Borderlands 4's State of Play deep dive was a truly exceptional look at the game, introducing players to the many changes that it is making to the series, including seeing a return to the more grounded storytelling of the original, more movement-based combat, and gripping new Vault Hunters to control. From the State of Play alone, there's clearly a lot to love about Borderlands 4, especially for returning fans, or even those who are completely new to the series, even despite its narrative following on from the third game.

However, despite it being one of the most anticipated FPS games of the year, with many eager to get their hands on it, I can't help but feel that it has carried over one of the worst parts of the original games rather than improved upon it. Many may be happy to see this feature return, but while likely not a dealbreaker, it is a shame that Borderlands 4 hasn't fixed this huge issue, especially as it ruins one of the core tenets of the entire experience.

Borderlands 4's RPG Progression Looks Boring

It Is A Lot Of Percentage Buffs

While Borderlands 4 is innovating in a lot of respects - especially in its exhilarating combat that looks like a genuine joy to experience - its RPG progression systems still look as boring and uninspired as ever. Each Vault Hunter has several unique Action Skills that then have a corresponding branching skill tree. You put points into nodes along that skill tree as you would in any other RPG, slightly increasing the percentage of a specific aspect of said ability, such as damage or time to cooldown. It is all fairly standard fare, which is largely where the problem lies.

Long-time fans will say that Borderlands 4's skill trees are vastly improved from the original three games, and that is undoubtedly true. The branching paths per tree give players a lot of choice when it comes to build potential, something that the team at Gearbox was eager to highlight during the State of Play. Alongside the ive buffs, players can also slot in one Augment and Capstone, both of which slightly alter how the ability works, such as by giving an ability to make Vex's companion, Trouble, explode itself.

However, as interesting as the Augments and Capstones are - despite being limited by the number you can have equipped at once - the skill points you earn will be put into the iterative ive buffs, rather than any meaningful changes to your abilities or how you play. Getting a 6% increase in damage may feel impactful eventually, but minor tweaks like that aren't inherently interesting in the moment. It's a shame, as Borderlands 3 improved skill progression somewhat by prioritizing the RPG side of the series' core gameplay, but evidently, Gearbox isn't interested in going the extra mile.

Borderlands 4 Needs Better Skills

It Would Make Progression More Interesting

There will undoubtedly be players who love balancing spreadsheets of stat increases and watching the number go up, as ARPGs like Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2 are built upon that very concept, and those games have enormous player bases. However, at least in my opinion, it is the least interesting approach to progression in a video game. Unlocking meaningful new Action Skills that drastically change the way you play is far more innovative and exciting than being told that my movement speed and damage reduction have been increased by 5%.

Perhaps I've been spoiled by games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which has numerous new skills to unlock for each of its distinct characters, all of whom play completely differently from one another. That is a far more traditional RPG than Borderlands 4 is, after all. However, I had hoped that, considering Borderlands 4 fixed its loot problem, it would also address the issue of what I would consider to be meaningless stat-focused progression. It has always confused me why Vault Hunters only have a handful of abilities in the first place.

Giving each Vault Hunter a suite of increasingly powerful Action Skills to complement their ridiculous arsenal of weapons makes way more sense to me than increasing how much damage I do by a minor amount.

I think that Borderlands 4's skill progression is by far the best the series has had, but it just doesn't go far enough. While minor stat buffs will always be a part of RPGs, I had hoped that the focus would shift largely away from that side of it and more onto unlocking unique abilities. Giving each Vault Hunter a suite of increasingly powerful Action Skills to complement their ridiculous arsenal of weapons makes way more sense to me than increasing how much damage I do by a minor amount. But then, perhaps I am missing the point.

Borderlands 4's Characters Still Look Interesting

Their Current Abilities Are Unique

Borderlands 4's Vault Hunters still look incredibly interesting and varied, at least from what we've seen, which will, hopefully, mitigate the issue of a lack of meaningful skill progression. It looks like each Vault Hunter will once again have three different Action Skills, meaning there are 12 to play around with in total if you experiment with each character. That's not an insubstantial amount, and I've always made do in previous Borderlands games, so I'm glad that we've at least got that many again.

Vex definitely looks the most interesting, although that's because I'm a huge fan of having companion creatures, although I like the look of Rafa's exo-suit, which can create numerous different weapons. Harlowe and Amon haven't been shown off enough for me to get a strong indication of how they'll play, but they look fun, and I'm sure will prove to be a good time regardless. As will, I imagine, the majority of Borderlands 4. Despite being rather critical of it for not changing one of my least favorite aspects of Borderlands, it does look like a huge improvement.

I hope I can get into creating different builds and caring about all of the stat increases for each of my Vault Hunters, or, at the very least, forget they exist and not pay it much mind. Regardless, I suspect I'll find Borderlands 4 a lot of fun, warts and all, as the majority of what it offers from its colorful world, fun cast of characters, intense gunplay, and existing suite of Action Skills looks incredible. Borderlands 4 may not handle its progression systems well, but it looks like it's perfected practically every other aspect.