Borderlands 4 finally has a trailer that has fans excited about the next chapter in the franchise, including myself. It looks like the game has cranked up the action to 11, with tons of new mechanics and characters, and a conflict on a scale unlike any the title has ever seen. Like previous games, there are four Vault Hunters to choose from, many unique locations to explore, and plenty of loot to find and collect.
Also like previous titles, the upcoming game will probably have something that's been a staple of the titles from the beginning: downloadable content. This time around, though, I'm hoping that the DLC won't repeat the same mistakes of the previous game to be released, Tiny Tina's Wonderland. Although the title isn't a typical entry in the Borderlands games, its main campaign was just as robust and well-developed as any of the other games. The DLC, however, left much to be desired, and I hope that it's not a sign of how DLC will be handled in the future.
Borderlands Has A Complicated History With DLC
The DLC Usually Adds Some Great Spinoff Stories
DLC has been a mainstay of the franchise ever since Borderlands 1, with every game in the series having at least three DLCs with additional campaigns, skins, loot, and a level cap increase. Although the downloadable campaigns have been hit or miss, they are generally solid additions to the game. These DLCs can typically be purchased individually or for a discount as a season pack (in all the games except for the first one).
Most of the downloadable packs include a new story and side-missions to explore. Sometimes the new missions take the form of arena levels for an enemy rush, such as the first Borderlands' DLC, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, where players had to clear increasingly difficult waves of enemies. Other times, they introduce completely new characters, like the titular Captain Scarlett from the Borderlands 2 DLC Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty.
Gearbox Software has scheduled Borderlands 4 for a 2025 release, and there are a number of features the game can improve the series with.
I play the games with my husband in split-screen, and we've learned to look forward to the silly add-on stories and interesting missions that DLC adds to the games. Our favorites are any of the ones relating to Hammerlock, with the incredible Lovecraftian mood of Guns, Love, And Tentacles being one of my favorite Borderlands content ever, though "Zed's undead, baby, Zed's undead!" has been a part of our vocabulary ever since the first title's The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned DLC.
Why Tiny Tina's Wonderland's DLCs Fell Flat
It Felt Rushed And Didn't Add Anything New To The Game
The DLCs for all the Borderlands games prior to Tiny Tina's Wonderland were used to explore cool new stories, do interesting things with the format, visit new places on and around Pandora, get to know a beloved character (like MR. TORGUE *GUITAR SOLO* in Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage), or generally add to the story or lore of the game.Tiny Tina's Wonderland Dreamveil Overlook DLC did, well, none of that.
After four games where my husband and I looked forward to the DLC after finishing the main campaign, we didn't even hesitate when we saw that the spin-off Tiny Tina's Wonderland would also have a season's pass. We had never been burned before, so we bought the pass before we even saw what the DLC would be.
In a game inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, where the possibilities were quite literally endless, the additional campaigns could have been so much fun.
The DLC turned out to all take place in one location, Dreamveil Overlook, which looked promising enough. The area looks like a dark version of a carnival, features one new character, a "wheel of fortune" where players can try their luck for loot, and "mirrors" that allow access to each of the four DLC areas. Inside each mirror is a new map with unique enemies to fight, which drop souls that can be used to spin the wheel.
That, unfortunately, is the extent of the content that the DLCs added. The new levels in Tiny Tina's Wonderland left me and my husband thinking "Wait, that's it!?" In a game inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, where the possibilities were quite literally endless, the additional campaigns could have been so much fun. Instead, the packs were short, uninspired, and added nothing new to the game. It almost felt like the DLCs were introduced simply because they were expected, without giving them much thought.
What Borderlands 4 Can Do To Avoid Past DLC Mistakes
I'd Rather BL4 Have No DLC Than Content For The Sake Of Content
I'd like to think that the reason the DLC for Tiny Tina's Wonderland wasn't as good as previous titles is that it was never meant to be like the main franchise games. The title is a spinoff game based around the explosive Tiny Tina's version of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and it's delightful in every other way. But the DLC felt like they were added to the game just for the sake of ticking the "add DLC" box.
On the other hand, I'm worried that this is a sign of things to come. As the main games grow in scale, the development team may simply not have enough bandwidth to create unique DLCs for the title. To avoid the mistakes of Wonderland, I hope that Gearbox takes its time to craft some DLC of value for Borderlands 4, or just not have DLC at all. I would honestly be more disappointed to get another bout of terrible DLC than I would be if the upcoming title skipped out on the downloadable content altogether.
With multiple games of content building up the universe of the Borderlands franchise, there’s no shortage of great characters to find in Pandora.
Sure, I've come to expect that there will be more fun things to do after the game is over, but there are other ways to make this happen that don't involve expecting the development team to create entire additional campaigns in addition to making a full-scale new game.
Borderlands 3, for instance, had plenty of end-game content to keep things interesting, like the Proving Grounds and Circles of Slaughter. I wouldn't be too upset if some end-game content was locked behind a DLC, as long as it was labeled correctly and didn't make me believe that I was getting the same kind of full-scale DLC as I've grown used to from the last games. If the upcoming title does include traditional DLC, I would rather wait longer for better content than get them immediately after finishing the game.
If Borderlands 4 does have the franchise's usual DLCs and season passes, it will hopefully not repeat the mistakes it made with Tiny Tina's Wonderland by pushing out content just for the sake of it. (I also hope it gives us more Hammerlock, but that's just a personal request.) Either way, I know my husband and I will be waiting this time to see what the DLC has to offer before blindly shelling out for an all-access pass.
Custom image by Katarina Cimbaljevic
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