Expanding Borderlands: Viva la robolution!

If games were based solely on their inherent replayability (that is to say that the multiplayer aspect of a game isn’t the only reason to keep playing it), then “Borderlands” would be one of the best games ever made. (That’s some unbiased journalism right there, folks.) It’s very easy to get into, the controls are familiar and responsive, the world is colorful (not to mention there is a lot of it to explore) plus there is a ton of loot on Pandora just waiting to be found. Not only that, but Gearbox has supported Borderlands with a bevy of DLC – The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, Mad Moxxi’s Underdome and The Secret Armory of General Knoxx. Not only do these DLCs give gamers more of a look into the denizens of Pandora but they also are hilarious, fun to play and offer extras like a safe for extra items (Underdome) and a new level cap (Secret Armory).

Fans of Borderlands are in luck because Gearbox isn’t done yet. Along with a patch that is due out later in September, the game will also be receiving its fourth DLC pack at the end of the month – Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution. Fans who finished the game know about the Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap that mysteriously appeared once the story was completed and now more details about the deadly, but plucky, robot are surfacing. Hyperion, one of the many gun manufacturers, set the ninja Claptrap out to do its dirty work but it was smart – too smart. It saw the way Claptraps all over Pandora were being mistreated and turned his robotic brethren against their corporate masters. With a full on robotic revolution on their hands, Hyperion calls in the Vault hunters as well as its own army of mercenaries to clean up the mess.

New Robot Revolution will not only feature new weapons and enemies – many being familiar enemies with Claptrap twists like Skag-Traps and Rakk-Traps – but also new storage deck upgrades, 20 new missions, 6 new areas and possibly also new fast travel locations (a first for Borderlands DLC).

That’s not all though. At about the same time the DLC is released (perhaps before its release) Gearbox will also be releasing another patch for Borderlands. If you’ve ever played The Zombie Island or The Secret Armory DLC and then tried to go back to the main game, you’ll notice that your character is significantly stronger than pretty much everything else. Luckily this update will balance the game’s stats with the player across all DLC packs and the main game. This patch will also increase the level cap from 50 (61 with Secret Armory) to 58 (69 with Secret Armory). Hopefully this means I’ll finally have a leg up on Crawmerax the Invincible – but probably not.

Also on a side-Borderlands-note, I recently bought Mad Moxxi’s Underdome and hard doesn’t even start to describe it. Well not so much hard as it is incredibly trying and somewhat annoying. Featuring three arenas, you’ll need to survive five rounds in each arena to complete the first tournament. Oh but did I mention that each round is made up of five waves (Starter, Gun, Horde, Badass and Boss) complete with a different boss at the end of each? It boils down to 25 waves per arena – not so bad right? But wait…I beat all three and didn’t get all the achievements? Oh sorry, forgot to mention there’s a larger tournament. Well that first one wasn’t so bad let’s get on into the larger tourney…OMGWTF 20 rounds per arena now?!? You’re serious?? 100 waves per arena?? With ever-increasing enemy stats as well as up to four rules which can be anything from no shields to reduced gravity, the larger tournaments are no joke. I’m gonna be honest (and you have no idea how hard this is to admit) but I haven’t even beat one yet. And you know what, I don’t even want to try anymore.

I got to the tenth round in The Gully’s larger tournament before the rules it stuck me with were Vampire (constantly draining health, you only get some back from getting a kill), Naked (No shield, [very] slowly regenerated health) and something like Rocket Specialty (increased damage for rockets [which are, for some reason, essentially useless in Borderlands] and decreased for anything else) before losing and getting sent back to round nine where I promptly shut my 360 off. I appreciate the challenge Gearbox tried to present with the Underdome but the rewards are too few (you don’t earn XP in arena matches and the weapons you’re given at the end of a round are usually crappy whites or greens) compared to the extreme difficulty for me to spend much more time on it. With a new DLC pack coming out at the end of September and a little game called Halo: Reach next week, the Underdome will most likely remain unfinished until I forgot how hard it is and give it another go.