Borderlands DLC Roundup: the word on Dr. Ned & Mad Moxxi

4:30 PM on 01.10.2010   |   Joseph Leray

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As I was dying for the umpteenth time against Mad Moxxi's round 4 Badass Wave in the Angelic Ruins, it occurred to me that reviews of "The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned" and "Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot" were conspicuously absent from the record. The Destructoid collective considers Borderlands to be one of the best games of 2009, and failing to follow up on it seems like it would be a case of gamer amnesia, a rather common industry bugbear.

Besides, the Dr. Ned and Mad Moxxi packs are interesting in and of themselves, if only because they're so different from each other. One is a character-driven romp through an undead, parallel-universe Pandora, and the other is a Caligula-worthy bloodbath.

Speaking with Eurogamer.net, Gearbox chief Randy Pitchford explained his approach to Borderlands DLC: "Also, we're going to watch and see what happens when the game launches, so we can have our plans affected by what our customers want more of." Well, I'm a Borderlands customer and Gearbox gave me what I wanted as well as some things I didn't know I wanted.

Hit the jump for mini-reviews of "The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned" and "Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot."

"Zombie Island of Dr. Ned"
Released: November 24, 2009 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3); December 9 (PC)
MSRP: 800 Microsoft Points; $9.99 (PS3, PC)

For better or worse, there's not much to say about "The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned" that hasn't already been said about Borderlands. "Dr. Ned" doesn't change Borderlands in any fundamental ways, and the new mechanics introduced will seem relatively minor to anyone who doesn't really dig on Borderlands already.

That sounds more negative than it really is: Borderlands pushes a few buttons remarkably well, and "Dr. Ned" plays to its strengths. Everything that is fun in Borderlands is still fun in "Dr. Ned," and this pack feels like a Halloween-town veneer on already-established architecture. While the game's core mechanics remain largely intact -- missions, loot, leveling -- the addition of zombies changes the combat in a few subtle ways.  In the same way that fighting the Crimson Lance demands different strategies than Bandits, these zombies stand as interesting enemies in their own right, despite becoming increasingly relegated to games industry boilerplate.

Dr. Ned's zombies -- no, really, he created them -- are aggressive, resilient, and stupid, making it relatively easy to get overwhelmed. What makes things interesting, though, is what I suspect is a clever riff on infinitely spawning enemies. Zombies generally come in groups, each one headed by a Defiler: they're usually a few levels stronger than anything else, spit acid that dazes you, and happen to be rather spritely. I can't be sure, but it seems to be that the zombies never stop spawning until their Defiler is dead.

The result is classic RPG resource management in first-person skin: do I kill the zombies that are in my face, or do I focus my energy on the tougher Defiler? Coupled with the fact that zombies constantly eat at your "Second Wind" meter once you're crippled, the Defiler mechanic sets up moments of great tension and release and does a lot to change the way you fight, even if those changes might not be obvious.

Unfortunately, "Dr. Ned" has some serious balancing issues. The previous paragraph doesn't really apply to you if you're, say, between levels 45 and 50: it's hard to feel tense, or nervous, or panicked if you're one-shotting your way through Jakob's Cove. The problem is that "Dr. Ned" is set up in level tiers. For example, I hit Jakob's Cove at level 37, but all of the enemies were level 42; the game was impossible until I hit the next tier. On the flipside, being over-leveled (which isn't hard to do) cuts out all of the tension and strategy that makes dispatching Dr. Ned's zombies so much fun in the first place. It's a fragile balance, and you'll have to impose some personal limits on yourself to keep "Dr. Ned" fun and engaging.

If there's anything that kept me coming back from more, it's the writing: after all, Gearbox has certainly spent enough time huffing and puffing about it. And it's paid off. I suppose I could nitpick about some of the abrupt shifts near the end, but by and large, "Dr. Ned" is cohesive, well-paced, and full of the irreverent and self-referential humor trademarked by the original. The humor isn't restricted to cut scenes and splash screens though: all of the bosses, sub-bosses, and dialogue remind you that there's a touch of the surreal in Jakob's Cove.

Balancing issues aside, "Dr. Ned" is, of the two available DLC packs, the easier one to recommend: it keeps everything good from Borderlands and improves the humor and pacing. It also keeps a lot of the bad things from the original (some of the missions are rather tedious, for example) and really under-uses the Wereskag and Tankenstein enemies, but if you enjoyed the original enough to consider the DLC, "Dr. Ned" is a good choice. It's hilarious, it's interesting, and it's a great way to keep your romp in Pandora going.

"Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot"
Released: December 29, 2008 (Xbox 360); January 7, 2010 (PS3)
MSRP: 800 Microsoft Points; $9.99 (PS3)

If "Dr. Ned" maintains the Borderlands status quo, "Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot" shakes it up. When the pack was announced, Randy Pitchford personally sent the games press an e-mail, making sure we were aware that "Mad Moxxi" was going to shake things up: "This is an ENTIRELY NEW GAME MODE," he told us.

