While it's been almost seven years since a mainline release, Gearbox Software's Borderlands 3 is set to launch in just a few months. While the next game in the developer's well-received FPS franchise will take players in a new direction with villains, planets to explore, and a ton of loot to collect, there's also a much bigger story this time around for everyone to enjoy.

In a recent interview with VentureBeat, Borderlands 3 Creative Director Paul Sage talked at great length about the game's demo during the E3 trade show, why it took so long to make a third Borderlands title, and how long the main story will be. According to Sage, the main story for the upcoming shooter should take players around 35 hours to complete. Sage stated this playtime is in respect to players not doing many side missions, meaning completionists and friends wanting to jump in for cooperative play will spend much longer uncovering everything there is to offer.

The 35-hour completion time is much longer than any of the previous Borderlands games have taken the average player to finish. The first Borderlands, which launched in 2009 and recently was remastered this past April, clocked an average of 22.5 hours for the main story. For the subsequent Borderlands 2 (2012) and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (2014), the main story took 30.5 and 17.5 hours to beat on average, respectively.

Sage chalks much of the additional content in Borderlands 3 to the team's desire to move away from the franchise's well-trekked world of Pandora, with the upcoming game set across multiple planets such as Promethea and Eden-6 to name a few. The game will also feature new Vault Bosses and Challenges, further emphasizing Sage wanting a "Story and RPG loop that will drive players to press on."

"I just want people to go in and have a blast and keep having a blast with the game."

Before joining Gearbox in 2015, Paul Sage worked as the Creative Director for Elder Scrolls Online, another RPG that relies heavily on both cooperative gameplay and a sizable amount of content to keep players invested. Given Borderlands 3 will offer a hefty amount of endgame and DLC content after it launches this Fall, the aforementioned 35-hours to beat the story appears to barely scratch the surface of what the next installment in the Borderlands franchise will bring to players over the next few years.

Borderlands 3 launches on September 13th for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It will also be available on Google Stadia when the platform goes live this November.

Source: Venture Beat