Gearbox is dialing back overt comedy in Borderlands 4 to deliver a more grounded storyline and organic humor. Humor will be embedded in the world so jokes arise naturally from setting and characters rather than forced memes. One intentional meme exists but is limited and justified by its accidental creation. The game is set on the authoritarian world of Kairos, which requires a different tonal approach than Pandora's wild-west style. Open-world exploration is emphasized, and prior Borderlands 3 expansions helped lay tonal groundwork. The development team retains franchise veterans and intends to preserve Borderlands humor while making it fit the new world.
"I've been on the game for a couple of years, and it was definitely something from the moment that I came on-board, when I was talking to Sam, the grounded tone was a priority," Clark said. "Grounding the humor in the world, he made it very clear that if I tried to put a meme in the game, he would come to my house with a baseball bat [laughs]. So, it was definitely in the brief from the beginning to make the tone fit the world."
"wasn't just some sticker that we're slapping on something"
"At no point did we say, 'Let's stop being funny in Borderlands. Let's not do that anymore.' It is still a Borderlands game made by a Borderlands team, many who have been here since 1," Joyce added.
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