Well, he was right: "Mad Moxxi" offers a totally new experience, but it also introduces some totally new problems. In a very broad sense, "Mad Moxxi" doesn't play to Borderlands strengths.

Let me explain: "Mad Moxxi" is comprises three different arenas, and the point of the game is to survive a Horde Mode- of Firefight-style tournament presided over by the kind-of-hot-in-a-scary-kind-of-way Mad Moxxi who's on the prowl for her fourth husband. All the while, she doles out new rules for each round in order to spice things up.

And since the reward for winning is, ostensibly, her hand in marriage, the Underdome is hard. Really hard. Unlike "Dr. Ned," the Underdome's difficulty isn't based on an arbitrary level discrepancy: it scales perfectly to whomever is hosting the game. The Underdome is as brutally hard at level 50 as it is at level 15 (skill points notwithstanding).

While the Underdome is very much focused on combat, Borderlands quirky humor and style manages to shine through. Moxxi is a fine hostess and a treat to play for. She alternates between the thrill of carnage carried out in her name and frustration that you're killing off all her playthings, goading you along the entire way. She's flawless. The Underdome itself, though, is a mixed bag.

Here's the problem: Borderlands is (or it used to be), all about constant progression and positive reinforcement. But because "Mad Moxxi" is structured in (incredibly difficult) rounds, gratification is always delayed and sometimes unattainable. Characters don't gain experience in the Underdome (or, by extension, weapon proficiency); when you die, you don't even have anything to show for it.

I understand the decision to take out a chance to level up -- the endgame has some balance issues as it is -- but gaining a level or two in your shotgun proficiency isn't going to change things either way, and it would go a long way to make your crushing defeat sting a little less. I wish Gearbox had given me a little sugar to make the medicine go down.

My last quibble -- and it's a relatively minor one -- is that some areas of the Underdome (Hell-Burbia and, to a lesser extent, the Gully) focus on taking cover. I appreciate the new emphasis on tactics, but Borderlands doesn't have a particularly robust cover system and, too often, you'll find yourself getting shot the hell up while you thought you were in cover. In contrast, the Angelic Ruins have the most open spaces and, in my opinion, is the most enjoyable map of the bunch.

Of course, repetition is the nature of the beast, and I can hardly criticize "Mad Moxxi" for giving me wave after wave of enemies to mindlessly dispatch. Nevertheless, some enemy variety would be appreciated: the lack of scythids, spiderants, and "Dr. Ned" enemies doesn't make any sense to me, especially since the three arenas are comprised of used assets.

Ok, so "Mad Moxxi" makes a few mistakes, but that doesn't change how incredibly fun it can be. Anthony touched on this concept in his latest Rev Rant, but while "Mad Moxxi" can be quite arbitrarily user-unfriendly, the constant threat of death is thrilling, to say the least. Your mileage may vary, but my heart raced on several occasions in the Underdome -- there's a very real sense of nervous excitement as you complete each round, delivered in regular and increasingly intense doses until you complete whichever task you've set for yourself (five- or twenty-round tournaments).

While I think taking weapon-leveling away from players is a mistake, the pace and layout of the Underdome are clearly deliberate choices designed to up the proverbial ante. Once you've found a strategy that works, once you and your teammates are in sync, "Mad Moxxi" provides an incredible rush of excitement and sense of accomplishment and, as far as my adrenaline goes, does it better than many of the other action games I've played recently. It's almost Demon's Souls-esque in the way it demands precision, tactical awareness, and patience, and the emotional pay-off is, for me, worth it.

Nevertheless, Gearbox is walking a fine line between difficult and prohibitively difficult, and I'm afraid a lot of readers might not get the type of satisfaction I got out of "Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot." The first time I played it, I got frustrated and turned it off; the second time I fell in love. It's possible that many people might never get past that frustration. There's definitely an audience for "Mad Moxxi," but it's not for everyone. Just don't expect the Underdome to provide the same type of experience that Borderlands did.

If you do decide that "Mad Moxxi" is for you, I'd hold off for a little while: there's rare, but nasty, glitch that corrupts character data. Mum's the word from Gearbox so far, but the consensus on the Gearbox forums seems to be that the glitch doesn't happen very often. Nevertheless, I bet dicks to dollars that Gearbox is working on a patch. "Mad Moxxi" is good DLC, and it'll still be good in a week or two.

It's rare that DLC can so fundamentally change the focus of a game the way "Mad Moxxi" re-shapes and re-configures Borderlands, and I have to admire Gearbox for that, even while there are some things about "Mad Moxxi" that don't make much sense. "Mad Moxxi" caters and appeals to a specific type of gamer (what Mitch Krpata might call "skill gamers") and delivers in spades. If you're a bad enough dude, you're in for a treat.