BeyondUnreal Reviews: Borderlands DLC, Knoxx and Claptrap

[hal]

We reviewed Borderlands back in February and since then a pair of DLCs have been released - The Secret Armory of General Knoxx and just this week... Claptrap's New Robot Revolution. During our review we touched on the first two - Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot and Dr. Ned's Zombie Island - and felt it was a goot time to revisit Pandora.

The bottom line is this: You need to own Knoxx and you should consider Claptrap, though waiting until the upcoming level balancing patch (which also addresses a few Claptrap DLC achievement issues) may be advisable.

[Entr0p1cLqd]

A little harsh. IMHO Ned, Knoxx, and Claptrap are all woth owning. Moxxi's wasn't that great.

[Kyllian]

My main gripe with the Robolution is that you have to re-visit areas for subsequent hide-and-seek missions(ie the bobble heads/cologne bits/rakk-chicken) for Marcus
I hated that god-damned cavern. The map was almost useless for navigating as there's pretty much no clear markers which routes are above or below
I think I saw maybe 50% of the production factory at most

At least with Tannis's parts and Zombie-Baha's Brainssss missions you could mostly complete them on the way to other missions

They didn't even do the "finally get to kill ClapTrap's" right if you ask me. Not counting the INAC you basically get 3 different kinds: shooting, melee(well, 3 melee, but is there really any difference between knives, gloves and hammers when they all get up in your face?) and suicidal
Hell, the MINAC/INAC fight was a joke. I actually opted to take out all the turrets on his arse just to extend the fight a little bit. If I'd had to blow open a few panels to bring the eye-shield down while being accosted by various turrets/Claptraps then it would have been a better fight

There wasn't a wide variety of phrases from the Claptraps nor the "Trap'd" denizens either. I sorely wished Sledge's Shotgun could blast their corpses into orbit so I wouldn't have to hear one more "Please, just let me die"

The other boss fights weren't much either.

Knoxx was easy enough to beat, just hammer his face with a Hellfire or other rapid-fire weapon and he'll flinch with just about every crit. The only time he ever got an attack off was when I had to deal with the CTs coming in

Steele? If you didn't have trouble with the Omega Assassins you won't with Steele as it's the exact same fighting style. Just about any damage will cause her to stop for a moment letting you pound her silly

Ned. 1st round he's a wimp, 2nd round not much better. He's basically a half-clone of Knoxx, hammer his face and he won't get an attack in. The only difference is he doesn't get CTs to come harass you

My biggest disappointment is centered around this picture: http://mmomfg.com/wp-content/uploads...announce_i.jpg
I was really hoping for some epic swarm of red eyes coming at me from a darkly-lit room, like a mass of 50 CTs coming at me at once

If they ever do opt for a DLC5, it needs to be on par with Knoxx

[hal]

Originally Posted by Entr0p1cLqd

A little harsh. IMHO Ned, Knoxx, and Claptrap are all woth owning. Moxxi's wasn't that great.

Oh, I don't think we tried to make the point that Ned, Knoxx and Claptrap aren't worth owning. Which statement would you say was harsh?

[FlashIV]

I was a little let down that it didn't have the meat the Secret Armory had, but I enjoyed it more than Zombie Island. There were definitely some gems,

particularly the first battle against Knoxx and his "last" words. Operation Trap Claptrap Trap and Mr. Blake were amusing. I also really liked that they took you back to the bus drop-off for the final fight.

It just felt like it wasn't nearly as fleshed out as the main game or Knoxx's DLC, I was expecting a bit more based on the length of time between releases. I agree with Kyllian that a Serious Sam-style swarm of claptraps would have been fun. As it stands, my Mercenary Siren and Steel Anarchy made short work of those robots, and even that's a bit of an understatement. I'm looking forward to the patch and trying it out co-op.

[Kyllian]

I opted to do a quick run through PT1 just to get the extra backpack space and skill point
Since I was 15 levels higher than anything at the hardest, I opted to run nothing but pistols to add some modicum of challenge(this is on a Roland geared for shottys)

[FlashIV]

I thought the elemental-resistant crimson lance added a little extra challenge to the Knoxx DLC, particularly when they'd mix up the pyro and corrosion lance since my defiler and hellfire are my default go-to guns. That feature alone could have gone a long way in this pack.

[hal]

I agree. That mix of elementally resistant enemies was a highlight and something that was sorely needed. Crawmerax also plays into that as his minions also have varying immunities. It's something Brizz and I were talking about during playthrough and I should have mentioned that in the review.

Serious Sam is a series that does a great job at mixing in enemies with different weaknesses so that you really have to juggle your weapons quickly and choose them wisely. It brings an element of mental challenge to what can otherwise become a mindless Hellfire spam.

[Kyllian]

I still gotta do a Craw run one of these days