Borderlands fans noticed that instead of the minimap introduced in Borderlands 2, the recent Borderlands 4 gameplay deep dive features a compass bar that points toward objectives. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford confirmed that the minimap is gone during a PAX East panel on Friday, and asked fans to hold judgement until they’ve played the game.
The map talk starts at about 28 minutes into the video embedded above. Borderlands 4 takes place on a new planet, Kairos, and boasts the biggest map the Borderlands series has seen “by far,” according to Pitchford.
“There’s no load times, just, you see something anywhere on the screen, a mile away, up in the sky, you will be able to get there,” said the CEO, echoing Todd Howard’s famous line about seeing mountains in Skyrim and walking up them. (Although I’ve never quite understood why that promise came to signify exaggerated claims, because you could in fact explore Skyrim’s mountains.)
“We made a big freaking world,” Pitchford said regarding the decision not to include a minimap. “And a lot of the things you do can be local space, but a lot of the things you do or want to do are out there [in the larger world], and a local space map is not a good way to navigate when you’re thinking about objectives and opportunities—several at the same time that might be miles away—and a compass really helps us do that.”
Pitchford also said that 2D minimaps can be confusing in multilevel environments, and “you’re going to have more verticality in Borderlands 4 than you’ve ever seen before in a Borderlands game, by far.” The compass uses little arrows to indicate when a target is above or below you, and the hope is that this is better for spatial awareness.
“We want you to play the game and not play the map,” said Pitchford. “So we made a commitment, and we put all of that investment into this compass system, and you still have the big map. It’s one click away. And we put more cool stuff in there than we’ve ever done before. We even have, like, an AI-driven kind of navigation system that will give you a GPS on the big map to show you the line of where you can go.”
We’ll also have a new robot companion, Echo-4, as well as other tools that help with navigation, he said, ending the segment by asking fans to trust Gearbox on the issue for now.
“Look, we’re open to thinking about things in the future,” he said, “but play the game first and understand the choices we’ve made, and I think you’ll see and understand when you realize how big this world is and how playing the game in the world is better than playing the map.”
The panel also included new details on Borderlands 4’s vault hunters, guns, and new movement abilities, as well as the expected energetic hype-building from Pitchford.
Gearbox recently announced a slightly earlier release date for Borderlands 4 than was previously set—it’ll be out this year on September 12—and Pitchford reiterated during the panel that the date change reflects the studio’s confidence in the game.
“We’re on offense, you guys,” he said. “Sometimes we’re like, white-knuckling to the landing, you know? And we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re working our asses off. But the momentum is insane. The velocity is insane. I don’t think we’ve ever been in a better spot this far from launch as we are with Borderlands 4.”
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