Highlights

  • Borderlands rose in popularity by offering a wide range of guns, and the next title will have a tough task of surpassing the novelty and fun factor of talking guns.
  • The introduction of fully voiced sentient weapons in Borderlands added a fun layer to the game and proved to be a successful addition.
  • Borderlands 4 could expand on talking guns by introducing guns with multiple personalities that switch depending on the mode players are using, offering a new and entertaining experience.

Gearbox Software struck it big with its now flagship franchise, Borderlands, first arriving on the scene in 2009. One of the earliest titles to set the templates for many of the standards for the burgeoning looter-shooter genre, Borderlands quickly rose in popularity to become one of its major players. With its blend of wacky, semi-dystopian sci-fi tones underlined with more serious themes (especially regarding its villains' motivations), Borderlands has proved its staying power through three main titles, multiple DLCs, and a handful of successful spin-offs.

Probably the most iconic aspect and biggest selling point of the series is the absolutely enormous range of guns in Borderlands that players can acquire during their time shooting and looting across its worlds. The randomized assortment of firearms to be found borders on mind-boggling, and Gearbox strove to deliver a bigger and better selection with each subsequent game. While this mainly amounted to a larger loot pool with more complex capabilities, eventually the studio managed to take it one step further by having fully voiced sentient weapons that were essentially characters unto themselves. The next title, then, has a tough task in this regard to rival or surpass the novelty and fun factor of talking guns.

Borderlands 4 is not officially confirmed at this time, but is widely believed to be in development.

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Borderlands' History of Chatty Weapons

While every entry added more varieties and types of guns, their functions remained largely mechanical, offering various alternate fire modes, elemental damage modifiers, and/or complimenting class stats and special abilities. New types, like the lasers introduced in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel added a fresh dynamic to an already impressive collection.

BL2 had a couple of weapons that spouted some standard lines, but it was in The Pre-Sequel where one first appeared to have a whole personality. Boganella, a reliable shotgun accompanied by a foul-mouthed Australian accented AI, actively and frequently spoke to players. It provided a fun layer on top of being a solid weapon choice. Borderlands 3 took this concept and ran with it, with multiple talking weapons of varying dispositions, including:

How Borderlands 4 Can Expand on Talking Guns

Tediore is one of the munitions manufacturers in the Borderlands universe. One unique aspect of Tediore's products is that its guns can be literally thrown at enemies, often exploding spectacularly into a shower of projectiles before returning and reloading. Though previously relegated to the side in BL stories in favor of more higher-profile dealers like Hyperion or Jakobs, Tediore was later shown to be a leading innovator in the area of guns with AI personalities.

Tediore played a major role in New Tales from The Borderlands, acting as the main antagonist. ​​​​​​Its latest CEO coveted a powerful Eridian crystal that Tales' protagonists had. During the course of the adventure, players encounter Brock, the corporation's latest and greatest walking and talking gun model, part of Tediore's elite forces invading the planet Promethea in search of the artifact. Brock was a recurring character, with the most fleshed-out personality for a firearm yet, and attempted to stop the heroes multiple times before eventually being broken from Tediore's control and disabled.

Borderlands 4 could take a cue from Brock in New Tales from The Borderlands, with other companies producing their own versions, as it would be in keeping with the cutthroat competitive nature of the industry in the setting. Perhaps guns with multiple personalities that switch depending on which mode players are actively using would be a fun way to evolve them. BL4 will likely at least contain more talking weapons, and hopefully some surprises in store for fans to see the next generation of entertaining AI weapons.