Yesterday, a video of Conan O'Brien playing Borderlands 4 before anyone else was uploaded to YouTube. It contained his usual brand of shouty, semi-incoherent ravings, and also what a lot of people considered a huge spoiler for the story of the upcoming looter shooter. The video has since been re-edited to remove it, but the team kept in a hilarious moment where the game crashed.
Spoilers ahead for Borderlands 4.
Given the cinematic at the start of the video that delves into the story of Borderlands 4 and sets up who the main villain, Vile Lictor, is, I'd assume the preview Conan got was of the earlier parts of the game.
He fights some grunts, a flying thing that he remarks is "just shitting, constantly," and eventually faces off against Vile Lictor himself. But just before the boss fight, a cutscene plays that shows Siren Amara getting her arm cut off. Conan initially thought it was a robot arm and didn't care.
Amara is one of the playable Vault Hunters from Borderlands 3, and an NPC in both this game and Borderlands 2, so fans have grown quite attached to her. Seeing her quite literally losing a part of herself is considered a major spoiler by some. This is all quite funny considering Conan says, "Is all the story necessary?" right at the start.
"There’s a huge spoiler that I can’t believe they allowed them to show," tweets one fan. "There is a big spoiler in the video, if you are interest in the story watch it on your own risk," writes another fan on Reddit.
Over on YouTube, I couldn't find any comments mentioning spoilers. That could simply mean there are more Conan fans than Borderlands fans, so they didn't realize the significance of the moment. Or, maybe those comments are being moderated out or are just few and far between.
The video no longer contains the spoiler, and several people online claim it went private for a time, so it seems like it was edited. What's funny is the moment the game crashes is still in the video, which isn't the marketing I'd imagine Gearbox or 2K want.
Check out the best short games you can play while you wait for Borderlands 4 to come out on September 12.
