The amount of time that has past between the last full Borderlands game and now, has been so long, that the level of hype that has build around this game in only a few months, since its first reveal at PAX East, has been astronomical and if the lines at E3 proved, it is only going to get larger, but how does the later loot shooter fair, I was able to play it twice at E3 and came away impressed both times.

My first hands on was at the Xbox Showcase, where they had the choice of Amara the Siren on Zane the Operative, given my normal nature is to play a s Siren, I decided a different approach on this run through and went for Zane. Now, the core gameplay is still the same, you run in, shoot everything that moves, collect dozens of guns, grenades and shields that spew across the ground like confetti and then rinse and repeat, but Borderlands 3 has made a number of changes that, while on paper might not seem like much, but in reality, they are amazingly important.

The most basic of ones, is you now no longer need to press a button to pick up ammo and cash of the ground, but you will need to do so for guns and upgrades to your gear, however now if you see a gun that is more your style than the one you currently have out, you can simple press and hold the button and you pick it up and equip it, it saves so much time. Speaking of guns, they now all have a secondary mode, which you can access by pressing and holding down the weapons switch button, while they all have the ability to don a small cosmetic charm, I did not have that option presented to me in game.

Of course, the characters and their abilities are what help set Borderlands apart and Zane was a blast to play as, while running in and shooting everyone in sight was fun, kicking his abilities out is what made it even more so. As someone who is used to seeing someone with a digi-shield, being a stationary object, Zane’s ability to have it basically attach to the end of gun and run around with him, made a massive different to battles. But it was not just him running into battle with a shield out, but the way that his abilities changed, depending on how you allocated points, which was something they let you do when you started. You can go the other way and spend the points, picking up summons for lack of a better word, letting you call in some assistance from some digi-constructed animals, I did not do this, but it is possible.

When I stopped by the 2K booth at E3, I was blown away but the size of it, but the fact that the entire thing was decked out as Borderlands. This time though, before I could play it, there was a brief presentation where I got a look at some of the more social aspects of the game, including the sharing options. The coolest one is that now you can share your loot with friends, so for example, if someone plays with you, but picks up that epic gun you wanted, they can trade it with you, even after they leave the game. Another need addition is that when you sell your weapons, you can sell them to friend via the same machine, meaning that if you are someone who loves shotguns and rocket launchers, rather than giving away that sniper rifle you collected, you can sell it to Marcus in the game. Then any of your friends can jump into their game and see it listed for sale via Marcus, meaning you get some cash for it and your friend gets a good deal on it, it is a win for all.

After a look at that, we then got to see Moze in action, she is the gunner class this time around and will allow you to run and gun like the best of them, but now you can summon in her bear mech suit as her action ability. However, that suit, like most of Borderlands 3, allows for you to be able to choose the weapons that you can have on it, which means you can equip one grenade launcher and one mini gun, or two of each if you wanted to. The suit will stay around as long as there is fuel in it, which is something that can be extended, if you place points in the appropriate skill, letting you dish out the damage for a longer period of time. Something that was show, but I did not get to experience myself when I played as Moze, is that you can unlock a skill that allows a team mate to jump on the back of your mech suit, to help dish out more damage, which is really cool.

Playing as Moze was as fun as I had hoped and while the level that I played was the same as with Zane, it felt different because of the skills involved, taking down members of the Church of the Vault was just as fun this time around as last time. I saved up my action skill for when I got to the boss fight and Loudmouth was perhaps a push over because of it, but as I had a mini-gun on the right side, I was able to dish out the spray of bullets with ease and even his little minion guys were no match for the deluge of bullets that came there way.

Borderlands 3 is a game that I want more of, after playing the original recently on Xbox One, I felt coming into this, that I would be to meh about it, but the next entry in the series appears to be taking my fears and blowing them away. The game is faster across the board, picking up items as you run over them helps immensely, but small things like being able to refill all ammo from a machine, are also welcome, but perhaps the best showing of the speed is that the game just feels faster when being played.