There have been several articles circling around proclaiming disappointment around the first trailer for the third mainline game in the Borderlands franchise. Most of this sentiment seems to stem from the trailer’s slower pace, similarity to the art style of Borderlands 2 (we haven’t seen any gameplay and its presumptuous to assume gameplay hasn’t changed when we haven’t seen any) and general less explosive tendencies than that of previous games’ marketing. While some have read this as the Borderlands franchise taking a step back or horizontal, I think this is a tremendous stride forward and shows Gearbox’s understanding of what makes their franchise popular.

There is a quiet confidence to the original Borderlands’ introduction video. The camera lazily swings around a battered caravan taking a moment to examine each one of these inherently cool characters, as ‘No Rest for the Wicked’ takes it’s time, playing in full. This ragtag grouping of mysterious outlaws with nothing but their swagger, some guns and an inevitable grisly fate awaiting them is an alluring premise.

However, the longer the Borderlands franchise has gone on the more and more uncomfortable its seemed with its own sales pitch. The original game often sold itself as a life-or-death battle for nothing but greed and guns, which escalated into a fight to save Pandora, splattered with dark humour throughout, like bandit blood on the wall of an outpost. However, as the DLCs for that first game came and went and the second game loomed, the franchise became more bipolar in its presentation. Taking two core elements, Borderlands’ idiosyncratic sincere plot and dark humour, and pulling them to their extremes. A story about outlaws surviving only to ‘oops’ their way into saving the wasteland became a race for endless loot and power escalating into a fight for the fate of the wider universe, punctuated by melodramatic deaths and character reveals. Dark humour that would often only appear fast enough for you to realise you’d missed it became every sidequest dedicating itself to a crude punchline. These changes were subtle but meaningful nonetheless.

As often as Borderlands 2’s writing is praised as being either affecting or funny it is rarely cited as cohesive, it is, very much so, a game of two tones. This has led to a few great singular moments; like Tiny Tina’s turn from a crazed maniac, to a comic relief character deflecting from their scars with butt jokes, to a scared little girl who just lost her idol during her Assault on Dragon Keep. However, overall this approach leaves the game with an oscillating, indecisive quality; are you fighting Handsome Jack tooth and nail or doing zany side quests which will sometimes even benefit his Hyperion corporation?

This can be most clearly seen in both the marketing and contents of the Pre-sequel. In the run up to launch, the trailers featured blaring dubstep and boisterous anthems to show off both character badass-ness and the epic-ness of the narrative’s events which were interspersed with dance breaks and meme references. This is fine on its own. However, when the story of the game itself tried to show the downfall of Jack, the emotional teardown of his beliefs and his betrayal at the hands of those who he trusted most, and while every line of dialogue is packed full of innuendo and the gameplay has a ‘buttstomp’ mechanic it is kind of hard to know what the game wants from you. An emotional investment or to laugh at its absurdity?

This juxtaposition for juxtaposition’s sake has never ruined the franchise, more often than not it has just meant that fans have had to be fanatical about each aspect of the franchise in isolation. It is hard to praise Borderlands’ writing as a whole because, while it can be quite funny and very emotional, it never feels like these operate in tandem quite as you would imagine they should. It is similarly hard to praise its gameplay, when the early game is balanced to make you feel powerful only in fits and spurts to create a sense of ‘fighting back’, while the late game is a never-ending loop of health-gating, ridiculously big numbers and preposterously broken joke weapons.

For this reason, it has been a surprising delight to watch the new trailer and slowly realise that Gearbox may have finally twigged their own greatest strength, and it goes all the way back to that intro for the first game. The characters.

The thing that seemed to be a sticking point for many with this trailer was the pacing. It is much less hyperactive than anything we’ve seen from a Borderlands game before; shots have time to focus and the eye has time to absorb what it is seeing for the majority of the trailer. Yes, while still absurd and over the top, each character shown off in the new trailer is given a renewed sense of importance (to the franchise) as the camera seems to respect them enough to show them the time of day.

This trailer is made up of establishing shots of characters and places, you are given time to recognise the characters you’ve been getting to know for at least two to three games at this point (including Tales from the Borderlands). They are each treated with a reverence and respect in this trailer rarely seen in this franchise before, bar one character, Claptrap. While we’ve become expectant and almost weary of Claptrap’s importance being pushed in every piece of marketing related to Borderlands, it is a nice break that in this trailer he is given only one shot (where he’s being treated like a literal piece of garbage). Claptrap only reappears at the end, when the trailer begins to transition into the more traditional thumping dubs of ‘classic’ Borderlands as a way to break up the quick-cut montage of guns which now feel earned rather than done out of a sense of obligation. We’ve met all the major players, been given a taste of the game’s tone and now it is time for some glory shots of gun porn and call backs to inside jokes from games before.

Old Borderlands trailers would almost instantly overwhelm you, with over-active colouring and a constant need to be exploding. Here, several of our main cast are in all black attire, which previously would have bled into the background or become indistinguishable from any goons on screen, whereas in this trailer gearbox seems to be confident enough to give you the time and breathing space to recognise each one despite their more reserved designs. They seem to have learned that characters are more than just their design and quips.

This game already feels much more self-assured in its tone, it has something to show you and its going to take its time to get there. This is a game that knows that its players superficially are here for the guns and the explosions, and so provides on that front, but also knows that its players actually stick around because of its uniquely lovable characters. This is all surmised in its title. Many YouTube videos both before and after the trailer’s release proclaimed the game; BORD3RLANDS. Gearbox on the other hand have opted to go with the name that this game should have always been christened with: BORDERLANDS 3. It sums up everything this trailer sought to prove. This game is willing to take its time, it’s not interrupting and falling over itself to remind you it’s the 3rd entry in the franchise, they already know you love, it is willing to let you wait, playing on its own terms. This is Borderlands 3. It is confident in what it is, and it has plenty to show you, but it won’t be rushed in doing so.