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I am, as is well documented, a big fan of the mystical Sirens in the Borderlands games, but even I was getting a bit tired of all the Borderlands 4 trailers focusing on the new Siren, Vex. Six of the previous seven uploads to the Borderlands YouTube channel were all about Vex, so it's no surprise that the comments on the new and trend-breaking eighth, a gameplay overview for fellow Vault Hunter Rafa, are filled with folks relieved to escape Vex fever.
"The meme is over boys! Getting back to our stand web browsing routines," writes Sixshot_ninjaconsultant, who seems to have had quite the colorful career.
Rafa, per today's info drop, is a "battle-ready combat veteran, acting as a great gateway for FPS players to step into the series' frenetic combat." He's a Crysis-esque fighter in a tricked-out exo-suit, and a retired Tediore soldier equipped for combat at all ranges. He looks like a fun riff on the typical soldier archetype, seemingly making for a flexible Vault Hunter that makes good use of Borderlands 4's improved movement and mechanics.
A few things come to mind throughout the Rafa showcase. The first is Destiny 2, specifically the twin-bladed Super belonging to Strand Titans. For you non-Destiny players, just know that this attack kicks ass, so the similarity here is encouraging. There's a bit of Zer0, Borderlands 2's archetypal assassin, to these melee animations, too, with Gearbox returning to swordplay after Borderlands 3 smashed faces in with the melee-friendly Siren brawler Amara.
We get back into Borderlands territory with Rafa's deployable turrets, the Peacebreaker Cannons, which take me right back to the original Borderlands and our old friend Roland. Rafa's Apophis Lance, a powerful sidearm which can seemingly be dual-wielded with other weapons, looks to bring a potent piercing attack to the party, but can also evidently be specced for different damage types.
I'm still in Camp Siren after all this, but after weeks of Vex propaganda, it is refreshing to see a more melee and gunplay-focused Vault Hunter tear through some bandits. And yeah, if you're wondering, Gearbox says more shorts, trailers, and breakdowns are coming, so we may be singing this same song once we're all sick of Rafa in a bit.
This week, Gearbox confirmed the Switch 2 release date for Borderlands 4. It will come to Nintendo's new console on October 3, a bit after PS5, Xbox Series, and PC get it on September 12.
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