Borderlands 4 includes a seamless open world, however your journey appears to culminate in an assault on the Timekeeper’s stronghold metropolis, Dominion. Although not a lot is understood in regards to the densest surroundings in Borderlands’ historical past, Gearbox gave me a guided tour of town. Whereas I am unable to share all the pieces I noticed and heard, right here is all the pieces I can say about this late-game zone.
In distinction to a lot of the remainder of Borderlands 4’s open world, you do not get entry to Dominion till later within the recreation if you find yourself in your march to confront the Timekeeper. Utilizing an occasion that happens on Pandora’s moon, Elpis, which is now within the orbit of Kairos, the Vault Hunters can enter Dominion with the hopes of dealing with off in opposition to the Timekeeper.
As soon as contained in the partitions of Dominion, issues aren’t as orderly because the Timekeeper’s obsession would lead you to imagine. The varied Borderlands 4 factions are at one another’s throats inside the metropolis limits, and, with out spoiling something, town is not fairly what I anticipated coming in; the Timekeeper values order at any value, however the metropolis during which he bases his operations feels oddly chaotic. As I watch artistic director Graeme Timmins give me a tour, the Timekeeper taunts his Vault Hunter of their ear.
And regardless of the Vault Hunters knocking on the door, he is protecting his composure. “Regardless that we’re breaking in, actually attempting to get to the Timekeeper, he is nonetheless in his component,” senior venture producer Anthony Nicholson says. “He is nonetheless very calm and positive of his plan and what he has in retailer.”
However even when enjoying solo, the Vault Hunter storming Dominion will not be alone. “Clearly, you make a number of associates alongside your manner, and so they’re all going to assist and contribute to your time right here within the metropolis,” Timmins says.
All through the sport, gamers can see Dominion within the distance, just like how Hyrule Fortress is at all times seen to gamers in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It is deliberately positioned in order that gamers are conscious of the objective, and it stays front-of-mind. “As you are beginning your journey in Fadefields, you will see that tower within the distance,” world artistic govt and former Recreation Informer editor-in-chief Andrew Reiner says. “That is really there. That is not a skybox. It is not within the background. [You] can fly out of right here, again to the place to begin of the sport. That content material is at all times there.”
Dominion serves as the house of Borderlands 4’s primary antagonist, the Timekeeper
The design of Dominion appropriately feels just like the fruits of the sport, as every zone you visited in the remainder of the sport has a devoted biome inside the metropolis limits. Moreover, town is extraordinarily dense and vertically oriented, with quite a few locations to climb and discover. “As you progress all through the missions and undergo every of those completely different districts, you get extra of the story that is evolving and unfolding,” Nicholson says.
Timmins and Nicholson share extra particulars, each about Dominion and the Timekeeper, which I will not disclose within the curiosity of sustaining surprises. Nonetheless, Timmins is worked up for gamers to discover this space. “There are a number of essential story moments that occur right here within the metropolis,” he says. “It’s a complete ‘nother zone’s value of content material. It is also essentially the most content-packed. Being town, we prioritized actually making it really feel like an city sprawl. We slammed collectively a lot of places which can be stacked on high of one another.”
The primary story offers you a tour of the varied districts inside Dominion, which, like Borderlands 4’s open world, will be explored seamlessly. However gamers can go off the crushed path to expertise extra content material. “There’s tons extra side-missions which can be positioned right here as effectively,” Timmins says. “Truly, a few of my private favourite side-missions occur to be within the metropolis. And so they’re fairly prolonged, too. Among the side-missions in Dominion, specifically, have a number of chained missions that you find yourself spending a number of time with a few of these NPCs, and a number of the relationships you really make within the side-missions within the metropolis, specifically – or at the very least for me – stand out as a number of the extra fascinating ones.”
There have been loads of extra particulars to cowl surrounding Dominion, however I withheld them from this story for the sake of avoiding spoilers. Suffice it to say, the environmental storytelling will shatter a few of your preconceived notions you might have had coming into Dominion for the primary time. In case you’re itching to storm Dominion and take down the Timekeeper, you do not have for much longer to attend, as Borderlands 4 arrives on September 12.
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