Borderlands 4 Preview - Crafting A Compelling Villain In The Timekeeper - Game Informer

[ad_1] Following the occasions of Borderlands 3, Pandora's moon, Elpis, smashed right into a beforehand veiled planet known as Kairos. There, the inhabitants exists underneath the oppressive rule of a dictator often known as the Timekeeper, who assumes the position of the first antagonist in Borderlands 4. Throughout my time at Gearbox's Frisco, Texas headquarters for our Borderlands 4 cowl story, my time interacting with the Timekeeper was extraordinarily restricted, solely listening to his voice sometimes, however his menacing demeanor and obsession with preserving order in any respect prices led me to hunt extra data from a number of members of the Borderlands 4 growth staff.

For the reason that launch of Borderlands 2 in 2012, Good-looking Jack has been the high-water mark for villains within the Borderlands franchise. Within the eyes of many, the franchise has struggled to discover a villain as charismatic and hateable as Jack. No person – gamers nor builders – desires to have an inexpensive imitation of Good-looking Jack because the protagonist in a Borderlands recreation, so the staff took a distinct strategy with the likes of the Calypso Twins in Borderlands 3.

When Elpis crashed into Kairos, it shattered the order the Timekeeper craves and set the occasions of Borderlands 4 in movement

"We're very happy with all of the tales and the entire antagonists that we have had earlier than," senior challenge producer Anthony Nicholson says. "We attempt to enhance and diversify the way in which that they're, so once we go maniacal loopy, perhaps we do not try this for the following one, as a result of there are quite a lot of tales that we will inform."

Nonetheless, whereas Borderlands 3 featured twin cult leaders bent on the destruction of Pandora, Borderlands 4 appears to be revisiting the dictator antagonist idea with the Timekeeper, a person who has been on Kairos, the brand new planet on which Borderlands 4 takes place, for 1000's of years. The staff at Gearbox arrived on the Timekeeper as the primary antagonist very early within the growth of Borderlands 4, as they needed to discover themes surrounding a personality like him.

Enjoying with themes of order and chaos as opposing concepts, and discovering what occurs for those who go too far in a single route or the opposite, served as a guideline for the staff as they started work on Borderlands 4. "We knew very early on that we needed this to be a narrative about order and chaos and the spots in between the place the gamers would function," narrative director Sam Winkler says. "It began as type of a logical endpoint of, 'Once you take order too far, what sort of particular person does that create? What sort of particular person has to thrive in that area? After which, how does that particular person react when the system begins to break down and the chaos begins to be injected?' And quite a lot of the railroad tracks simply type of fell into place at that time when it comes to the dialogue."

Constructing off that preliminary thought, the narrative staff started working on a villain that might exemplify a kind of excessive edge instances. The outcome was a dictator who craved management and order a lot that he would cease at nothing to protect it. "In case you take both of them to their excessive, it might get bizarre and darkish," Gearbox president and co-founder Randy Pitchford says. "In case you take the organized, skilled, mature facet of issues... the buttoned-up facet of issues, and take that to its excessive, you find yourself with this type of inflexible, nearly totalitarian, type of fascist, like, 'That is the way in which,' measured to the micron. All the pieces's exact, and there is no room for creativity or deviation. You are taking the opposite facet to the intense, and it is anarchy and chaos, and quite a lot of unhealthy s--- occurs as a result of we're not taking care of issues. That is an attention-grabbing spectrum."

The Timekeeper's stronghold metropolis, Dominion

In his efforts to protect his good imaginative and prescient of order, the Timekeeper cloaked the planet to stop the surface universe from discovering them and put in Command Bolts to manage the inhabitants. "His demeanor may be very calm," Nicholson says. "He likes issues very neat, he likes issues very orderly. He is unrattled. You will not get him flying off the deal with as a result of he is very assured in why he is doing what he is doing. As Vault Hunters, we have to uncover what that's and, finally, push again towards it as a result of we will see the chaos that this order is bringing in each area on the planet."

