The concept of loot shooters, and even the modern day definition of shooters in general, has changed in the four years since Gearbox Software's Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. As a result, these changes have created new expectations for what a shooter should include. So, for Borderlands 3, Gearbox Software has taken what works in recent shooters to craft a more fulfilling experience for players. One of the major influences is one of Borderlands 3 game director Paul Sage's favorite games: Titanfall 2.

During its gameplay reveal stream, Gearbox revealed that one of the notable gameplay additions made for Borderlands 3 is the ability to slide while sprinting and also climb up ledges so that elevated surfaces become reachable. Numerous games have used similar mechanics, but it's perhaps most closely linked to Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall, Titanfall 2, and Apex Legends.

Borderlands 3's New Mechanics Are Exactly What We Want | Hands-On Impressions

Based on our experiences with Borderlands 3, we noticed that these traversal abilities look and behave a lot like they do in Titanfall 2. However, since you don't get the little extra jump jet boosts, they are perhaps more comparable to Apex Legends, Respawn's battle royale title.

The need to make Borderlands 3 feel like a modern shooter was something that Gearbox paid special consideration to, and director Paul Sage cites Titanfall 2 as one of the game's inspirations.

"We've got to hit that mark of making this feel this good, making it feel like a modern shooter," Sage told GameSpot. And so even though it seems really simple when you're talking about, 'Hey, how fast can I move my controller?' Or, 'How much ... will it actually just kind of slow down when I'm moving across a target?' All of those things take time to really tune and get right to make it feel like a modern shooter. So there are definitely things that I would say are inspiration from like all shooters.

"One of my favorite games from, what was it three years ago, is Titanfall 2. Dude, I love that game. And I thought the shooting was just fantastic. And so, yeah, I think there's inspiration we take from all the games we're fans of, because we're all gamers and I think that's true of the entire industry. I hope it is."

Borderlands 3's release date has been confirmed as September 13, 2019. It will be available for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. On the PC, it will be distributed through the Epic Games Store and remain exclusive to Epic's storefront until April 2020. This decision proved to be quite controversial with fans and, in response, many began review bombing previous Borderlands games on Steam.

For more on the game, read our Borderlands 3 hands-on gameplay preview, which explores what the sequel is like to play solo.