Borderlands 4 got off to a great start and was quite well received by critics and fans alike. Gearbox has repeatedly let us know that the writers made sure the humor in this entry wasn't too slapstick, and they were able to honor that by giving us a lot less Claptrap. However, the new open world formula has divided the community.
While it was great to clear out Far Cry-style bastions, much of the map was empty and exploration wasn't rewarding at all. In fact, it just made the waypoints feel further away. Add to that all the invisible walls and the open world didn't feel very open at all. It didn't help that the in-game route finder is also completely busy. However, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford seems to have warned us about this a year ago.
Borderlands 4's Kairos was apparently never open world
While the current issue plaguing the game is new content that feels pretty dry, Pitchford seems to have already told us that the world of Borderlands 4 can't be described as “open world.” A post by stradstrad on Reddit dug up a tweet from Pitchford from December 2024 that might explain why the community is so divided on the topic.
In response to someone's mockup of a Borderlands 4 open world video thumbnail, he said: “I wouldn't use 'open world' to describe BL4 because that term comes with a lot of baggage that doesn't apply. You'll see.” While it's still unclear what Pitchford meant by this, it suggests that the developers may have been internally divided over the map's structure as well.
I love it when Borderlands 4 gives me remote map icons to chase
When the main quest really looks like a quest.
The comments on the tweet seemed pretty confused as to what Pitchford meant. “Hopefully this means the gameplay and world exploration will be meaningful and not boring automated quests. Those get dull quickly,” said one, who unfortunately turned out to be right.
Based on this tweet, it appears that Gearbox has been split internally into an open world, without much content to fill all that space. Just saying it's not open world doesn't make it any better.
- Released
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September 12, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Crude Language, In-Game Purchases, User Interaction
