By Gearbox has responded to criticism about Borderlands 4‘s lack of a mini map.
The upcoming looter shooter swaps out its predecessors’ mini maps, which usually hung in the corner of the screen, for a compass that points you in the general direction of your next mission marker. That’s certainly a minor change that could have big implications in your second-to-second exploration, but Gearbox Software boss Randy Pitchford thinks a mini map isn’t as functional in a world as big and “layered” as Borderlands 4’s.
“Here’s the deal, you guys haven’t played the game yet,” he said in a PAX East panel. “You know, obviously, when we did Borderlands 1, we didn’t have a mini map and we added it in Borderlands 2. And we noticed that there’s some people online going, like, ‘Wait, we haven’t seen a mini map in what you’ve shown so far [for Borderlands 4]. What’s going on there?'”
“I’ll tell you the deal – I’ll just be straight with you,” he continued. “We made a big freaking world and a lot of the things you do can be in local space, but a lot of the things you do or want to do are out there. A local space map is not a good way to navigate when you’re thinking about objectives and opportunities, several at the same time, that might be miles away. A compass really helps us do that.”
The other factor is that Borderlands 4 is apparently the most vertical game in the series “by far”, hence the new grappling hook and Pitchford’s promise that you can reach anything you see in the world, even if it’s “a mile away, up in the sky.” Gearbox apparently “really wanted to commit to” a more vertical world “instead of a single flat place,” and Pitchford reckons a 2D view of the environment is “extremely confusing” when you’re trying to navigate “a layered environment” such as the one in the FPS.
With a compass, which includes arrows telling you if objectives are above or below you, he says players will have a much more concrete sense of “spatial awareness,” and he doesn’t want you constantly staring into the corner of the screen: “We want you to play the game, and not play the map.”