The narrative staff labored to make sure the Timekeeper's mission had a level of believability and understanding for why he would need the purpose he is hoping to realize. Nonetheless, on the finish of the day, gamers ought to simply conclude that his strategy is much too excessive. "He is a management freak," Winkler says. "He's actually and metaphorically getting his palms soiled on the earth of Kairos in a method that has made everybody unsettled and is stopping all of them from having peace. And I believe he is aware of it. He is aware of that he has this impact. He indicators off quite a lot of conversations with 'I will be watching,' and folks all over the world are wanting over their shoulder. I needed this character to be somebody who is aware of the impact that he has on folks. However he is additionally, on the identical time, a bit sufferer to his personal system. The bounds on him are very inflexible, as a result of he desires it that method; he desires the whole lot to be inflexible. And as we begin chipping away at these boundaries, I actually favored exhibiting off how he responds to that and the way it turns into a really private factor for him."

Although he is clearly unhinged in his strategy to reaching order, he is removed from the type of over-the-top character that previous villains within the collection have offered. Throughout my hands-on expertise, I had the chance to listen to him a number of instances, and he remained true to how Nicholson describes him: cool, calm, and calculated. "Borderlands has positively change into recognized for the character that calls you up and tells you you are an assh---, and we needed to strive a personality that was a bit of bit extra reactive and a bit of bit extra ominous," Winkler says. "He is very current, however quite a lot of his presence is smooth contact. And he reaches out and screws with you very instantly. We needed to be sure that he wasn't simply speaking the discuss, he was strolling the stroll, so the participant is pissed off at this man and desires to kick his ass."

And although Good-looking Jack evoked comparable emotions, he did so in a totally completely different method. "We actually needed to have somebody actually be a foul man and embrace the vibe of a foul man otherwise," artistic director Graeme Timmins says. "Whereas Good-looking Jack was a little bit of a smartass and he had a humorousness, we needed to strategy this man with a bit of extra like, 'No, he is only a badass.' He is actually about management. He would not have that type of heat character that you could possibly type of buddy as much as. He is only a unhealthy man. And it feels good to kill unhealthy guys, in order that was an enormous deal. So, we simply needed to ensure it was like, proper to the purpose, this can be a unhealthy man. Once you begin the sport, you may see why he is a foul man, and you will be on the trip for the remainder of the sport."

Although the Timekeeper has saved his thumb on Kairos and its inhabitants for an prolonged stretch, the phantasm began to fade following the occasions of Borderlands 3 when Lilith teleported Pandora's moon, Elpis, into the area occupied by Kairos whereas the Timekeeper cloaked it. This resulted within the cloak being destroyed and Psycho masks raining down, giving delivery to a brand new faction of Kairos denizens who ripped out their Command Bolts to regain their free will at the price of mutilating their our bodies and minds.

Although the Timekeeper has clearly misplaced any type of ethical standing with the folks of Kairos, we'll be taught extra about his backstory by gameplay. "We're getting into in media res for the Timekeeper's story," managing director of narrative Lin Joyce says. "He is been round on this place, so fascinated about, 'Who's he proper now for the participant?' but in addition for us, 'How did he get there? What was his journey as much as that time? Why is he this fashion? Why does he maintain onto order so tightly?' Then, solely in answering these questions can we problem and assist crack this good façade that he is constructed. However that is all spoilers, so I am not going to let you know!"

I did not have too many interactions with the Timekeeper, however I did tackle certainly one of his followers, whom Winkler calls the Timekeeper's "number-one fanboy" in Idolator Sol. That battle was extended and frantic, and it set a excessive bar for the escalation that's positive to happen with the Timekeeper's different followers and, ultimately, the Timekeeper himself. I'm already wanting ahead to smashing by the Timekeeper's order and injecting greater than a bit of chaos when Borderlands 4 arrives on September 12.