Borderlands 4 could be the series back to its best – our hands-on preview

But equally, they felt, at times, indicative of a series that was slowing down, coasting on the ideas of earlier games that had become worn a decade on. There's a reason why so many people are still playing Borderlands 2 instead.

With Borderlands 4, not only is developer Gearbox Software revamping the series with a whole new world, it's attempting to balance the old, familiar Borderlands with all the attributes of a sleek modern shooter – and they've done a bang-up job.

Last month, I moseyed on down to Take-Two's offices in London for a hands-on preview of Borderlands 4, and it's safe to say that I'm impressed with what Gearbox is cooking up.

We've left the familiar, charmingly repulsive Pandora for a new world – Kairos.

Unlike the chaotic free-for-all of Pandora, Kairos is a stable, yet repressive, world, ruled over by the autocratic Timekeeper and his gaggle of goons, the Order.

It's your job, as a vault hunter, to take down the Timekeeper alongside some plucky freedom fighters, liberating Kairos from his clutches – Order, chaos, you get the picture.

It's a far cry from the somewhat sillier premises of the last couple of games, and that's a tone reflected in the game – in the small slice I played, it was already obvious that the stakes here are high, and the people of Karios don't have the same penchant for the bizarre of those on Pandora.

That isn't to say it's not funny at all, it certainly is, and there were certainly a few moments that made me laugh out loud. The writing this time around is much dryer and wittier, dark even, reminiscent of that original Borderlands 1 magic.

But while the writing and story appear to have gone back to their roots, the same can't be said for gameplay, which Gearbox has continued to push to the limits.

Unlike Pandora, Kairos is not split up into discrete areas. What you see is what you get, and I was dumped into a massive open world to explore.

Loading screens between areas are gone (or so we were told, as we didn't have the chance to go to another area).

As we were told by the developers, this giant, seamlessly explorable map was always the vision for Borderlands, and they finally had the tech to make it a reality.

That same scale has also been applied to what is perhaps Borderlands' most important hallmark, its guns.

Weapons are now fully modular. While you'll still go around finding unique one-off guns, you can now also mix and match different parts from different manufacturers to create weapons with wholly unique combos.

While I wish I had more time to test this functionality out, considering how often the combat had me swapping between weapons to deal with various enemy types, I can already see how useful this is going to be across a full playthrough.

Combat itself is surprisingly challenging. This is a series that has always prided itself on good gunplay, and Borderlands 4 has some of the best I've experienced, and that's further empowered by some excellent Vault Hunter designs.

I only had the chance to play Vex the Siren and Rafa the Exo-Soldier, but both were a riot to play, so entirely different from one another, and yet both complementing the gunplay so effectively.

Another new set of features that complement gunplay are the new movement mechanics, something that appears to be somewhat of a focus for Gearbox in an attempt to quicken the pace of combat.

Players now have access to a quick dash to dodge attacks, a double jump, and a glide. Like vaulting in Borderlands 3, these mechanics very much inspire a 'How did I ever play these games without it?' feeling.

One area I was keen to learn more about was bossing and, more specifically, loot.

Where many games focus heavily on perfecting the early game, spending comparatively less time on the late- and post-game, part of Borderlands' appeal is that post-game.

Farming for loot is almost as, if not more, important to the Borderlands experience than the actual story and campaign.

As I learned in speaking to the developers, development on Borderlands 4's end game was begun alongside the early game.

Complaints about loot, resetting bosses and more from previous games have all been taken on board, and Gearbox has crafted the ultimate farming system – one that makes rematching bosses easier than ever, but still doesn't come free.

After defeating a boss for the first time, players can now purchase rematches from right outside the boss arena. No more leaving the area, coming back and running all the way to the end.

You get the convenience of a quick rematch, but you also have to pay for it, forcing you to still engage with the other content – a fair balance, I would argue.

The one big boss we did come up against, in the depths of a Vault, was a blast to face.

Naturally, I can't speak for the quality of any other bosses, but it's clear why this particular encounter was selected for our preview.

It offered a genuine challenge, both solo and in a pair, and made great use of the new movement mechanics. While showering the boss with bullets, I was constantly ducking and diving attacks, double-jumping over sweeps, positioning myself in just the right spot to maximise my damage.

It was the perfect culmination of the few hours I spent with the game. A serious, spectacular and, most importantly, incredibly fun experience all around.

If what I played is a good representation of the rest of the game, then Borderlands 4 is set to be a sleek, punchy modern shooter with the classic, witty Borderlands writing that made us fall in love with it in the first place.

Stepping out into the London sun after dispatching that Vault boss, my only real complaint about my afternoon with Borderlands 4 was that it would be several months before I could play it again.

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