Borderlands 4, maybe

It's been a long time since I've blogged at all.

Don't want to talk about anything I've been going through for the past few months, that's my little secret, my own little dark age.

I used to think all we need to feel complete is to be understood by someone.

Now I understand the things we keep inside and no one will ever know are what makes us unique and complete.

Doesn't necessarily have to be beautiful, it's just cold, massive and uncaring.

 

Anyway, I just remembered that almost a year ago, I sat down and wrote down one of my ideas.

I used to do that more frequently when I was younger, before figuring out it was all pointless and never going to lead to anything.

This time however, I figured it would be interesting for some other people too.

So I sat down and wrote what I found could be the basis to the story of Borderlands 4.

It really isn't much as I really did not intend to put too much time into writing some sort of a fan-fic that was never going to lead to anything.

So yeah, it's just that... a basis for a story.

Once I was done with it, I just emailed it to what I thought was Pitchford's own active company email which I had found from the super early BL2 recruitment campaigns.

I never received a reply or anything of course, as expected.

But anyway...

 

Almost a year later, I'm just sitting here with nothing else to do but to breath and wait.

I just randomly remembered this and figured why wouldn't I just post it out there, for the hell of it.

Bear in mind that it has a lot of little flaws and some big holes in it.

It's by no means consistent or finished.

But someone might just want to sit down and complete it for fun.

Or maybe the studio sees it and they're interested or something.

Idk, idc...

Anyway, if you skipped all the mumbo jumbo above, HERE IS WHERE IT STARTS:

Ava is overseeing a construction site on the sanctuary.

She’s being whiny as usual, screaming at everyone.

A crane is moving a massive piece of structure around.

Krieg is walking by the crane, talking to himself.

He sees the screaming Ava from a distance and monologues to himself.

He kicks a can of empty soda away, which hits a wall, and manages to land in the machinery inside the crane.

This causes a mechanical failure.

In true Borderlands fashion, Ava is abruptly crushed by the massive piece of structure that was being carried by the crane.

No buildup, nothing.

Just BAM!

Her last words were “Hey if you mess this up, I’m gonna crush you.” To some random worker.

The justification is that despite being somewhat powerful, she simply wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings.

Everyone in the sanctuary is now shocked and torn up.

Now Krieg is just standing there, not even blinking.

His inner sound tells him he just murdered a child and that’s so fucked up, even for someone as crazy as him

After a few seconds of silence, Krieg screams “THE ANNOYING GIRL WAS SQUASHED LIKE A FLY!”

Cut to black and... Title card!

This will set the tone for the game and show this game is the return to the origins of the franchise in humor style and storytelling.

I’m working on the story as a whole, but here’s the general path I’ve got down.

After Ava is killed, everyone knows her powers must have gone to someone, however, there’s no sign of any new sirens in the sanctuary.

The crew instead gets the news about some new threat at a far point in Pandora (Or a nearby planet).

This threat is believed to be the person who managed to get Ava’s power.

The motive of this new enemy is believed to be opening a new vault, unleashing a destructive force that is completely unknown to any of the characters.

*Details about this threat and her backstory is being worked on*

One more thing that is made knows to the characters half-way through the game is that this threat has also got her hands on a hard drive that contains Angel’s backup.

However, this version is heavily modified and does NOT like the new vault hunters.

Besides, Lilith and Roland, the only ones she once knew are gone.

Angel quickly makes it clear that she has no interest in standing down or stop her new commander.

To solve this issue, we are introduced to Rhys’s little secret.

He still has Jack’s AI.

The idea is to somehow convince Jack to help stop Angel.

This task will obviously prove to be impossible due to Jack and Angel’s relationship on top of Jack’s personality.

However, this story is targeted towards exploring Jack’s mind even further and possibly allowing him to do something good for once in his life.

Fast-forwarding to near the end of the story, we finally have the final face-up.

However, it is soon revealed that this enemy is not the siren that git Ava’s powers or in fact, a siren at all.

The crew is alerted about the aforementioned vault opening up.

They rush to the location, only to find Moxxie levitating above the ground, charging the key.

This is the biggest twist in the story.

Moxxie would tell the vault hunters that she has no choice and this has to happen as she opens the vault.

A boss fight could happen here which will result in Moxxie’s success either way.

The truth is revealed about the vault.

This vault would be a portal to the past or possibly after-life, which brings back all the dead people in either a set time frame or a set radius.

This would probably sound interesting and positive, however, these dead people also include all the fallen enemies and even the bosses and of course Jack and a possible army.

This would fulfill the Watcher’s vision about a great war happening.

The initial reason I came up with was for Moxxie is to bring back Scooter to life.

However, we can work on this reasoning to give it a little more depth.

For example, Eli might have also lost her life during the story as a part of taking Angle’s AI down.

This would've increased the pressure on Moxxie and finally force her to do this.

Luckily this action will also have brought back many fan favorites like Lilith, Maya, Roland, and of course Angel.

The old retired vault hunters will also have returned for the great war by then.

The group of old and new vault hunters will take on Jack’s army of small and massive bosses and the likes of Warrior and soldiers.

However, Jack has the upper hand and successfully breaks the resistance down.

Consumed by madness and rage, Jack is finally ready to have his revenge and destroy his old enemies.

But this is where Jack’s AI steps in.

Jack’s AI, having completely changed through the game will talk the physical Jack down.

Talking about Angel and pointing some facts about Jack’s actions.

Depending on the process of the story, we could also have brought the real Angel and possibly her mother back to life.

From here, the story could go either way:

Jack could now help the vault hunters close the vault and purge the remaining hostiles which would make for a great happy conclusion OR...

For once, ACTUALLY, BE THE HERO!

Jack can actually sacrifice himself and pull the bosses back into the vault, allowing the vault hunters to seal it.

He’d do it knowing that now the reborn Angel and her mom have a chance to have a normal life.

There, we finally have the perfect closure for the series.

Depending on how much of a dramatic effect is needed, Moxxie could also lose her life in the end.

This might be needed due to the whole “6 sirens at a time” thing and the fact that Angel is now back.

This would be the story of redemption for Jack, finally connecting all the dots and taming the monster inside him for good along with himself.

The fate of Jack’s AI could also be done something with.

You know, maybe we can fix the whole “New U stations not being canon” thingy.

Actually, no.

We can implement some sort of a system in the game that tracks player’s choices.

Depending on the choices, they could get the Jack’s scarifice ending or... Vault hunters do manage to beat Jack and his monsters, but Jack’s AI talks to him and manages to make him stop and just walk away with his family.

There’s the main idea of the story.

Of course, many many holes need to be filled, but I think it’s doable.

Most importantly, this will be the story that will actually resonate with your player base and give them what they want.

Just, I don’t know.

Lemme know what you think.