Borderlands 3 hands-on: The rich aroma of coffee bots and colorful mayhem

Since the release of Borderlands 2 in 2012, fans have been eagerly anticipating any news on a sequel. This week, developer Gearbox Software has finally lifted the lid on Borderlands 3, which is set for release this September for PS4, Xbox One, and PC via the Epic Games Store. I attended the reveal event in Hollywood, California to go hands-on with a prerelease build of the game.

From the outset it’s obvious that this is a Borderlands game, a franchise that launched in 2009 and has lifetime sales over 17 million copies. It’s an important series for publisher 2K. The series’ characteristic cell-shaded art style is in full effect, with bright colors playing off the arid backdrop of the desert planet Pandora, now rendered in Unreal Engine 4. Fans of the previous games will feel right at home, at least at the start, until the story whisks you off the sand-covered surface of Pandora and into the far reaches of space.