First Borderlands 4 Gameplay Revealed In The Game Awards 2024 Trailer

Gearbox Software has revealed the first gameplay footage for Borderlands 4 as part of a brand-new trailer shown at The Game Awards 2024.

Following on from Borderlands 4's initial reveal at Gamescom, the new trailer offered fans a glimpse of what to expect from the hotly-anticipated sequel. Among other things it showed snippets of first-person shooting and a few returning characters, including Claptrap.

Here's the official blurb from Gearbox:

Revealed at The Game Awards, a new trailer introduces The Timekeeper, a ruthless dictator who dominates the masses from on high. A world-altering catastrophe threatens his perfect Order, unleashing mayhem across Kairos, the most dangerous planet discovered so far in the Borderlands universe.

Borderlands 4 is the most ambitious Borderlands to date, lovingly hand-crafted by the development studio that first forged the looter shooter genre. The title evolves the series’ gameplay and storytelling in new ways while delivering on the quintessential Borderlands experience fans know and love, including:

Intense action, badass Vault Hunters, and billions of wild and deadly weapons on an all-new planet ruled by a ruthless tyrant.

The deepest and most diverse Vault Hunter skill trees of any Borderlands title yet, giving players an unprecedented level of expression through their builds. Paired with the most expansive loot chase yet, players will have all the tools they need to seek out and perfect the build that best matches their style.

Players will be able to seamlessly travel between zones and become immersed in a more dynamic world featuring events and discoverable side missions that encourage and reward exploration.

New traversal mechanics add to the exploration for loot and add new dimensions to combat. A vehicle that can be summoned almost anywhere will have players racing across the beautiful vistas of Kairos in style.

Fight solo or in co-op with up to three other players in this immense sci-fi adventure, packed with free-form combat and exploration, pulse-pounding boss fights, infinitely varied loot drops, and an eclectic cast of unforgettable characters new and old.

"Borderlands 4 is about freedom and being badass,” said Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford. “This is by far the biggest and most insane world we’ve ever made - it's overloaded with jerkface ratnozzle scrote monsters that need to be put down with the most over-the-top hardcore nuts op guns and loot in any game ever. Oh, and the story also seriously kicks ass!”

Pitchford heavily teased the trailer in the run-up to The Game Awards, promising that it would include a "never-been-seen original cinematic sequence depicting a moment that occurs about halfway between the end of Borderlands 3 and the beginning of Borderlands 4."

Borderlands 4 is the latest entry in the popular looter series that first debuted back in 2009. Known for its humor, customization, and huge number of guns, the Borderlands series has spanned numerous entries and spin-offs as well as one poorly-received feature film.

Be sure to check out IGN's round-up of everything announced at The Game Awards 2024 for more on what's coming to the world of gaming in the years to come.

Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.