Borderlands 4 may well run extremely poorly, but there's an astonishingly good shooter underneath its technically unfinished exterior. On top of satisfying gunplay, for example, we've come to really appreciate just how mobile and agile all the Vault Hunters are in Borderlands 4, and this means there's a wealth of movement tech for you to tackle in this game as well.
In all the ways that matter, Borderlands 4 plays like a strange, Bizarro version of DOOM Eternal, and that's one of the highest types of praise we could give to a modern FPS. We highly recommend learning how to dodge, hover, slide, and leverage vehicles in and out of combat in Borderlands 4, as figuring these techniques out really rounds off the combat gameplay and makes the whole thing that much more satisfying.
Dodging! We adore it. Arguably, this is the single most important new feature in Borderlands 4, and it makes for a world of difference in combat. No longer do you have to trigger sprint to evade enemy attacks, and no longer do you need to flip the camera around just to escape a crummy little AoE attack.
No, to dodge, simply hit your sprint key (SHIFT on keyboard by default) in any direction, other than forward. Better yet, attempting to dodge in any direction (including forward) while mid-air is going to propel your characters in that direction, which means you've got fairly extreme mobility and agility no matter the situation. It's excellent!
Dodging mid-air goes hand-in-hand with Borderlands 4's new Hover functionality, wherein you pick up a jetpack type of gadget very early on in the campaign, which then affords you the ability to cover massive swathes of space both in and out of combat. It's excellent!
To hover, jump from an (at least) medium-height ledge and then keep holding the jump key (SPACE on keyboard by default) to continue hovering. From the hover, you can easily dodge in any direction, or hit your crouch key (CTRL on keyboard by default) to perform a vertical downward smash that stuns enemies and deals a surprising amount of damage.
Sliding is more-or-less exactly the way it was in Borderlands 3, but it's an extremely important mobility tool. It allows you to cover longer stretches of space to get from one piece of cover to the next, and it lets you slide down slopes without using up stamina.
To slide, trigger the sprint feature (SHIFT on keyboard by default) and then hit crouch (CTRL) to execute. This makes you a smaller target, performs a minor forward dash - presumably towards a piece of cover - and sets you up to return fire from a safer, more stable firing position.
Borderlands 4 comes with a frankly incredibly number of vehicles in tow: over 10 of them to collect, unlock, and customize! They all behave in mostly the same way, however. They're effectively combat-ready Sparrows from Destiny 2, more-or-less.
To summon a vehicle, you first need to complete a particular early-game quest (you'll know it when you see it - no spoilers), but once you do, just hit the X key on the keyboard to hop onto your fancy new hovercraft.
Borderlands 4 may well run extremely poorly, but there’s an astonishingly good shooter underneath its technically unfinished exterior. On top of satisfying gunplay, for example, we’ve come to really appreciate just how mobile and agile all the Vault Hunters are in Borderlands 4, and this means there’s a wealth of movement tech for you to […]
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