Last October I was at a bar hitting on a fat girl, when one of my friends called me up to tell me about this new game called Borderlands:
"Yeah it's kinda like Fallout, but WAY fucking better. It's like Road Warrior meets Diablo, and it's got a huge multi-player element. You gotta get it like right now."
I had heard of the game mentioned at an E3 about a year earlier, but kinda forgot about it until my friend called me. Trusting his geek advice, I went out and bought the game.
I was not disappointed. Many, many, many hours of my life have been spent playing borderlands since that phone call. It is a true gamer's game; it's an RPG, FPS, and MMO with all the looting, leveling, and pop-cultural references you can shake a stick at.
Also it had a little robot named Clap-Trap. And Goddamn do I love me some Clap-Trap.
CL4P-TP, otherwise known as "Clap-Trap" is a little waste-can shaped robot with a nervous sense of humor who helps the player throughout the journey to the Vault through the first AND second play through ( You heard me right, there's second play through; I told you it was awesome didn't I?).
Over the past year Gearbox software released three outstanding expansion packs for Borderlands. And then they announced a final DLC in the summer, Clap-Trap's New Robot Revolution. More Clap-Trap. Fucking awesome.
Except it's not fucking awesome. It stinks.
While I was waiting for the new DLC to come out, I read a review of the game that bummed me out pretty bad. Among numerous complaints the game has been heavily criticized for essentially being a bunch of old missions with a new "Clap-Trap" finish, and for completely re-writing the some classic NPCs so that they have awkward new personalities. As I said, this really bummed me out, but I got the game anyway, hoping that these shitty reviews were the incoherent ramblings of fanboys.
So here's what I think. First the good news. While it's true that many of the missions are essentially re-hashed tasks you had to complete in the original Borderlands game and subsequent DLCs, I don't think you can really knock a game for being good at what it does best. The plot line is different, and the new missions aren't so noticeably similar to old ones to detract enjoyability of the game. Second, if you love Clap-trap, there's a whole lot more of him to love in DLC4.
Now for the bad. Unlike the first three add-ons DLC4 was outsourced to Darkside Games, presumably because Gearbox is hard at work on the next Borderlands game. I don't really mind when games are outsourced as long as the result still holds credibility to the original. DLC4 doesn't, and it's almost as though the developers at Darkside weren't original Borderlands fans.
Part of what made the original game so great were the NPCs. There was some great writing that went into the creation of these characters, they seemed to have subtle personality traits that made them timeless and endearing. By harsh contrast, the same characters now seem to have just one overwhelming personality characteristic. Patricia Tannis, the archaeologist from the original Borderlands plot, was always slightly off her rocker, but now she's some sort of evil mad scientist. It just doesn't feel right. Marcus, the Mexican arms dealer, seems to have been voiced by a completely different actor this time around. Knoxx and Steele make a reappearance, but they seem like cheapened versions of what they used to be.
Another aspect of the new DLC that I found particularly jarring is the landscape. Not even the landscape really, just the background of areas you can't get to. In Borderlands, staring out into the distance invoked a sense of awe and beauty; the world looked vast and untamed. But in DLC4 it looks like shit. Literally, some of the backgrounds look like they were never completed. There are outcrops that aren't even the same color as the rest of the landscape and some that are just blocky. I once looked over a cliff into a vast gorge to see a river not flowing around a bunch of triangles. WTF.
But the most disappointing part of DLC4 is the gameplay itself. For one thing, Gearbox hasn't released the new software patch allowing over-leveling to level 69. You can still play the game, but if you're a level 61 character, it's a shitty experience because the enemies are either too tough in play through two, or too weak in play through one. Since you can't yet level to match the enemies level, you're either plowing through the first play through without dying or gaining experience on play through one (which sucks) or you can't get anywhere on play through two because your level 61 character can't even get the shield down on a level 63 enemy (which fucking blows). The only real option you have is to use a character that's around level 30 for the first play through, and not even touch the second play through until they release the new patch. WTF.
I can't believe I'm still listing the bad shit, but here goes. Randy Pitchford, Gearbox's CEO, described DLC4 as a game world where you could refight all the game's classic enemies as hacked clap-traps, but that's not what happens. The only clap-trap versions of enemies you will find are bandits, Hyperion soldiers (who, by the way, are no-where near as awesome as The Lance), skags, rakkKnoxx and Steel twice, and to make matter worse as you're fighting these bosses, they have CARDBOARD CUTOUTS OF ALL THE OTHER CLASSIC BOSSES LITTERED AROUND THE LEVELS.
WTF??!!
I really wanted to love DLC4, but I can't. It's so sub-par and confusing that it shouldn't have the Borderlands name attached to it. The only redeeming qualities are all the Clap-Traps. Maybe I will hate it less when they release the new level patch, but by then I'll be playing Fallout: New Vegas.
Score: 5 out of 10. Only buy if you really can't get enough Clap-Trap in your life.
