DNF has such a baggage that it can simply not live up to it.
Not to add that Gearbox isn't anything to write home about, they're mediocre add-on makers at best.
I predict that DNF will ends up being a very average game that will be bashed/mocked because falling short of all the sh*tstorm hype it caused in past years.
DN3D was ground-breaking at the time, but the video game world has changed since then, and the development mess DNF has bogged down since then, makes me very doubtful about its ability to evolve with the times.