 is primarily a single-player title. At best, it’s one you can play with friends, but those friends aren’t trying to kill one another. Instead, they’re trying to work together to get things done, including killing bosses with extreme prejudice. With a “busted weapon,” that can happen with ease, and then they can move on to do whatever they want.
The game’s Creative Director, though, had different feelings on the matter. He pointed out that if Gearbox Software had kept things as they were, it would potentially ruin many of the updates and content that were coming down the line:
“We have future content like the upcoming Invincible that we want players to find challenge/accomplishment in. If we balanced that content around bad gear, it would remove build diversity, forcing players into specific builds using said gear.”
That’s a fair point to make, too. The problem with busted weapons isn’t that they exist, but that they can become a crutch, and something that many will be “forced to use” just to get by. Plus, they did announce the new Invincible boss content recently, and if certain busted weapons still exist when they arrive, the challenge won’t be there at all.
