It’s so crazy looking back on how dark and gritty the original tone for Borderlands was And honestly.. part of me really misses it

Randy himself credits the art style switch to "saving Borderlands", which is why I don't understand when people say Borderlands 4 looking less like the iconic style isn't a big deal.

Who said gaming isn’t a real party? You and your crew are about to vibe hard with the nostalgic thrills of Forgotten Playland!

Holy nutballs! What happened to your frickin face?

I'm going to be real, not only would the series never have gotten off the ground and been as popular without the cell shading I wish we would have stuck to that plus the mad Max style of gaming from two, three when the whole other direction and not in a good way unfortunately.

While the art style changed they certainly kept the tone and world design, and thats what i personally really miss you being some no name whoever trying to survive and get rich

It made me fall in love with the game. Two was ok but everything after became clean, shiny and boring. Disneyfied for a wider audience.

looking at pre-borderlands 1 footage and cut content is very interesting to me. when i’m bored i look at what could’ve been

I don't honestly. I didn't hate the tone but did hate the super dull and grey color palette, and I don't think that the series could go back to what it was

BL1 will always be my favourite BL game for this reason. It’s gritty, dark, and the tone is so much more mature. I wonder where BL would be if the games continued like this

Nah, looks terrible, they made the right choice

Have your ever Blown a midgits head off with Sledges shot gun? Or for that matter a charging pysco or Skag Remember the first time you went into Sledges safe house? That game was the OG and so far ahead of its time

I like the BL2/TPS/Tales tone best still but if I can choose between 3/4 and this I also prefer this lol

I don’t think we would have gotten scooters famous phrase if it went this route lol

Never saw this but I chop all of this up to a asset/processing design, there's nothing but buildings and enemies because that's all they could fit and work on so they made that the theme but 20 years later they can add alot more details and color so they do and change the theme

I'm playing it for the first time, and I'm lovin it, already completed the first playthougth, played the Zombie DLC, completed Moxxi's Underdome, now starting the second playthought for me is almost as good as BL2

Alright, Fallout fan.

This was before they switched to cell shaded graphics. Peak trailer anyways

100%. Mood wise I still prefer Borderlands 1 over the later ones, BL2 and BL3 are visual disco-circuses. Gameplay is better, but the darker, dirtier, grittier mood of BL1 was👌.

Feels 100% like Pitch Black or Final Fantasy The Spirit's within.

Thats how it was meant to be then the franchise is filled with parasites for years you being one of them.

I want you to know that whenever I see a notification of you commenting on my tweets it puts a smile on my face

Damn right. I want that version.

Dark? The very first one was so fking bored, no one's talking, only that fking claptrap saying "You've got new missions on the other fking part of the world" and that's basically all. Everything looking so fking Brown all the time, sand and rocks everywhere you look at it. Boring

A big part of me wishes we had gotten this style or borderlands or at least gotten a version of borderlands like this 😭

Growing up is realising that Borderlands 2 may be legendary but it turned us away from the dark gritty wasteland that Pandora was in Borderlands 1

where is this video from?

Good article on the Art Direction chnage from 2009 here:

Ooo boy I need to play BL1 again 😬

Nah, there were many shooters like this at the time and the game would be unnoticed. The style they chose worked. But still, Borderlands 1 was still dark and gritty compared to the DEI circus we had in Borderlands 3