Borderlands 3 will let you slide around just like Apex Legends

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You'll also be able to mantle and destroy cover

As part of today's Borderlands 3 gameplay reveal stream, Gearbox showed off a number of promising additions to the game's core FPS mechanics, the biggest being Apex Legends-style sliding. If you crouch while running, you'll slide forward like John Wick. My body is ready. 

This may sound like a minor addition, but it should go a long way toward smoothing out the staccato movement of previous Borderlands games. Just getting around could get monotonous, and taking cover was a little awkward, so it's encouraging to see Borderlands 3 improving on movement. Apex Legends certainly wasn't the first FPS to allow players to slide around, but sliding is one of the most popular and enjoyable parts of the battle royale shooter. I know that I always miss sliding whenever I swap from Apex to another shooter, so I'm thrilled to see it in Borderlands. 

In the same vein, Borderlands 3 will feature a proper mantling system: you can press jump again in mid-air to grab onto and shuffle up nearby ledges. Again, this ought to improve the process of exploring levels and finding cover. Speaking of cover: in addition to more polished movement, Borderlands 3 will introduce another FPS staple in the form of destructible cover. Borderlands has always been an arcade shooter rather than a cover-based one, but as Doom (2016) and countless others have demonstrated, it's also nice to have intuitive cover that you can rely on in a pinch. I look forward to sliding between pieces of rapidly disintegrating cover as I poke around Pandora. 

We spoke to Gearbox about how they crafted villains to follow Handsome Jack and blended them into its unexpectedly relatable world. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.