Borderlands 3 New Characters/Classes

[ryan_]

After a long wait, details about Borderlands 3 are starting to finally come out. There are a variety of little tidbits floating around out there, but the juiciest are probably the details about the new classes.

Siren (focused on melee)
Bot Jock (summons a mountable mech)
Beastmaster (multiple pets out simultaneously)
Operative (an assassin type character)



If it's anything like BL2, we can probably expect 2 more to show up at some point.

I loved Borderlands 2. It's probably my favorite American RPG. 1 and TPS not so much, but 2, definitely. So I'm pretty excited about BL3.

Any Borderlands fans here?

[ryvrdrgn14]

Borderlands 2 was great for the base experience. I'm looking forward to this, but as with most things, I'll probably wait a bit after release before looking to pick it up. I'd like to see how the gun play, the drop rates, the humor and the possible microtransactions turn out first before diving in.

[isturbo1984]

Love me some Borderlands. Just give me a class with a goddamn turret though. Maybe Zane?

Also... wrong board. Borderlands aint no damn RPG, lol.

[ryan_]

Also... wrong board. Borderlands aint no damn RPG, lol.

Borderlands is absolutely an RPG. Besides that it's first person and the weapons are guns instead of swords, how is it not an RPG? And if first person makes a difference, since Skyrim is first person, how is Skyrim an RPG and Borderlands is not? And if guns are the deciding factor, how is Mass Effect an RPG and not Borderlands?

[ryan_]

Haven't play it, couldn't say.

If it has all of these components, then yes, probably:
Exploration
Collection of Items
Authored Story
Level Up/Progression System
Intermittent gameplay system based on numerical attributes (i.e. Battle System, but could be abstracted to conversation/debate or farming or something)

The robustness depends as well. If it has an authored story but it's thin, less-so an RPG. For instance I don't consider Arkham Asylum an RPG because the level up/progression system is oversimplified, the gameplay isn't based on numerical attributes (strength, dexterity, etc, or in fable it's strength/skill/will) and the collection of items is weak. Zelda also fails for me on the progression system level. Monster Hunter fails on the story level. Has to have all of them. Borderlands has all of them.

But when your definition doesn't encompass games that are universally considered RPGs by almost everybody, like Mario RPG, and includes heaps of games that no one considers RPGs, like every game without the features above that also has meaningful dialog choices, it's probably a sign that your definition is wrong, not that everybody else is wrong.

[isturbo1984]

I would say Shadow Warrior 2 is more of an RPG than any current Borderlands title based solely on gameplay mechanics. But my point is you will never hear anyone say this game is an RPG because of several reasons. But mostly because the game's marketing. I mean, we see this with the Nintendo Switch.--Doesn't matter the system is a handheld, Nintendo isn't marketing it as one, people are going to eat up the "hybrid" theory.

What do you mean by authored story? A story is just a story and isn't a gameplay mechanic. These are video games. A game can have a non-existent story and still be an RPG. Just interesting you consider making or breaking a game's RPG label based off something that has no bearing at all.

[ryan_]

You mean how it's marketed as a "Role Playing Shooter"? Last I checked shooter is a type of game.

Authored narrative vs emergent narrative. Meaning that someone wrote a story, not like Civ where there is no story except the story that emerges from gameplay decisions. How can a game have dialog options and meaningful character decisions without an authored story (you know, dialog and characters)? Now your definition isn't even internally consistent. It's really just 'RPGs are whatever I decide" which is silly. I would bet if we really dig, your definition is just "only Western high fantasy RPGs that are directly representative of classic D&D: baldur's gate, divinity, etc"

[fenrif]

Borderlands isn't an RPG because it's a looter shooter. Loot and perks don't make an RPG.

[isturbo1984]

I agree with this. Some CoD and Battlefireld games do the same.

[TheSHEEEP]

Yeah, Borderlands is mostly a shooter, that's for sure.
But it undoubtedly has some RPG sprinkles with its character system, I really hope they actually improve upon this in BL3.

If we put any game that isn't a "pure" RPG in its own sub-forum, we'd have a hell of a lot of sub-forums here...

Anyway, I also hope they won't mess it up with the typical modern corporate greed...