Hold up, is this writing’s fire? Not the expression one would expect for trailers of a Borderlands game (or movie), but you know what, developer Gearbox Software might be cooking if these character shorts for Borderlands 4 are any indication.
As part of the lead-up to the launch of Borderlands 4, Gearbox Software and publisher 2K are releasing more tidbits of the four playable Vault Hunters. As per tradition, each new Borderlands game has four new playable characters with different abilities, skill trees and personalities. But for Borderlands 4, they even produce character shorts for each of the Vault Hunters.
While the new quartet of mayhem don’t strike out as appealing at first glance, these character shorts, obviously not indicative of gameplay, gives a bit of a backstory of what each of them did before becoming a Vault Hunter. It’s nice to see what would’ve been just lore in past games as actual media.
But what’s more fascinating is how these shorts are played out. So far, three of the four have been released, but each of them carry that same tone seen in the story trailer. Borderlands has been infamous for its cringe writing, dated jokes that relied too heavily on expiring memes and how Borderlands 3’s story felt off that it needed a Director’s Cut to show better told versions of it. And the less we make mention of that Borderlands movie, the better.
But Borderlands 4 wanted to be more serious, but still funny, absurd and violent. Of the three shorts released so far, these might be promising.
The first short is for Vex, the Siren. Before she’s a goth girl with the power of conjuring a deadly animal of doom to fight on her side, she’s a goth girl that had to endure the gruel suffering of… working at retail. On Mercenary’s Day, the Borderlands’ equivalent of a Black Friday, is how she somehow awakened her dark powers.
The second is for Rafa, the Exo-Soldier. The Latino is a product of a new supersoldier program by his employers Tediore, which allows people like him who lives on a planet with microgravity to stand tall. Only for the big reveal that Tediore is killing the project, and everyone involved. That’s one way to satirise company layoffs.
And the most recently released one is for Amon, the Forgeknight. Amon was brought up in a cult worshipping the Vaults, and seen one opened. Here we see him stepped up and stopped a Vault from opening, showcasing how scarred, traumatised and absolute towering he is compared to regular people. Plus, he sure can talk all day. Big guy’s a yapper.
Update 26/08/25: The new short for Harlowe is now out. Compared to the previous three, hers is a more straightforward story, mostly highlighting her cocky attitude, genius and ingenuity, and her background of being an ex-Maliwan employee and more importantly, part of the Traunt family. Having the next Vault Hunter being a sibling to a boss fight which canonically leaves them dead is now a recurring thing in Borderlands. The only joke here is how the Traunts traditionally commit fratricide. And for Borderlands 3 fans, yes, she said the thing. Original story follows.
While these shorts are all dark and serious, they also highlight the gist of what makes the first Borderlands 1 so memorable: It’s hyper-violent and it’s silly with the right amount of absurdity to balance it all out.
Blood and gore gushes like fountains in all the trailers. You need to sign in to YouTube to see these.
But the jokes are subtle and not necessarily tries to be funny. Some don’t land as good, like how the gang don’t quite get that Rafa didn’t literally die leads to a goofy punchline. But some are more subtle like the Tediore talking gun screaming “50% off!” as it blasts a dude in half, the wholesome bit about ice creams and the “still better than retail” zinger. Plus, these shorts also leverage the worldbuilding and lore established in the franchise, which is always nice to see.
Are these character shorts an indication of the quality of the storytelling in Borderlands 4? Not necessarily. But one would hope that it does. But considering how low Borderlands 3 set the bar, it should be easy to clear. Right? Right?
We’ll find out if Borderlands 4 is a game where you don’t have to mute the character audio or not soon enough. The game will be out on September 12 for the PS5, PC (Steam, Epic Games Store) and Xbox Series X|S, and later on October 3 for Switch 2.